I Could Do Better

I can't believe it's Friday again, but here we are, the weekend is knocking on the door and @galenkp has a few ideas what to write about this weekend. You can check his initiative out here -> WEEK 145: Weekend-Engagement writing suggestions.

Saving money

Name three aspects of your life (or things) you personally spend money on but could eliminate or cut back on to save some money. List them and tell us why you chose those things, why you could cut back or go without them and why you haven't already cut or reduced them to save money. A post of at least 300 words is required. source

Today I decided to write about this topic as it benefits me going over my expenses and see if I could cut some of them. There are some areas where I could do better, so let's see what are those.

Food

This is an area many are losing money in. Eating is necessary, eating without paying is only available for a few and smart shopping and managing your supplies is an art. By smart shopping I mean buying what you need and not more.

Unfortunately food is not always regarded as it should be. Food is necessary to stay alive and stay healthy, but nowadays some are rewarding themselves with food. This is not only unhealthy, bus costs a lot too. In other words, you should not eat something just because you can afford it. I do that too sometimes, although most of the times I try not too.

I'm aware that many of our health problems occur as a result of unhealthy eating. I cook my meals most of the time to avoid eating garbage, but like everyone else, I like eating out and occasionally I like junk food too. Shhh, please don't tell anyone 😁. My strategy is eating healthy at home and choose unhealthy food at the restaurant as I don't make those at home. So for any outsider who sees me eating at the restaurant, may look like I have no idea what healthy food means, but that is not true.

This dish should be avoided as French fries are not healthy, but are sooo delicious. So it's ok to have one serving from time to time.

This was my meal though, a disciplined one as it was past 8pm and knew I need to eat moderately.

This was the pizza my friend had. It wasn't terribly big, but still. He deserved it though as he was after a 90 minutes concert, so he needed the energy he consumed during the concert.

There's a saying in Hungarian.

Everything that is delicious is either immoral or fattening.

If inflation goes like it goes these days, you can add expensive to the above statement too.

And this brings me to the question I have to answer today. Healthy and balanced eating is becoming more and more essential. Buying only what you need, eating what you need is crucial. Wasting food is never something I do as I never throw away anything, but I feel like I could make smarter choices, cook healthier dishes and save some money.

Heating

I live in a country where the temperature can swing from -25°C to +40°C, so heating during winter is a must, if you don't want to freeze to death. My ideal winter temperature inside is around 20°C as I don't like tropical heat, so I'm trying to moderate heating. I'm turning the heat off when I leave home, but sometimes I forget to do it and I'm wasting money on heating. So I believe there's room for improvement in that regard too.

Craft Products

Buying something unique or limited edition is something I'm always looking forward to. I don't like to have what everyone else already has, but obviously that depends on what type of products we are talking about. This is why products created by artisans are always more attractive as these are limited series. And therefore more expensive too.

20230317_122210(0)a.jpg

I'm not a jewelry addict, but I like handmade ones, unless it's precious metal like silver. In one of my upcoming posts you'll see what I bought recently and maybe I shouldn't have.

Craft chocolate that costs 3 or 4 times more than the regular ones. Truth to be told, you don't find these flavors in the regular shops either, so if you want something special, you pay the price. On the shelf in middle you have raspberry, coffee, onion, lavender and mint. This means you can find in the bar of chocolate pieces of these fruits or herbs and are handmade too. I spoil myself with these from time to time, but not very often.

And there are these jams and juices. I trust these more than what you find in the grocery stores. If you want healthier products, you pay.

So money could be saved on these products for sure, but this is my guilty pleasure and contrary to other cases, I know where my limits are. You don't see me buying endlessly just because I can. That would be very foolish.

So where could you save money? Or do you have these guilty pleasures?

If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides: