Andy's Blog

April 2008 - Posts

• Andy's Tightwad Tips - #4

  Aldi I shop for groceries at Aldi.  Not all of them, and not every week.  Buying crap usually costs more than buying quality in the long run, but with food, there's not much of a long run, so you just have to go on taste. The things at Aldi that I like, in no particular order, and that are very good quality: orange juice (much better than Minute Maid... really.), frozen juices, bread, milk, cheese, butter, tortillas, bottles juice (1/2 gal), breakfast cereal, pancake mix, chocolate chips, solid white tuna (as good as the name brands), peanut butter (better than most), chili packets, taco packets. Our Aldi just started a meat cooler... so far so good. The things that are good enough: canned veggies, canned fruits, ketchup, mustard, salad dressing (think Miracle Whip), most of the canned soups, refried beans, chips (although all the varieties are too salty), pancake syrup (used to be in the very good catergory, but now is full of fillers), hot sauce, salt, flour, sugar, pickles, napkins, trash bags, and more that I just can't remember right now. Things that didn't make the cut... there are a couple of the salad dressing flavors that I didn't enjoy. My wife just called, she's picking me up after work, and we're headed to Aldi, and we're doing a summer stock up... probably to the tune of $200... and that's about 3 grocery carts full.   Posted Apr 29 2008, 05:33 PM by Andy W with 3 comment(s)

• Andy's Tightwad Tips - #3

  Orange Juice So you have a growing family and a can of frozen orange juice for breakfast.  A quick glance on the side of the can reveals the mixing instructions:  Add 3 cans of cold water. Stir. For all you Kentuckians out there, you have to empty the contents of the can into a pitcher first, you won't be able to add 3 cans of water to an already full can.  Same goes for Kool-Aid.  Two quarts of water won't fit in that itty bitty packet. Given my penchant for numbers and my kids penchant for fairness, reveals a disturbing problem. The can of orange juice is 12 ounces.  Adding three cans of cold water makes 48 ounces.  A serving size is 8 ounces.  There are only six servings of orange juice.  Seven servings are needed. Solution: add a fourth can of water.  A little more quick math confirms that 60 ounces will fit in a half-gallon pitcher. The taste is hardly altered. Bonus: 25% fewer calories per serving. The other obvious solution is to use smaller cups.  Yup, I do that too.  And in following with my previous tightwad theme of reusing containers, from time to time Welch's grape jelly comes in fun kid-size character cups.  I think the Pooh cups have all been broken, and we've got a some of Curious George cups and some Dragon Tails cups. In my further quest for maximum tightwadedness, I noticed the frozen "grape juice drink" is only 20-30% juice... OK, what's the rest of it?  Corn syrup.  Then comparing prices and thinking about the orange juice lesson, I hit on an idea... if I buy 100% grape juice and thin it out, the kids will actually be getting more "juice" than if I buy the "drink." And thinned out with water, the cost is actually less than the "drink" mixed according to the instructions. I've detemined that adding TWO extra cans of water makes only a noticeable difference in the flavor of the grape juice, but adds thee servings. It's now 66% juice, which is twice as much "juice" as the "drink". Futher investigation shows the kids actually like the flavor of V8 Splash better when mixed half and half with water, and moves it toward the realm of affordability.  Sunny Delight actually becomes a palatable drink when watered down in the same ratio. And just for tuning in to my blog, here's a couple freebees:  Do your ever find yourself chasing frozen chunks of orange juice around the pitcher trying to get it stirred?  Try a potato masher.  Also try this: a minute in the microwave on high with the top lid off.  The metal on the bottom lid doesn't create any problems, but does get a little warm.  Then add one can of water and stir (or mash) and then add the rest of the water. With less water it's easier to chase the chucks around.  If you don't like the idea of the microwave, just use the potato masher before adding any water. Posted Apr 18 2008, 09:23 AM by Andy W with 1 comment(s)

• Andy's Tightwad Tips - #1 and #2

  So you'd like to be a tightwad, but you just don't know how to start... I've been absent from the blog scene, having had very little time at work to think about blogging, but some comments in the lunch room have prompted a new blog series - Andy's Tightwad Tips! Today you get a twofer... Tightwad Tip #1 - Pack your lunch.  This has multiple benefits, the most unexpected one was weight loss.  I actually lost 15 pounds last year when I started packing my lunch.  We had a very strict food budget last year (2007) and so paying $4-$8 a day for lunch was out of the question.  The savings was immediate - about $100 a month or more, $1200 a year, it's like getting a Bush tax rebate, just not all at once. The key to packing lunch is to take a serving of each item and put it in a food container as dinner is served.  Viola! Lunch!  But you say, "Yeah, but you have to pay for the food even if they're leftovers right?" Wrong.  I stopped having second helpings at the dinner table, so lunch is essentially free.  And the savings go futher than your wallet... if you're eating a healthy dinner you're saving the calories you would have eaten as a second helping... and you're saving the calories you would have eaten at the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet at Pizza Hut or the Biggie Fries and Frosty. Tightwad Tip #2 - Reusable food containers.  Amy and all my engineer pals like to see what I (or my wife, as the case may be) packed for lunch every day, but they get a real kick out of my containers. "Is that a frosting cup?" Greg asked. "Yup, check out the lid; it's the kind with the sprinkles!" I said. Zip lock baggies cost money after all; three zip-locks a day, times 23 days in a month, comes to 69 zip lock baggies a month.  And nothing ends up in the landfill.  OK, sure, I do use some zip lock bags... but maybe only three a week There are all sorts places to find great reusable containers... frosting, margarine, sour cream, cottage cheese, chip dip, deli meat, etc.  Most of them do fine in the microwave, and have no problem in the diswasher. And besides, if they get ruined, so what, it was trash anyway.     Posted Apr 09 2008, 02:24 PM by Andy W with 6 comment(s) Filed under: tightwad