Deplete your Food Inventory to Save money

Introduction

It may seem unusual to start this post talking about boots and shoes, but I'm a "road walker" and I went through a period of buying shoes expecting them to last a few hundred miles. Now I have four pairs of leather boots and three pairs of running or hiking shoes. The total cost including tax is about $1,100. The good news is, one pair of boots is coming up on 3,000 miles with no sign of wear on the soles, and I have another pair just like it. Another pair of boots has almost 1,000 miles on it with no sign of wear at all. Maybe I should have written this post about shoes, but the key point is I have about $1,100 tied up in shoes. Probably enough for at least 12,000 miles of walking. (My secret is I use Gorilla tape on the soles of leather boots to keep them from wearing out.)

Inventory costs money

Instead of so many shoes, I should have saved the money to buy shirts, socks and pants. There were times I had to replace these when I was a little short on cash. Oh, I used to always be short on cash, but not since I learned how to budget well.


I first learned that inventory costs money from Eliyahu Goldratt who wrote the book, "Isn't it Obvious?" along with about seven other books. In this book, a retail store's storeroom was flooded and they had to order replacement items from the warehouse as they sold them. Surprisingly, their profits increased about 20% in just the first month. This was partially because they only ordered items as they sold to keep a 20 day inventory of each item in the store. The same theory works if a person only buys food they know they will eat during the next day.

Take a look into the recesses of your freezer and pantry and find the items that you would no longer eat. Toss them, while keeping a mental tally of the cost of those foods. How did they get there?  In my case it was either losing interest in something I bought in bulk or poor rotation of the foods.

Taking the Food Stamp Challenge

In a way, food stamp challenges do not mimic real life because they often start with a big shopping order to buy items like oatmeal, rice, potatoes, etc. This doesn't happen in real life, so the contestant starts out with a deficit. In real life, a person could eat from inventory as long as possible and then start shopping. This would build a cash reserve to make the end of the month less stressful.

Advantages of shopping every day

When I shop every day, I only buy what I'm going to eat that day or bulk items that are almost gone. This means I throw almost no food in the trash. Granted, I miss stocking up on some sale items, but then I have money to buy other sale items, so it all works out. I may miss the price advantage of buying a 10 pound bag of potatoes instead of a 5 pound bag of potatoes, but I always eat the full 5 pound bag of potatoes and I don't get roots growing out the bottom of my pantry door. Bananas don't get black, bread doesn't get stale, and I don't have any biological hazards in my refrigerator.

Shopping everyday allows us to change the next day's menu without worrying about wasting food. 

What about emergencies?

Unless a person lives in an isolated area, there is seldom a food emergency that lasts more than three days. Rice and oatmeal can last that long.

Conclusion

 In my case, I've found shopping every day means almost no wasted food. The exception is spaghetti sauce where I usually don't use all of the jar. I estimate it saves about 20% on my food bill. This is essentially free food for me.

Avoid the Expensive Convenience Food Fat Trap

Introduction

A friend recommended Michael Angelo's Eggplant Parmesan to me yesterday. I decided to analyze the food and see if it met the criteria for a frugal budgeter.

Cost

The first criteria for a frugal budgeter is the cost. This container is $7.47 at our local Walmart. There are six serving per box with 250 calories per serving.

To estimate the cost in your head, determine how many calories are in the box. Six servings at 250 calories per serving is 1,500 calories. To find the cost per 2,000 calories divide 2,000 by 1,500 and multiply it by the price. The cost is $9.96/2000 calories. I would automatically exclude this item as it is higher than my $5.00 budget/2000 calories.

Fat Content

The nutrition label format is dictated by the government, but it is still deceiving. Notice how it says "Total Fat 15 g     24%". This might lead some to think the dish is only 24% fat. Not true. This is a percentage of the daily requirement for a 2,000 calorie diet.

However, in the line above, it says 140 of the 250 calories are from fat. Few people will do the math, but the dividing 140 by 250 shows the dish is 56% fat! This is higher than most meat sandwiches at McDonald's.

If I'm going to eat Eggplant Parmesan, I'd like to have some garlic bread with it. Let's say I'm conservative and have only two slices with one pat of butter  on each slice. This adds about 170 calories for the bread and 72 calories for the butter. Now the meal is up to 492 calories. Not a bad number yet, but let's analyze the fat content.

There is about one gram of fat in the bread I would buy for garlic bread and 8 grams of fat in two pats of butter. The total fat is 15 grams from the eggplant Parmesan, one gram from the bread and 8 from the butter, or 24 grams.

To determine the number of calories in 24 grams of fat, multiply it by 9. This meal has 216 calories of fat out of 492 calories. It is 44% FAT!!!! Most value meals from McDonald's do better than this.

Don't worry though. It's almost all saturated fats. You know, the kind that gives people heart attacks.

A real meal

The picture on the box shows the meal covering the whole plate. This probably equates to four servings from the package. Let's say a person only eats three servings which would be normal for many. They also eat two extra slices of garlic bread because it tastes so good. Then the meal is up to about 1,300 calories, the same as a large McDonald's Cheeseburger value meal.

Don't forget the wine

At least the wine brings down the percentage of fat. Add about 100 calories per glass.

Conclusion

In general, convenience foods taste somewhat good, cost too much, and have enough fat to kill a person over time. 

 

A Perfect Diet

Introduction

What is the perfect diet? After a few minutes of brainstorming, I created this list.

1. Does not cause disease.
2. Cures many diseases.
3. High energy.
4. Easy to follow.
5. Easy to prepare
6. Weight control.
7. Research supports health claims.
8. Long and healthy life.
9. Affordable.

I've been studying diets for many years, and there is only one diet that meets all these criteria. This is a starch based diet with the addition of fruits and vegetables and no added fats. The research is thousands of years old, and disciplined published research is over one hundred years old.

A starched based diet builds meals around foods like potatoes, rice, beans, grains, sweet potatoes, corn and other starches. These starches should cover approximately half the plate and the fruits and vegetables should cover the other half.

There are no meat or dairy products in this diet. There are also no added vegetable oils.

Affordable? This dish cost eighty-four cents and has 454 calories. It is easy to eat 2,000 calories of healthy food a day for under $5.00.

You are betting your life

Everyone is literally betting their lives on their diet. Ninety-five percent of all diseases are in reality conditions caused by the person's diet. It is worth an enormous amount of your time to investigate and find the healthiest diet available.


Do you want to avoid doctor's offices? Do you want to avoid most of the sicknesses people think come with age?  Sickness and disease does not come with age. It mostly comes from what we eat! 

I've been mostly vegetarian and then vegan since 1993. I haven't been sick a single time. I'm 62 years old and physically active. I don't have any aches and pains. I've not been to a doctor the entire time. I'm at a normal weight for my height.



Should you believe me?

I'm not a doctor, nurse, or nutritionist, and I don't have a medical background. I did watch Dr. Kildare, Medical Center, Dr. Marcus Welby, and Grey's Anatomy. Of course you shouldn't believe me. I've chosen follow Dr. McDougall who has studied healthy foods for almost a half century.

The Starch Solution

Dr. McDougall did not invent the starch solution; he discovered it by observation and by talking to other experts. If you are the type who likes to read all the supporting studies, I recommend The Starch Solution by Dr. McDougall. If you prefer to watch videos, you can watch about 12 hours of videos here on YouTube. If you prefer to read articles online, you can find his archive of articles here. If you like to participate in forums, you can participate in his forums.

Whichever way you choose to do your research, Dr. McDougall provides all the information you need to refute other forms of eating.

Conclusion

Dieting is a hot button issue as there is so much false advertising. To live a healthy life we must dig through all the rubbish to get to the truth. It's worth spending a long time doing this. In the end, we must each make our own decisions, so I don't debate the issue except to refer people to Dr. McDougall. 







 

Free Menu Planning Spreadsheet

Introduction

Using this spreadsheet will require at least some previous knowledge of spreadsheets. You can download the spreadsheet by clicking on "Menu Planner Spreadsheet" in the top of the right column.

Spreadsheets are a powerful tool for testing different menus to see which ones are the least expensive and yet healthy. Fortunately, the two go together. A healthy diet is less expensive than an unhealthy diet. I'll add more about this in a future post.

Entering data

You will have to enter data for the foods you eat. This includes the food name, cost, serving size, number of servings in the container, grams of carbs, fats and proteins. The spreadsheet does the rest of the work for you. Once you have a list of the foods you generally eat, creating menus takes about ten minutes. I do it while we watch Netflix in the evening.

Frugal diet

Those who must control their food costs will be forced towards a starch based diet with the addition of fruits and vegetables and an optional serving of nuts a day. Meat and dairy products will quickly drive the cost higher.

This was my second breakfast this morning. I had about six inches of a baguette with a small amount of margarine early in the morning.

Cooking tip: Buy bulk oats at a store like Vitamin Cottage Natural foods. They are about $2.62 for two pounds. A serving is 1/4 cup. Add 3/4 cups of water and put in a small covered pot. Heat for 35 minutes between low and medium low heat

Cooking on higher heat for less time increases the amount of non-soluble carbohydrates which is good for people with constipation issues.

This is my menu for today. The serving sizes are generally in grams. Sometimes they are single numbers such as with the bagels and beans. (The beans are just weird and I'll change it to grams another time.)

The money savers are oats, potatoes, and rice. It pays to make one of these the foundation for each main meal.

Beans are good sources of carbs and protein. Try to buy brands with zero fat. I use canned beans as I don't know how to cook dry beans. If I used dry beans, they would also be a money saver.

I add frozen vegetables to lunch and supper. For fresh vegetables, they should be less than about $1.00/lb and all parts should be eatable. Cabbage is often a good buy. If you do use fresh vegetables, be certain not to waste any or it gets expensive.

Is $4.14 realistic?

No. It may be for an inactive small person with calorie requirements around 1,600 a day who doesn't ever waste a single scrap of food and never has an unstoppable craving to eat more than usual on some days.

I'd like to take some people who claim $4.14 a day is realistic and lock them up in a compound and survive only that amount for a year with no opportunity to escape. Maybe I'll write a book about this one day. :)

(My day job is writing eBooks for Amazon.)

Still, it is possible for many people to eat for less than $5.00 a day. A weekly trip to a food bank can make up the difference. One day, I'll have to visit one to see what types of items are available.

No convenience foods

It's tempting to buy a cup of soup for lunch, but the cost per calorie is too high and it will cause you to go over budget. The same is true for all convenience foods. Except for bread, you will pay significantly more for processing.

Cooking tip for rice: A serving of rice is 1/4 cup. Put the rice in a small covered pot with 1/2 cup of water. Heat on high until it starts boiling. Then reduce heat to low. The water should continue to boil. Boil for 35 minutes without stirring. Check after 25 minutes.

Learn to enjoy cooking

Most things I cook take little active preparation time. While they are cooking, I do other things like post blogs on the internet. Sometimes I even clean house.

Conclusion

This spreadsheet can save significant amounts of money for you. If you can't figure out how to use it, see if you have a friend who understands spreadsheets. Leave a message in the comments if you have questions.    
  




 

Calories count, so Count Calories

Introduction

In general, people gain weight if they eat more calories than they burn and they lose weight if they eat fewer calories than they burn. Some people have faster or slower metabolisms, but I'll wager most fast metabolisms are caused by exercise and most slow metabolisms are caused by a lack of exercise. Regardless of the differences in efficiencies, if people want their weight to go in their desired direction, they will have to pay attention to calories. 

How many calories do we need?

The number of calories we need to eat in a day can be separated into two numbers. Base metabolism and exercise calories. In order to reach their weight goals and nutrition goals, a person will have to estimate both numbers.

Base Metabolism
I prefer this calculator from the Mayo Clinic. When entering data, use sedentary so it only calculates your base metabolism requirement. When I'm trying to lose weight, I set this as my target for daily calories.

Exercise calories
People are bad about estimating the amount of exercise they get during the day outside of planned exercise. Every step burns calories and people tend to overestimate the number of steps they take.

I recommend getting a pedometer to count these calories. There are many inexpensive pedometers available.

Some pedometers count only the exercise calories and others include base metabolism calories in the exercise. You will have to read the directions.

I use a Fitbit Zip pedometer to measure my exercise since it's all walking. It gives an accurate accounting of the total calories burned in a day. I know this as my weight loss closely parallels my expected weight loss.

Tracking Calories
For me, planning my calories before I eat them is the most successful. I use a spreadsheet for this task. It also includes the cost. Tomorrow I'll make the spreadsheet available. Look for Menu Spreadsheet in the top right corner of the blog.

Sure, tracking calories takes time, but it becomes quicker with time. There are some apps that can help like www.caloriecount.com, but I've found they take too long for my tastes.

Diet
I'm on a starch based vegan diet taught by Dr. McDougall. I'll have more information on this tomorrow. However, I'm not trying to change anyone's mind about their diet. I will say my diet is inexpensive and proven to be healthy. If someone can get the same benefits from a different menu on a food stamp budget, I'd be interested in seeing the exact calculations.

Conclusion
Counting calories takes time and it's best spent during menu planning time. Calorie counting is the only way I've been able to control both weight and costs.

Breakfast

In addition to this plate full of food, breakfast included a large bowl of oatmeal. There are two steamed potatoes and some onion and peppers.

Cost: $1.00
Calories: 568
Cost/2000 calories: $3.52

Cooking Tip: Dice and then steam the potatoes for 20 minutes. Then add the peppers and onions and steam for another five minutes.

One fried potato would have the same number of calories and slightly less cost. I'd rather have a second potato than the oil.

SUPPER

Cost: $1.51
Calories: 613
Cost/2000 calories: $4.92

This meal is a little expensive for a food stamp diet, but it worked when I balanced it with less expensive foods during the rest of the day.

Notice how small the meal looks, but it was satisfying. To avoid eating too much, I meticulously weighed or measured the ingredients.

(Note: This would have been healthier by having more pasta and eliminating the margarine.)

Cooking tip: Measure the sauce. This is only a half cup. Cook in a small pan instead of a pot.

Poor Eating is Good Eating

Introduction
Many people think because they can't spend much money on food, they can't eat good. Maybe they have a mental image of eating Ramon Noodles every night and always starving. I've found that by spending less money on food that my diet is healthier, and I'm seldom hungry except for normal hunger. I haven't broken the code on living on $4.14 a month yet. This is the average amount a person on food stamps gets in Colorado. However, I've found it's easy to spend less than $5.00 a day. I burn about 2,700 calories a day, but eat 2,100 calories. Eating for $5.00/day is not sustainable for the long term as I'm gradually losing weight.

Processed food costs more and is less healthy
I don't think I need to support this statement too much, but from looking in people's shopping carts I can see many people don't know or don't care.

The further a food is from its natural state, the more unhealthy ingredients are added and the more the cost goes up. The same goes for convenience foods such as frozen pizza and frozen dinners. A person trying to minimize their food budget will have to stay away from these. The same is true for fast food.

The good news is the person on a tight food budget will fare the best if they learn to eat healthy inexpensive foods and add a mix of fruits and vegetables that are more expensive. In fact, I believe that people who learn to live on low cost food will eat healthier than most rich people.

Ranked by Cost/2000 calories
I'm still building this list which ranks foods by their cost/2000 calories. It's mostly healthy foods, but I did throw in a value meal and a convenience pizza for comparison.

The first general grouping is rice, potatoes, bread, oatmeal, noodles and chips bought in big bags when on sale.

The chips were a surprise to me, but the cost/calorie is low. If eaten in small quantities they are not unhealthy. By chips, I mean basic potato chips, corn chips, tortilla chips, etc.

Nuts can be a valuable addition to the diet, but only if bought in bulk and in an inexpensive form. Vitamin Cottage Natural Foods has a pound of peanuts for $2.62. They are more expensive at the box stores. Call them beer nuts and the price skyrockets.

Peanuts are preferable to peanut butter as they are about 2/3 the cost and not processed.

Fruits and vegetables
Ask most anyone how to reduce food costs and they will say to eat more fruits and vegetables. I think of fruits and vegetables as vitamin pills and not as calorie sources. They add nutrients, but few calories. I'm careful to use the suggested serving size. For vegetables, I eat mostly frozen. Fruits are mostly bananas, grapes and apples bought on sale.

Beans
I eat a lot of canned beans as I don't know how to make good beans from scratch. If anyone has a great recipe, please leave it in the comments.

Vegan diet
I'm vegan for ethical reasons. I'm also vegan because it is  less expensive. It is possible to eat small amounts of meat and reach the cost goal. It's also possible to eat dairy. These are outside of my food universe, so I don't have any items listed.

Non-Organic and GMO Foods
In my opinion, most health problems are caused by poor food choices instead of non-organic food choices. If a person on a high sugar diet develops type 2 diabetes or a person on a high fat diet develops heart problems, it's more about the basic food rather than if it was organic or non-organic.

If a person needs to limit their food budget to food stamp levels, they won't be able to make the organic choice.

Is it healthy?
For that, we need an unbiased rating source. I use www.caloriecount.com. Anytime I post a menu it has an "A" rating.

Leftovers
I asked a friend how he eats on $84 a month. He said he eats everything but the squeal. No food goes to waste. This is why you will find chips and bread in strange places on my menus. If they aren't eaten, the actual cost/day will exceed the calculated cost.

Weigh or Measure your Food
In general, I use the serving size on the packages. If I need more calories in a meal, I usually add another item instead of increasing the serving size.

Menu Planning
I use a spreadsheet I wrote to help with menu planning. It's not bug free yet, so I can't share it. I will at some time in the future. Unfortunately, I can't find a program online that includes costs, calories and health benefits so I'm writing my own.

Each evening, my son and I decide what's for supper the next day. We eat differently the rest of the day. I enjoy walking, so each morning I walk four miles round trip to King Souper's to buy the food for the day. Usually, the bill is less than $10. If it's more, it's because I'm buying some bulk item that will last several days.

Today's Menu

LUNCH

Cost: $0.92
Calories: 556

(Including a serving of Mission Tortilla Strips which are not shown.)

Cooking hint: Dice the potatoes into small pieces and steam for about 20 minutes. Leave the skin on. It's paid for, so you may as well eat it.

This is my menu for today. The cost is $4.08 for 2,100 calories. It's only $3.89 for a person on a 2,000 calorie diet.

The left column has the serving size in grams or in cases like a banana it's listed as "1." Then there is the item name, cost and calories. (If an item is listed twice, it means I had two servings.)

Notice there is a fruit at each meal. It's a little light on vegetables, so I'll probably add a salad at supper for about 50 cents. If I don't, I'll have more vegetables tomorrow.

My menus generally have about 75% carbs, 12% fat and 13% protein. This one has 77% carbs, 10% fat and 13% protein.

Conclusion
This is controversial. The Mayo Clinic says we can eat a healthy diet for $5.00 a day. When I first read this it made me mad because I've seen people eat in hospital cafeterias. However, I've found it truly is possible even with inflation. For some reason, the low cost healthy foods haven't experienced much inflation.

To achieve this goal a person needs scientific menu planning at a level most people can't do in their head. It also takes time which many people don't have.

Finally, it takes realizing a menu plan is composed of many small decisions each day and a slight cost advantage on each decision results in big savings.

Please express your pleasure or displeasure in the comments. There are certainly things I haven't thought of. Besides, politely discussing issues is a good way to learn.

 

 

 

 

Why you must know your Food's Cost/2,000 Calories

Introduction

If you don't know the cost/2000 calories you will not be able to eat a healthy diet for under $5.00 a day. ($9.00/day for organic eaters.) Is this even possible? Yes, and not by following general advice to eat more fruits and vegetables or more rice and beans. To efficiently attain a goal, a person needs a plan. The plan is to eat more of the foods that cost less/2000 calories and less of the food that cost more/2000 calories. For that, we need a list of the foods we eat. This list will be the first step in frugal menu planning.

 

Create a Food List

I've been working on a list as I buy foods. A person's actual list would have many more items.

 Focus on the first and last columns. The first has the food item and the last has the cost/2000 calories. The goal is to eat from the top of the list and add vegetables and fruits from the middle and bottom of the list.

You can get this spreadsheet from the link at the top of the right column. Click on the grocery tab. Enter food item and the data in the green columns. Use a serving size equal to the serving size on the package. When you plan a menu, you may change the serving size. This will give you the cost and calories for your actual serving.

Let's look at today's menu:

The day started with a large serving of potatoes O'Brian and a slice of bread. Breakfast cost $0.68 and had 458 calories.






I had a banana for a mid-mid morning snack. The banana cost $0.24 and had 80 calories.



Lunch is rice and vegetables. It will cost $0.75 and have 250 calories.



Afternoon snack is a tomato sandwich and potato chips.




 Supper is Shepherd's pie and homemade bread. Cost is $1.89 and it has 599 calories.




Optional snack is bread and peanuts. Cost $0.37 and 300 calories for $0.37.

Grand Total: $4.54 for 2,057 calories.



I'm not suggesting you eat as I do. In a later post, I'll introduce you to the menu planning tab on the spreadsheet so you can plan meals that meet your budget and calorie goals.

 

Create your own Food List

The easiest way to create your own list is to spend an hour or two where you shop. Write down the name of the item, the cost, number of servings and calories per serving for each item for everything you buy or would consider buying.

Some stores will ask you to leave if they catch you doing this as competitors sometimes send spies to compare prices. Every so often, add something to your shopping cart to avoid attracting too much attention.

When you get home, enter the data in the spreadsheet. Overwrite my data as there are formulas in some cells that shouldn't be erased. When you need more lines, copy the last line to the line below and overwrite the data.

When you are done, save the file and then sort the spreadsheet by price. Select the whole table including the headings. Click Data, Sort, cost/2000 calories.

Conclusion

This is the first step in Frugal menu planning. In the next post we will start to make menus and a daily meal plan. This is time consuming initially, but it becomes easier with practice.