Wisdom from The Action Wisdom In Action

The 50% Solution

From Fox Business News. It's about living on half of what you used to live on.

UPDATE: More on using half from the Dollar Stretcher.

"...my husband dredged up one piece of juicy financial advice he recalled from his grad school days: Use half of what you normally would."

...

"One reason cutting back on consumption has worked so well for me is that I automated it. Rather than depend on my fragile mind to remember to use smaller sloshes of soap or shampoo every time I wash, I buy my cleaning products and personal care items in bulk and pour them into smaller containers — at half strength. The small plastic bottle next to the kitchen sink contains half water and half soap. I use the same amount when I wash the dishes, but I’m going through the soap at half the rate I used to.

The 50-percent solution has worked so well for me with my household goods, I decided to expand it to other areas of my life. In addition to basic consumables, I’ve applied to 50-percent solution to:

* Shopping for clothes. I mostly don’t shop for clothes, but on the rare occasion that I do, I’ve learned to ask: Do I need two of these? I picked up the habit of buying multiples of something I like when I was younger. While that often works out well, just as often I can get by with one pair of jeans or one new bra.

* Going out to bars and restaurants. This is often a trouble spot for me, since I love going out with friends. Scaling back that type of social activity by half lets me stay close to the people I care about without busting my budget.

* Over the counter medications. Take two aspirin and call me when you’ve tried cutting back to see if one will do the trick. I wouldn’t suggest trying this with your prescription meds, but for simple over-the-counter stuff like headache medicine, I’ve found that a half dose is often perfectly effective.

* Groceries. My kids will eat a near infinite amount of fresh fruit, pretzels, and yogurt. How much is enough? The only way to tell was to gradually buy less until we ran out and they complained. We’ve cut our grocery budget in half combining this with other grocery savings hacks. We also waste practically no food these days, which is a pretty great feeling.

* Therapeutic appointments. My husband sees a chiropractor regularly for chronic back issues. Over time, they’ve gradually scaled back their appointments from twice a week to only twice a month. This saves us time and money. As with all these measures though, the key is to get to Enough. Cutting back too much on these appointments would cause him pain and interfere with his life. The balancing act is to be sure he gets what he needs from his chiropractor, without over-committing resources that could be better used elsewhere."

...

"As with any money hack, the most important thing isn’t how I save the money, it’s what I do with it. A dollar saved is only really saved if I don’t immediately spend it on something else. The savings from these gradual reductions in consumption are often harder to see than the clear figures one gets from canceling a subscription and saving the monthly fee."

...

"I love this approach because it helps me find balance. It’s not about committing to a life of extreme austerity, it’s about avoiding waste. I often think of the curve at the beginning of Your Money or Your Life that shows a person’s happiness increasing as they have the resources to supply their basic needs, and then some comforts and finally a few luxuries. Beyond that magic point of Enough, the curve calls off as more and more luxuries are piled on but fail to satisfy.

The 50-percent solution helps me know what my personal Enough is. What’s Enough soap? Enough entertainment? Enough snack food?

Scaling back incrementally lets me find those magic points on the curve and stay close to them. I get to have Enough to be happy, without wasting resources like money, time and energy on acquiring more of something than I need or want."

This is one way to stretch food to last longer: look at the label's serving size portion, and adhere to it. If the Cheetos bag says that 10 Cheetos are one serving, don't have any more than 10--same goes for ALL food. The Food Guide Pyramid says we all need 6 oz. of meat per day, so stick with the two 3-oz. servings daily as your guide--your meat will go farther and last longer.

Here's my example of stretching dry goods so one bag will feed the neighborhood:

Using the Food Guide Pyramid info as reference, determine how much of what foods constitute a serving, and then calculate how much each serving costs. For example, let’s say you've just bought a 2 pound bag of brown rice for $1.29--that's 65¢/lb. dry cost.

$1.29 (price) divided by 2 (dry weight in pounds) = 65¢

Next, you determine the amount of cooked rice that equals 1 serving (1/2 cup according to the Pyramid). A 2 lb. bag of rice contains 4 cups uncooked rice, and 1 dry measure cup = 8 oz. or 1/2 lb., so each dry cup is worth 32¢.

$1.29 (price) divided by 4 (cups in dry measure) = 32¢

Since rice doubles in size, you'd only have to cook 1/4 c. dry rice to get the 1/2 cup serving size, which will now cost you only 16¢ per serving, since you now need half the amount of dry rice.

$1.29 (price) divided by 8 (cups in cooked measure) = 16¢

Even if you dumped the ENTIRE BAG into the pot, you would get 8 cups of cooked rice for $1.29 and 16¢ per serving--enough to feed 16 people 1/2 cup at a time, or measure 1/2 cup portions times the number of people you regularly feed, then freeze in zippy bags or food storage containers. Now, all you need to do is thaw your next side dish—the cooking’s done!

Hint: rice freezes well, so go ahead and cook the entire bag. The same cost-per-serving principle above applies to pasta, beans, oatmeal, and other dried foods as well, but of these, only beans and rice freeze well.

Portion size is our problem here in America--we eat too much per serving! By measuring out the portion size and calculating out the cost per portion, the cost of feeding goes down DRAMATICALLY. This enables you to know your costs per meal, and to eat for a heck of a lot less than you are now. You certainly don't have to live on beans, rice, and pasta to do it, either. This is what home economics was all about once upon a time.

The article link above contains more info for stretching other foods--not just dry goods. Here are articles from the archives that will help you save 50%-90% on stuff you eat now:

The Meat Manifesto
Rethinking Protein Sources...Again
Wenchypoo's Magic 8 Foods

For cleaning solutions, use 50% diluted bleach, baking soda, or rubbing alcohol--that's all you need, and these products are allergy-free and so much cheaper than regular cleaning supplies.
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Question: when was the last time you looked at the serving size of the soda you drink (if you drink it)? Most small plastic bottles of Coke contain 3 servings, yet we swill down the entire bottle and consider it one serving.

Next time you grab a soda, turn it around and check the label. For caloric info accuracy, multiply the amount of serving sizes by the number of calories, sugar, salt, etc. to get a TRUE picture of what you're actually fixing to swill.