Humility Through Frugality (V2) - $50 A Week Part 1 / 2

Transferred post June 10th 2015

I had to admit; despite what life and all its’ pedestrian problems have thrown at me since the last seven months – I have nonetheless have found myself some personal solace as well as finding meaningful purpose/s from doing all these things on my own.
Please note: many aspects of these previous / old articles are best superseded by their updated counterparts within the full downloadable manuscript of the First Revised Edition of Humility

Throughout those long, fruitless seven months since I have lost my main job. My main source of stable employment. Despite the fact that counting from all those days since I’m on my own to this hour in me finalising this blog article (and revising my own conceptual mini book that accompanies with it) – I have spent nearly out of my own lifelong savings investment the equivalent to three percent of my entire (previous) annual income (of which mine is far below any accredited professional industry’s average statewide here of any states in Australia); simply trying to revamping everything there is to do with promotion.

“Three percent” of an entire annual income may seem minuscule and irrelevant to many of you. But for some of us – that figure represents an immense cut off amount to compete against everyone else in the employment market. Or me perhaps shamefully known in this case – the unemployment market.

So what have I been spending? Basically nothing but acquiring resources redesign, revamping, and re-printing self-promotionals for numerous job application/s and creative freelance vacancies (of which I liaised through fourty-five agencies). One after another. I could’ve sworn life was some sort of nothing but running through a printer jam one after another. An overload of things – many things – that only I get and have to witness these on my own. No one else’s.

Like hundreds, if not thousands – of tiny knives slowly digging deeper beneath the skin.

So despite all of the above as I’m writing this I am thinking – what is one thing – one aspect of what I have been doing thus far that has kept me at the very least – sane, alive and yet (ironically I find to this day) – still able to commit to my own health and fitness regime through all this time? All those gruelling six-times / week split weight training sessions whilst I was carrying through all this agony and pain yet nobody noticed? All those days and nights endlessly improving myself, my visual branding/s to improve my prospect/s of career searching through one application/opportunity after another?

I then had come to a point to have realised one thing – I have survived because I allowed myself to struggle through Sustenance. I allowed myself to be patient yet continuously struggle (even after I finished writing this post) about maintaining this one value, this “quality” (if you can patiently think of it this way) – called sustenance – that kept me on through and through..

So the word “sustenance” – was what I carried with me all along, and I came to realise through all this to have simply derived from the fact that I welcomed myself to embrace humility by living through frugality one more time. I’ve put myself down to the test of reducing my previous $65 weekly food budget challenge down to $50 plan for seven months (thus far) to see if I can survive through at least two seasons of this year – summer, and winter. And so far, indeed I have. Thus came to a point I wanted to share with you all how all this is possible.

I believe there are many out there who can “be” themselves – but better, wiser and humbled away from the pedestrian normalcy. I have watched and have silently observed “them” (the general public) gut response/s to Society – and all of its problems – be it their lack of conscience to their choices, habits, lifestyle, nutrition, etc – throughout my professional career years and always, always wanted to ask them this question :

Is it really necessary to be addicted to so many things (be it bad lifestyle habits, choices in nutrition / external stimulants / caffeine, pollutants, etc) just for them to sustain themselves day to day?

And how ironically they earn themselves an income so much that they’ve spent it elsewhere “casually” on nothing but all the extravagant sides of life? Anxious in getting that latest “i” communication gadget/s just to simply stay “ahead” of times? Throwing themselves in cups after cups of coffee, sugar, “healthy” ice-creams with stimulants, fillers, additives and artificial sweeteners and yet never feeling satisfied and always run down?

I wonder if these people have any sense of humility within them. As in a value or quality within them they’re able to differentiate between what is explicit and implicit? Something that they have successfully solved, and maturely owned their own problems through past discipline and experience? I have observed these “trends” long enough, and thus decided it is yet another time for a wake up call. I’ve now able to consolidate all the principles I derive to survive long and differently wiser enough from everyone else day by day as I too struggle against my own depth/s of problems. And I’m writing this as an account of ideas as well as a “structure” I myself have adopted of which every moment of it greatly helped me during the toughest of moments. All this for you; as the reader – be inspired to be able to improve yourself by change. By making yourself a commitment. A goal, with a mindset to help “anchors” you along towards fulfilling them slowly, but surely.

I have written this article – how this way of living – can be your source of inspiration towards your own monetary / financial circumstances and/or (more often than not above all) – personal development. Be it saving for a holiday, an extra investment goal (which was initially mine year/s ago) or whatever granting you a reward that involves you to develop your own three values of Sustenance – through Awareness, Persistence and Humility.

I am writing this once more as there is clearly (I still believe) a need for this to be reinforced to the general, uninformed (and also misinformed) public. As there is much to understand as there is lot of what people have misunderstood about wealth and health; for a very, long time.

FOREWORD / INTERNATIONAL READERS

This article has been written not as a series of “quick-pick-me-up” advice/s, nor it is by any means a scientific journal. But instead a moment of share for you to an insight of how health and nutrition can be achieved with such an unknowingly low budget. All from genuinely felt, tried-and-true experiences based from my own perspective, and living circumstances. So long as you keep an open mind – you will indeed find something you can try to adapt some use out of any perspective/s you get from this article irrespective of wherever stage of life you are currently at.

If by chances that you are reading this from the other side of the globe (or anywhere unspecific) – please observe my sincere welcome to one and all. For whether you are brought here by curiosity, or by keen interest one way or another – you will be rewarded with something that can relate to you either in minor or significant way/s, I can promise you that much. Australia is constantly and unfortunately falsely branded ourselves (by our own government, the System and the blind media) as much as “the lucky country” (a term that you may have heard) as is seemingly evident by our relatively strong currency over the years – yet our buying power from a consumer’s end gets ironically weaker regardless how low our national cash rate. No matter how much changes the System would like you all to feel relieved – nothing changes the fact that debt is our currency.

Thus I would hereby give you a dose of reality knowing that here, there or everywhere you go and walk – there is no such thing as a lucky country any more. Since all of us are helplessly bound to the carousel of the system (my easiest analogy of it all) – of which we are simply vehicles / horses of which we are given no choice, no liberty but to keep infinitely moving, and handing over this so called “debt” carousel round and round to infinity. From one citizen to the next. From one country to the next. You get the idea.

Until someone else is out there willing enough to give others a warning and advice/s to think and survive differently. This is the stage where we’re at – we have to wake ourselves up, and take this dose of reality once more to achieve sustenance within our own means.

THE THREE QUALITIES / VALUES OF SUSTENANCE

So – It all simply begins from establishing awareness of what and where you are in relative to everyone else’s.

No matter who you are, and what your levels of disposable income/s – you must first establish a relative understanding and awareness of where and how you are to everyone else’s. To do that – you need to evaluate your own current conditions – mental / emotional, fitness, physical well being as well as your level of social gratifications. Compare your own circumstances to those around you; doesn’t matter who – and observe their conditions, habits, and choices they make. You don’t have to question them directly in person (you’re mature enough not to do that). Simply be a civil, minor part of knowing who these people are and what choices they have been making. Make yourself self-aware and be observant of others.

…And I understand what you are about to say out loud to me – “What? Are you trying to make me to become a voyeur? Why am I being told to compare against others? Would that not make or put me into the negative spotlight for being a narcissist? ” My answers to all of these is simply – No. Firstly – No – I am NOT asking you to be make any discreet attempts to violating someone else’s privacy. I am simply asking you to observe people generally from a progressive, indirect, and un-intrusive scale. Make yourselves some effort to regularly inform yourselves of what the outer (general, political, governance) as well as the inner (community, private sectors, the general citizens) progresses through daily activities. Surround and inform of yourselves with economic / financial news (trust me – you don’t HAVE to understand everything), but most importantly – know the what and how the general public are “doing” these days – be part of / read through Lifestyle / social forums you see on the internet (I HIGHLY recommend Whirlpool® forums) about the state socio-economic relations, jobs, nutrition, and basically – life – as how others perceive and going through – in general.

Secondly, no – this is not about competition.. I am not here to trying to get you to “beat” nor compete against others for you to gain (some) sort of internal satisfaction by gaining superiority. This is about differentiating yourself away from the majority who hasn’t simply woken up to reality. That is it.

Hence, the very first step to do this – is to first discover, learn and identify all the available different perspective/s around you. It could simply be a way of life, or as specific down to something a person have said in a forum somewhere that sparks or challenge you in return, or as specific as getting to know a nutrient profile in your food or understanding what that coded number is on the back of your food ingredients packaging label. Having done so you must then (most importantly) – determine if there is (any) implicit qualities within these that you can take on board with you. You are then free to deconstruct and re-purpose these perspective/s to whatever relates to you and your circumstances. Either in minor or in complete / holistic ways.

Always be aware and look for implicit qualities in everything you interact and absorb; be it of people and/or perspective/s. Embrace and absorb these foreign perspective/s – whether it be you learning about bulk cooking /budget meal planning even if you are not a body builder. Or you learning about the true (and abusive) history of money even if you are not an accountant or a book keeper.

That- in a nut shell – is AWARENESS – at its’ core simplification. You are able to differentiate what is important and what is not, simply by investigating their important implicit values in a sustainable sense and context. Understandably – this quality – by which forcing yourself to focus to derive only the implicit qualities within life; is perhaps the most difficult to obtain for many people. This is simply because as coming from my own personal belief – everybody has different threshold/s of tolerance or capacity to “extend” or make “extra” mental room; hence, forcing them to make sacrifices. These sacrifices unfortunately, no matter how resourceful you are – will eventually become imminent and necessary.

As soon as you’ve made and gone through that sacrifice however – it becomes an experience you’ve left behind.

Experiences can be felt and found anywhere, for as long as it is gained and perceived as such. It could simply be you politely refusing your friends offer for that hefty let-yourselves-go dinner out every Friday night – so that at least you’ve experienced some humility based on your own terms – a way of reminding others to respect you for who you are. It could be you figuring out how to cook your daily meal/s in bulk so that you don’t have to stress over to prepare for food each time you’re hungry. It could be you learning how the monetary / capitalist / free-market system works just for the hell of understanding how and why people have different perceptions about money. Whatever it is – be part of all bits of these experience/s and the more of it you obtain – the more you will develop a new form of strength within you. Not some sort of explicit form of ego, but a quality by which others can relate and recognise you differently from others.

As much as I’ve forgotten over the long history of things I’ve tried for the better but lost, failed, even from as simple as politely refusing gratuity from others – I can promise anyone to have the potential for expressing a different kind of “aura” of themselves – in way/s through that the less you accept any incoming explicit perspective/s & gratifications to your life – the more you will develop something else entirely implicit in return.

Having said that, I believe everyone can improve upon themselves. It all started from having become aware of others. Study and gain any implicit response/s on anything and everything that relates to your goal. Scrutinise everything when, and wherever you must.

By you having some AWARENESS – you are able to identify and learn what to be cautious of, what to avoid and what alternatives are there available by way of consumption (as in food). And from having found these perspective/s – you then have to make a choice either begin understanding / extracting any implicit use out of this (as explained in the above), or reduce the intake of these perspective/s or simply eliminate them altogether from your system.

This illustration below pretty much sums up how you only need three things – and from those you will need to eliminate and significantly reduce away other explicit needs from having reintroduced back to your body – your OWN system. Knowing this will help you to fully realise the distinction over what is a need as well as a want – an essential first step towards self-sufficiency.

At this point, you might find yourself wondering – “Why is this blog article is just all about food, and stuff about protein and sport supplements?”

Well – simply because these are the realm/s by which everything in this article applies accordingly. You need food to survive, and to maintain your ENTIRETY of being. But you don’t need so many / excess of things that are not good for you for consuming them in return. Things that are unnecessarily addictive and harmful irrespective of what your brain tells you what it is doing to your pleasure / feel-good senses. I am a believer that Food is the most immediate indicator of explaining the who, what and most importantly the “why” we are still living, breathing, walking and lazily embedding ourselves into our smartphones worshipping the false reality behind of social media – for so many years – impairing us both physically and mentally. More than just about food – what you learn here will apply just about everything and everywhere else in life.

And beyond what I write as “meal plans” – I am here to share with you saving regiment ideas, tips, and my thoughts on covering the nutritional / protein supplement insights to give you further idea/s and inspirations that you may not even aware of all this time. Especially if you exercise a lot.

So now at this stage that you’ve become AWARE – you then need to know how to implement, maintain, and coordinate what you’ve learnt to meet your goal. After AWARENESS comes PERSISTENCE – by which you simply have to build a mental fortitude to withstand further introduction/s of harmful perspective/s for as long as possible. And from there comes through HUMILITY – you coordinate and drive every parts of positive, and encouraging influences into your own actions, your own expression of how you can be the wiser, humber version of yourself to others. And at the same time obviously – meeting your desire goal with the money you’ve saved.

Once this is all over – consider it simply as another experience you’ve left behind, and be proud of it.

Make this regiment as part of your daily life – until such time arrives when you look back at what others are doing; you will no doubt be the one that survives; not submitted by the blind wills of the System and all of generalities that followed.

Thus – pick yourself up, and be prepared to read intently and absorb its’ relevance to whatever sparks true and critical to your circumstances. Before I get to discuss on the foods and all – we’ll begin with a disclaimer.

NUTRITION ADVICE DISCLAIMER & GENERAL READING PRE-REQUISITES

Everything I wrote here is purely from personal experimentation and tried, felt and gut-absorbed experiences. There is nothing here I would concretely suggest before me having personally tried and have seen the consequences for myself. We are now living in an age where everything in the realm of nutrition are constantly scrutinised, and despite my lack of academic background in health and nutrition I have well read, absorbed, and learned much of what these realms have taught me – that my experiences earned me the right to scrutinise and express my results in return.

This article is one conclusive aspect and the result as personal, written experiences for all to witness. Something that you will be able to take on board to give yourself a challenge to make a change for yourself in major or in minor ways.

Should anything go horribly wrong, I would suggest you re-read this article and the previous ($65 Per Wk). Of all, I am not by any means a medical practitioner nor a licensed / accredited nutritionist and as such – I’d warn you to not label me as responsible for your own experiences as per to your own habitual lifestyle you’ve developed prior or up to this point.

Lastly:

Every brand, product I label, suggest, and endorse in this article (and the previous) is purely from my own view and perspective as an honest consumer. As much as I am part of the growing “middle-poor” – I am not affiliated or paid to falsely “act” in some way of ambassador to these brands, including all products I make references throughout this article.

So we shall begin with me explaining what’s in it for you.

WHAT YOU WILL GET (OUT OF THIS) / THE POWER OF ONE $50 NOTE

So what will you get out of this? You will still be avoiding allergens and stimulants of the world around you – coffee, soy (although I will explain my findings on this later on), corn, and omega-6 derived oils (all vegetable derived oils including Canola), and bread (yes, wheat is still definitely out).

You will at some stage wonder how much food can I get for such money realistically? This diagram below will give you an idea.

Bring yourself a table, perhaps an area of your kitchen bench. Measure a 90cm x90cm square area of coverage. And on it – place two wide standard sized laundry baskets. Stand back and imagine – that once and every week – at least 70% of these two baskets will be nothing but food to sustain you for every meal for the next every seven days (and even longer once you’ve bought enough base starches/carbohydrates) starting from the day of purchase.

Does this “example” suffice enough to be consistent week to week? Perhaps not necessarily so. But is it realistic and can it be done? With the right timing, circumstances, and effort – absolutely. Just picture it yourself – you go to at least three stores in one walkout/ sitting – buying 10kg of potatoes, and at least four or five plastic bags each designated with items – perishables, non perishables, fridge-items and pantry based items. Sooner or later, you’ll see that it can be done.

You will of course, at the end of it all – eventually set yourself a plan you can sink yourself into on “auto-pilot” after having accustomed and adjusted yourself to stay within your best towards your own goal/s.

I would not ever recommend you splitting your shopping chore into two sessions as these will only most likely cause extra tempt for you to overspend for anything you might not need. Hence, spend and finish all in one day whenever you can.

In this revision you will have to accept some traces of gluten; as you will be consuming oats in some days as breakfast as opposed to whole eggs (and thus you will have to make amends on your own Keto diet principles), and that you must be willing to be able to conserve some food supplies to last more than one week from one purchase at a time.

As an added incentive I have written further money-saving section on protein supplementations (for both gender/s to enjoy reading, yes, that includes you ladies) on how to further save your money. You will no doubt be thinking twice before stepping your foot onto a health & food store again.

Thus on average – you will be consuming $7.14 per day (plus $1.5 for two protein supplementations depending on your daily activity level – I’ve written more on this down the bottom). As opposed $9.28 (+$1.5 protein supplementation) per day before on $65 a week.

Now see what’s different below. All that money just for lunch?

SAMPLE GROCERY PLANS (SIX VARIATIONS)

So what has been different? Obviously there are weekly plan changes as well as habitual changes. I am going to present to you SIX VARIATIONS weekly plans, each showing how some items can be omitted / conserved for the next week and how these can be substituted with something else. I hope that the multiple level of asterisks here help you to differentiate the detailed notes below.

VARIATION #1

Yeeda® Grass Fed beef mince 1.2 KG: $8.75 / ($6.9 per kg)
Spudshed® Mixed Chicken Pieces 1.7kg : $9.33
2x Woolworths® Homebrand salmon 420G: $5.18
2x Woolworths® Homebrand mackerel : $3.40
Sanitarium® / natural peanut butter 375g: $4
12x 700g eggs: $3**
Chobani® Yoghurt 907g: $6
900g Coles® oats : $1.87**
Potatoes 3KG ruby red lou: $3*
Whole Lettuce Cos : $1
Whole Lettuce iceberg: $1
2x Whole Broccoli : $2
1x whole cabbage : $1

Total: $49.53

VARIATION #2

Yeeda® Grass Fed beef mince 1.5KG: $10 / ($6.9 per kg)
2kg frozen basa fillets : $10
2x Woolworths® Homebrand salmon 420G: $5.18
2x Woolworths® Homebrand mackerel : $3.40
Sanitarium® / natural peanut butter 375g: $4
12x 700g eggs: $3.5**
Chobani® Yoghurt 907g: $6
Coles® 900g oats: $1.5**
1kg Coles® brown rice: $2.5*
Lettuce Cos : $1
Lettuce iceberg: $1
1x cabbage : $1

Total : $49.58

VARIATION #3

Yeeda® Grass Fed beef mince 1.2 KG: $8.75 / ($6.9 per kg)
4x Woolworths® Homebrand 425G Mackerel cans – $6.76
Sanitarium® / natural peanut butter 375g – $4.5
Coles® 900g oats -$1.5**
Kikkoman® ORGANIC Soy Sauce or Garlic & Herb spices seasoning – $4.5***
1.5kg Spudshed® Mixed chicken pieces – $8
Chobani® Yoghurt 907g: $6
Washed Potatoes Ruby Lou 10KG bag – $5
(yes, 10kg not a typo) (first bought mine for $3 at one stage)
Lettuce Cos : $1
Lettuce iceberg: $1
1x cabbage : $1
3x Zucchini or cucumber (whichever cheaper): $2

Total: $50.01

VARIATION #5

Yeeda® Grass Fed Forequarter Chops 1 KG / 6 cutlets – $10 / ($6.9 per kg)
Coles® 1kg brown rice – $2.5*
Sanitarium® / natural peanut butter 375g – $4.5
4x Woolworths® Homebrand 425G Mackerel cans – $6.76
1.5kg Spudshed® Mixed chicken pieces – $8
12x 700g Eggs -$3.5**
Chobani® Yoghurt 907g – $6
Lettuce Cos – $1.5
(added 50c to allow seasonal price fluctuations)
Lettuce iceberg – $1.5
(added 50c to allow seasonal price fluctuations)
1x whole celery with leaves – $1.5
(added 50c to allow seasonal price fluctuations)
3x Zucchini or cucumber (whichever cheaper) – $3
1x butternut pumpkin – $1

Total: 49.76

VARIATION #4

Yeeda® Grass Fed beef mince 1.2 KG: $8.75 / ($6.9 per kg)
4x Woolworths Homebrand 425G Mackerel cans – $6.76
Sanitarium® / natural peanut butter 375g – $4.5
12x 700g Eggs -$3.5**
Prochef® Coconut oil spray – $5.5*****
1kg Coles@ Long grain rice – $1.8
(provided you still going through 10kg potatoes specials)
1.5kg Spudshed® Mixed chicken pieces – $8
Chobani® Yoghurt 907g: $6
Lettuce Cos : $1
Celery (BIGGEST WITH LEAVES you can find): $1
1x cabbage : $1
3x Zucchini or cucumber (whichever cheaper): $2

Total: $49.81

VARIATION #6

Yeeda® Grass Fed beef mince 1.5KG- $10 / ($6.9 per kg)
Coles® 900g oats – $1.5
Coles® 1kg white long grain rice – $1.8*
(provided you still going through 10kg potatoes specials)
Sanitarium® / natural peanut butter 375g – $4.5
4x Woolworths® Homebrand 425G Mackerel cans – $6.76
1.5kg Spudshed® Mixed chicken pieces – $8
Chobani® Yoghurt 907g- $6
Lettuce Cos – $1.5
(added 50c to allow seasonal price fluctuations)
Lettuce iceberg- $1.5
(added 50c to allow seasonal price fluctuations)
1x cabbage – $1.5
(added 50c to allow seasonal price fluctuations)
3x Zucchini or cucumber (whichever cheaper)- $3
1x butternut pumpkin- $1

Total: $47.06

NOTES

* = These are items which you must be able to buy once every two weeks. Eg. buy once and use up for two weeks. For 2kg potatoes + 1kg rice you should aim to store and use up to one and a half to two weeks – this will give you “buffering” strategy to allow you buying less quantity for next week’s shopping cycle. For 10kg potatoes specials – these should last for at least 1 and a half months or even longer if you mix with rice for variety and extend existing gluten-free carb inventory. Keep saving as much as possible to create more of this buffering amounts for other things (dried herbs, seasonings, extra vegetables, etc).
**= Similar as Note #1 above – but these are breakfast items in which you must conserve up to two weeks from one purchase. Eg. once you bought eggs in previous week, you must not buy it again for the next week, but you will have to buy oats instead, and vice versa.
***= Seasonings & condiments. By the time you have saved enough buffering amounts – you can use this to buy yourself some seasonings for your cooked meals. A 250ml soy sauce can go up to four weeks of regular use each meal, where as 37G jar of garlic & herb powdered seasonings can go up to three weeks.
**** = Cooking oils. A normal sized spray should last for at least three weeks / up to a month. To be honest – I do not use much oil at all in my cooking as I only rely on the natural fats on the meats to help sear itself on a cooking surface (be it stainless pan or the oven with baking paper). Thus, a coconut cooking oil spray is great for sautéing batches of pumpkin (perhaps twice a week) and to prepare my breakfast 2x eggs on a microwave.

The next section is split into three sub parts – where and how to shop, an explanation on the Buffer saving method, and lastly (and most fun for all of you) – a daily meal plan.

Implementations

1/3 – WHERE AND HOW TO SHOP

In Western Australia – these are the only two additional brands you need to regularly walk into each week – ~~Yeeda~~ and Spudshed

The first we need to cover is – how and where should I shop? You can safely still visit any one of your four big outlets (five or even six, if you are on the lucky eastern states to have had ALDI ®and Costco®) but I highly encourage you to do prior reading on my previous article as it discusses which stores and brands you should only be visiting and buying your goods from.

But for now – as to how in the shopping department is largely simple – complete all your shopping list in one day / at once. Though at first – you will find it surprisingly time consuming – as you will need to ideally shop THROUGH at least three or four outlets all in one day or in the hour/s of just ONE shopping session. I WOULD NOT recommend you splitting your shopping chore into two sessions as these will only most likely cause you to overspend, and the result? You will have a hard time micro managing every bit of dollar you’ve spent and had to rely on memory to convince you to buy things more than necessary for the benefit of doubt.

You really need to get used to spend with cash and coins, not your luxury plastics. One $50 single note should be all there is to spend in your wallet; along with any other buffering amounts /coins for one entire week.

Yes, you will be tired walking back and forth to your car and that yes, you may even get hassled by the checkout counter insisting to check your “other bags”. Smile yet be firm at them that you are on a stringent budget and that you are buying things that absolutely NOT ONE grocery stores stock every particular goods AT A PRICE you are after.

Are you puffing? Good. Because at least this way, you will be getting some exercise.

2/3 – BUFFERING SYSTEM – HOW IT WORKS

This is not “rocket science”. What it is – is pure common sense by action, and gut intuition. Having said that, I really should have written this as part of the original $65 article but however, my humility for not being condescending gets the better of me and hence I left it out.

For example, say that you’ve bought and found yourself a great bargain : $2 for 4KG of potatoes. Exactly seven days have passed and you found yourself a good handful/couple of spuds left, take note of how much you’ve paid ($2) and workout in approximation how much handful / couple of spuds left in the pantry – three to four fist sized spuds would equate to roughly around 40 to 50c in approximate total value if they were bought individually (at an affordable farmers grocery store obviously). Take this 45c (as average measure) as your first buffer amount. And for the next weekly shop out – you will need to buy less potatoes, or better yet – save this buffer amount for something else. More often than not – if you have been paying by cash I guarantee you would have a handful of 20c & 50c changes that left overs from previous weekly $50 purchase. Again take these leftovers as your further buffering amounts.

Add these loose coins up overtime and you would save up to $3 (if you are lucky) every two weeks. So – what can $3 buy? You can buy specials from various stores: below are what I’ve bought: 4x reasonably good size zucchinis as farmer grocery store specials – 99c each bundle of 4. Another 1kg of brown rice an easy choice. 1kg of split red or green lentils (be smart on this however, some charges outrageous amounts). ….and if you are lucky enough at your next stop at your farmers grocers – a 10KG potatoes (random choice – but many could be written/labelled at the front of bag – I occassionally get 10kg of all red ruby lou’s)…for $3.

Humility Through Frugality (V2) – $50 A Week Part 1 / 2