Trading Up Downtown

As you probably know, I’m all about saving money at the grocery store and beyond. But, when it comes to cheese, I spare no expense! Of course, packaged cheeses are much less expensive, but they never taste as good as those beautiful hunks of Brie and Parmigiano-Reggiano. You can only imagine how delicious they must taste. There’s no doubt that a piece of “fancy” cheese costs more, but its rich, bold flavor enhances everything you use it on. Am I right?

When it comes to “splurging” at the grocery store, what items do you typically spend more money on?

Yowsahs! This week’s grocery shopping was HUGE! Our kitchen was so empty after not grocery shopping last week and “winging it,” so we needed to buy practically one of everything! I find that I don’t eat as nutritiously when our kitchen isn’t fully stocked, so I’m glad that it’s filled with lots of healthy options for the coming week.

This week’s cart:

• Bananas (NuVal score: 91)
• Onion (NuVal score: 93)
• Broccoli (NuVal score: 100)
• Tomatoes (NuVal score: 96)
• Edensoy Soymilk Original (NuVal score: 82)
• Watermelon (NuVal score: 94)
• Ground Beef (NuVal score: 30)
• Romaine lettuce (NuVal score: 100)
• Whole wheat pizza dough
• Chobani Greek Yogurt Vanilla (NuVal score: 73)
• Land O’Lakes Whipped Light Salted Butter (NuVal score: 1)

• Annie’s Homegrown Cheeseburger Macaroni (NuVal score: 7)
• Green bell pepper (NuVal score: 94)
• Shredded mozzarella
• Vans Organic Flax Frozen Waffles (NuVal score: 34)
• Canola oil (NuVal score: 24)
• Cooking spray
• Canned Bumble Bee Wild Alaska Pink Salmon (NuVal score: 70)
• Cucumbers (NuVal score: 93)
• Canned Bumble Bee Tuna in Water (NuVal score: 57)

Trade

Canned Bumble Bee Tuna in Water (NuVal score: 57) for Canned Bumble Bee Wild Alaska Pink Salmon (NuVal score: 70)

Save

I brought five reusable bags with me to the grocery store this week. I had a huge shopping, so every bag was used and I saved an additional $0.25 off my bill.

Trading Up Downtown Giveaway

Thanks to everyone who entered the Summer Pasta Salad giveaway last week! I loved reading everyone’s responses! Here’s your winner: 52

52. arlene @ Adventures in Weight Loss

Summer snacks? I love peaches and watermelon! Hummus is good, too … but you don’t have to wait for summer to eat it.

Congrats, Arlene! Please email me at thaupert@nuval.com with your full name and mailing address to claim your prize.

I love to shop for new clothes, but the cheapskate in me doesn’t enjoy parting with my hard-earned money. So, when it comes to shopping for clothing and accessories, I like to implement my “price per wear” rule. Basically, I break down the cost of the item to see if it’s a good deal or not.

Here’s what I do:

I take the price of the item and divide it by 100. This is the number of times I plan to wear an item for me to consider it a smart purchase. For instance, a $350 winter coat might seem expensive, but if I wear it all winter long, year after year, I will easily wear it 350 times, which works out to be $1 per wear. In this case, the investment is totally worth it.

On the flip-side, I spend much less money on trendy items that will go out of style in a season or two. I love Target and Kmart for fun, fashionable finds, but I rarely spend more than $20 on them.

The same thing goes for trendy accessories. They can instantly jazz-up an outfit, but they typically go out of style pretty quickly, so I don’t spend much money on them.

Looking at my closet, I’ve learned that some of my most expensive purchases were actually the most reasonable (i.e. black pants from Banana Republic that I’ve worn at least 100 times) and some of the items I thought were a bargain were not such a good deal after all (trendy wedges from Payless that went out of style in one summer). Now when I shop for clothing and accessories, I always consider the price per wear before I buy anything.

How do you save money on clothing and accessories?