lasso power

it’s been awhile since i’ve done a DBN weekend (weekly) roundup.  it’s time for the first one of the year.

in a post two years ago in the spring 25 ways i save money part 3 of 5, lulugal at savemoney covers 5 items from her full list in more detail. although all 5 of her suggestions are sound, i was particularly drawn to the last one (or, #15), ‘cook for multiple days’.

i have the lack of desire to cook in common with lulugal. i too do no particularly enjoy cooking or working with food. i find eating a chore — the SO and i regularly joke, “man! why do we have to eat? sigh. can’t we just stick an IV into our arms at regular intervals and not have to think about it so hard?” although, i realize that this is a bit silly since: a) eating is a necessity to stay alive; b) there are people who have no food or not much at all who would appreciate food and be disgusted with my above comment; and c) dining can be tasty and fun.

similarly to lulugal, we also tend to over-prepare food so that we can have leftovers for days. the SO has a lower tolerance for eating the same thing repeatedly for too long though, so we do have to cook something different again a few days later. having saved food in tupperware makes it easy to pick out what there is available to eat, and also makes it more enticing to eat at home so that we are less compelled to dine out and spend/waste money on a whim.

this is a great tactic since dining out used to consume much of our disposable income. now we can have money last longer in our accounts, available for more urgent/important expenses such as credit card, house, utilities or other bills. and grocery shopping, of course.

at debtreductionformula, last spring ryan wrote about how bicycles were getting quite appealing due to the rising cost of gas at the time (then reaching $4 a gallon for drivers, as opposed to the current not quite $2 some places!). i’m not sure why, but i just can’t get into bicycle riding. i bought bikes twice in my adult life — one while 25(?) and another at 29(?) in order to commute via bicycle to and from work. during both times, i worked only about 2-3 miles away at home (different jobs).

both times the bicycling lasted about a month or two at most. after that, the bicycle, helmet, and lock all went into hibernation in the living room or in the basement. although somewhat invigorating during the weeks of riding, i just lost interest as quickly as the interest had arrived.

each times i went back to a combination of either riding buses and walking, or riding my motorcycle. although it does save a bit of money, i already don’t spend much as it is commuting with a motorcycle. also there is the time consideration — it took me 10 minutes with the motorbike versus the 30-40 minutes with the bicycle (slow rider). and during one of those times of the year, it became dark late, such that riding a bicycle through the ghetto streets i must ride at for portions of the commute is not the safest due to either the neighborhoods or the traffic.

riding a bicycle can work, but it really depends on each individual’s circumstances.

in her post how to cut back on discretionary spending, questtobedebtfree lists some great alternative resources such as borrowing movies from the library for free instead of renting. i wholeheartedly endorse this one. months ago, the SO and i borrowed a batman movie this way, and that was quite convenient. this works well of course, if you don’t mind that you might not get the movie you want asap, since there tend to be long waiting lists for some movies! we are still waiting for ‘the nightmare before christmas’ to be available!

i have other ideas to add to her lists:

1. subscribe to greencine for movie rentals
2. trade or borrow movies with friends or family for free
3. rent a movie for one night for $1 at places like raley’s grocery store or elephant pharmacy (if available near you)
4. order one large entree to split per 2 people
5. order from the children’s menu for an adult if the restaurant lets you!
6. drink a lot of water before and during the meal so that you won’t need to eat as much

i’ve borrowed series in boxes such as 24 and movies from a friend, and rented for a dollar from the pharmacy.  the SO and i often order one large entree and a side dish to share all between us since we are both small people and can’t eat much at a time.

one comment about buffets: of course, this may not actually be a money-saving approach for you if like me, you really can’t eat much at a given time!  i’ve found that one korean bbq place charged me $25 and a japanese restaurant about the same for buffet meals.  it is much cheaper for me to order sushi or an entree for at most $12 at a japanese place, and similarly for a korean restaurant for me!  it’s all relative and depends on one’s tummy and food needs.