Five Things for a Wet Sunday Morning

[scarlettina]

Exercise: A friend of mine who is a dedicated runner says that she runs in the rain because she has to run, and that rain shouldn't stop me from getting out to run, either. We won't, after all, melt. This last point is most assuredly true. It does not, however, make a compelling argument for me to don my workout clothes and go get drenched. I need

Comments

[allanh]

Having completed a filing for bankruptcy two years ago, I VERY well understand the not-spending-any-money mindset.

I will say that it becomes easier and easier as time passes. There are many little things that can be done, all of which add up over time. Someone else already mentioned Grocery Outlet, plus of course there's Costco and Trader Joe's, both of which are generally less expensive than $afeway and Cala. If I go to Safeway, I tend to buy mostly store brand items, salad fixin's, fruits and veggies.

For weight loss, I'm doing Weight Watchers Online, which utilizes web, iPhone/iPad, and Android apps to help track food intake. Fruit & veggies are "free", and I've lost 20 pounds thus far, comparatively painlessly. The best part for me is not having to attend meetings, which I always found rather boring and pointless.

At the grocery store, I tend to avoid processed food in favor of basic unprocessed (or less-processed) foods. We have a Fresh & Easy that's recently opened, and they feature freshly made food which is quite tasty.

Counterintuitive finding: despite the cost, I have found that eating dinner at Whole Foods Market is both satisfying and comparatively cheap. The "comparatively cheap" is because the quality of their hot food bar is high enough that I find a smaller quantity of food than usual to be quite satisfying. They also usually have several kinds of terrific hot chili to go, and one of the large containers can easily make several meals for me. I like pouring the chili over either fresh bread or pasta. Ditto their soups, for that matter.

Hope this helps!

[scarlettina]

Thanks for the tips! As it happens, I'm halfway there already. I've been doing Weight Watchers since January. I've lost nearly 50 pounds, so I'm all over the online apps and not eating processed foods. As it happens, I do go to meetings, and I've had nothing but excellent experiences there--but everyone's experience is different. If it's working for you, that's all that matters. It's certainly been working for me.

A couple of people have mentioned eating at Whole Foods, but I find their pricing so over-the-top that I just can't make myself do it. I do most of my eating at home and I keep it pretty simple. And yeah, at Safeway, I buy mostly store brands; it's the most economical choice--that and Trader Joe's. And lots of couponing. I'm picky about what I clip and feel silly doing it, but it does help.

[allanh]

The first time I let my husband do his coupon clipping thing, we saved $36 on $200+ of stuff at Safeway...NOT taking into account their club card prices. I never again snickered at coupon clipping. It's a smart thing, not a silly thing.