Posts Tagged With: family budget

Consignment time is here

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Paul Katz

‘Tis the season for consignment sales. Some don’t like the idea of second-hand clothing but I’m certainly not one of those people. While it’s safe to say that my overly-frugal tendencies have been well-documented in previous posts, used clothing isn’t just about saving money. For our family, it’s also one of the best ways to recycle and reduce waste.

More recently, I’ve been lucky enough to make some great friends who have kids slightly bigger than mine, unleashing a wave of incredible hand-me-downs and mitigating a lot of our shopping. This is obviously an ideal situation as it allows us to benefit greatly and our friends get to hollow out their storage a bit. However, this option wasn’t always available to us and because of new activities on the horizon (e.g. ballet and soccer), I’m reminded of our shopping fundamentals and our strategy to fill in any blanks that might still remain. Much like the grocery shopping strategy, time and money can be saved (and waste reduced) by simply assessing your needs ahead of time and planning accordingly.

Consider how your kids wear clothes and out-grow them. Then think about some of the clothes in your closet. Most of my clothes are older than my kids. Admittedly, I have no style but it demonstrates the point that my clothes are still perfectly wearable after six months, just as my kids’ out-grown clothes are. I also think how my kids tend (inexplicably) towards certain shirts while other sit untouched in their drawers day after day. Consignment sales are full of such relatively unworn clothes, often available for cents on the dollar. Until my kids are old enough to clamor for some awful, peer-pressure-induced, must-have styles or brands that will inevitably happen in the future (e.g. I think of designer jeans or Air Jordans from my youth), I’ll save every penny I can on their clothing now.

Depending on your preference or location, you’ll likely have several options to find all the stuff your kids need. Keep an eye on your favorite parenting or local news sources and you’re bound to see some upcoming mega-consignment events or check a site like this to find one near you. There also may be dedicated consignment shops in your area, where occasional trips can yield a lot of great deals. There are even online consignment shops now. If you do have a local consignment store, it’s also worth noting the value of periodic trips there, as parents just like you clean out their kids’ closets at different times, providing fresher inventory and the ongoing potential for newer and greater deals.

Before you buy anything or check out any stores/sales though, start by taking an inventory of your kids’ upcoming needs. Consider how quickly they have been out-growing clothes and think about the upcoming seasons and sizes.  Make a comprehensive list of everything they’ll need over the upcoming months, going beyond just clothes (if applicable). For example, consider those activities in which they will enroll so you can preemptively get their gear (e.g. shin guards for soccer, ballet shoes, or a backpack for school). By considering all the additional pieces as well as the clothes, you can ideally get everything in one shot rather than dragging this process out over weeks and months.

If you don’t have anyone to whom you can pass along your kids out-grown clothes and toys, you might want to consign some/all of them as well. Aside from making a few bucks back that you had previously spent, you can recycle these items and dollars to offset your latest purchases. Additionally, at many of the consignment events, selling your own items often gives you first “dibs” or a preview shopping day ahead of the event being open to the public, providing even greater value and selection. Similarly, in the case of dedicated consignment stores, bringing in these out-grown items may provide a rolling credit to be used in future visits. For example, I just picked up those shin guards and two pairs of snow pants (yeah, I know it’s August) yesterday at our local consignment shop. While I would have spent only a whopping $18 for all three, I had a credit from some stuff that had sold over the previous months, so my out-of-pocket cost was exactly $0. By considering well in advance what my kids’ needs would be, I’m now set for the next several months and miraculously, I spent nothing to do it. Interestingly, if I had bought these things new, I’d likely have bought cheaper/flimsier brands than I ended up getting at the consignment store, so my kids instead get more durable clothing and I save $50+.

Kids will inevitably bring expenses that you never considered in your earlier, kid-free days but planning ahead and saving where you can will leave you with more money for those things later that can’t be bargain shopped. In the process, you can also teach valuable lessons to them about conservation and reducing waste that will ideally stay with them, providing them with environmental consciousness and a foundation for future savings. Everyone wins.

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The Grocery Strategy Revealed

Posted on August 26, 2012 by Paul Katz

Following the post on reducing waste and saving money, I have been considering my approach to grocery shopping. This is an in-depth look at ways to save on our grocery bills and get the most efficient use of what we buy. While these can all be useful, implementing even just a few of these tips can help us get the most out of our food budget.

1. Plan and shop once a week – Aside from saving on gas with few trips to the store, I plan our meals in advance for the week. Keeping our “menu” on our kitchen chalkboard, I check the fridge and pantry for all the ingredients I’ll need and add any missing ones to our grocery list. At the store, I don’t deviate from my list, ensuring that I only get what we’ll need; eliminating impulse buys entirely.

2. Coupons/buying in bulk – In my younger days, I’d often get creative with new meal ideas but with finicky-eating kids now, that has changed a bit. I have a good sense of what they like and don’t like, so viable dinner ideas are more limited. Therefore, when there is an opportunity to get a staple ingredient cheaply with a coupon or by buying in bulk, I don’t hesitate. As long as items aren’t perishable (or can be frozen) and I know they’ll be incorporated into a meal eventually, I buy where there is greater value. For me, I always look more closely at the per-unit cost than the total price. If I’m buying more at a better price, those ingredients simply won’t need to be put on future grocery lists and I’ll have gotten them at a lower cost. This is where a membership at a wholesale club (e.g. Sam’s Club, Costco, BJ’s, etc.) can be advantageous too.

3. Consider “day 2” – If you’re making a big family dinner each night, think ahead about what will be left over. Could the rest be another good reheated dinner the following night? Can my wife take some to work for her lunch? I often make our favorite baked penne recipe with this in mind. Aside from being great for leftovers, I also don’t have to cook the next night – an added bonus that any parent can love. Consider the last bite of the meal along with the first and make an effort to throw away as little of it as possible.

4. Consider the total cost of each meal – Do a quick tally of the ingredients in your favorite/most frequent meals. You may find that some are pricier while others are cheaper. Having this mind when making your menu can save you a few extra dollars per week, which adds up quickly. You can also consider a weekly meatless dinner. This is recommended by researchers for better health, by environmentalists for conservation, and by me for cost reasons.

5. Track spending over time – View your bank statements online over a two or three month period and look for your transactions from your grocery store. Your costs will fluctuate from week to week, particularly if/when you buy things in bulk, so take a larger sample and get an average cost per week. Do the same quick analysis once a month to check your progress. If any of this makes you feel excessively cheap, then make yourself feel better by putting your savings toward a special outing with your kids.

These are just some of the ways that we can all save money and reduce waste, though I’m sure there are many others that I have yet to consider. What are some of your strategies?

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Reducing Waste and Saving Money

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Paul Katz

Though I’m by no means an economist, as a stay-at-home dad, I am often reminded of the term “opportunity cost.” This can be loosely defined as the cost/value of anything versus what might have been bought otherwise. For example, in the obsessively cheap mind of this stay-at-home dad, the opportunity cost of getting a babysitter and going out to dinner might be the cost of putting my kid in a summer soccer league. As you might assume, when such calculations go through my head, our total number of nights out have tended toward zero.

While it’s perhaps just a rationalization, I find that considering such trade-offs can be very useful to rein in excessive spending and keep us within a manageable budget. This, as I see it, is part of my job.  There was a time not so long ago that I’d pay for something without even thinking about it. We were a two-income family and before the kids came along, money wasn’t really a concern. Fast forward a few years and now I’m home with the kids, incurring much higher expenses with only my wife’s income. Therefore, if my job doesn’t bring in money, then my job becomes saving it wherever I can. Call me cheap or call me frugal, but a healthy money-saving obsession can add up to real savings quickly.

A recent article has reminded me of our need to assess day-to-day operations. While it’s not necessarily surprising that Americans waste a lot of food, a recent report by the National Resource Defense Council (and reported by the LA Times here) puts this into frightening perspective. It calculates that we are “wasting up to 40% of the country’s supply each year – a mass of uneaten provisions worth $165 billion” and that “An average family of four squanders $2,275 in food each year, or 20 pounds per person per month.”

What is the opportunity cost of $2,275 of wasted food for your family? I could think of a lot of ways that money could be better spent, without even considering additional environmental benefits. I tend to think (as many of us probably do) that my family can’t possibly waste that much food, but even if it’s only a fraction of that average, there is more work to be done and money to be saved.

I’ll start by assessing my overall grocery strategy. Stay tuned.

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