I've decided to write about living frugally, as part of my effort to live clean. I'm disgusted with the amount of waste we accumulate individually and as a whole, what with prices at an all time high right now. I just finished reading On A Dollar A Day, by Christopher Greenslate and Kerri Leonard - essentially not a book about frugality, but on poverty in the U.S. and how some people are forced to feed themselves on a dollar a day - and became very excited and inspired. I am already practicing some frugal living but this book made me want to amp up my efforts.
I see it as a game (games are always fun, right?) of minimizing costs and maximizing profits. My goal is to eat good, nutritious food (organic when I can find it) at the lowest cost possible. Some things I'm already doing frugally include:
Meal planning
I plan my meals for the week before I go grocery shopping so I know what I already have. I have a list and usually disciplined enough to stick to it. Unless there is a sale for Lays Sour Cream and Onion. WEAK SPOT.
Grocery budget
My budget is RM 600 per month for 2 people, and that includes toiletries, cleaning products, kitchen towels, detergent etc. Grocery shopping is done (ideally) once a week, but sometimes I need to do a second run in the middle of the week for vegetables. I discovered today that Tesco delivers to my area and placed my first ever order with them. So excited! There is a Jusco 5 mins from home and I've always shopped there, but looks like things are about to change. My groceries are coming to me, not the other way around. They have better prices, reasonably fresh products and delivery costs RM 3. Win!
Not Waste Food
I only buy produce that I can eat within a week so they don't end up as wilted, brown things at the bottom drawer. Or worse, a disintegrated jelly mass of brown stuff. Yikes. Another thing that I carefully monitor is cooked meat, sometimes it's easy to forget them containers lurking at the back of the fridge.
Batch Cooking
When I cook, usually on Sundays, I make double batches so I always have lunches and dinners ready when I'm too lazy/tired to cook from scratch in the middle of the week. The usual suspects are baked chicken/fish, vegetarian chili, hummus.
Store Brand
I used to be such a snob about brands, but then found out that the product quality of store brands don't really differ much from their more expensive cousins. The price of well known brands are higher because we are paying more for advertising, packaging and marketing. No more of that. I'll take my Tesco brand tuna at RM 3.99 over brand X at RM 6.99, thank you.
Disclaimer: I'm no cheap skate. I can afford to eat out everyday and spend on a whim, but I don't. I hate waste, both in money and time. I see many ways we can do better to live better, and being mindful about our spending is one of them. When you cook at home you save hundreds of ringgit every month, and possibly eat healthier at the same time.
I've wanted to write about frugality for so long but I fear that it's not a "fashionable" enough topic. Yes, I care about what people think :-) This post was so easy to write it made me feel stupid for procrastinating for so long. To end, here's a pic of my lunch, vegetarian chilli with zucchini and wholewheat pita.
I see it as a game (games are always fun, right?) of minimizing costs and maximizing profits. My goal is to eat good, nutritious food (organic when I can find it) at the lowest cost possible. Some things I'm already doing frugally include:
Meal planning
I plan my meals for the week before I go grocery shopping so I know what I already have. I have a list and usually disciplined enough to stick to it. Unless there is a sale for Lays Sour Cream and Onion. WEAK SPOT.
Grocery budget
My budget is RM 600 per month for 2 people, and that includes toiletries, cleaning products, kitchen towels, detergent etc. Grocery shopping is done (ideally) once a week, but sometimes I need to do a second run in the middle of the week for vegetables. I discovered today that Tesco delivers to my area and placed my first ever order with them. So excited! There is a Jusco 5 mins from home and I've always shopped there, but looks like things are about to change. My groceries are coming to me, not the other way around. They have better prices, reasonably fresh products and delivery costs RM 3. Win!
Not Waste Food
I only buy produce that I can eat within a week so they don't end up as wilted, brown things at the bottom drawer. Or worse, a disintegrated jelly mass of brown stuff. Yikes. Another thing that I carefully monitor is cooked meat, sometimes it's easy to forget them containers lurking at the back of the fridge.
Batch Cooking
When I cook, usually on Sundays, I make double batches so I always have lunches and dinners ready when I'm too lazy/tired to cook from scratch in the middle of the week. The usual suspects are baked chicken/fish, vegetarian chili, hummus.
Store Brand
I used to be such a snob about brands, but then found out that the product quality of store brands don't really differ much from their more expensive cousins. The price of well known brands are higher because we are paying more for advertising, packaging and marketing. No more of that. I'll take my Tesco brand tuna at RM 3.99 over brand X at RM 6.99, thank you.
Disclaimer: I'm no cheap skate. I can afford to eat out everyday and spend on a whim, but I don't. I hate waste, both in money and time. I see many ways we can do better to live better, and being mindful about our spending is one of them. When you cook at home you save hundreds of ringgit every month, and possibly eat healthier at the same time.
I've wanted to write about frugality for so long but I fear that it's not a "fashionable" enough topic. Yes, I care about what people think :-) This post was so easy to write it made me feel stupid for procrastinating for so long. To end, here's a pic of my lunch, vegetarian chilli with zucchini and wholewheat pita.
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