Eat for $10: Freeze For The Future and Know What You Have

 I have a professor that said that he noticed that people who make minimum wage are 1,000 dollars away from a crisis.  What he meant was that if people would save 1,000, then they would have the money when the car breaks down or something else needs to be fixed or the hospital bill needs to be paid, etc.  His suggestion was that when people got back their tax refunds, they should put it in the bank and save it for when challenges come.  By doing this, they wouldn't have to go to loan sharks and pay huge fees, never getting ahead.  It is hard to follow good sound financial advice when even our own government doesn't set a good example, right?  Too bad they aren't a better example of saving money ahead and living in your budget.  My professor went on to say that the challenge is that many low income people never have the chance to get anything like a new television, so that when they get the money they go right out and spend it knowing the chance will never happen again.  You honestly can't blame them.  They aren't doing something bad.  They work so hard for the money they get.  But, if they had a different mindset, they could live life with less stress and in the end could save money.  

My professor also used the example of food.  He said that people who are wise, buy food that is on sale.  In one week, they might buy just buy a lot of chicken breasts and canned beans on sale.  The next week, they would buy a lot of hamburger and peppers, etc.  By purchasing a large amount of sale items, things last a long time and you get them at rock bottom prices.  You get twice as much food for your money because you buy things at deep discounts.  It is called the pantry principle.  I will talk about that in a future post.  In this video, I show you my freezer, that I finally organized after the shoving tons of food into it before we left for the holiday.  Saving parts of the meals I make, cutting and freezing veggies and fruit on sale, cooking meat and saving part of it, etc. has helped me to have a large variety of food so I can buy mostly sale items.  I always freeze for the future.  Little bits add up.  It has saved me a lot of money!