Affluent but Frugal

Grocery delivery is the new, hot service. I have to admit I have been slow to get on the bandwagon because... I like to choose my own produce I don't want to pay a delivery fee I don't want to have to tip a driver (I'd never not tip them, but would go get my own groceries so I didn't have to) I don't have kids - if I did, I can see myself doing grocery delivery all the time! However, I do look for any way that I can get extra value from my Amazon Prime membership  and when Amazon offered me $5 off  as a no-rush shipping credit (one of my favorite things!) I thought I'd give it a whirl.  Tomatoes 3 days after delivery The basic situation You can browse the offerings at primenow.com  to see what is available for delivery.  I've now ordered from Prime Now twice, once I took Amazon up on a  no-rush shipping credit  for Prime Now, they offered me several more! The key information: Delivery is only free if you order at least $35 - ev...

I joined Weight Watchers in an attempt to get healthy! While I thought I ate pretty healthy, there was a lot of sugar and carbs in my diet and not enough vegetables. To keep WW more affordable, I recommend shopping mostly at Aldi where fruit and vegetables are very affordable compared to "mainstream" stores. If you're new to Aldi, c heck out my post on shopping there as it has a few quirks. If you need help with kitchen equipment that can help you with WW, check out my post on preparing your kitchen for success . I also really like Trader Joe's for fancier items, check out my TJs shopping list for WW  before your next trip there. So what should you buy to help you on your WW journey? All point values below were updated in March 2021 on the MyWW+ program, the points listed are for the blue plan. I recommend using your scanner to double check point values. Let's start with the fun stuff, the snacks! A lot of my snacks on the program are fruits and raw v...

I don't like to do Black Friday shopping, there are too many crowds and I don't want to get up early just to shop. It's only a deal if you need something, otherwise, you're wasting money no matter what the price is! Now, after Christmas shopping, that's my jam. Fewer people and better prices. But again, I will only buy something if it's something I wanted/needed anyway, even if it's 75% off. These are my favorite things to buy after the holidays! 1. Bath, body and hair care gift sets. I seriously stock up on all kinds of shampoo, soap, and deodorant every year. I will buy several sets for me and my husband and we will use it the whole year. He really likes Swagger by Old Spice and Wal-mart/Target will have sets that include some variation of a deodorant, shampoo, body spray for about $5. Normally we'd pay $3 for just a deodorant. I usually get him 3-4 sets of various combinations, depending on how many deodorants he has left from the year before. ...

I am often thinking about starting a side business to earn extra cash - sewing, soap-making and recently I while planning our wedding I thought about being a "day of coordinator" for weddings - but then I remember, that I already have a full-time job and if anything, I want more free time, not less! This is why I focus on reducing spending, in order to save money. These are things I cut out to keep our budget slim! 1) Tracking spending For me, the first step in reducing our budget was understanding where the money was going. I've been using mint.com to track spending for about 3 years and I absolutely love it. It auto-categorizes every transaction paid with any of my linked credit cards and I can make adjustments as needed. I love the graphs that show spending over time and net income. There are some other software applications such as You Need a Budget but I like mint. It's free and generally works well. When you first start to do this, you will probably...

Oven fajitas are a favorite! To help save money on groceries and eating out, we cook a lot at home but cooking every night is a bummer. It is hard to come home every night from work and make something for dinner and think about what we’re both having for lunch the next day. To make it easier, I will sometimes (not always) cook in large batches so we can eat 6+ meals (3+ for each of us) from one cooking effort (and one batch of dirty dishes). Do you get tired of eating the same thing for 2-3 days in a row? Yeah, I do too. To combat this, I usually will make two dishes and we alternate them. If I make one big batch on Sunday and another on Monday night then we can have some variety and that will basically take us through the whole work week for lunches and dinners. It also helps if I make things that can be repackaged and eaten a few different ways (ie in a wrap one day; over rice the next day). To help with the Monday meal, often I will make something in the crock pot. Sinc...

I am a woman who likes a good deal. A deal isn't a deal unless it's for something I need. We all need to eat and as an adult woman with a good job, I don't want to eat ramen 3x a week like a college student. Ok I hadn't ever tried ramen until well after college, but you get my drift. I drive 10 minutes to Aldi almost every week instead of going to the Harris Teeter grocery store that is 3 minutes drive from my house and I'd drive farther if Aldi was farther away. I do this because every thing  is so much cheaper at Aldi. You don't need a coupon, a store bonus card or to comparison shop Aldi is just cheaper. It is usually cheaper than the sale price  at Harris Teeter, or almost the same except at Aldi it's that price all the time. I tried Costco early this year and I think it's around the same prices as Aldi, but at Aldi I don't have to buy in bulk or have a membership. Since I'm in a 2-person household with limited storage, buying in bulk is...