Save money - don't assume bigger is necessarily cheaper

I was at a store the other day buying formula for the babies when I saw this:

The small tin (400g) costs R46 and the big tin (900g) costs R152,90. I couldn't believe it!


The big tin should cost in the region of R103,50 or even less. A lot of people would assume that the bigger one is cheaper (I threw big tins into my trolley before I started thinking) but first do your sums and make sure you're getting a good deal!

There you go - trying to save you money :)

3 ways to use food so it doesn't spoil

I hate wasting food with a passion!

First of all it's money and also, I can't help thinking about all the hungry people right on my very doorstep.

So I have a few ways I use up food so that it doesn't spoil.

1. Use veggies to make stirfry (as in picture above). In fact, in the above picture, I had some chicken, some spaghetti and veggies. By cooking this one meal, I managed to use all of those up which makes me very, very happy.
2. If there are still veggies left (this particular night, there was also a lot of broccoli), throw into the freezer for use in soups whenever you get around to it.
3. We store bread in the fridge anyway because it's warm in Johannesburg and bread goes mouldy very quickly. Sometimes we still can't get to eat the bread quickly enough so I toss the bread in the freezer. I really like saving time so I package them in packs of 2 slices so that I can simply grab a bag, pop the bread into the toaster and I'm good to go.
   

Those are the only foodstuffs that spoil in this house because when I cook, I cook enough for two meals and immediately freeze the other meal.

What other tips can you share? What works in your house?

August declutter challenge - day 10

yayyy to cutting up this credit card!

to be fair, I don't use this one as an actual credit card, but as a savings account

What did you declutter today?

P.S. If you need to get your money sorted, check out the Financial Freedom e-course

3 easy steps to grocery shopping

I LOVE grocery shopping.

I love browsing through the cleaning products aisle and looking through all the gorgeous fresh fruit and vegetables to see if anything inspires me to cook.

The only thing is it wasn't working for me.

Why?

Because it took FOREVER to do and I'd still get home without everything I needed and have exceeded our grocery budget!

So I changed a few things:

1. I eat before I set out the door
If you go shopping on a hungry stomach, you end up buying all sorts of rubbish, like chips, chocolates, sweets, doughnuts, etc. Not only that, I also noticed that I'd throw in other bits and bobs that were not on my list but somehow I justified to myself that I had to have it!

Anyone relate?

2. I plan my menu for the following week before I go shopping
I know exactly what I need to have to cook the meals on my menu planner, so I do a quick scan of my pantry cupboards to check the essentials, and then add things to my shopping list.

I then check to see if we have enough cereals, milk and yoghurts for breakfasts, fruit for snacks and milk, cheese and beef slices for lunches.

3. I make it into a game
I like to leave an hour total for driving there and back, and doing the shop. This has forced me to shop at a different time to the masses :) which is an hour before the shops close on a Friday night.

I also divide the monthly budget into 4 weeks and deduct some money for incidentals (bread and milk) during the week. Now armed with my budget, I see if I can get it all done and still come in under my target amount.

That's how I get it done and stay within my budget.

What works for you? Please share in the comments.