Stop eating out

No, seriously. I know it’s been said a thousand times before, but this is the most over-looked advice in the book. You’re probably thinking “This is an impossible advice to follow”. It is. For me, personally, I eat out for two reasons: (1) I love the food and I have tried and failed to replicate it. (2) I want to hang out with friends or make new connections. Food connects people. Very recently I read an entrepreneurship blog that suggested you make yourself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every time you get hungry.  To this kind of approach, I say, a perpetually stretched bow will lose its efficacy for shooting. So, give yourself an achievable target. I will eat out ‘n’ times a month. I will try and stick to this. If I go over, I will not punish myself but revise the target or decide to try again next month. If I am under the target, I’ll reward myself. Be sure not to reward yourself by going out to eat. Believe me, that never ends well.

Now, how do you not eat out? 30 days, 3 meals a day, means 90 meals you must make. If you are a snacker then that number is in the hundreds. You’re probably super worried about the time and money commitment this will require. To help you out, these are the tried and proven methods I follow:

• Growing up in an Indian household, snacks were a mainstay. I picked a few snacks I liked and made sure that they were always present in the house. I buy in bulk and store them in the pantry. They are either ready-made or take less than ten minutes to make. Anything that takes longer is a meal not a snack.
• I always look for new snacks I might like in the snack aisle of the grocery. They add the ‘something new, something different’ factor to my snacking tendencies. If I were to stick to the same snacks I have been having since I was 4, I might be tempted to venture out more.
• That takes care of snacking. For breakfast I have a cyclic list of 3 to 4 items. I have the same thing for a week or so, get bored with it, switch to my second option and so on. You get the idea. Make sure that change is built into your system. Without flexibility, your planning is bound to fail.
• Lunch and dinner are the big ones. I will not presume to know what you eat daily. However, I will advise you to shop at a discount grocery store like Aldi. With prices that low you can’t go wrong. If you shop at high-end places, then the amount you can buy is limited and running out of food is to be avoided at all costs.
• Buy canned food from time to time. Canned food is honestly the most helpful thing ever if you are feeling lazy. There are tons of recipes online and most of them are pretty good. You can also, jazz it up by adding personal touches. I am never disappointed with the finished products. Having some canned food ready to go will save you the chopping and dicing when you’re tired or are just having an off day.
• Polish your cooking skills. I was always a bad cook. I never thought that would change. Now, I cook daily and my husband loves it! Guess what changed? The mindset. Being a chem major I agonized over adding just the right amount. 2g meant 2g: no more, no less. Cooking is not a perfect science because your ingredients are always changing. Unless you are very particular about what you buy, the brands may change, the freshness of fruits and vegetables may vary, the chili powder might not pack the same heat. It’s a gamble. The last thing you want to be here is inflexible. In Bengali we have a word called ‘andaaj’. It loosely means ‘to feel or have an idea’. My parents always told me to feel out the salt or feel out the sugar. This seemed absurd to me at first but with time it’s become second nature. I rarely stick to recipes anymore and it always worked better when I understand my ingredients and work with them rather than try to imitate someone else. Also, if you have a supportive spouse, things just get easier! A kind word goes a long way.
• Invest in fruits and veggies. I have learnt to incorporate them into my food, and it makes every meal just a little bit healthier. If I’m having fried chicken, I have salad on the side. If I’m having something spicy, I get a bowl of grapes. It gives a sense of balance that is often lacking in meals.
• This next point isn’t really my idea but my husband’s. He encourages ‘colorful food’. The more colorful your food is, the healthier it is bound to be.
• Last but not the least, keep track of how much you spend eating out and how much you spend on groceries. Over time, you’ll see a change and that might make you feel better about how you’re going about spending your hard-earned money. At the very least, it will give you a sense of control and that is invaluable. The last thing you want is spender’s amnesia and wondering where all your money went and not having a penny to save towards your and your family’s future.

Use spending to your advantage

You are going to need to buy things. These will include needs and wants. Cutting out the wants will result in a very unexciting life. When I starve myself of ‘wants’ it usually ends in some very irresponsible retail therapy. We are hard-wired to want and that’s not always a bad thing. In moderation, it could be useful. Every project both at home and at work requires some investment. Every well thought out investment leads to some improvement in our lives. So, embrace the wants but temper them and you will be just fine. There are tons of ways to use spending to your advantage. I’ll only put down the ones that I have personally tried. If you’re looking for a list, this will not be the most extensive one. However, what I lack in volume I’ll make up in depth.

• Credit Card: This post will not teach you how to earn a good credit score. However, if you already have a reasonable score you can shop for the cards that have the best cashback rates. That’s what we do. In the last couple years, we’ve been on the look out for the best rates and switched accordingly.
• Ebates: This is now Rakuten. I like these guys. I was very skeptical about them in the beginning. How do they earn money? What is their business model? Should I even trust them? However, their excellent customer service and easy-to-use site put my fears to rest. On a first purchase of above $25 they reward you with a $10 Walmart gift card. This card arrives within a month. When you refer somebody to use Ebates and they make a purchase over a certain amount, you get $25! I’m not kidding! Now for the best part. We all do some amount of online shopping. Rakuten has tie-ups with over a thousand stores. Some of them are: Amazon, Target, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes etc. Every time you buy something online from these stores, you get a cashback. The cashback can range from 1% to 10%. I haven’t seen offers that give you more than that, but I am sure that bigger cashbacks are out there. They put the money in your cashback account, and you receive a check every 3 months if your amount is greater than $5. If it is less, then the balance rolls over to the next billing cycle. For the first time you need help, a human assistant will guide you, so make sure to ask all your doubts and questions. If you need pointers, here are a few: Ask about Shopping trips, Big Fat Check Balance, Referral system and so on. The times after that it will be a digital assistant called Cashly, still good but not as helpful.
• Ibotta: I always wanted to make some money from my old receipts. It seemed like a great idea. Don’t trust every app out there and especially not the ones that are offering you insane dollar amounts for your receipts. I personally do not like the apps that reward you in coins, swags or any other kind of inane currency. Ibotta works well for me because they are upfront about how much they pay you per receipt and offer. If you refer friends, you get some cash. If you earn up to $20 you can withdraw your cash. It also lets you store some amount of cash for in-store purchases. You get varying amounts of cashbacks on these purchases. Since, our cashbacks rates are high on the credit cards, I’ve never personally used this feature but if the percentages go up or there are promotions, I’m definitely taking that opportunity to earn a few extra bucks.
• Krazy Koupon Lady: If you want to coupon but don’t have the time to seek out deals, get the KKL app. It works like a charm. This team has the best offers and deals from major retailers as well as numerous posts and guides to help you in your couponing journey. My best purchase so far has been an Air Fryer for around $20. You are going to learn how to stack coupons, ask for a price match and apply for rebate offers. If you stick with them, you might be stock piling in a few months. I am not that intense of a shopper so I don’t usually have much to contribute in their brags section but there is something for everybody and it would be a shame not to take advantage of their expertise.
• Coupons: This is very basic. Don’t throw coupons away. You are getting them for free and you might as well use them. I usually will be on the lookout for common household items like toothpaste, paper towels, toilet paper and so on. These things are constantly in use. If you can save a few bucks on them, it will add up in the long run. The other kind of coupons I look out for are restaurant coupons. So far, I’ve amassed quite a lot of these coupons from Burger King, Coldstone Creamery, EatnPark, Max and Erma’s etc. We don’t eat out often but when we are on a road trip and need to stop somewhere, a discounted meal just makes things that much better. I’ll also just give away these coupons from time to time if I feel like we’re not going to use them. Being a coupon angel is a rather fulfilling feeling.