I Could Do Better
I can't believe it's Friday again, but here we are, the weekend is knocking on the door and @galenkp has a few ideas what to write about this weekend. You can check his initiative out here -> WEEK 145: Weekend-Engagement writing suggestions.
Saving money
Name three aspects of your life (or things) you personally spend money on but could eliminate or cut back on to save some money. List them and tell us why you chose those things, why you could cut back or go without them and why you haven't already cut or reduced them to save money. A post of at least 300 words is required. source
Today I decided to write about this topic as it benefits me going over my expenses and see if I could cut some of them. There are some areas where I could do better, so let's see what are those.
Food
This is an area many are losing money in. Eating is necessary, eating without paying is only available for a few and smart shopping and managing your supplies is an art. By smart shopping I mean buying what you need and not more.
Unfortunately food is not always regarded as it should be. Food is necessary to stay alive and stay healthy, but nowadays some are rewarding themselves with food. This is not only unhealthy, bus costs a lot too. In other words, you should not eat something just because you can afford it. I do that too sometimes, although most of the times I try not too.
I'm aware that many of our health problems occur as a result of unhealthy eating. I cook my meals most of the time to avoid eating garbage, but like everyone else, I like eating out and occasionally I like junk food too. Shhh, please don't tell anyone 😁. My strategy is eating healthy at home and choose unhealthy food at the restaurant as I don't make those at home. So for any outsider who sees me eating at the restaurant, may look like I have no idea what healthy food means, but that is not true.
This dish should be avoided as French fries are not healthy, but are sooo delicious. So it's ok to have one serving from time to time.
This was my meal though, a disciplined one as it was past 8pm and knew I need to eat moderately.
This was the pizza my friend had. It wasn't terribly big, but still. He deserved it though as he was after a 90 minutes concert, so he needed the energy he consumed during the concert.
There's a saying in Hungarian.
Everything that is delicious is either immoral or fattening.
If inflation goes like it goes these days, you can add expensive to the above statement too.
And this brings me to the question I have to answer today. Healthy and balanced eating is becoming more and more essential. Buying only what you need, eating what you need is crucial. Wasting food is never something I do as I never throw away anything, but I feel like I could make smarter choices, cook healthier dishes and save some money.
Heating
I live in a country where the temperature can swing from -25°C to +40°C, so heating during winter is a must, if you don't want to freeze to death. My ideal winter temperature inside is around 20°C as I don't like tropical heat, so I'm trying to moderate heating. I'm turning the heat off when I leave home, but sometimes I forget to do it and I'm wasting money on heating. So I believe there's room for improvement in that regard too.
Craft Products
Buying something unique or limited edition is something I'm always looking forward to. I don't like to have what everyone else already has, but obviously that depends on what type of products we are talking about. This is why products created by artisans are always more attractive as these are limited series. And therefore more expensive too.
I'm not a jewelry addict, but I like handmade ones, unless it's precious metal like silver. In one of my upcoming posts you'll see what I bought recently and maybe I shouldn't have.
Craft chocolate that costs 3 or 4 times more than the regular ones. Truth to be told, you don't find these flavors in the regular shops either, so if you want something special, you pay the price. On the shelf in middle you have raspberry, coffee, onion, lavender and mint. This means you can find in the bar of chocolate pieces of these fruits or herbs and are handmade too. I spoil myself with these from time to time, but not very often.
And there are these jams and juices. I trust these more than what you find in the grocery stores. If you want healthier products, you pay.
So money could be saved on these products for sure, but this is my guilty pleasure and contrary to other cases, I know where my limits are. You don't see me buying endlessly just because I can. That would be very foolish.
So where could you save money? Or do you have these guilty pleasures?
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Love that you treat yourself!
Life is short. Eat the artisan chocolate!! :D
But turn the heating off! That made me sweat... I'm so conscious about costs of electricity and everything that goes with it these days. I spend my life turning everybody's lights off 😅
Happy weekend!
!LUV
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We have to treat ourselves from time to time as you know, yolo 😃.
Light is not a problem as I have these economical bulbs that consume the minimal amount and don't have the habit of leaving it on if I'm not in the room. But still, I think there's always room for improvement.
Happy weekend to you too 😊
Amazingly food does a lot to our body only that getting it is damn costly. I dare not calculate what I spend on getting food in a month unless I dare to give myself a heart attack.😂😂
I don't calculate my food expenses either but I keep it real. However, these guilty pleasures are in my mind.
Haha... Yeah, right. We are all guilty of one thing or the other.
Erika, I have guilty pleasures like that bitter chocolate, cocoa and eating in good places, and drinking wine accompanied by a succulent grill with chorizo, white cheese, and yucca included yummmm.
Saving money in my country is a possible mission because the basic services electricity, and water are non-existent and the economy is very contracted, however, I am very optimistic about the changes at the level of political change that coming in 2024 with free elections.
I think everyone has guilty pleasures and for most of us one of them is food. It's nothing wrong with it as long as you can afford it and keep it healthy.
I hope the situation can improve in your country soon. Fingers crossed 🤞.
Erika, you don't know how much joy it gave me to see your answer I appreciate that intention of fingers crossed for everything to change in my country, they give me the certainty that it will be like this thank you, thank you, thank you infinity happy weekend.🍀🌞
I believe that artisanal chocolate is healthier than processed chocolate whose price is cheaper, so if I were you I would justify that purchase.
As for heating, I agree with you about keeping the equipment on. Forgetting is normal, we all forget something. And being you I think I would leave an area of the house warm. When you arrive you'll have to turn the heat back on and wait for the place to warm up, while you're cold.
You may be right about that. Those jams and juice definitely are because the juice is pressed cold and many are sugar free. The jam has more fruits than what you buy in the grocery store.
About the heating, the good thing is it heats up pretty fast, so it's not a problem, but if it is very cold outside, then it's best left on of course.
I also prefer handmade jewelries
Those pizza are really calling my name😢
Nice post.. aside the contents, I really love your post organisation.
It makes it readable easily
I'm glad to hear that. I try to be organized as I see so many posts a day, I know it's time and energy consuming to read long an disorganized posts.
Haha... It surely is but fun also
The food is great and we keep our bodies healthy. I really like your post, you share a lot of food and jewelry.
Thank you.
Eeei Erika this your food is entering my eyes oo😂
I want to believe that everyone writing about this weekend’s topics must include food. Everyone loves food, unless of course you’re sick
Silly me was thinking how I would have written about nose mask if we were still in 2020/21. Lol. If I had saved all the money I used on nose masks all those years, I would have been the next youngest billionaire on Forbes list.
I don't think many are writing about food, but you check by clicking the challenge tag. Food is life but can also be poison.
Those marks are the past now. Only a handful of people are wearing them here totally the wrong way. I wore it for a few days last year when I had covid and had to go out. Those meant extra expenses for sure.
When buying food, we sometimes forget to think about how much money has been spent just for food.
Thanks for sharing the food photos that look so delicious, have a nice weekend @erikah
Some prefer not to think about how much they spend on food. Studies show that in sone parts of the world most of the money is spent on food, which should not be right.
Thanks for the compliment, I'm glad you liked the photos. Have a nice weekend 😊
Those crafts are irresistible! I can understand the guilt. 😅
See? I knew someone would 😃
Sometimes I go like " I need to eat while I can" and then treat myself to something good. Along the line, I realised that I was making that statement more times than I should and it shouldn't be so. Money should be saved, someone should help me tell that to the food vendors.
There are many things that can take our money away. I've never been the impulsive buyer and so most of the things I buy have been properly analysed.
You can always find excuses why you have to eat or drink. The art is to keep some balance otherwise the guilty pleasure can turn against you.
I'm not an impulsive buyer either and I'm glad I'm not as that's a terrible thing.
I guess I'm going to have to find what works for me.
Thank you
Those crafts Chocolate are screaming "buy me, buy me" but then you look at yourself and you're just trying hard to be minimal in every way possible, arrgh,the frustration. Lol.
I'd sure sneak just one into my purse(emphasis on the "one"), pay for it and walk out.
Me to my conscience:"It's just one for crying out loud
The minimal being in me: "that doesn't cost much until you find yourself there every day buying just one". Haha
For food, I've actually been good of late, eating home cooked healthy meals and fr it has cut down costs compared to when I was a junk eater. The restaurant manager almost gave me a special plate so I had to stop since they were all thinking I couldn't cook🤧.
Tell me about it 😂 I know the feeling 😳.
Junk eating is a very expensive habit. I see these fancy shops selling sandwiches and fries... when you look at the price and think how much you can cook with that money at home ... it's insane.
It's good to hear you've changed your habits. Congratulations!
I bet you do🤣
Insane is the right word. Haha, I don't know why these people are more expensive because if I were to make the exact portion of food they serve me, I don't think it'll cost quarter of the amount I was billed.
Thank you, thank you(taking a bow😁)
I think everyone needs to find a balance so you can treat yourself without wrecking the savings. Living within your means which many just don't do. I would skip the onion chocolate as that just doesn't sound normal or right.
Balance is everything.
Now that I know your preferences, I'm going to buy you an onion chocolate 🍫 and ship it for Christmas 😂.
I wouldn't want to waste food either because it's wrong. I love eating outside but not always because I consider it as spending a lot of fortune out there when you can prepare some healthy for yourself.
I would rather cook my meals and save more....
You and me both. You can cook more with that money you spend on eating out and healthier too.
Exactly
I just saw how many typos I had in my previous comment. My apologies, it was still early 😂.
Hahaha,, no worries as I got your message too.
Isn't it cheapper to keep the heating running on low while out? I imagine it takes quite some energy to re-heat the rooms from zero to whatever you want than keeping at an average. Just wondering.. curiosity got me 🤣
Template won't drop to zero in a few hours. When it's very cold outside, I mean below zero, then obviously I would leave it on, but otherwise it only drops 4 or 5 degrees. This is a flat. A house would go cold faster.
Gotcha! We very rarely go down to 0 over here, so no heating ever, hence the question. You get freeeeeezing temperatures 🥶
I think am a victim of spending a lot on food, I also fall victim of rewarding myself with food and end up eating the money I should save but this year I am working on such habit.
Heating if you don't want to get freezed
I will surely visit Europe to see and feel what this winter is all about because here in Nigeria we even spend so much in buy diesel and fuel so as to have Air conditions on because of how hot the weather is and we rejoice so much in rainy season.
You only live once so have your guilty pleasures with pride. Hehe
hahaha, I like the way you think sister, I also always eat healthy food at home so that the costs I spend on buying food can be reduced. Because I also have to manage my finances elsewhere, such as filling up gas and so on
This is the only way for me and it looks like I'm not the only one :) You can spend a fortune on food by eating out and make others rich, why draining your funds, but does it worth it? I'd rather use that money to make my life better.
very true, I agree with you, I hope we continue to be successful
Food is very important on our health but when you try intermittent fasting I think the health benefit is higher. Money is what everyone needs but when you have it, I think you do need to enjoy it but also in moderation. When you mentioned heating I was shock because over here we don't heat but just remembered that you're not in this country of ours. I think junks are expensive when compared to meals we prepare.