Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Can You Benefit from a Meal Kit?

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You’ve likely seen the advertisements for meal delivery kits and wondered, can you benefit from a meal kit? For a set amount, averaging about $7 to $12 per meal per person, the meal service company sends you a box with all the ingredients you need for three different meals with two or four servings, depending on what you choose, as well as the recipe for each meal.

Can You Benefit from a Meal Kit?

There are so many kits to choose from: Green Chef, Hello Fresh, and Blue Apron, just to name a few.  You can find meal kits that are offered for vegans, that have options for those who are gluten-free or nut-free, and those who prefer organic food only.

I’ve personally tried Green Chef, and my family and I loved the meals, but we didn’t love the price tag.  However, while regularly subscribing to a meal kit isn’t good for us at this stage in our lives, there are plenty of times that buying a meal kit is a great financial choice:

When You Don’t Know How to Cook

Can You Benefit from a Meal Kit?
Photo by Le Creuset on Unsplash

Unfortunately, more and more kids are leaving the nest without knowing how to cook.  If your cooking consists of boxed macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, and eggs, a meal kit service might be perfect for you.  Not only will you get to eat tasty, nutritious food, but using the kit week after week will slowly help you learn to cook.  Eventually, you’ll be able to cook on your own, without the meal kit service.  Knowing how to cook is a skill that is priceless.

When You Would Go Out to Eat Instead

When I worked full-time and my husband was a full-time student and we had an infant, we went out to eat much more than we should have.  We wasted thousands of dollars because we were just too tired to go grocery shopping regularly and figure out what to eat.  In this case, a meal kit would have saved us so much money.  While meal kits are more expensive than cooking from scratch and buying your own groceries, they are cheaper than going out to eat for a meal in a nice, sit down restaurant.

When You Need A Healthier Option

If you eat out frequently or dine on delivered pizza or Chinese, a meal kit may be perfect for you because it’s likely healthier than the food that you’re currently eating.  I found Green Chef to be very healthy; each meal had a lean protein and a variety of vegetables that were of different colors.  Another bonus is that the meals are already portioned for you, so you won’t overindulge, unlike restaurant portions.

Can you benefit from a meal kit?  Only you can answer that.  A meal kit service isn’t right for everyone.  Certainly, choosing your own recipes, grocery shopping, and cooking for yourself is a more frugal option.  But not everyone cares about frugality when it comes to meals.  There are times when a meal kit subscription is the perfect option.

Have you ever subscribed to a meal kit service?  If so, which one?  Were you happy with the food and recipes that you received?

To Grow Wealthy, Stay Where You Are

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When I was little, I devoured the Little House on the Prairie series. I felt bad then for Ma and Pa. I felt bad for the way they struggled financially, facing setback after setback. I felt bad that they always had to move just as soon as they were settled.

But then I read the books again as an adult. Then I read them one more time to my daughters. Now I realize, as much as Pa was a loving father, he was responsible for a lot of his family’s financial hardships.

Life in Wisconsin was good for them. But once Pa got the itch to go west, his family never had a stable environment. They never got more than a few years into getting settled and making a life for themselves before they moved again.

Does Moving Now Cause the Same Financial Difficulties?

Grow Wealthy
Grow Wealthy by Staying Put?

Most people would argue that life was different then, and moving around now doesn’t cause as much financial hardship, but as someone who recently completed a 2,000-mile move, I would disagree.

My husband and I had lived in Chicago for 14 years before we made the move last July to Tucson, Arizona. We went for my husband’s work and because the move would give us a lower cost of living and a pay raise for my husband. On paper, everything looked good.

We foolishly thought we’d stay for two to four years. Now, I’m not sure we should move so soon if we want to prosper financially.

Even though my husband’s employer paid for the move, we still had many expenses like setting up the utilities and paying deposits on them, buying a few new pieces of furniture, etc.

Breaking Even and Getting Ahead Takes Years

We bought a house when we moved here, knowing that we weren’t sure how long we’d stay. We’ve had our mortgage for 15 months now, and in that time, we’ve paid down $4,300 on principal. Our home has increased just $1,100 in value during that time. That gives us a cushion of about $5,400, but I’m guessing if we were to sell our house next year (which would be two years that we’ve lived here), we’d be losing money thanks to realtor fees.

We’ve also just reached the point where we’ve started to discover ways to save money in our new city. Now I know where the cheapest places are to buy groceries, secondhand clothes, etc. Our first few months here we spent much more than we normally do on groceries because I didn’t know which stores offered the best deals.

We also have finally found decent doctors and dentists. Our first few months here, we found out my daughter need 6(!) cavities filled. We had to go to four different dentists before we found one that we liked and could trust. All of those different visits cost us a little less than $200 out of pocket, and that was before her cavities were even filled.

Of course, I’m not saying never to move. In our case, the decrease in cost of living and my husband’s raise made it possible for us to own a house, which we couldn’t afford to do during our 14 years living in Chicago. However, the whole story isn’t just on paper.  When you move, there are many incidentals that add up. Moving repeatedly can cause you to struggle financially.

It’s no surprise to me that the only time in life when Pa and Ma flourished financially was after Ma put her foot down and refused to move from DeSmet, North Dakota. Without the constant moves, they could finally get established and become comfortable financially.

How often do you move? Do you agree that frequent moves are detrimental to your finances?

5 Reasons Why You Should Declutter Your Home Once a Year

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When we moved from Chicago to Tucson 18 months ago, packing was a nightmare.  We hadn’t had a good decluttering session in nearly 3.5 years, since our last move, which was local.  We spent weeks, yes, literally weeks, giving away and selling junk that we just didn’t use anymore before we could even start packing our possessions.

When we moved to Tucson, I vowed to keep on top of the clutter and the household messes.  However, when we prepared to go on vacation recently and knew that our tidy neighbors would be coming in and out of our house for two weeks to cat sit, we realized we had a problem.  The clutter, and the messes, had returned since the move.

I spent several weeks decluttering again.  Several bags of items went to the local kids’ resale shop; several boxes went in the garage earmarked for a garage sale later this year, and a lot of crap just got tossed in the garbage.

Now that we’re decluttered once again, I can’t believe how much better I feel.  From here on out, we’re decluttering once a year.  Here’s why:

Make Additional Money

I made nearly $100 at the kids’ resale shop.  I opted for store credit to get 30% more money.  I’ll use that over the next few months to get my kids clothes and birthday presents.  (Yep, the store sells NEW toys at a fraction of retail.)

I also made another $150 selling items on eBay.

We haven’t had our garage sale yet, but based on what we have to sell, I think we’ll easily make at least another $100.

Sure, these amounts aren’t going to even buy us a month’s worth of groceries, but we now have several hundred more dollars than we had a few short weeks ago, AND our house is much tidier.

5 reasons to declutter your house
Original IMG credit: Dafne Cholet on Flickr.

Save Money

There were several items like my son’s arm shield for archery, our headphones for the computer, to name a few, that we were planning to replace because we couldn’t find them.  Surprise, surprise, once we decluttered and cleaned up, we found these and many more things.  We saved ourselves from buying duplicates.  These small savings add up!

Kids Outgrow Things

Kids grow. . .A LOT!  Pants that fit last winter may be two inches too short this winter. Games that they loved to play with last summer may be too babyish this summer. Why keep all these relics of previous phases of childhood? Clear them out so you have more room. If you have an enormous amount of stuff in your house that you know will never get touched again, then searching for “rolloffs in my area” to help get it all gone can prove to be a very shrewd choice, as it will save you plenty of going back and forth with trips to the dump.

More Satisfaction With Being At Home

My youngest two children and I had a particularly painful decluttering session when we tackled all the papers, toys, and little pieces that were littering the floor in front of their toy area.  But how much better we all felt when we could see clean, empty floor in front of the toy shelves.  In fact, my children started playing immediately in that space and had a great time.

I notice now that the master bedroom is cleaner, I feel lighter and happier when I walk into the suddenly much more open space.

It’s Easier To Maintain Your Home

We hope to stay in our home for many years, but the reality is that my husband may not have a job here in another year or two.  Until he secures a permanent position, we feel like our home is ours temporarily, so it’s important to keep up a maintenance and cleaning routine in case we have to put it on the market some time.  Having a clutter free home makes this much easier.

What benefits do you get from a less cluttered home?