Tips for Saving Money, Cutting Expenses, etc.

[Munchkin03]

Has anyone noticed that people are focusing on their health a lot more now than they did a year ago? I've always been a gym geek, but now my friends are focusing on home-cooked meals (since you can control the salt, sugar, and fat you take in), working out, and not drinking as much.

I don't know how much of it's the economy, and how much of it's just us growing up and realizing that the midsection fluff does not go away so easily now!

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

I don't know how much of it's the economy, and how much of it's just us growing up and realizing that the midsection fluff does not go away so easily now!

Word. I don't know how it is with you, but it used to take like a week at the gym to get rid of the midsection fluff caused by a couple of weeks of drinking and eating goodies. Now it takes like 3 weeks of eating better AND going to the gym simultaneously. Crazy.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Word. I don't know how it is with you, but it used to take like a week at the gym to get rid of the midsection fluff caused by a couple of weeks of drinking and eating goodies. Now it takes like 3 weeks of eating better AND going to the gym simultaneously. Crazy.

I don't know how old you are, but I didn't start experiencing this until the winter of my 27th year; most of my male friends didn't start dealing with resilient midsection fluff until they were about 31/32.

Originally Posted by KSigkid

At least with my friends, it has a lot more to do with keeping busier schedules and seeing how older business associates have aged. I've talked about it with a couple of friends, and we realized that as we've started to work longer (harder) hours, we needed to be in better physical condition. If you're writing a report or drafting a document at 10 pm, you don't want to be lagging. Being in better physical condition helps to deal with those longer, more intellectually-challenging days, at least in my case. Even though I go to the gym at 5:30 am, and sometimes don't get home until 11 pm or later, I still have more energy from 3 pm onwards since I've started the early morning gym trips.

Yeah, like I said I'm not sure if it's a function of getting older or the economy. It's easier to beg off of the late-night food trucks because of trying to eat better than admitting it's because you don't have the money to throw around the way you used to. Most of my business associates are in pretty great shape (I just got lapped by my boss a few days ago); I think that's pretty typical of architects as a whole.

I ran a few miles around 9 yesterday morning, and I was able to stay up until 3 this morning, while being out. I'm feeling pretty good today too, so maybe I'm not dragging like I thought I was.

[bluefish81]

Target will take a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon for the same item, which can help make it cheaper than your local grocery store or Wal-Mart. My grocery store will do this too.
You can find Target coupons on their website, or sometimes they randomly mail out booklets to people in the mail. There's no real rhyme or reason to who gets the store coupons.
I've also found that I'm able to get a lot of my toiletries at Walgreens for really cheap because you can use the coupons in their ads and stack manufacturer coupons there too. I don't have a lot of time to line up these deals but the people on sites like www.hotcouponworld.com and www.slickdeals.net are able to find those deals. They also have threads dedicated to lots of grocery stores on HCW. There's no cost for either site.
If I had a family, I'd probably be all about buying in bulk, especially since I could practically walk to Cost-Co, but I'd never get everything used in time, nor do I have the space.

[ThetaPrincess24]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Has anyone noticed that people are focusing on their health a lot more now than they did a year ago? I've always been a gym geek, but now my friends are focusing on home-cooked meals (since you can control the salt, sugar, and fat you take in), working out, and not drinking as much.

Yeah...we are doing that too. We stopped buying liquor. I stopped drinking liquor and drink wine less frequently and try to keep it to one glass when I do drink it. Ordering water with lemon at restaurants instead of a soft drink or alcoholic beverage has also helped cut costs and has helped control weight. it is AMAZING to me how much salt, sugar, fat, and preservatives you can cut out of your food by cooking at home and with fresh ingredients.

[PhoenixAzul]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Has anyone noticed that people are focusing on their health a lot more now than they did a year ago? I've always been a gym geek, but now my friends are focusing on home-cooked meals (since you can control the salt, sugar, and fat you take in), working out, and not drinking as much.

I don't know how much of it's the economy, and how much of it's just us growing up and realizing that the midsection fluff does not go away so easily now!

I'm fortunate that I have a free gym membership because I volunteer at the place I work out (Boys and Girls Club/community center), but I HAVE noticed that I'm much more conscious of what I'm buying, and I'm definitely making more stuff on my own. Such as: Pancakes. Rather than buying Bisquick, I make from scratch. Rather than buying pizza dough, I make from scratch (took some fiddling with, but I found this great recipe: http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2009/...omemade-pizza/ ). The stuff we're making has less additives in it, and is generally fresher/lower in salt, and I can control the portions. If nothing else, the recession has made me a much better cook!

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Has anyone noticed that people are focusing on their health a lot more now than they did a year ago? I've always been a gym geek, but now my friends are focusing on home-cooked meals (since you can control the salt, sugar, and fat you take in), working out, and not drinking as much.

I don't know how much of it's the economy, and how much of it's just us growing up and realizing that the midsection fluff does not go away so easily now!

At least with my friends, it has a lot more to do with keeping busier schedules and seeing how older business associates have aged. I've talked about it with a couple of friends, and we realized that as we've started to work longer (harder) hours, we needed to be in better physical condition. If you're writing a report or drafting a document at 10 pm, you don't want to be lagging. Being in better physical condition helps to deal with those longer, more intellectually-challenging days, at least in my case. Even though I go to the gym at 5:30 am, and sometimes don't get home until 11 pm or later, I still have more energy from 3 pm onwards since I've started the early morning gym trips.

Plus, I think that a reasonable person starts tallying up the calories in those late night take-out meals, or even at business lunches out, and realizes that they should try to cut calories (and costs) as much as possible.

[ThetaPrincess24]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

I still have more energy from 3 pm onwards since I've started the early morning gym trips.

I've noticed a difference in that and better sleep from working out. I've been able to cut back on ambien usage for sleep since I started early morning workouts and my migraines/treximet usage is also less frequent. That in turn saves me money because I'm not refilling as often.

[texas*princess]

I forgot to mention this in my earlier post: My mom plays the "grocery game".

It's basically a service online - they tell you where to get what coupons and what stores in your area you can go to for redeeming. My mom has come out of CVS with BAGS and BAGS of stuff - deodorants, shampoos, body wash, RAZORS, air fresheners - just tons of stuff, and only paid like $0.30. (yes, that's 30-CENTS)

I believe it's a paid service, but it's saved her a ton of money. She always said she wishes they had that when we were growing up, because I have 3 siblings so our family would go through stuff so quickly. She takes advantage of those and stockpiles everything and when we visit home we 'raid' the stockpile and bring stuff home

The Grocery Game

[VandalSquirrel]

I haven't been doing anything different, I've kind of always been doing these activities as I have grand plans that require quite a bit of funding. I've managed to have some bills taken directly from my paycheck so I have a very accurate idea of what money I have. I received grant and scholarship money last year and paid all my rent up front which at least assures I won't ever worry about being homeless. I had a lease though, and in some places paying up front can bring up strange legal issues, not so much in my case.

I still wouldn't use just cash for big purchases as credit cards provide buyer protection. Just transfer the money immediately and it is the same situation. Also for traveling I can't think of many ways you can pay for a rental car or plane tickets in cash.

I guess I also just like proof of payment for certain situations as well, sure you can get a receipt for cash. I was burned once and was reported to collections as I made a payment and an employee stole the cash, which was a huge hassle to fix.