10 stupid simple ways to save money on groceries.

ive been meaning to go deeper into the whole "saving money on groceries" business, but since its such a multifaceted, complex issue that i could probably talk about nonstop for a few days, i never got started. because, well, i didnt know where to start. but then i realized that it doesnt need to be that complicated. most budget-living type blogs make it way to complicated. 

and it doesnt have to be like that. 

in fact, it can be simple. stupid simple even. 

so today, im going to share a few stupid simple ways to shave a few bucks off your grocery budget. small things. easy things. things you might not even notice or miss. now, im going to have to disclaimer here that not all of these tips will necessarily work in every family/situation, and no one thing in particular will magically solve your grocery budget problems (not saying you have grocery budget problems, but i mean, you are reading this blog), BUT every small change adds up, and in my experience, several small changes can get you way farther than one big step. 

here we go: 

1. only buy what you need to get to your next shopping trip. whether you go to the store once a week, once a month, or every three days, do not buy more than you know you are going to use up between now and that next trip. i know what youre thinking "but what about sales? what about stocking up?". well, with very few exceptions, those are lies that stores tell you to get you to buy more things. you will save way more money by just buying what you need when you need it than trying to play the price-cycle game. (now, pardon me while the entire saving-money-on-groceries community on the internet starts throwing things at me)

2. eat your leftovers. wasted food = wasted money. if you find yourself with (a reasonable quantity of) leftovers, for crying out loud, eat them before the go bad. im not saying save the bag of chip crumbs or the three green beans nobody ate, but if youre regularly throwing away half a lasagna because you forgot to eat it in time, then maybe you need to get better at eating leftovers. 

3. if you dont actually eat it, stop buying it. whatever it is that you have crowding your pantry or freezer not getting eaten, or keeps going bad before you get to it, no matter how healthy it is or how much you should be eating it, just stop. there is absolutely no reason to buy food out of guilt or obligation. if youre not going to eat it this week, you dont need it. 

4. drink water. this was one that really hit home for us, see, i used to drink a ton of soda, and james would drink milk or juice all the livelong day if i let him. at some point i actually looked at how much money we spent each week on beverages, and it was a good 10-20% of our total grocery bill. ON BEVERAGES. you know how water is free? yeah...

5. cut back on snacks/processed/packaged foods. i dont know where this idea came from that poor people have to eat crap food out of boxes because thats whats most affordable. this is a lie. if you take a closer look, youll actually see that per ounce/per calorie, processed/packaged foods are actually some of the most expensive foods there are. now dont get me wrong, treats totally have their place, but as treats. 

6. plan your meals. im not saying you have to make a detailed, elaborate meal plan or spend your entire day making a month of freezer meals, but i am saying that if you go to the store knowing what youre going there to buy, youre going to have an easier time resisting the endcap sales and impulse purchases. 

7. pack your lunch. i shouldnt have to tell you that throwing together a quick lunch is way cheaper than buying a prepackaged (or takeout) meal. you might spend $4-5 on an individual salad, but for the same amount of money, you could buy enough lettuce, toppings, and dressing for a few salads. or even better, if your work/school situation allows for it bring leftovers for lunch. kill two birds with one stone. thats always cool. 

8. check prices on fresh vs. frozen produce. generally speaking, youre going to get significantly more produce for your money by choosing fresh over canned or frozen. but depending on the season, frozen might be way cheaper. this one is always worth a quick check (especially where berries are concerned). 

9. stick to your list. you know what the biggest grocery budget killer is? impulse purchases. you know, "lets get some chips!" "oooh! cake mix is on clearance!" or if youre shopping with my husband, "can we get bacon?". if you want your spending to get out of control fast, start adding some fun little extras as you shop. or just stick to your list and bask in the glory of not overspending. 

10. when in doubt, go without. almost every time im at the store, no matter how watertight i think my plan and list are, ill have these little doubts, like, "are we out of x? am i sure we have enough of y", with x or y being some kind of pantry staple, usually under $5, so it never seems like a big deal. but after about a million times of buying another dozen eggs "just in case" and coming home to find ten eggs in the fridge, ive learned to just go on with my list and keep shopping. if i indulge all of those little doubts, the grocery budget is blown on extra food we dont need, if i wait it out, nine times out of ten were just fine. (the rest of the time i can send james over to dollar tree...)

see, saving money on groceries is NOT complicated. its NOT hard. and you dont even have to change where or how you shop to see a difference. 

obviously, these little tricks just barely scratch the surface of how you can take control of your grocery spending and keep all that extra money in your pockets. hopefully this post has opened up a pandoras box for this topic.

now these are just my favorite grocery hacks, whats your go-to tip for saving money on groceries? 

8 reasons why i secretly love our tiny home.

we (and by "we" i mean myself, james, alice, and two cats) live in a one-bedroom apartment. a small one-bedroom apartment. in a mediocre building. in a lame part of town. to be completely honest, when we first moved here, i hoped and prayed that this apartment would only be temporary. heck, i was only willing to sign a six-month lease because i was sure that within a year, james would get a real job and wed be able to move somewhere decent. 

never mind that we had just come back to california with a new baby, no jobs, no savings, a car that was literally falling apart, no place to live and a moving truck filled to the brim with everything that once filled the large three bedroom house we rented in arizona until james got fired two days before christmas. oh, i never told you the story about how we moved back to california? its a real doozy. the bad kind of doozy. (is it just me or is doozy a really ambiguous word). but i digress. 

i was determined that we would have a "real" home as soon as possible. after we moved here, i was constantly scouring the area for two (or three) bedroom places that we could make our forever (well, long term) home. i analyzed rents and deposits and calculated exactly what dollar amount we would need to bring home each month in order to get that extra bedroom (or two) a reality. sure it was an unhealthy obsession, and maybe we had some huge expensive things we needed to take care of (like a not-falling apart car and a savings account), but i was so embarrassed to be a married adult with a kid living in a crappy one bedroom apartment on the wrong side of town that for a long time this was of the utmost importance. 

now, its been about two and a half years, and were still living in the same one-bedroom apartment. and even though james has made that dollar amount that i thought would equal a bigger apartment, and we have taken care of most of those big expenses, but we dont have plans to move. were not even looking. 

why? because through these past two and a half years, ive learned to be content with what we have. more than that, ive really fallen in love with small-space living. really. yes, sometimes, people ask and i do pretend that im unhappy with our current living situation that i hope it will change soon, but thats a lie. today i want to come clean with why i secretly love our tiny home:

1. theres less to clean. this should be obvious: less rooms, less rooms to clean. i can clean the whole apartment top-to-bottom (kitchen, bathroom, floors, etc.), by myself, in about an hour. sure dirt and messes show up faster because the space is smaller, but we also spend way less time cleaning then we did when we had a bigger house. also, i spend a LOT less time looking for lost things, because, well, theres less places for things to get lost. 

2. more family time. one of the great things about our home is that we (almost) never all sit in separate rooms watching netflix on separate things and ignoring each other. partially because there arent a lot of rooms to all be in separately, but also because there isnt a whole lot of extra room for doing things. so if were all home and need something to do, we usually end up leaving the house. which is awesome. 

3. weve learned to be content with what we have. to be completely honest, james and i used to spend a lot of time shopping. we both had long, long lists of things we thought we needed and were always bringing home something from a thrift store or yard sale or clearance rack. but after we got settled here, we realized, we didnt need any of that stuff. actually, we dont need/use/want most of what we already have, and instead of filling our spare time shopping, we spend it cleaning out drawers and closets getting rid of stuff. and i love it.

4. we put a greater value on experiences over things. because of the lack of space, we no longer put a heavy emphasis on the acquisition of more things to own. instead, weve changed our focus to the things we want to do, the things we want to see, the places we want to go. and since we arent spending all our time and money on filling and maintaining a large house, we can actually do those things. 

5. theres constant opportunity for creativity. for a long time after we moved here, i never moved anything because i was so frustrated by the small space that i thought it wasnt worth it. but after a while, i noticed that in a small space, small changes can make a huge difference. so now every day we constantly look for new ways to make our space more comfortable and more efficient. 

6. we save tons of money. and no, im not talking about the $300-400 a month in rent/utilities that it would cost to have a second bedroom (though thats nice too), i mean the money that we dont spend on clothes, toys, furniture, appliances, plants, decorations, and big projects that we dont have room for. and every dollar we dont spend on a thing we dont have room for? thats another dollar for us to spend on something that might actually make us happy. 

7. less stress. less space to clean, fewer things to own/organize/maintain, lower rent/less bills to pay = less things to worry about. and as a naturally anxious, easily stressed out person, i cant think of anything better than having less things to worry about. 

8. more freedom to pursue our long term goals and dreams. living in a small space for so long has really helped us to detach ourselves from being consumed and defined by our home, from pouring all of our resources into it and all of our time into perfecting and maintaining it. we have free time to dream up the kind of future we want to have, and we have leftover money to use to build it. sure our attitude toward our home is very utilitarian and distinctly un-american, it works for us. 

so yeah, this tiny apartment that i had hoped was temporary, its done a lot for us. its taught us some important lessons about contentment and priorities, its given us the opportunity to break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, and the freedom to dream even bigger than just a two-bedroom apartment. 

and i love it.  

there. i said it. 

what are your thoughts on small space living? what do YOU love about your home?

introducing: the poverty luxe kitchen (+ a recipe for roasted cabbage)

not long ago i had my very first blog coaching session ever with kayli at the passion punch. since then ive also had the opportunity to work with alisha and keizra, and while all three of these ladies are absolutely FANTASTIC and i would without a doubt recommend any one of them if you happen to be in the market for some blog/business coaching, during my first session with kayli we mainly talked about the content here on poverty luxe. i had been feeling a bit lost and burnt of on a lot of my typical topics, but going over everything through fresh eyes was so refreshing and inspiring. we brainstormed a few new series, and today i am very, very excited to debut the first of them for you: the poverty luxe kitchen. 

the poverty luxe kitchen, or the PL kitchen for short, will focus on recipes and tutorials to help you maximize your grocery budget (no matter how limited) on healthy, natural, delicious food, that wont take all day (or a million ingredients). just simple, yummy, and good for you. basically everything I've been working on for our diet for the past four years. if your anything like me (a broke, busy food snob with a million allergies), i think were going to have a lot of fun here. 

so today, as the inaugural post of the PL kitchen, i want to talk about cabbage. 

now, i know youre probably all freaking out, like "what the heck victoria, you built us up on this awesome new series and now youre talking about cabbage?!". but hear me out, cabbage is a surprisingly versatile vegetable. its great on tacos, in soups, coleslaw, salads, sir fry, steamed with other veggies and slathered in savory sauce (a local delicacy). oh and its regularly on sale at sprouts for .50 a pound. sometimes (especially around st. patricks day) its even cheaper. I've seen it for as low as .25 cents a pound at sprouts, and 6 pounds for a dollar at the local mexican grocery store. as far as veggies go, its hard to find something as cheap and versatile as cabbage. 

one of my favorite things to do with cabbage is to roast it (if youre a long time reader you may have already notcied that I've got a penchant for the roasted vegetables) roasted cabbage is perfect for when you need a quick , simple, and cheap veggie for a side dish. and today, im going to show you how to make it. 

(note: for the three of us, i typically only use half of a normal sized head of cabbage for this recipe, so to prevent waste, i usually do our weekly meal plan in a way that uses cabbage twice. like, fish tacos on wednesday and salmon with roasted cabbage sunday)

heres what you need (serves 3-4 as a side): 

1/2 head green cabbage

olive oil

seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic, pepper flakes, spices, go crazy here)

heres what you do: 

preheat your oven to 400 degrees and oil up a baking sheet or jelly roll pan (one with an edge, DO NOT try this on a flat cookie sheet). 

remove the two outermost leaves of the cabbage (they tend to be dirty and yucky). 

remove the stem at the bottom and cut the whole head of cabbage in half (save the other half for later)

slice the remaining half in 1/2 inch slices, parallel to your original chop. 

arrange slices in a single layer on oiled baking sheet. 

drizzle with olive oil and season as you wish (im a fan of salt, pepper, garlic, and red pepper flakes). 

bake for 15 minutes, flip, and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until browned. 

serve hot (trust me on this one). 

so that was our first installment of the PL kitchen, what do you want to see next time? 

p.s. its still january! treat yourself to a gift from the poverty luxe etsy shop for 30% off with code JAN15