In an attempt to save money, I have come to the border between frugal and cheap, as I am sure many people do. Maybe I am quibbling over semantics here, but I have always thought there to be a very distinct line between frugal and cheap. My basic view is that frugal is a positive and long sighted version of cheap – value over price. For example, a cheap bottle of wine and a 40 of St. Ides will get me equally as buzzed and leave me equally as hung over. While the bottom-shelf wine may cost an extra $3, at least it has a shot at tasting decent. Therefore, the wine has clearly assumed the position of the frugal choice with its value added ticket to flavor country. Seems like an easy decision to me.
The real frugal choice would be going with a tall glass of tap water, staying home, and reading a book (via library, borrowed or stolen* to up the frugality), but that would throw off the example. I will also add an exception regarding most men’s early college careers. This is right around the time when the badassness that comes along with polishing off the luke-warm ass of a Steel Reserve 40 has the ability to offset the mild enjoyment that comes along with drinking 750mL of Sutter Home merlot straight from the bottle.
*Please don’t steal stuff.
December 4, 2009
By growing and eating your own sprouts, you get a nutritious meal with a side of cold hard cash piled higher than a pastrami sandwich from the Carnegie Deli. To demonstrate, I put together a little comparison for you. I decided to compare sprouts with some lunch items. This is when I would be more likely to eat a bowl of sprouts as a meal and I figured it would make for a more realistic comparison.
To figure out the sprout cost, I started with a 10 lb bag of seeds for about $32.00. This is about 20 cups of dry seeds (give or take). To make 1 cup of sprouts, you need about ¼ cup of dry seeds. With the help of some basic math, you can figure a bowl of sprouts setting you back about 40 cents. You can buy yourself some sprouts by clicking here.
So check it out…
Sprouts: $0.40
Subway’s $5 Foot-Long: $5.00
Burger-Centric, Fast-Food Value Meal: $5.00 (approximation)
Arby’s 5 for $5 Special: $5.00
Little Caesars Hot-N-Ready Pizza: $5.00
From a lunch perspective, sprouts can save you about $4.60 per day. This translates to the following yearly savings based on how many days per week you eat sprouts for lunch.
1 Day: $239.20
2 Days: $478.40
3 Days: $717.60
4 Days: $956.80
5 Days: $1196.00 (damn!)
What’s that you say? Ramen is cheaper? Well, at about 30 cents a bag, you would be correct. And you could probably slurp up a bowl of ramen every day for lunch for a full year and live to tell about it. By the end of that year, that would net you an extra 26 bucks to go blow at the track. But, that comes at quite a cost. You miss out on all that great nutrition.
So there you have it. Every time you eat sprouts, you win at life a little bit more.
Do you have some hot money saving tips that rival the one given above? Spread the word in the comments section below.
October 27, 2009
