Here are some items that have helped bolster my frugality. I offer these recommendations with one small caveat: This page contains affiliate links that render me a pittance that, one day, could buy me a cup of coffee.
Resources
- Thrive Market. This online retailer has a great selection of health foods at good prices — much better than Whole Foods or similar. My go-to items include coffee, coconut milk, organic flour, and olive oil. If you decide to sign up, please use my referral link!
- Butcher Box. We have been Butcher Box customers since we first moved to New York. We are able to purchase higher welfare meat at much better prices than at Whole Foods. If you decide to sign up, please use my referral link!
Kitchen equipment
- Breville bread machine. Read my post, The Price of Sliced Bread, for the details on this magic machine.
- FoodSaver. This thing should really be called Money Saver. It allows me to buy meat in bulk at cheap prices and save it in reasonably sized portions without risk of freezer burn, unlike just using normal freezer bags.
- Bialetti coffee maker. I have used this stove-top espresso maker (known as a macchinetta in Italy and a moka pot everywhere else) for more than 10 years. It makes a damn good cup of strong coffee and it’s WAY better than Starbucks. Personally, I like macchinetta coffee better than French press coffee. Incidentally, it’s a complete myth that espresso is higher in caffeine. The steam forces its way through the grounds so fast the water does not have time to pick up that much caffeine. I just add soy milk to mine, but you can also had some hot water for a makeshift Americano if that suits you better.
- Souper Cubes. These nifty little silicone ice cube trays are a serious money-saver. Having a stash of homemade food in the freezer stops me from ordering Uber Eats on busy days. I also find that I don’t waste as much. You know when you only need a half a can of diced tomatoes for a recipe? Freeze and label the rest instead of letting it sit in the fridge where it molders before you use it.
Books
I’m so middle class! I grew up thinking that all millionaires drive BMWs and eat fillet mignon every night while tossing their heads back with maniacal laughter. Turns out those people are just highly-leveraged social climbers and true millionaires drive Chevys and eat hamburger. Key takeaway: The Jonses are broke.
I’ve always had a hard time getting rid of things. If I have even a glimmer of hope that I’ll someday use an item, I keep it. It’s a family obsession, especially in the female line. I come from farm people, as in middle-of-nowhere-Canadian-Prairies farm people where self-sustenance was just what you did. My grandmother kept mayonnaise jars, coffee cans, Oxydol boxes and margarine tubs to be reused for home organization. Ripped clothes were patched and fixed with the zig-zag stitch of a sewing machine. Her cold room was filled with preserves from her enormous garden.
My mom grew up with that ethos, and she passed it on to me in turn. When I was a kid, my mom would occasionally suggest we work together to clean out my room. I’d make a “throw away” pile and invariably she would talk me into keeping all of it. “This is still good!” she would say. “Keep these old jeans for camping!” Ah, so many beliefs I have had to release. The Year of Less is a wonderful memoir of a young woman’s goal to reduce the number of items she owned to strictly what she either used or loved. Minimalism and Financial Independence make good bedfellows, and I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to change their belief that buying or owning things creates happiness.