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Slim Money Saving Hacks

Here are some of my best tips for fattening up your wallet as the rest of you slims down:

Wholesale Clubs (Costco, BJ's, Sam's Club, etc.)

These places arguably deserve their own blog post. There's nothing special about them from a weight loss perspective per se, but they really accelerate your savings.

Part of the reason I found calorie counting so easy was because I have certain foods that I eat frequently or daily, so I know the exact serving size and calories. Also, buying in bulk reduces your need for additional grocery runs or at least reduces the number of things on your weekly list. Value store shopping also enables you to buy huge bulks of this cheap man's essentials like fruits, veggies, nuts and coffee.

I haven't done the math of cost per snack, but a value club bag of walnuts or almonds split into single servings ready to deploy whenever you start to feel a little hungry is probably one of the cheapest and healthiest snacks that you can possibly buy.

Really, you can buy anything you want if you just stick to your portion sizes and calorie targets. The key is really preventing yourself from eating out as much as possible since restaurant margins are always going to be larger than food you prepare yourself. Just try some different things and stock up on your favorites.

Making Your Own Diet Soda

I love my diet soda, and while soda from 2 liter bottles isn't necessarily expensive, there's room for efficiencies here too.

I bought a Drinkmate (knock-off SodaStream) from Amazon for about $90 and use paintball bottles for CO2. 12 ounce paintball canisters will fit into the unit, they cost $20 each and you'll also need a paintball to SodaStream adapter for $20. That's it. The Drinkmate will also refizz other drinks which I don't think the SodaStream can do.

If you buy official SodaStream CO2 refills from Target, the economics barely make it worth it, but if you get those paintball bottles refilled from a sporting goods store, you'll save crazy amounts of money. I get my canisters filled at Dick's for about $3 each, and I think they each produce about 30-40 liters of soda, maybe more. I should start counting.

If you like seltzer, that's all you need. If you want to make diet soda, Target sells mixers for about $5/bottle that'll make around 15 liters of soda I think. I believe Amazon sells the mixers for around the same price, but I think only some of them are included with Prime. I recommend the diet orange, diet Dr. Pete (Dr. Pepper) and diet root beer. The diet cola tastes horrible - like the Diet Rite my mom used to drink back in the 80's.

Also, kind of related - if you end up buying fountain soda when you're out, skip the ice if you don't get free refills. How many times do you finish your soda and wish that remaining ice was more soda? Probably all the time, so ask for it.

Dollar Value Meals

I've spoken a little about this before. The key here is as much about saving money as it is portion control.

If you have a Ziploc bag of nuts in your bag or glove compartment, you can eat those if you're still hungry after that McDouble. Just try waiting a while first and see exactly how hungry you are 10-15 minutes after eating. Being slightly hungry is ok. You need to break the habit of being famished and eating until you're completely full. The Recalibrating Your Hunger article will help with this.

Also, resist the urge to start combining dollar menu deals, or you'll end up spending around the same amount as a full numbered value meal and put yourself in the same ballpark in terms of calorie consumption.

Storing Free Food

Once you've built up your willpower, take some extra free goodies that people leave out in the break room or parties for some variety in snacks over the next few days. Even if they're high calorie snacks like cookies or something, in small portions they're fine and a nice break from your usual things. Make 2 of them your afternoon snack for one day and put it down for about 140-160 calories.

If you're worried about your willpower - especially while starting out, try picking up a Kitchen Safe. Before I started the Cheap Man's Plan on one of my other failed diets, I bought one - it's just a timed lockbox. It's $50 but it'll save you from yourself from over-snacking if you need it.

Finding Money

One of the minor side benefits of walking so much is that you'll find a lot more loose change on the ground. Pick it up and store it in a jar. I think I probably find $30-50/year. It's not a whole lot, but who cares. Maybe you'll even find some other random valuable items as I occasionally do.

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