I have been watching you since the end of 2021. The changes have been slow and gradual. When I started my debt free journey, my monthly bills/needs equaled $7500/month (90,000/yr). Now it is 4000/month (48,000/yr). Once my mortgage is paid off, it will be 2000/month (24,000/yr). Let process work and let yourself change your behaviors.
We tried being vegetarians for 10+ years. We reverted to eating meat and my body especially arthritis is far better and stronger now AND I sleep much better.
I worked in a food packaging facility, which will remain nameless, for several years and it wasn't uncommon to shut down the packaging line and simply change the Box that the food what's going into. 1 minute we're running name brand and the next minute we're running generic discount brand. That's my personal experience .
Yep, I did the same thing. We packed the big brand-name button mushrooms, and then just shut the machine down. Change the label and ran it straight through same product.
Yes I buy store brand (generic) food, medication, and toiletries all the time. I figure that if there are 50 items in my shopping cart, that is an INSTANT $50-$100 dollars off! The quality is great, I have had zero issues. Another easy thing I do and taught my teenagers: flip every bottle that you think is empty upside down- it will last you another week, which not only saves money, but also time driving to the store when you run out of something. I do this with: shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash, lotion, ranch dressing, ketchup, laundry detergent, dish soap, etc. (and squeeze, then fold, toothpaste tubes from the bottom towards the top, using the hard plastic back of a toothbrush.)
I find it so easy & natural to express to God, how grateful I am for the many blessings in my life! I let Him know, upon waking, before bedtime, & throughout the day, how truly grateful I am, despite the ongoing grief of losing my hubby!
Back in the 70’s my aunt worked for a packing plant and she told us that the grocery stores would call and tell them they need so many cases of each type of tuna. So they would grab the unlabeled cans and put the different labels on and the tuna was all the same
I worked in a candy factory where we would fill orders for name brand and generic brands. When one order was done we would stop the machine and just change the wrapper. Same product though.
All praise to the Lord for all I have. So many deserving people through no specific fault of their own are in simply desperate situations. God comfort them and provide for them to better their situations.
I worked in Dorset Cereals on a packing line. Dorset Cereals is an upmarket breakfast cereal brand. The ingredients arrive in 25 kg sacks and they are put on the first floor in large hoppers. These have chutes attached to them that go to the ground floor on the packing lines. They can be set to how much of each ingredient goes into the pack. In one day, there would be first Waitrose, then Lidl, then maybe another brand. All the same ingredients, but their own brand had a bit more of the nuts, dried fruits. I also worked at House of Dorchester, a chocolate factory. We made fancy chocolates for TESCO, Victoria's Secret, The Wine Society and Fortnum and Mason. Same chocolates, different boxes, more money for some...
I have been watching your videos and I saved myself $45 a month the past 2 months . I air dried my laundry, and I unplugged outlets that I wasn’t using..Thank you guys so much
Unplugging things was one of the single easiest ways I cut down on any one bill. Went room by room. Was floored by how many extra things we had plugged in.
Yes, I do believe the products are all made on the same line because my mom works in a factory that makes washing detergent and she's seen it first hand. The product was the same, the label was different.
I lived frugally as a single parent when my kids were small (to the point of deprivation) and got out of the habit as my income increased. Now retired I am back to the frugal habits but it's hard to to stay on track. I watch your videos to help me keep me motivated. I always have paper and pen in hand as I never know when I'll be ready to try something new. I tried the fresh food inventory today. Wow, is all I can say. I was delighted with the results. It's not just a way to stop food waste and meal plan but I went looking for new recipes. There are some pretty good meals coming up. I wasn't motivated to clean my fridge, though. Maybe next inventory😊
We don't use A/C here in Texas, until the inferno months arrive (late July to mid-September). We do not use the HVAC up until then, which allows our bodies to get acclimated to higher temperatures gradually. Using ceiling fans and floor fans, and venting the house in the early morning, during this time, has been effective at keeping us very comfortable. Big win here, as the fans have proven to be remarkably inexpensive to run. When the inferno sets in, setting the A/C at 84F, protects the dog children, who due to their fur must be kept below 90F indoors, during the summer. This routine has saved us a lot of money without too much loss of comfort.
Wow, 84 degrees in the house! We live in Florida, and with extreme humidity, I don't think we could go that high in terms of the temperature inside the house. But, good on you for being able to hack that environment in your home. 👍
Lol, fellow Texan here and I thought you had written that you never use A/C at all. By June I use it but I try to keep it at 78-80°F. It's hard though with the humidity. I work in front of an oven so the summer can be brutal.
That’s incredible because I lived in Texas many years and it was hot all year minus the month of February. I am doing the same thing as I live in Colorado Springs and do not use the heat ever. My utility bill hovers around $40 in the winter time! However, If I had pets I would have to use the heat occasionally in the winter like you all do using the air conditioner in August.
Check with your local hospital to see if they have free health educational talks. When we lived in Boone, Iowa, the hospital hosted these monthly. You had to sign up because a lunch was served to everyone who attended.
I use 1 relatively short light weight floor lamp that I can slide from the livingroom to the kitchen. Thanks to Under the Median information about phantom electric I decreased my electric bill from $101 to $11 monthly in the Midwest. winter ! That's over $1,000 a year.
I'm a retired Teamster, with 25 years in a grocery warehouse. We would receive full trailer loads of a single item or a few items. Some name brand, some store brands. Same product minus the advertising budget spent to sell the name brand.
Where I worked, we used to say that it was helpful once in awhile to eat down our refrigerator! Of course that meant to eat everything that you could out of your refrigerator before you went grocery shopping so you made sure to use everything you had already paid for.
I thought of something that I did yesterday to keep from using my oven. I made some little cornbread "muffins" in my sandwich maker. It's the little appliance that makes the small toasted triangles from loaf bread and a filling of your choice. Its just me so, I make just a few from self rising cornmeal mix, milk, and then I add a spoonful of mayo to substitute for the egg, and oil. They turned out great and I didn't have any to throw out later!
Mama has a garden every year so I get fresh fruits and vegetables. Then I take him home and I can them so I always have a full pantry of food. I clean my refrigerator once a week always use up the old stuff first. Plus I make all my meals from scratch once a week for the whole entire week or pop a canning jar.
I am on fixed income and it is hard . I do get ebt and use it to shop almost all my food expenses. It is.had but always use lost leader. Love you show and keep it up.
5 minutes...look at grocery ads to get deals, check pantry for organization so we don't lose things close to expiration date, exercise indoors for health and keeping health costs down, blanch potatoes when you get a good deal on them. Last week, we got 5 lbs. of potatoes for .99. Grabbed four and froze most of them. Yay!
I have been on an assembly line at a private label food manufacturing company. Yes, namebrand and genetics are sometimes produced by the same company...they do have different standards of acceptability as far as quality goes. We actually produced several different store brand products but we also produced a couple of Kraft products. The Kraft label had to be produced in a room completely enclosed away from the rest of the plant....no open doors. No contact with other products and the standard of product was much higher.
One of the changes my brother and sister made was the upgrade to the pull out drawer for the freezer. As short as I am, it would save on me missing food and wasting it.
Thank you both so much for your wisdom. The man that was sent over to fix our washing machine that was still under warranty at the time, told me that it would annul the warranty if you had a build up of laundry detergent in your machine. He said to get a tablespoon and use 1 or 2 depending on how dirty the cothes are. Thank you for reminding me:) Yahweh bless you both and your family.
I use them because they have a measured amount of laundry soap. One pod per load. It’s a special circumstance though. I have a daughter with intellectual and developmental issues, with liquid detergents she won’t measure and just dumps in about a cupful or more of liquid soap. I’ve tried everything I could think of, and that has been suggested to me, to get her to measure out the liquid in correct amounts, but she simply just can’t/ won’t do it. So rather than argue, get angry, to avoid all that hassle (and expense) we started using pods. This way she can maintain independent of doing laundry and avoid me crabbing at her. Luckily, I found laundry pods at a discount on Amazon. The possible slightly higher price is worth it in this case.
My library offers check out for museums, the zoo, theater shows, state park passes and many other passes. I often take advantage. Last Sunday I used one of the museum passes which allowed tickets for 6 admissions at a time. Would have cost $144.00 to purchase 6 tickets. Tax dollars pay for libraries. I want to get my monies worth.
My other tip would be if you have an extra chest freezer, put a white board or chalkboard near the freezer and list out all the stuff in it, so you don't loose track of it! I have been doing this for a while and it really helps to make sure I know what I have, so I don't miss any food and waste any of it 🙂 Love all your tips!!
We have an upright freezer and I’m seriously considering taking a dry erase marker and writing on the door what’s in there. Probably shouldn’t; probably won’t.
@@cynthia57169 I would do it. You can even get a can of chalkboard spray paint and spray a little square of it on the freezer just so you know what is in there. I believe the dollar store has dry erase markers for cheap (if you don't already have one). The main reason I put the whiteboard on the front of our fridge (with command hooks) is that we have the kitchen freezer, a smaller freezer (from the previous owner) and our chest freezer. My mom likes to bring me two coolers full of meats and cheeses when she comes to visit 😕
Generic and brand name are often the same but not 100% of the time. Example Walmart great value tuna says may contain wheat on the label but the starkist tuna does not. As someone with a severe gluten intolerance and wheat allergy, I tried it once and never again. It made me very sick. So I have to have the name brand on canned tuna.
I often will look at ingredients on generic food items like mayonnaise or ketchup or whatever, and the generic item will have either more sugars or several kinds of sugars or unhealthy oils and fats, and “fillers.” Often the cheaper item is so because of less healthy ingredients. I made a fabulous humus using white kidney beans (which were a great sale deal), and used it for wraps including rice and veggies.!!! Mmmm mm!
Yes they are! My dad for years worked at a milk factory they just change the label. He would get free milk on Fridays , some Fridays we’d get gray value other Fridays a different brand.
I have a Dollar Tree dry erase magnetic board on front of refrig so we know what’s cooked & ready to eat & what needs to be grilled or cooked. Really helps u see what u have in frig as u r not standing with door open forever
I love splitting our years up into seasons. Love how 12 weeks are a lot easier to navigate! I always aim for saving $100 a week (usually by selling or offering services) and the last 2 weeks I can make up what I didn't meet or gives me leniency if something happens or comes up!
The only exception to the "generics are identical to their name-brand cousins" rule is tea, coffee, and some condiments. I can taste the difference. I tried Walmart generic black tea, and I swear it was the sweepings from the floor. It tasted like mud - literally. Rather than experiment around and waste money on things I will never use, I stick to a narrow range of known brands for tea and coffee (and Worcestershire sauce; imitation Lee & Perrins just doesn't taste right).
Lot of the discount grocery stores like Walmart I don't really trust, especially for their own store brands because I think a lot of their food comes from China or like you said off the floor. It's a little bit scary.
@@Savannah-ed4rv In a fascinating experiment, researchers wanted to know if knowledgable people can tell the difference between fake or adulterated olive oils and the real deal. So, they sent 15 samples of various olive oils to a lab for analysis and 15 identical samples to a tasting panel made up of professional chefs and restaurant critics. Both the lab and the tasters were told to rank the oils from best to worst. BOTH the lab AND the taste panel came up with the exact same list! The real-deal genuine olive oils with the highest level of health-promoting polyphenols ranked highest with the tasters and the lab; and the fake soy oil with "oderants" added was ranked at the bottom by both groups. Trust your own taste buds - one of the best biological assay labs on earth is right behind your teeth. if it doesn't taste right, it's NOT right! I agree with you about Frank's, BTW and the original Huy Fong sriracha.
Yep same product. I worked in several production factories from shoes to home decor. We just put different labels on the same products and shipped them out.
Totally agree with store brands. I exclusively buy store brands for everything except A1 sauce. I have been unable to find an equivalent. Everything else is easily swappable.
I can do generic anything except cornflakes and fruit snax. I've tried generic cornflakes several times but I don't find them as good as Kellogs. Same with generic fruit snax. I prefer the Welch's brand. Other brands were too thick and gooey.
Awesome! I made Gordon Ramsey's 🥦 soup today. I used part of the water to make red lentils and drank the rest. I small batch cook but with a small freezer and tiny kichen, it can be challenging. It JUST occurred to me that I can rescue the veggies headed for the food pantry compost bin to make broth! DUH. Golly I wish I weren't so afraid to can.😢 i can at least make it freash each week for the fridge! Larry, please change the swing of the fridge doors, it's really bugging me lol.
Love you guys, so glad I found you. I made a quote: “I’m flipping the script…little eyes are watching you”. Knowing I’m setting the best possible example to my little one keeps me focused and determined ❤
A while ago i returned to an old school practice of using a rubber spatula on the dirty dishes, pots, and skillrts before rinsing them, putting them in the sink, or washing them. I ended up with a double ended, red, silicone jsr spatula from the Now $1.25 Store. Doing so scrapes off the little bits of food, sauce, and grease resulting in a noticable less water, soap, and work; its probably better for the pipes too. Sraping the dishes before wshing got me to be more vigilant about scraping mixing bowls, cans and jsrs, food storage containers, pots, znd pans. A teaspoon here, a Tablespoon there, and pretty soon you're talking abput a volume of food younwouodnt elsewise count as food waste. I ended up spending another $1.25 for a second spatula to go in that well filled kitchen gadget drawer.
I have a Dollar Tree dry erase magnetic board on front of refrig so we know what’s cooked & ready to eat.m & what needs to be grilled or cooked. Really helps u see what u have in frig as u r not standard no with door open foever
Hard to turn the thermostat down when the local council use the secret knob keep rigging it UP dangerous high temp,.. God sees everything and vengeance is HIS💪🏼😊🎉❤❤❤😂
We ended up with an adjustable, toilet tank float and flushing system. Ultimately, it puts less water in our older water saver comode. We have adjusted it to meet our needs. This is a little more than a 5 minute installation task but 9nce set up its done.
Thanks for the recommendation. I haven't cracked it open yet. I figure it's going to be one of those books that once I start it, I don't want to put it down
Great tips, thanks, i LOVE the giving back tip! Another vege tip, when boiling veges, corn, peas etc, keep the water and it's an easy stock addition. Changing the consumer mindset really helped me, aside from living essentials, i haven't made new purchases for about 3 years now. Realising through decluttering and looking at where/why i bought helped me realise i already have what i need and im grateful ❤
My Aldi has much less pantry items available. This has been going on for months. Prices on almost everything go up a dime or 20 cents a week. They rarely have the non food products advertised or very very few available. So disappointing! Aldi isn’t my favorite store anymore.
Generics vs. Brand names -- we love some generics much more than the brand, and with some things the brand is just better. I know your point is that many of these are made in the same factory out of the same cloth so to speak, but that's not always the case. Some generics are made by small businesses and their quality is top notch, but they don't have the funding to market themselves better. In other cases, the generic might be the bottom of the vat while the brand is at the top of the vat, so there will be a taste and texture difference. We've even noticed this with the same product depending on the end seller. So a particular snack we like is sold at Costco, Publix, and Walmart. The packaging differs from retailer to retailer, but the product is the exact same, right? We've conducted our own little blind taste test, and we've discovered that the Costco version tastes the best, is less oily, and there are fewer crumbs. The Walmart version, though, is often more oily, less fluffy, has more crumbs, and may not even be as fresh. The Publix version falls in between. Not to pick on Walmart, though! Walmart sells multiple generics we much prefer over the brand!
in my opinion it depends on what you're buying concerning buying generic sometimes they subcontract out to major manufactures to produce their products Walmart usually contracts to smaller companies like their Onn brand
Those cookbooks are both awesome! Most libraries have them. I regularly check both of them out from my local library. Cookbooks are one of my favorite items to check out from the library.
Oh yeah I’ve noticed on the electricity bills and yeah something cannot not be connected to a power strip like fridge/microwave I’ve been thinking of not buying a microwave the next it breaks maybe get a flat pan for my tortillas.
Have a convection, toaster oven and crockpot for some of my bake needs. Won't use a microwave because online reports state the radiation waves zap out the nutrients in foods. Made a double batch of biscuits today. Some got froze off for later use. Ended up being cooler today than what I anticipated. So the biscuits warmed up this place nicely.
ok you lost me at the 5 minute shower haha One of my pleasures in life is a nice, hot shower. I guess I will have to be frugal in other areas of my life!
I do leave a few small lights on at night for safety. We live in the country and it gets very dark. My husband caught a bag on a landscaping in the dark about a month ago and his hand is still swollen and weak. It is not boken as per x ray and Dr.
I didn't understand why you needed to inventory your perishables but now that I see how much food you have I get it! OMG! I live by myself and we always had a small family so we never had that much food and I always know what is in the fridge and freezer, the inventory is in my head. But if I had to manage that much food I would definitely need a list lol.
I don’t do bill pay through my credit union, all my bills have the option of automatic deduction. I also have a budget for groceries and I write everything down that I buy.
The British TV program Eat Well for Less? had a segment in which groups of people blind-tested different brands of the same kinds of food, and frequently the less expensive and "house-brand" versions came out on top, to everyone's amazement: they'd been so brainwashed by advertising. Sometimes the most expensive ones were the least popular.
I have friend who worked at heat / air conditioner plant; he told me that they put different labels on same products, including high $$$ name brand systems for ur home.
That’s another reason I leave the plastic window film on all my windows year round. Here in Oklahoma we get very hot & high humidity. By using the film it prevents the house getting too hot and keeps the humidity down too. Thus I’m able to keep the AC up and not have the dehumidifier running all hours! Of course, when you’re in a room use your ceiling fan too. Feeling the cool, dryer air moving helps me feel more comfortable. 9:30
Hi guys Can you do a video about solutions if you already made a mistake of buying a brand new car. Should we sell it, return it or keep it. Car loan is like 43k if I send an extra 1500 payment a month in addition to the 738 payment I should pay it off in 1.5 years. Car is a good quality Honda van. I have another two paid off vehicles and my husband is keeping one of those paid off vehicles. I am selling one of them for like $6k to put toward the van. We have a mortgage and the one debt will be the vehicle. I am in the frugal journey. I wish I knew about you guys before ❤
First i would prioritize which loan,mortgage or car loan, has the highest interest rate. I would knock out the loan with highest interest first. Then use the amount of payment that paid off that high interest loan,and slide it over to the next loan to pay that one off. If your mortgage is the higher interest then pay your regular mortgage payment,then a week later send in a priciple only payment. The regular mortgage payment is taxed. The principle payment is not taxed. We did this and paid off a 15 year mortgage loan in 7.5 years. If you have the funds to pay for auto loan and can take care of repairs then go ahead and keep new vehicle. If new vehicle will be a strain to keep&maintain then may need to sell and replace with vehicle that will meet your needs and be able to maintain it cost effectively. I am not perfect but i am human and that is ok!
I will not judge them for this car purchase. Just hoping that this will last them a good long time. They are just starting their frugal journey. There are many things to learn along the way.
With my schedule I find it is better to dice and freeze my yellow and green onions in 2 separate bags. I use the outer ribs of celery and just chop the inner ribs to freeze for recipes that need cooked celery. If I receive bell peppers I eat one and just immediately dice and freeze the rest. Shallots freeze fine in their own skins, ginger is immediately frozen and grated when ever we need it. We get the jug of pasteurized garlic from Costco now but in the past we bought bulk garlic and froze them. Having these base items in the freezer make most meals under 20min
As far as generic, I believe for a lot of foods and different things yes. However, I do not go cheap on laundry soap, or dish soap. On those items I feel because you need such a little bit, If you get generic you end up using more and it's a waste.. As you said many times you only need a tablespoon of laundry detergent ,and you only need a little bit of good dish soap😊😊😊
These are all great, and I'm planning on incorporating many of them. Except the shower one -- I have to splurge on an extra 5 minutes to add to that because those 5 minutes under hot water are the only way I can wake up in the morning ;)
I recently started closely looking at my auto insurance declaration page that comes in the mail every month.. I have elected to have it come in the mail. I can more easily scrutinize each line item. They slid in a surprise charge of $4.35 for roadside assistance that I do not need because I have had AAA for 50 +years. They also added almost $24 for a car rental or hotel room.. That equates to an extra $5 a month or $60 a year that I did not authorize and do not need.
Our libary has a quartely paper that tells you stuff going on in the area. I also found out about repair shop that runs where you take brokenitems and they repair things. Also i found a energy workshop and budgeting workshop. I wouldnt have know about them if i hadnt picked up the paper. Or look on the library noticeboards. I always pick up papers and leaflets cos you dont know what useful info you will find.
Wow - I’ve had that exact cookbook that you showed for years! The blue one, vegan slow cooker. I never actually made anything from it yet. You inspired me to try it! What recipe do you suggest?
You could start buying them personal finance books as gifts. The Millionaire Next Door (Dr. Thomas Stanley), Debt Proof Living (Mary Hunt), and Smart Women Finish Rich (David Bach) are books that helped me a lot in my 20's.
My 2 faves: David Bach's, The Automatic Millionaire; and Your Money or Your Life. Rules to live by, imho: pay yourself first, live without debt, live below your means, learn to cook, learn and know, the difference between a want and a need. The sooner the better, leade by example, show them. 1 gift, 1 savings bond and take them to the bank. Show them how compound interest works.
