Grazing Rites

Here are some strategies for dealing with what I while call Extreme Grey Mode, essentially grey mode with a debt. In this economy I suspect more and more people could benefit from this.

Beware the lure of coupons. Coupons are only good if they are for things that you would have to buy anyways and at an already reasonable price. For example 50 cents off a brand of toilet paper that costs $2 more than the stuff you would have bought otherwise is a LOSS of $1.50. This is why coupons exist; they generally have 2 purposes they either try to lure you to a more expensive brand or they’re trying to get you to try their product and get hooked. Now the latter option is often when you find the real deals as the company is willing to take a loss to build a consumer base. 50% off something that costs 60% more is a loss for you and your pocketbook. Don’t kid yourself and don’t get fooled by coupon marketing.

Convenience is often expensive. Making your own food is almost universally cheaper than having someone else do it for you. It may suck but it’s just during grey mode but pretty much ban yourself from any place that makes food for you such as restaurants and fast food joints. As a bonus you’re likely to end up eating healthier as well as thriftier. Pack a lunch, every day. Throw in an apple, orange, or banana – fruits and vegetables are usually very cheap given the demand for fast food. Farmers have had serious trouble for decades now; you can take advantage of this and help out the farming industry all at once by buying their inexpensive products: carrots, broccoli, lettuce, and tomatoes are usually fairly inexpensive. Stephen Colbert has tried to draw attention to the unhealthy amounts of high fructose corn syrup in just about anything you don’t make yourself, fight Big Sugar!

You have good stuff. You have a pantry and a fridge, you filled it. Do you suck? Probably not so the stuff you put in there shouldn’t suck either. Dig deep and you might surprise yourself with what you forgot you had. Get creative but use what you already have before looking for something else. I’m not just talking about Raman noodles every day either. Soup is good. KD is good. Side dishes are good. Soup can be a meal. Put enough cheese on it and even Chef Boyardee can be palatable. This philosophy also applies to entertainment. You have DVDs, board games, video games, the Internet and again you probably had a hand in selecting them – go back and enjoy them again – extract every bit of value from the wonderful things you’ve filled your life with already. If you live in North America you probably already have more than you need in the Entertainment department and not all of it requires power.

Saving money is like saving the environment. As an individual all you can do is take little steps, take control of the areas you can, and a bunch of small changes eventually yields a large result. There are little savings to be had everywhere. Tape up the windows to lower your heating bill in the winter, religiously turn off lights when you leave a room, get the laundry out as soon as it’s done so you don’t have to iron or re-dry to remove wrinkles. Every moment spent cleaning is a moment not spending money.

Put these three steps together and you can still have a wonderful life while getting through grey mode. Get a coupon for something you already had to buy like a budget food product, say a side dish of pasta. Get some fruit and veggies and make a little platter to go with the pasta. Use the noodles you already have in the pantry, make some fruit juice out of the frozen stuff in your freezer, watch Star Wars and then play some Trivial Pursuit - cheap, fun, effective, and efficient. It takes a little extra work and some creativity but you may discover some interesting new food combinations and rediscover some great things you already own. And then when all is said and done and grey mode comes to an end, a little sooner that it otherwise would have, you’ll be all the more appreciative when you can treat yourself again and proud of weathering the storm and getting back on track again.

This entry was posted on October 29, 2008 at 4:02 pm and is filed under Economics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.