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Q. I would be starting the first semester on Monday and I am utterly clueless as to what to expect. I am hoping you will shed some light on what to pack, how to act and some hints as what to avoid. Basically any help offered would be greatly appreciated!
Answer
IF you have a car, don't advertise it. People will glom onto you because you have one and you will find yourself with a ton of 'friends' who will be hitting you up for rides and wanting you tobe the designated driver. Be warned.
If you have money, same warning. People glom onto that, too. Don't grunge it up, but don't over dress either. Play it casual. Definitely don't take a top of the line computer or stereo to college with you . Things sometimes have a tendency to 'walk' out of dorm rooms when you aren't looking.
Schedule, if possible , at least an hour on your long days for a lunch period. You'll need it. On LONG days, I loved it when I could schedule 3 hours, then I'd take an alarm clock, curl up for a nap in a private cubicle in the library and take a power nap. REALLY helped, let me tell you. I had classes that semester from 7 a.m. til 5p.m. so that nap was awesome. I'd grab a sandwich, take a nap , then re-read what was assigned and be fresh for class. It was great.
Don't take any cherished items from home that you would be broken hearted if they got stolen or broken to the dorm with you. Kids away from home tend to go a little nuts and aren't as respectful of each others things as they should be and accidents happen. So leave grammy's quilt at home , at least til Junior year, when you're sharing an apartment with some trusted friends or something.
IF you are going to buy a microwave/coffee maker or whatever for your room, don't just go to walmart or whaever, and buy those cutesy little trendy colored pieces of junky appliances that are so popular right now. No. Invest in a good, solid microwave and coffee maker. One that will LAST more than a semester and won't be a fire hazzard. I looked at some of those trendy little disposable units the other day and was absolutely shocked at how cheap and dangerously made they were. Downright scarey. Seriously so. And instead of a toaster, get a toaster oven, much more versatile. You can a lot more with one in the same amount of space. Use your head. You might pay a little more but you GET more out of it.
And as far as that goes -- a coffee pot makes excellent iced tea... just put tea bags ( 4 individual tea bags makes 2 quarts of tea ) in where the coffee goes , brew with 2 cups of hot water and sweeten to taste. I personally put 1.5. cups of sugar to 2 quarts of strongly brewed tea, pour it over ice and it makes almost a gallon of sweet tea for me and my friends once the ice dilutes it. No stove needed, no special tea pot needed.
SO, there are some of my survival tips for you.
What would you buy for a week's worth of groceries, staying under $125?
Q. For 2 adults and 2 kids, 5 and 6.
I need dinner for 5 nights, things for packed lunches, snacks and drinks.
Please help me make a list. I suck at grocery shopping. I always run out of food before the week's over. I'll be shopping at Walmart.
Thanks!
Answer
Firstly, shop generic.
I can't make a full list for you, but I can recommend you concentrate on the staple items-- pastas, bread, milk, cheese, eggs, grains, fruits and vegetables.
Pre-packaged foods will usually give you less bang for your buck, although we've had good experiences buying canned vegetables (because we often don't use fresh ones quickly enough) from our local Aldi grocery store. Walmart's canned "Great Value" brand should be of similar quality and probably similar price. But on the other staple items, especially milk, eggs and bread, even Walmart can't touch Aldi's prices where we live-- 39 cents for a dozen large eggs, $2.19 for a gallon of whole milk (and less for 2% and even less still for skim), and 79 cents per loaf of bread.
Stay away from pre-packaged lunches (Lunchables, for example) for your kids. You'll come out much cheaper if you make them a good sandwich and give them a few pretzels or chips as a side item. Invest in reusable containers for everyone who takes a lunch to school or work in your family. You need at least a good sandwich container and a good side-dish container for everyone. I'd also suggest a good drink container and I encourage your family to fall back in love with water and/or Kool-Aid type drinks as they're cheap and relatively healthy compared to soda-- especially if you're currently purchasing drinks (probably sodas) at school or work from a vending machine.
Another thing we like to do to save money is to make large quantities beyond what we'll normally eat in one sitting, then eat the leftovers for lunch or for supper the next day. For example, we make a large pot of spaghetti Sunday night and have enough leftovers to make our lunch from a couple of days through the week. Or we'll make a large salad (stay away from the pre-mixed bag salads) and store it in a large, sealed bowl in the fridge to be eaten with dinner for three or four days.
Come up with a meal plan over the weekend. Decide what you want to have for dinner the next five days-- don't just wing it. That's what will kill your grocery budget in no time. So make a plan for what you're going to cook this week for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then buy the ingredients as cheaply as possible. It's really pretty simple. A typical week's grocery list for us looks something like this:
-Gallon of milk
-Loaf of bread
-Box of cereal
-Bag of chips (tortilla) or pretzels (low-sodium)
-Meat items, as necessary for week's meal plan. We're typically heavy beef eaters, followed by pork, chicken and rarely fish, in that order. We buy the meat from a local grocer whose quality and prices beat the big box stores like Walmart hands-down. Look into your locally owned grocer-- you may be pleasantly surprised.
-Canned items, as necessary for week's meal plan. These can be soups, vegetables, or fruit items.
-Lunch meat (whatever we can get for less than $2.50-- but pay attention to the weight to make sure you're getting the best per-pound price!)
-Cheese slices, as necessary
-Shredded cheese, as necessary
-Pastas, as necessary (mac and cheese is big at our house)
-Fresh fruits as a snack item (good way to change things up for you and your kids), whatever is on sale. If no good deals, stick to things that are relatively cheap such as bananas.
-Fresh vegetables as necessary for week's meal plan.
-Dozen eggs
-Frozen orange juice, if needed (much cheaper than buying by the half-gallon or gallon, and in our experience the Aldi brand is just as good as most orange juice that is sold "in the jug.")
-A few frozen items, as necessary. (We might buy a frozen pizza or a bag of frozen pot roast-friendly veggies to fix in a pinch.)
-A few snack items for the wife's lunchbox (crackers, cookies-- she has a better metabolism than I do.)
-Any condiments (mustard, mayo) as necessary
-Any seasonings (Mrs. Dash, BBQ rub, etc.) as necessary
That's a typical checklist we'll go over before we make our real grocery list, which changes from week to week. Some weeks (since it's just me and the wife, I guess), we don't spend more than a few bucks at the grocery store. Then usually once a month, we have a big weekend where we have to replenish the meat in our freezer and/or buy the long-term shelf items such as peanut butter and condiments. Still, our biggest grocery tab comes to just north of $100 for the two of us. Then the typical weekly is less than $70 after that until the next big replenishment weekend.
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