Couple cut food budget by $100
CUTTING MORE | Home manicures, fewer trips to hair salon
(Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)
Valerie and Todd Hill are battling the gasoline-price crunch by eating out less often, packing lunches, using grocery coupons and denying themselves high-priced organic foods at specialty stores.
"We discovered we were spending $100 to $150 a month on takeout and fast food," said Valerie Hill, assistant relationship manager at ShoreBank.
She takes evening classes and her husband works late, so the pickup meals were an easy alternative. But with gasoline prices hovering at $4 a gallon, and with no easy alternatives to driving, the Hazel Crest couple have slashed spending on takeout meals by half.
Todd Hill, a distributor of Kemetics Imports hair- and skin-care products, buys groceries and other products in bulk at discount stores such as Wal-Mart. They've stopped shopping at specialty stores.
The couple, both 40, have a 10-year-old son, Ayinde.
"Three months ago, we were spending $350 a month on food. Now we're at about $250," Valerie Hill said.
She has taken these other money-saving steps:
• • Doing her own manicures.
• • Going to the hair salon once a month rather than every two weeks.
• • Shopping for fruits, fresh deli meats and other items for brown-bag lunches.
• • Paying more attention to newspaper coupons, especially to save on dishwasher and laundry detergent.
• • Cutting out weekend shopping trips for clothes and personal items.
"I am more intentional about my activities," she said.