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Saving Money Page 4: Living: Food. Food and drink costs money. Damn. At Money Surgery, we believe that it is possible to eat healthily AND cheaply. However, it all requires a great deal of planning and thought, especially for single households. Discipline must be applied more than ever when it comes to groceries and food. It is so easy to grab that £2.99 packet of sandwiches at lunch-break, or a "one-off" £3.99 burger meal deal in between shops. Even a 40p chocolate bar should be avoided. What we buy could be affected by three factors:
We should always find the right balance and control buying too much of what we like, unless its cheap and healthy, of course. Getting to know what you like, what shops are the best value and what good or bad characteristics foods have is valuable information that we have to juggle with when shopping. Here is our very personal list of Money Surgery Golden Rules:
We believe that buying a packet of crisps or chocolate bar or bag of nuts is like throwing money away. They have no nutritional value and serve only to increase the risk to your health. This time of fighting against ones debts can be viewed as an OPPORTUNITY to eat less and possibly lose a few pounds. At least maintain your lithe, athletic figure. Spend less = Eat less. Fantastic! This subject is making me hungry, so before I go to the larder, don't overlook the option of growing your own. Many patients at the Surgery have alotments. Even more grow a few vegetables in their garden. As we say, save the pennies and the pounds soon follow. Its the ATTITUDE that's important. Eat Less Spend Less.(Wednesday 9th February 2005 nnews story) We've been amazed at some recent stories in the media regarding dieting and how expensive it can be. Choosing to limit what we eat for flirtatious or fitness reasons gives us the ideal opportunity to save money. Fitness foods can often be cheap, natural foods, like fresh fruit and vegetables. Fatness foods can often be expensive, processed, prepackaged, preprepared, convenient, advertised, and in large portions. Supermarkets sell baked beans for 9p a tin, rice pudding for 15p a tin, soup for 19p a tin. That could be a day's food for an adult for 43p. That's 2p less than a packet of wine gums from your convenient lunchtime shop. Not that we suggest that this should be a permanent diet but you get my point. Health and wealth, hand-in-hand. Tesco.com set to dominate in 2002(Tuesday 1st January 2002 news story) A leading analyst says Tesco is likely to remain the UK's top online grocer in 2002, despite other retailers' claims to be cashing in on the game. The Sainsbury's to You website, Sainsbury's third attempt at online retailing, had losses of £29m and 177,000 customers, compared to Tesco Direct's £6m and one million customers and Tesco could even reach profitability in 2002. Tesco was the first to mobilise its online presence and now is in a dominant market position. It has made the effort to really want the business and this domination may be one of the reasons why earlier this year Safeway abandoned its online project before it had even left the pilot stage. For customers who consider grocery shopping a chore may find Tesco's £5 delivery charge very reasonable. Many of us need a car. We might need one for cummuting, for travelling with children, for visiting relatives and, lets face it, to go to the supermarket. Online grocery delivery takes a little while to set up but can be a breeze to use later, utilising the internet to provide nutrition information and price tables at a glance. Delivery can be arranged within a day and at all hours of the day and week. This level of service can eliminate the need for a car and save us £3800 a year. The time spent travelling to the supermarket and pushing a trolley through a quagmire of clogged aisles can be spent doing something more rewarding or earning more money. How is that for discount shopping? Copyright 2000 - 2007 ©Kevin Anthony Jones. All rights reserved. | ||