The cure to empty cabinets

… is of course to go food shopping. BUT if you’re like me and that just never seems to happen (I think I’ve been living off old pasta, chili my dad made when I was at home and grapefruit my grandmother mailed me from Arizona, for like, two months) there’s a Web site for you!

At NotBeansAgain.com, you enter whatever you’ve got in your fridge into its ingrediometer and you’ll get a list of recipes you can make without having to go food shopping. Plus, there’s a “League of Thrift” column on the homepage with the day’s top recipes, so if you have to go food shopping, at least you can try to find something that uses the least amount of ingredients. The current winner according to me? Poor Student Pie (because how could you not relate?) which appropriately calls for 2 potatoes, 1 can of beans, butter, grated cheese and chili powder. So even if you don’t have all of that - you could easily pick up a few things for less than 10 bucks (which it would totally cost to order out) and be set for dinner tonight … and maybe lunch tomorrow.

Now, don’t expect magic or anything people, if you’ve only got lettuce and some pickles, it’s not going to turn out a secret recipe for Filet Mignon, but still, who knew most of your leftovers could be put to use? And when you’re strapped for cash, every day you don’t have to buy milk and eggs or hit up Campusfood.com counts for something.

Save on Christmakkah shopping!

Visit Restaurant.com NOW and get a $25 coupon for $10! $2!!

Just type in your area code for a list of restaurants near you.

You can thank me later.

UPDATE: Get at $25 coupon for …. $2 with the special discount code: SURPRISE.

The 1-day challenge

Does anyone else see something a little ironic about the concept of a one-day challenge? Maybe that it’s only one-day long? I mean, there’s probably little that you couldn’t survive for just one day, even people diagnosed with the black plague were given a few days to go.

Well The Simple Dollar suggested a new way to save money - don’t spend anything for one day. Now if that sounds completely outrageous to you, I think you’ve got some serious financial woes ahead of you. If you’re saying, one day? I can do that easy - then I think you should do it for a week.

It’s all about budgeting - think about what it would really take to spend $0 one week, fill up your gas tank on Sunday, buy groceries that last (eggs, rice, frozen meats, pasta, coffee - yes, that’s a food group), maybe some alcohol to get through the weekend and what else do you really need?

It may seem like you wouldn’t really be saving any money because you’re just spending it all on Sunday instead of throughout the week - but what the challenge does is make you think about what you need and what you don’t need, how much you really spend on things, and how you can reduce that. If you did this once a month, I think the savings would be significant because eventually, your whole outlook on spending, saving and consuming would change.

Ramit picked up this story on I Will Teach You To Be Rich and featured a reader who took the challenge and saved between $50 and $200!

We do a week with NO spending. We fill the car with gas and hit the grocery store on Sunday. Starting Monday, we cannot spend a CENT. Sort of a fun little challenge. And it is only for a week. So, if I see something I need or want, I can get it next week. No cheating. AMAZING results. The first time I did it, I was flabbergasted to have the same $20 bill in my wallet. I got very used to it and so it is a nice little “shot in the arm” technique. Kind of like a fast to begin a diet regime.

Take a shot at it, if you can’t make it for a week, try a day. Let me know how it goes for you.

How to save money on Halloween ….

Pay less for dinner … unless you eat too much

I was with friends at Chili’s the other night and was surprised that our waiter Dan offered to separate our check - there were 12 of us. Being the skeptic I am, I wondered if the restaurant actually makes out better that way because of separate tax and separate tipping and the fact that everyone usually just rounds up or throws in an extra single here or there. The fact that Dan could just be kind did not occur to  me.

So I made up a fake bill for five people who ordered meals with the following prices: $10, $7, $12, $24 and $12.

Next I calculated the total bill if all meals were on one check: with an 8.625% tax and 20% tip, the total is $83.61.

If all meals were on separate checks with the same tax and a 20% tip for each meal, the totals are (in the same order as previously listed): $12.86, $9, $15.44, $30.87 and $15.44 - which equals …… $83.61. It’s exactly the same. It was a really disappointing push of the equal sign on the calculator for me.

BUT when the total bill is on one check, each person adds about $4 onto the cost of their meal to cover tax and tip. When the bill is separated into 5 checks, the person with the most expensive meal adds more than $7 (if you’re that person, ignore this post and make your friends combine the bill) while everyone else adds less than the $4 they would have with a combined bill.

It’s not quite the significant savings I had hoped for, but at least now you all know.

So basically, whenever you can, try to separate the check and you’ll probably save at least a few bucks. Oh, and don’t tip on the tax! Divide the SUBTOTAL by 5 to figure out how much to tip (for 20%).

Also, if you’re at the Chili’s in Ithaca, ask for Dan - it turns out he was just a nice guy.

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Sidenote: before I get comments about how you shouldn’t mind throwing in the extra money to support the waiter I’d like to point out that both outcomes leave Dan with a 20% tip, the difference is who pays it.