<p>My family is the absolute worst about grocery shopping. It is embarrassing. We are frugal and responsible about everything else, but can’t get it right on groceries. I have no idea why. i wish someone would parent us on this.</p>
<p>“I beg to differ. If a family of 4 has a net income of $50, 000 or more per year and not a ton of credit debt, or living above their means with their mortgage and vehicles, they can save $20K -$30K BEFORE their child’s freshman year in 2015”</p>
<p>If the income was close to that 50K, saving 20-30K would be quite impressive. I would also think that family would be eligible for quite a bit of financial aid, so maybe that 20-30K would cover the entire four years.</p>
<p>
Now I am confused. If you make enough $$ each year, why can’t you pay out of pocket?</p>
<p>In any case, I don’t think anyone at your income level will need to use some of the extreme saving methods listed in this thread.</p>
<p>Thank you, BunHeadMom! I’ve been waiting for this thread to start.</p>
<p>I’d like to ask about Aldi, everyone. Who shops at Aldi? What do you buy there? I’ve never been, but have considered trying it in the New Year. However, I’ve read about the quarter-for-a-cart…and cash/debit card-only (don’t have a debit card)…it just seems like a hassle - but I’d love to hear what folks have to say about Aldi.</p>
<p>Happy 2014!</p>
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agree 100%, unless the 5-K is after tax. </p>
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<p>Only if the school meets 100% of the needs.</p>
<p>Busdriver</p>
<p>Absolutely I have a gold card, but with the free purchase I select a food item for lunch : )</p>
<p>GoAskDad
I shopped years ago at Aldi in the UK. Would stock up on dry gods/cans etc. Waiting for one to open nearby. Not much selection eg cans of tomatoes they maybe stock one type, but I usually buy store brand so it didn’t bother me.</p>
<p>“Only if the school meets 100% of the needs.”</p>
<p>If you’re still ponying up 20-30K, I guess they aren’t doing a very good job of meeting 100% of your needs. I would expect people to earn enough with part time summer jobs to pay for their own incidentals.</p>
<p>'agree 100%, unless the 5-K is after tax"</p>
<p>Saving 20-30K in an after tax 50K salary would be amazing for a family. Maybe not so impressive for a new graduate with no family and no debt, but a family of four? Wow.</p>
<p>With those Starbucks cards, if you can separate every purchase, it counts as stars. Though it could be really annoying to those behind you. Oops! Forgot to buy my sandwich. Oops! Can you add another $20 to my account. I admit I’m not cheap enough to do that, but if both me and my H are getting coffee, we both use our individual cards instead of putting it on one. And like Sally, we do save our free one for the most expensive item. Unfortunately he only likes drip and I like Americano’s, so it’s pretty much a waste of a fancy, frilly, expensive drink.</p>
<p>the four biggest things we did …</p>
<p>1) Cars … don’t churn leases or payments … buy practical cars and and drive them into the ground</p>
<p>2) Pocketed “Free Money” … bonuses, stock options, stock purchase plans, etc … all proceeds went to long-term goals … the mortgage, the kids 529s, etc</p>
<p>3) Paid off our mortgage the month before our oldest started college so we could use the “mortgage money” for college.</p>
<p>4) Set up 529s the month each kid was born and made payments each month.</p>
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<p>For various reasons: (1) not all colleges meet full need, so what they expect you to pay may not be realistic given your income; (2) when you are divorced or have a small business (I have both), colleges assume both parents (and step-parents) will chip in, and that the business can somehow be borrowed against or liquidated to pay college costs – definitely not always the case; (3) if your income fluctuates (as mine does with a small business), aid can fluctuate a lot based on the previous year’s income – have a good year and aid is low the next year, but a downturn in business that next year can make it hard to pay the college bill.</p>
<p>In fact, I do use some of the suggestions on this thread already. I only buy used cars, bag lunch ever day, do my own yardwork, clip coupons, make my own coffee drink every morning, don’t have cable, and pay off my credit cards in full every month.</p>
<p>zoosermom- Grocery shopping is the area I’m best with, because it’s the only area where I truly have leeway in the budget. Mortgage, utilities, car payment and insurance, gas, etc. are all quite fixed for me. When I was first divorced, groceries were the last thing on the list so I got good at making it work, no matter how little was left at that point. </p>
<p>The keys with groceries:
- Make a menu ahead of time for that week based on the sales from that week.
- Make a grocery list based on those sales ads- yes, it may mean going to more than one store. I know how much things cost now so I estimate the cost of the whole list in advance.
- This is the hard one- STICK TO THE LIST. I live in a state with bottle returns @ 10 cents a bottle/can so I allow that bottle return money to be my impulse buying money. If I returned 54 cans, then I have $5.40 to spend on impulse buys at the grocery store.
- I note which items on the list could be optional in the event that I see something in the store that I know is a necessity but I forgot to put it on the list.
- While I shop, every item that goes into the cart gets hash marks for how much it is (rounding up). You know, just the 4 vertical lines with the 5th line being diagonal across them. It’s easy to realize how much you’re spending that way.
- Don’t take the kids to the grocery store with you. I always spend more when they come. They NEED stuff- I say no to 90% of it but that 10% I give in on is usually more than the bottle return money! </p>
<p>Then, as I said in my earlier post- I freeze stuff. I break things down into single portions. I make sure leftovers get eaten or frozen. </p>
<p>Another thing to note is that as kids go away to school, adjust how much you’re cooking! When I made pasta, I always cooked the whole box when there were 3 of us eating it. Then my D went away to school and I realized I was throwing away leftovers. I started cooking half the box and it was plenty for my son and I. Then my Crohn’s started acting up and I couldn’t eat pasta. One box of pasta lasted my son for 5 meals when I just cooked small portions of it. Sure, pasta is only $1-$1.50 a box, but that was 4 boxes I saved doing that. </p>
<p>I’m thinking when the nest is empty in September, I will really live on very little. I don’t eat like the kids eat. I don’t spend money on hardly anything. The only lights that are ever on are the ones in the room I’m in. I can go a whole day without a TV on (although a computer is always on). I can probably do laundry every other week instead of every week.</p>
<p>That reminds me- only do FULL loads of laundry. I don’t have a dishwasher, but when I did, I only ran it when it was full. When the kids are at their dads’, I pretty much just use silverware so I rinse it, but only wash it a couple times through the week. </p>
<p>I don’t water my lawn. I don’t see the point. Yes, it burns or gets brown in the heat of the summer in a dry year, but it also doesn’t grow as fast so it doesn’t need to be mowed. </p>
<p>I can’t scroll back to the post about the gardening, and making their own household cleaning products, etc., but I got tired just reading all that. Maybe I’ll feel like I have that kind of time when grad school is done. Right now, that sounded exhausting. </p>
<p>Being able to live on 1/4-1/3-1/2 of your income is really dependent on your income. Living on $20-30K a year, if you have a mortgage or rent, is going to be pretty tough in lower cost areas. In some high cost regions, it’s just not even possible. </p>
<p>For those who give up cable- do you just watch everything on your computer all the time? Like, the local news every morning and evening? News, traffic and weather are pretty much the things that keep me paying for cable. How do you know when there is a weather warning? I usually get that info from the TV. I have a weather radio, but that doesn’t give you details about where a tornado is on the ground, etc. I’m intrigued by the idea of giving up cable, especially once the kids are gone because I am rarely actually watching anything on TV,other that news and weather, but giving those up… I don’t know.</p>
<p>2016barnardmom, thank you very much! Excellent advice and much appreciated.</p>
<p>Most of the people buy practical cars because that is all they could afford. I don’t see why you want to buy practical cars in order to pay more for colleges.</p>
<p>I’ve really been burned on every used car I’ve ever bought. Besides the fact that I work for an auto company now so I get a pretty nice discount on new cars, I am at the point where I would rather buy it new, know I won’t have any major repair bills for the first 5 years/100,000 miles and then keep driving it until I hit 170 or 180,000 miles. I’ve always been opposed to leasing because you never get out from under a car payment but all indications at work are that I should be able to get promoted to the next level within a couple years which would mean a company car. I’m thinking that if something happens with my current vehicle, I might just do that 3 year lease in hopes that I get that promotion and never have to deal with all that stuff again.</p>
<p>INTParent, I am an INTP, too–grin. I stand by my posts and future posts that it is not too late for families of class of 2015 to save enough to pay a huge chunk towards tuition come fall of 2015. If a family continues saving through all the college years, there are no loans for anyone, and if loans are required, the amount will be significantly less. Now, if their is more than one child in college at the same time, the same amount of income may be saved, but the amount for each child, of course is 1/2 of the total saved. We’ll have to just agree not to agree on saving enormous sums of money in a short period of time, although I DO agree with most of your posts on other topics.</p>
<p>DadII, My FIL told my ex-DH and me when we became engaged to live on 1/2 of our income. We listened. When my FIL said buy, we bought stocks–even when laughed at by others. I miss him dearly, but his advise paid off tremendously for us. The majority of my family are savers, investors, and property owners. I save for early retirement, college, and current/future travel. I pay cash, well, I may charge, but never carry a balance from month to month on the few cards I have. </p>
<p>I work for a local government that had problems in the past and recent past with our retirement plan, and recently made changes that reduces my future retirement draw. This is the 3rd reduction for future funding in 8 years. Additionally, I am not banking on Social Security, Medicare or my retirement plan to be fully funded or to keep up with inflation for when I reach official retirement age in 18 years–although I plan to retire once BHG graduates college. My relatives live well into their 90’s, so we’re looking at roughly 40 years of income that I’ll need, not counting my work retirement plan, social security or medicare or employer offered insurance until medicare eligible. </p>
<p>When I am dead, all my investments and assets will go to my kids and future grandchildren, so it’s all going to a good cause. At least the kids know there will not be any debt–grin.</p>
<p>“I live in a state with bottle returns @ 10 cents a bottle/can so I allow that bottle return money to be my impulse buying money.” - That reminds me of a simple trick. We rarely buy soda a the grocery store or when eating out. It’s cheaper and healthier. </p>
<p>Now that the kids are grown/away and I don’t need to make milk runs, grocery shopping is almost always on Saturdays. So I am more conscious of the bill. I was surprised for two of us that the bill is usually over $100. Then I realize we buy all our stuff at Safeway (laundry detergent, toilet paper, candy for DH’s team at work, etc), instead of the separate trips I used to do to Target or Walmart. </p>
<p>DadII - Savings is worthwhile because most college aid formulas only “tax” 5% of savings.</p>
<p>Most people (especially women) see no point in buying anything but a practical car. It is just a way to get from here to there and depreciates in a hurry. A college education seems like a MUCH better thing to spend money on to me… Regarding used cars, I have bought two used Subarus in the last 15 years and have had almost no trouble with them beyond routine maintenance. I don’t buy high mileage cars (both had ~25,000 miles on them). Speaking of maintenance, I am quite disciplined about getting maintenance done (oil changes, recommended maintenance as the manufacturer recommends, free tire rotations, regular washes during winter/salt season) so the cars last a long time.</p>
<p>BHM, my “intparent” isn’t actually INTP… it stands for “interested parent”. 
But you still aren’t understanding me… my post was saying that MY suggestion could not be implemented by the class of 2015. I am not saying it is too late for saving/reducing spending for the class of 2015! Merely that the suggestion I made has to be implemented early.</p>
<p>GoAskDad–in my area, Aldi’s sells organic produce and organic packaged items like spaghetti sauce and frozen vegetables. That is about all I purchase from there.</p>
<p>@Goaskdad - I shop a Aldi but not every week because it’s not in our town. I mostly buy their meat and produce.For us it’s cheaper than Krogers or Publix. You get your quarter back when you return the cart so it’s not a big deal. You just have to remember to bring your own bags.</p>
<p>Our family tends never to drink anything when we dine away from home other than water from the tap. When we were in saving mode, we rarely ever ate out and when we did, it was inexpensive ethnic restaurants (which we still favor due to their wide variety).</p>
<p>We rarely buy cars, but when we do, we never finance–pay for it in cash and drive it until even the mechanic admits it’s cheaper to buy another than repair further (usually 10-15+ years after we first acquired the vehicles).</p>
<p>Find a GOOD insurance agent and adjust your auto deductible to as high as makes sense. It really makes a BIG difference.</p>
<p>Drive defensively–auto accidents are expensive and can affect your health and that of others.</p>
<p>Have excellent health insurance coverage.</p>
<p>Agree with your spouse on a set amount for the two of you to have in cash for the month. Cash a check in the beginning of each month for that amount and divide among yourselves. When it’s gone, it’s gone.</p>
<p>Pay yourself first–use automatic payments on your retirement and any other essential debt or accounts. You will likely not even notice the money, since you never had it.</p>
<p>Pre-pay as much as you can for any debt you have (be sure there is no pre-payment penalty on your loans). You can save A LOT on loans if you have them for a shorter period of time. We paid an extra $500 most months on our mortgage and paid it up A LOT quicker than scheduled.</p>
<p>If in doubt, DON’T buy it. Think about it and you may decide you don’t want to add the clutter to your house. Shop with a friend who is honest and helps curb impulsive spending (and is a wise spender) instead of one who smiles and nods enthusiastically about EVERYTHING.</p>