I have one clearly-defined goal for the next year. I am doing my best to try and save as much money as I can in order to attend a reunion in Scottsdale, Ariz. next summer. I'm not quite sure of what the final price tag for the trip will be, but it will definitely be one of those things that will take a great deal of "belt tightening" and saving in order to accomplish. It will happen, but not without a certain level of sacrifice now. I have no doubt in my mind that the small sacrifices I make now will be more than made up for when I visit life-long friends during that time.
One way in which I have decided to "cut back" is to not eat at restaurants during lunch. Not that we don't have good restaurants in the area and not that they don't offer a great deal of gastronomic value with their mid-day meal offerings; but I figure that compared to even the most reasonably priced meal (I won't mention the name of the eating establishment, but one would think they were eating a sandwich in an underground railway while there), I can save about five dollars for each can of soup I heat up instead. Recently, I was in a large retail store (I won't mention the name, but one would think they specialized in the sale of walls) shopping for a new pair of shoes. I usually don't care for shopping at this particular store, but I can get a new pair of shoes for $10 there. This particular shop also has a rather sizable grocery section; so I decided to purchase several cans of food products that I can consume for lunch. When I saw a display of several cans of a particular variety (I won't mention the name, but the label does feature a rather prominent chef who still thinks of himself as a boy) of beef ravioli and other assorted meat and pasta combinations, I decided to put several cans into my shopping buggy. A price of $0.98 per can seemed like a reasonable price for these culinary delights. A few minutes later, upon further investigation, I found a variety of "store brand" offerings of canned beef ravioli and other assorted meat and pasta combinations. These "store brand" offerings carried a price tag of $0.66 per can. I quickly did a bit of math in my head and figured that could conceivably equal nearly six dollars a month in savings. Small as that may seem, I told myself, "every dollar counts." After all, ravioli is ravioli, right? When I had lunch on Monday of this week, I discovered that there is a stark difference in the quality of taste where ravioli is concerned. The store brand ravioli was tolerable, but far from pleasurable. I have discovered that, at least when it comes to ravioli, six dollars a month is a fair price to pay for taste in meat and pasta dishes.
I have decided to try to save a little on peanut butter by using a "store brand" rather than a more expensive brand (I won't mention the name, but it makes one think of a boy who never grew up, who could also fly). After all, peanut butter is peanut butter, right?