In this episode, the Mechanic, the Accountant, and the Economist discuss how to take a bite out of your monthly food costs. We’ll sample a few new beers as usual too. If you found this podcast you’re probably familiar with the FI/RE movement that has grown in popularity recently. Here at the FI Garage, we’re all on the path to FI, however, we consider the RE part optional.
Beer #1 – Magic Hour Grapefruit Gose – Brewed & Bottled in Victoria, BC by Vancouver Island Brewing [0:47]
Interesting Article [3:11]
A lot of Canadians seem to have stopped investing to pay down their debts by Rob Carrick of the Globe and Mail
How to Save on Food Costs [6:40]
- Meal prepping and having quick to prepare homemade food available [7:39 & 23:47]
- Some go-tos: Chili, Chickpea Curry, Pasta or rice dishes, Thai Red Curry
- Leftovers and freezering
- Buying in bulk [11:18]
- Costco
- Knowing what you are buying costs [12:40]
- Shopping with a list [12:55]
- Per meal costs [14:00]
- Time savings of cooking [15:02]
- Having staples in the house and making a one-off meal in a hurry [15:30]
- Some go-tos: Tuna melt, Breakfast for dinner, Salad, Mini-Pizza [16:55]
- Growing fruit/vegetables/herbs [19:15]
- Being conscious of your food waste [22:26, 24:47, & 49:45]
- Planning to reduce waste – using recipes with similar ingredients
- Using the whole vegetable
- Proper food storage
- Avoiding pre-packaged food [25:33]
- Meal Prep delivery services – pros and cons (the one the Economist tried) [26:40]
- Expensive
- Lower-cost alternative to eating out
- Building a habit of cooking at home
- Expand your recipe base
- Reduces food waste
- Expensive Add-ons
- Not buying meals out, delivery, take-out, and convenience foods [30:04]
- Food delivery services – Marketplace Video [33:20]
- Shopping for deals [45:20]
Beer #2 – Twisted Stalk Blackberry Helles – Brewed & Bottled in Victoria, BC by Vancouver Island Brewing [35:12]
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Deep Dive [38:18]
- How much does it cost you to eat out for lunch every day at work? Let say you buy lunch out for $10 per day every day and that bringing your lunch each day would cost you $5.
- In most cases, people spend more than this and would be able to make lunch at home for less but we will use these numbers to keep it simple.
- This means that by not bringing your own packed lunch it is costing you an extra $5 per day or $25 per week. Assuming you work 50 weeks a year this means you’re spending an extra $1,250 per year because you choose not to pack your own lunch for work.
- This may not seem like a lot but let’s take an investment of $1,250 per year over a 30-year career earning a modest 5% per year return. When we plug this into a compound interest calculator we get an ending value of $84,725. Looks like those lunches out are costing you a little more than you thought.
- With 9% return instead (closer to the annual return of the S&P 500 over the past 90 years) this increases to $183,963.
- Now for something more realistic: we make lunch for an average cost of about $2.50 per day and the most people in our city spend closer to $15 a day on lunch the real cost of lunch may be closer to $12.50 per day or $62.5 per week. This would be $3,125 a year and would hold a future value in 30 years at 9% of $457,408. It’s amazing how something as simple as deciding to pack your own lunch can have such a significant impact on your future financial situation.
- The value of $457,408 in hours at a $40 wage rate is 11,435 hours of working time, 1,429 work days, or 5.5 work years.
- Is this the Latte Factor? [42:17]
Stupid Money Move [47:22]
How Much Money Are You Throwing Away Each Year
Reading List
- The Mechanic’s Chocolate Problem [13:33]
- The Latte Factor (Book by David Bach)
- The Latte Factor Explained (Blog Post)