Readers’ top tip: bulk up, save big dough
When it comes to saving money on food, few tips get offered as much as this one: buy in bulk.
A recent discussion at the Everyday Economy blog produced some useful suggestions from readers:
One reader buys bulk items or food by the case at a wholesale grocer: “You have to be knowledgeable about what the ‘going price’ is for, say, a can of green beans. If the ‘sale’ is two for $1.00 – it’s not your best deal. Rosauers and Yokes have case sales, and I can get my canned green beans for 40 cents a can if I buy the case.”
“Go to the cereal sales. … Breakfast cereal is extremely expensive, and because I’m a bad mom and don’t cook a hot breakfast, my kids go through a lot of it. Cereal has a very long shelf life, and when you can buy the top brands for $1.79, you should buy a lot.”
Another reader (a staffer at the S-R) wrote about her husband’s solution to the desire for bacon in the mornings: “He buys two pounds of bacon, cooks it most of the way through on cookie sheets in the oven and then – here’s the trick – freezes the slices on another cookie sheet before throwing them into a Ziploc bag in the freezer. That way they’re not all stuck together when you go to use them. He does that with a lot of foods – says it’s called IQF in the restaurant world (individual quality frozen). You can do it with strawberries, hot peppers, whatever …”
“To save money on health care needs, I almost always buy generic. Ibuprofen instead of Advil, store-brand cortisone cream instead of Cortaid, and so on. In the food aisle, store brands are the way to go. Many of the food items have the same contents as the brand-name merchandise. In some cases it’s even made in the same factory. The price difference is marketing and packaging.”
Tech on a budget
A Dallas Morning News story suggests some ways to keep your computer going without forking over money to replace it:
“First, degunk your computer. Back up all your important files, get your original Windows (or whatever operating system you use) installation disc and activation code handy, and reformat your hard drive and reinstall your OS and other programs. …
“If, after reformatting, your favorite programs still chug, consider low-cost hardware improvements such as adding more memory or upgrading the video card or even the processor.”