I think the firm rule in these kinds of threads should be that you guys who answer 'yes' need to reveal your occupations. For me the answer is 'no'; for the record, I am a government schmoe. But maybe if I moonlight...
Same here, which is what keeps the FIRE dream alive. My current gig with Megacorp2 began in Silicon Valley, but I was able to get a lateral transfer, move to the boonies and telecommute in a low-cost area off of a Silicon Valley engineer's pay scale. So I'm quite blessed in that sense, though I'm determined to save and invest as much of it as possible because if this gig dries up, there's almost nothing around here as an alternative.
I think the firm rule in these kinds of threads should be that you guys who answer 'yes' need to reveal your occupations. For me the answer is 'no'; for the record, I am a government schmoe. But maybe if I moonlight...
To my dismay CFB retired at 38, beating me by a year.
Can you tell us more about the extra wife? This might be an approach to ER that seems less self-denying.
Beans and rice, rice and beans....
). Obviously, I don't pay a fee for the credit card and the amount is automatically deducted from my bill each month.Beans and rice, rice and beans....
This is a re-post of my 2nd post on the forum, which directly answers your question, since I was asked this before. This is from almost exactly 2 years ago.
"Yes, I spend 100/month of groceries. As mentioned, I never eat out, except maybe once a month, and put that under Misc. I only eat out for purely social reasons, it is almost physically painful for me to be spending 3-4 times as much on food than I normally would. I live in the Midwest and buy my food at Meijer. 90% of what I buy is on sale, 8% is low cost staple items and 2% are "splurges." usually just one or two items.
I do not drink, smoke, or drink pop. Yes, it is only called pop in my state. I eat some sort of frozen vegetable, pasta, orange juice, milk and tea every day, I may mix it up a bit for the other items. I eat 1/3 of the frozen beans, which costs 35 cents a serving, the pasta costs about 40 cents a serving, including the no-fat/no-cholesterol squeeze "butter" I put on it, the orange juice is about 50 cents a glass, the milk is about 30 cents, the tea ranges from low quality to high, so can range from 20 cents to 50 cents (since I drink multiple servings of it). I also usually eat a bag of pretzels as a snack throughout the day which is 1 dollar. This adds up to...about 2.75 on a normal day. The other .66 a day goes to my splurge item (fresh asparagus/cherry strudel) and household items (toilet paper/paper toweling/one other household item).
Oh yea, my credit card discounts 2% off all my groceries as well. 5% on gas (but it is still 150 even after that
One year in undergrad, I was on a ramen noodles diet for a bit when I was stuck in a dorm without a stove, that got old very fast, I have a much more balanced diet now, thanks to having access to a stove and some experience buying groceries. My salt intake is a bit high still, but not too bad, I only sometimes go over the daily recommended amount. There is way to much salt for my liking in a lot of foods. Mac/cheese, ramen, boxed rice are pretty nasty in regular quantities. I would like to get a rice cooker though at some point, as I like white fluffy rice, especially with some sort of sweet or salty sauce, but the packaged stuff has a gigantic amount of overkill on butter and salt.
If I am working, I bring a low cost microwave meal, something in the $1-$1.50 range (often healthy choice on sale). Also go through 75 cents in snacks. However, my work provides some fairly decent green tea for free, which offsets the extra cost of the convenience meal, I usually go through 8-10 cups."
As an update: My budget is still the same, there hasn't been too much inflation in food prices due to the recent deflation that occurred in 2009, but I did change some of the things I am regularly buying now. One change has been to buy a 8 lb bag of russet potatoes for $2.50 (about 30 cents a serving), cut the potato into slices, put a bit of melted butter on it, and bake it, it tastes great and is pretty healthy. I also buy a 32 oz large tub of strawberry yogurt now for $1.60. I have also been trying oatmeal, which is actually pretty good, which is about $0.25 a serving. I am also buying fresh chicken at .99/lb, I usually eat 12 oz in one serving. I also now buy either 2 lbs of romaine hearts or spinach, whichever one is one sale, for $3, this is about 6-8 servings for me, I put a small amount of mozzarella cheese and a tablespoon of Caesar dressing on each serving. I have not been eating much pasta, the price inflated ridiculously to up to $2/serving and has only recently started coming back down to normal. Instead, I got a $20 rice cooker, and have been making brown rice, and putting either soy or home-made orange sauce on it (about $0.10/serving, rice is really cheap, but I only eat this maybe once or twice a week). I can also make pretty good soup now, though I am still trying to figure out exactly how to make a good healthy thick soup.
While I already had fat/cholesterol/trans fats/salt under control, I have been taking special care lately to avoid high fructose corn syrup and sucrose, which are much worse than corn syrup/sugar. As I mentioned in the quote, I still buy nearly every item on sale, my "total saved" number on my receipt is usually larger than my "total spent".
This is a re-post of my 2nd post on the forum, which directly answers your question, since I was asked this before. This is from almost exactly 2 years ago.
"Yes, I spend 100/month of groceries. As mentioned, I never eat out, except maybe once a month, and put that under Misc. I only eat out for purely social reasons, it is almost physically painful for me to be spending 3-4 times as much on food than I normally would. I live in the Midwest and buy my food at Meijer. 90% of what I buy is on sale, 8% is low cost staple items and 2% are "splurges." usually just one or two items.
I do not drink, smoke, or drink pop. Yes, it is only called pop in my state. I eat some sort of frozen vegetable, pasta, orange juice, milk and tea every day, I may mix it up a bit for the other items. I eat 1/3 of the frozen beans, which costs 35 cents a serving, the pasta costs about 40 cents a serving, including the no-fat/no-cholesterol squeeze "butter" I put on it, the orange juice is about 50 cents a glass, the milk is about 30 cents, the tea ranges from low quality to high, so can range from 20 cents to 50 cents (since I drink multiple servings of it). I also usually eat a bag of pretzels as a snack throughout the day which is 1 dollar. This adds up to...about 2.75 on a normal day. The other .66 a day goes to my splurge item (fresh asparagus/cherry strudel) and household items (toilet paper/paper toweling/one other household item).
Oh yea, my credit card discounts 2% off all my groceries as well. 5% on gas (but it is still 150 even after that
One year in undergrad, I was on a ramen noodles diet for a bit when I was stuck in a dorm without a stove, that got old very fast, I have a much more balanced diet now, thanks to having access to a stove and some experience buying groceries. My salt intake is a bit high still, but not too bad, I only sometimes go over the daily recommended amount. There is way to much salt for my liking in a lot of foods. Mac/cheese, ramen, boxed rice are pretty nasty in regular quantities. I would like to get a rice cooker though at some point, as I like white fluffy rice, especially with some sort of sweet or salty sauce, but the packaged stuff has a gigantic amount of overkill on butter and salt.
If I am working, I bring a low cost microwave meal, something in the $1-$1.50 range (often healthy choice on sale). Also go through 75 cents in snacks. However, my work provides some fairly decent green tea for free, which offsets the extra cost of the convenience meal, I usually go through 8-10 cups."
As an update: My budget is still the same, there hasn't been too much inflation in food prices due to the recent deflation that occurred in 2009, but I did change some of the things I am regularly buying now. One change has been to buy a 8 lb bag of russet potatoes for $2.50 (about 30 cents a serving), cut the potato into slices, put a bit of melted butter on it, and bake it, it tastes great and is pretty healthy. I also buy a 32 oz large tub of strawberry yogurt now for $1.60. I have also been trying oatmeal, which is actually pretty good, which is about $0.25 a serving. I am also buying fresh chicken at .99/lb, I usually eat 12 oz in one serving. I also now buy either 2 lbs of romaine hearts or spinach, whichever one is one sale, for $3, this is about 6-8 servings for me, I put a small amount of mozzarella cheese and a tablespoon of Caesar dressing on each serving. I have not been eating much pasta, the price inflated ridiculously to up to $2/serving and has only recently started coming back down to normal. Instead, I got a $20 rice cooker, and have been making brown rice, and putting either soy or home-made orange sauce on it (about $0.10/serving, rice is really cheap, but I only eat this maybe once or twice a week). I can also make pretty good soup now, though I am still trying to figure out exactly how to make a good healthy thick soup.
While I already had fat/cholesterol/trans fats/salt under control, I have been taking special care lately to avoid high fructose corn syrup and sucrose, which are much worse than corn syrup/sugar. As I mentioned in the quote, I still buy nearly every item on sale, my "total saved" number on my receipt is usually larger than my "total spent". What I buy honestly evolves a lot, as the prices of items change, and as I widen the range of foods I can quickly make myself (I never make anything that requires more than 5 minutes of prep, too much work).
