Living Thrifty: Can Openers

A $3 can opener is not the deal it seems to be. This is important. You need to remember this advice when you're living at the Y with no refrigerator and eating lots of canned foods.

"This is a no-brainer," you'll think, when you find the $3 can opener right next to a $15 can opener. You'll congratulate yourself for being such a shopping genius. But I ask that you please, please stop yourself there, remember this post, and buy a quality can opener.

Otherwise you will get your $3 can opener home and discover that it doesn't do its only job, opening cans. You will spend lots of time trying to force the can opener to work, eventually using it to just punch holes in a circle around the lid of the can. Not only will this create dangerous, jagged edges on your cans; it will also break the can opener completely.

And you will feel stupid because you were so smugly self-satisfied when you found the $3 can opener.

And you will have to buy a decent can opener anyway.

Living Thrifty: Adventures in Grocery Shopping

Here’s a handful of ways I’m keeping my grocery budget down.

1. Grocery Store Cards

Everyone knows you can save money by getting your grocery store’s rewards card.

Here's mine.

But I really maximize on the card’s saving power by being fully committed. There is no payoff for brand loyalty. I surrender to the will of my supermarket. I become obsessive about only buying discounted items. It’s a good thing.

I saved almost $5 off my $20 grocery bill today
by shopping carefully with my card.

2. Buying in Bulk

This 42-ounce canister of oatmeal was much cheaper per ounce than the smaller sizes. I also bypassed the Quaker brand for the generic. And I got a discount with my rewards card. Savings upon savings upon savings!!

3. Dented Cans and Day-Old Bread

I’m never bashful about browsing the clearance racks. You can usually score savings of 50-75% off.

These cherry turnovers are a sweet and sticky treat at $3.49.

But they're twice as delicious when they're half the price!*

*Your results may vary.

4. Special Deals

I’m always on the look-out for new ways to save. Today I found this cereal with a full mail-in rebate. That’s a $5 box of cereal for the price of a postage stamp!

5. A Caveat

It’s easy to get carried away. I must constantly remind myself, it doesn’t count as saving if you buy things you aren’t going to use. A 2-for-1 deal on bread is no deal at all if I end up throwing one loaf away.

What am I missing? How do you save?

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My favorite thing about bargain hunting is that grocery shopping is always an adventure. Steadfastly adhering to your usual grocery list feels like a chore, but I get to go to the supermarket and explore.

There’s always something new on sale, something exciting amongst yesterday’s baked goods. By hunting down the best deals of the day, I’m constantly discovering new foods, new brands, new flavors. And isn’t that the best deal of all?

Living Thrifty: The Gold Star Goldmine

This is going to be another regular feature. I live at the Y – I’m obviously not made of money. Living Thrifty posts will feature special tricks for living on a highly limited budget.

Recently I went to a place called Gold Star. They serve burgers. I was there looking for a job (no such luck). I was also very hungry, and these burgers smelled amazing. So I bought one. And I made it a combo with fries and a soda because the cashier made it sound so good.

It was a moment of extreme weakness. Seriously, I do not need to be paying $7 for a burger and fries and a soda. But I hadn’t had breakfast that day. That’s a mini-tip for you: eat breakfast. It will save you money later when you go to a burger place for a job and end up with a cheeseburger combo.

But the trip to Gold Star did prove fruitful in the end, because Gold Star leaves plastic utensils and sugar packets out for anyone to come along and fill up their backpack.


And I did.

I needed the utensils a lot. The night before I had used my bare hand to scoop peanut butter out of the jar and smear it on bread. That’s gross.

I didn’t need the sugar. I don’t even have a use for it. I got greedy. :(