Defeat psychological urges and save money

$300 a month for coffee? I can't remember the last time I even paid for a cup. I get my best discount on fuel at Loves and I'm always on Diamond Status which comes with unlimited showers and drink refills...hot or cold. 4 points per gallon on fuel, I've got about 40k points right now that I'll likely never spend on anything but beef jerky and the occasional fruit cup.

I still hate Loves, but I'm entirely willing to look past that in the name of my bottom line. O/O mindset I suppose.

 

Some of the Pilots have the single cup fresh ground setups ant that coffee is really good but I rarely stop at a Pilot anymore. When I do I can usually shame the fuel desk into a free cup after dropping 250+ gallons. As far as the swill that comes out of the urns at a Pilot, it makes me fondly remember the coffee I got in the service...think lukewarm water strained through a full ashtray.

 

Putting a small microwave and coffee maker in the trucker saved my husband's sanity and real money every week. When he is home, I precook and freeze two days of meals for him in a soft cooler and homemade baked goods that can thaw and be fresh a few days. (Brownies, cookies, homemade bacon bread) He can usually avoid eating out til his fourth day. It's not much when you're on the road 11 to 15 days, but it still adds up and I know he has at least had a few healthy meals.

 

Some truth in that. If you take a moment and look at prices, you will find that some of the smaller sizes have better prices. Most items have breakdowns of the price to units, like ounces or single items of a package.
Have often seen the “ family value pack” of something run a nickel more per ounce than the smaller package.
Paper plates is a good one. Do have washables, but some times when reheating something, a disposable is better.
Go to wallyworld, the large packages of dinner plates, the 120pc vs the 48pc package, the 120 was 3.3 cents a plate, the 48s 2.7 cents.

 

Do this as well, make a number of foods that freeze well and build a base meal from. Add some canned goods and you can make a variety of meals for not a lot of money.

 

Costco is also not as great as people want it to be.
Yes, some things you can get good deals on, no doubt.
Prices are for the most part not that much lower than discount grocery stores. When Costco puts out a true “sale” item, no other store will even come close, but you have to buy 25 lbs of it. When it comes to food products, unless your feeding 12 to 15 people at a meal, you will need to break down packages into smaller usable quantities. Now storage becomes the issue, you can only freeze things so long before quality gets compromised, or you run out of freezer space. Nothing wrong with the store, just not very economical for small quantity users, it often leads to higher waste. If your having to waste up to 40 percent of your purchase, where did the “lower cost” really make a difference.