A few weeks ago I made my concerns known to the world about my receiver/subwoofer/surround sound system. Today I am pleased to report that I have the unit back and in operational order. Let's crunch the numbers to see how much it was to repair the unit.
This particular electronics shop charges a $20 fee + tax to look at whatever you bring in. Then if the repairs will cost under $100, they will go ahead and fix it, whereas over $100 gets you an estimate and the option to repair. In either case, the $20 is spent.
Deposit cost w/ tax: $23.10.
I brought the unit in to the repair place on July 8th and picked it up today, July 21. During this time I racked up $7.95 in parts and another $60 in labour.
Repair costs w/ tax and deposit deducted: $78.49.
As Schaef mentioned in the previous post, time as well as gas is a factor, especially since it was up west. When I dropped it off, I had to go down to Summerside for a dentist appointment anyways, so for that leg of the trip, I'm only counting kilometers and time from my parent's place to the repair shop and back. However, picking it up required a special trip.
Total km for drop off and pickup: 166.5 km. Based on out average 10.864 L/100 km that works out to 18.09 L of gas. At average prices for the time period of repair, total fuel costs are: $24.70.
Total Monetary Cost: $126.29.
Total Time cost: 186 minutes which includes driving, explaining the problem, and testing the device before paying.
Was it worth it? I think it was, since I have my system back with no worries about receiver compatibility with the speakers, and I'm not contributing to the cycle of consumer waste. When will I replace it? Likely when the cost to repair is more than replacing the unit with a completely new system, including speakers.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
The Value of Your Time: Part 1
The Value of Your Time: Part 1
Based on Scholarly Warrior's comment found here, I've been thinking more about the cost of my time and how it should/shouldn't be applied when making your own food, doing your own repair, etc...
This post will focus on the time taken for the home made sandwich case versus the "convenient" case of buying premade food at a grocery store.
Case 1: DiY Sandwich Making
The total, upfront cost at the register would have been $9.22. From the time to enter the store, roam the aisles picking up bread, tomato, pickles, mustard, meat, standing in line and leaving, I think I spent 10-15 minutes. Assembly for two sandwiches, as I said in the previous post, took about 8-10 minutes. This gives a total time investment of 18-25 minutes.
Case 2: Convenience Food
The total, upfront cost at the register would have been $7.49. I estimate that from entering the store, grabbing the premade item(s), paying for them and exiting to be approximately 6-8 minutes depending on line-ups. This estimate seems reasonable.
Comparisons
The time investment in this Case 2 is clearly less than buying individual food items and assembling a sandwich on your own. However, things get interesting when we compare long term, repeated behaviours of eating convenience items to doing it yourself.
With the goods I purchased, I had an abundant of leftovers to make an additional two sandwiches. If I were to make those two additional sandwiches, the only time sink is construction, and, if made at the same time, would cost another 8-10 minutes. Thus total time for creation of 4 sandwiches, made two at a time would be 26-35 minutes. Total monetary cost is still $9.22. This gives a unit cost of 26.3-35.5 cents per minute. Note this does not include the value of my time (see part 2).
If I was at home and wanted to have a quick bite and decided I wanted a convenience food item, I have to pay the total cost in dollars and time of Case #2 every, single time. Thus if I did this four times, I would have to drive to the store and back (round trip time 12 minutes) and pay $7.49 along with 6-8 minutes in the store. Thus total monetary cost is $29.96 (excluding gas costs) and total time investment is [12 minutes*3 round trips] + [6-8 minutes*4 stops at the store] = 60-72 minutes. This gives a unit cost of 41.6-49.9 cents per minute.
In closing for Part 1, each individual case of the "convenience" items seems cheaper and more time effective, but if we look at the long term effects of going this route, it turns out to be more expensive.
Based on Scholarly Warrior's comment found here, I've been thinking more about the cost of my time and how it should/shouldn't be applied when making your own food, doing your own repair, etc...
This post will focus on the time taken for the home made sandwich case versus the "convenient" case of buying premade food at a grocery store.
Case 1: DiY Sandwich Making
The total, upfront cost at the register would have been $9.22. From the time to enter the store, roam the aisles picking up bread, tomato, pickles, mustard, meat, standing in line and leaving, I think I spent 10-15 minutes. Assembly for two sandwiches, as I said in the previous post, took about 8-10 minutes. This gives a total time investment of 18-25 minutes.
Case 2: Convenience Food
The total, upfront cost at the register would have been $7.49. I estimate that from entering the store, grabbing the premade item(s), paying for them and exiting to be approximately 6-8 minutes depending on line-ups. This estimate seems reasonable.
Comparisons
The time investment in this Case 2 is clearly less than buying individual food items and assembling a sandwich on your own. However, things get interesting when we compare long term, repeated behaviours of eating convenience items to doing it yourself.
With the goods I purchased, I had an abundant of leftovers to make an additional two sandwiches. If I were to make those two additional sandwiches, the only time sink is construction, and, if made at the same time, would cost another 8-10 minutes. Thus total time for creation of 4 sandwiches, made two at a time would be 26-35 minutes. Total monetary cost is still $9.22. This gives a unit cost of 26.3-35.5 cents per minute. Note this does not include the value of my time (see part 2).
If I was at home and wanted to have a quick bite and decided I wanted a convenience food item, I have to pay the total cost in dollars and time of Case #2 every, single time. Thus if I did this four times, I would have to drive to the store and back (round trip time 12 minutes) and pay $7.49 along with 6-8 minutes in the store. Thus total monetary cost is $29.96 (excluding gas costs) and total time investment is [12 minutes*3 round trips] + [6-8 minutes*4 stops at the store] = 60-72 minutes. This gives a unit cost of 41.6-49.9 cents per minute.
In closing for Part 1, each individual case of the "convenience" items seems cheaper and more time effective, but if we look at the long term effects of going this route, it turns out to be more expensive.
Monday, July 7, 2008
To Eat or Heat
Gas and oil prices are high. This is not news. What is news though, at least on PEI, is that people are complaining about how prices of home heating oil are so high that they can't afford to buy food. Say what?
Granted food prices are increasing as well, but what annoys me is that people are clamouring for government to help them out rather than looking at their own spending. The people that are complaining would likely be up in arms at the mere suggestion that they don't need cable television, a 3000 square foot home, or 3 vehicles.
"But we work hard and deserve those things" the masses might say. Listen up folks: beyond the needs of food, shelter, and clothing, anything else is a luxury item. You might not like to hear that, but that does not make it any less true. Thus, do not look to government to bail you out, but rather see what you can do to help yourself. Let's see if we can get an extra tank of oil per year by trimming some spending from the average household's expenditures. For the purposes of this calculation, I am using the average household size from the 2006 Census of 2.5 persons per household.
From this page, we'll assume the average tank of oil holds 300 gallons or 1137 L. Based on current home heating oil prices in PEI of 125.5 cents per litre, a tank of oil will cost $1427.
According to the 2006 Census, the average expenditures per 2.5 person household includes $1714 for tobacco products and alcoholic beverages. Hey! Look at that! There's our tank of oil right there!
Well, a lot of household might not have smokers and/or drinkers so what can the more health conscious household do?
Cut your cable. Chances are that on PEI, it is through Eastlink whose prices range from $24.72 to $54.95 for basic and full-tier cable respectively. What to go digital? Try $57.95-$85.85 per month. Eliminate this bill and save $296.64-$1030.20 per year.
Switch your lightbulbs to CFLs. Trent from The Simple Dollar shows that you can save about $100 per year by changing over to these more efficient bulbs. Due to the recent increase in energy prices in PEI, the savings would be about $138 per year based on $0.14/kWh.
What else could you do?
Stop eating out and make your meals at home. I spent upwards of $100 on dining out a few months ago and am now making most meals at home. As well, there is only about a $10 difference in grocery bills plus I am eating healthier. Yes, eating at home saves that much money. The Defense of Food sites that half of American spending on food is for dining out, but just using myself as an example, if you spend $100 on eating out and change to cooking at home, the net savings each month would be $60 since you spend an additional $10 each week on groceries. Annual savings: $720.
Avoid the coffee shop. Rather than spending $1.50 each morning on the way to work, why not drink some water and perform a few light aerobic exercises to get the same wake-up effect. Annual savings: $390.
Tallying these savings up we get an annual savings between $1544.64-$2278.20, more than enough for a tank of oil. These are only some of the options available to you to save money for heating oil. Here are some others:
- install a programable thermostat
- drive less, using gas savings for oil
- energy seal your home
- move to a smaller home, which would cost less to heat
- sell a vehicle if you have more than 1
- get a roomate to share energy bills
- make more money
- move into an apartment that pays for the heat
In closing, I think the assumptions made in this article are reasonable for the typical PEI household. I expect, there would be more challenges for people with very low or fixed incomes, but many of these strategies can be applied there as well.
Moral of the story: Suck it up and be personally responsible for your situation. Stop whining to the government for help when you can easily make small adjustments to your lifestyle in order to get the result you want.
Granted food prices are increasing as well, but what annoys me is that people are clamouring for government to help them out rather than looking at their own spending. The people that are complaining would likely be up in arms at the mere suggestion that they don't need cable television, a 3000 square foot home, or 3 vehicles.
"But we work hard and deserve those things" the masses might say. Listen up folks: beyond the needs of food, shelter, and clothing, anything else is a luxury item. You might not like to hear that, but that does not make it any less true. Thus, do not look to government to bail you out, but rather see what you can do to help yourself. Let's see if we can get an extra tank of oil per year by trimming some spending from the average household's expenditures. For the purposes of this calculation, I am using the average household size from the 2006 Census of 2.5 persons per household.
From this page, we'll assume the average tank of oil holds 300 gallons or 1137 L. Based on current home heating oil prices in PEI of 125.5 cents per litre, a tank of oil will cost $1427.
According to the 2006 Census, the average expenditures per 2.5 person household includes $1714 for tobacco products and alcoholic beverages. Hey! Look at that! There's our tank of oil right there!
Well, a lot of household might not have smokers and/or drinkers so what can the more health conscious household do?
Cut your cable. Chances are that on PEI, it is through Eastlink whose prices range from $24.72 to $54.95 for basic and full-tier cable respectively. What to go digital? Try $57.95-$85.85 per month. Eliminate this bill and save $296.64-$1030.20 per year.
Switch your lightbulbs to CFLs. Trent from The Simple Dollar shows that you can save about $100 per year by changing over to these more efficient bulbs. Due to the recent increase in energy prices in PEI, the savings would be about $138 per year based on $0.14/kWh.
What else could you do?
Stop eating out and make your meals at home. I spent upwards of $100 on dining out a few months ago and am now making most meals at home. As well, there is only about a $10 difference in grocery bills plus I am eating healthier. Yes, eating at home saves that much money. The Defense of Food sites that half of American spending on food is for dining out, but just using myself as an example, if you spend $100 on eating out and change to cooking at home, the net savings each month would be $60 since you spend an additional $10 each week on groceries. Annual savings: $720.
Avoid the coffee shop. Rather than spending $1.50 each morning on the way to work, why not drink some water and perform a few light aerobic exercises to get the same wake-up effect. Annual savings: $390.
Tallying these savings up we get an annual savings between $1544.64-$2278.20, more than enough for a tank of oil. These are only some of the options available to you to save money for heating oil. Here are some others:
- install a programable thermostat
- drive less, using gas savings for oil
- energy seal your home
- move to a smaller home, which would cost less to heat
- sell a vehicle if you have more than 1
- get a roomate to share energy bills
- make more money
- move into an apartment that pays for the heat
In closing, I think the assumptions made in this article are reasonable for the typical PEI household. I expect, there would be more challenges for people with very low or fixed incomes, but many of these strategies can be applied there as well.
Moral of the story: Suck it up and be personally responsible for your situation. Stop whining to the government for help when you can easily make small adjustments to your lifestyle in order to get the result you want.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The Debt-inator
In my last net worth update, I mentioned that my debt was completely wiped out. So how does one kill nearly $4000 worth of student loan debt in one fell swoop? The answer my friends is punctuality and the Canadian Millenium Scholarship Foundation.
During my tenure as a substitute teacher between January-June 2007, I was made aware of the scholarship by two pre-service teachers that were on their practicum at Kinkora Regional High School. They told me that you have to submit the application with some other information on the first day of your classes and that it was basically first come, first serve.
That day came and I marched myself to Student Financial Services located in the Sullivan building in downtown Charlottetown. I dropped off the submission form and proceeded to forget about the entire thing for seven months.
Therefore it was a complete surprise when I opened the mailbox to see that I was the recipient of a $4000 scholarship that would be applied to my student loan! How awesome is that?
I'm not trying to toot my own horn on this, but it was very comforting to know that I would essentially only be paying about one and a bit years worth of tuition for my education degree. This makes my repayment of the remaining debt (to be accrued in September 2008 and January 2009) a much easier task.
Speaking of which, I still plan on continuing to put $100 away each month as a bit of a head start to repaying the loan. I have all my remaining student loan money in the intrest-plus savings account through PC Financial and although I could likely make more money faster by investing that $100, I'm still not at an investing stage yet. As well, this method is very low risk and will give me the peace of mind of being able to pay off the debt in a reasonable time-frame.
Thus, my net worth updates might look a bit weird in the upcoming months since I now have negative debt. I'll figure out a way to meaningfully represent this somehow and discuss it more in the next update.
During my tenure as a substitute teacher between January-June 2007, I was made aware of the scholarship by two pre-service teachers that were on their practicum at Kinkora Regional High School. They told me that you have to submit the application with some other information on the first day of your classes and that it was basically first come, first serve.
That day came and I marched myself to Student Financial Services located in the Sullivan building in downtown Charlottetown. I dropped off the submission form and proceeded to forget about the entire thing for seven months.
Therefore it was a complete surprise when I opened the mailbox to see that I was the recipient of a $4000 scholarship that would be applied to my student loan! How awesome is that?
I'm not trying to toot my own horn on this, but it was very comforting to know that I would essentially only be paying about one and a bit years worth of tuition for my education degree. This makes my repayment of the remaining debt (to be accrued in September 2008 and January 2009) a much easier task.
Speaking of which, I still plan on continuing to put $100 away each month as a bit of a head start to repaying the loan. I have all my remaining student loan money in the intrest-plus savings account through PC Financial and although I could likely make more money faster by investing that $100, I'm still not at an investing stage yet. As well, this method is very low risk and will give me the peace of mind of being able to pay off the debt in a reasonable time-frame.
Thus, my net worth updates might look a bit weird in the upcoming months since I now have negative debt. I'll figure out a way to meaningfully represent this somehow and discuss it more in the next update.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
A Conundrum
In May of 2003 I purchased a Panasonic surround sound system that can be classified under the heading of a "home theatre in a box" as all the necessary components come in one convenient package: 5 speakers, sub-woofer, and 5-disk DVD player/receiver. This auditory wonder has served me well over the past 5 years, with only an easily fixed, over-heating problem to speak of. However there is now a problem:
It's dead.
About a week ago we noticed that after being turned on for several minutes, the unit would power down and go into standby mode. At this point, the unit can not be powered back on unless the power cord was unplugged.
Being the internet savy person that I am, I explored the wonders of Google to discover that this is a known issue with this, and other, surround sounds systems. Generically dubbed, "The F61 Error" has three possible causes: faulty cabling leading to the subwoofer, an amp being blown, or a power supply issue.
I removed all cabling from the device, yet the error persisted. I opened it up to see if there was any charring from something being blown, but nothing was evident. Thus I reach my conundrum: What is the best way to get this situation resolved?
My 2002 self would know what to do of course: go to futureshop and buy the coolest looking surround sound system they had. However, I'd like to think I've grown wiser in the intervening years and think I should investigate the following three options:
(NOTE: time frames and costs are estimates only as I have not done much research yet on options #2 and #3)
Option #1: Get it professionally repaired
Ideally, this option makes the most sense. However, there are a very limited supply of people that do consumer-level electronic repair work. I went through 6 places before I called one that could do it. The catch: they have a two month backlog because the main guy that would do it is always out repairing big-screen TVs since they make more bang per buck that way.
Estimated Option #1 Cost: $50 labour + parts
Estimated Option #1 Timeframe: 2+ months
Option #2: Purchase a new receiver w/o subwoofer and use current speakers
With this otion I would sell/get rid of the current 5-disk changer and subwoofer and get a new receiver which would hook-up to my current 5 speakers. I have to investigate whether any receiver can work for these speakers or it needs to have certain specifications. I'm wary about that since the instruction manual says not to hook different speakers to the subwoofer. Does anyone know if that works in reverse: hooking the speakers to a different receiver?
Estimated Option #2 Cost: $200-500
Estimated Option #2 Timeframe: 1-2 weeks as I need to research my concerns.
Option #3: Bite the bullet and get a brand new system
This option requires the least amount of thought and time yet will be the most expensive by far. It would be great to cave-in to my technolust and get a snazzy wireless suround sound system, but I can probably keep that crazy beast subdued in the back of my brain.
Estimated Option #3 Cost: $300-1500
Estimated Option #3 Timeframe: immediately
So looking at those options it's kind of neat to see the inverse correlation between cost and the time investment to resolve the situation.
However, despite all this, I have to ask the question: "Do I really need a working surround sound system at this point in my life?" It honestly does not get that much use as it is and if we want to watch a DVD we can always hook up the X-box to the tv in the living room. I'm more just pissed off that one of the constants in my life, my entertainment status-quo as it were, is effed up.
It's dead.
About a week ago we noticed that after being turned on for several minutes, the unit would power down and go into standby mode. At this point, the unit can not be powered back on unless the power cord was unplugged.
Being the internet savy person that I am, I explored the wonders of Google to discover that this is a known issue with this, and other, surround sounds systems. Generically dubbed, "The F61 Error" has three possible causes: faulty cabling leading to the subwoofer, an amp being blown, or a power supply issue.
I removed all cabling from the device, yet the error persisted. I opened it up to see if there was any charring from something being blown, but nothing was evident. Thus I reach my conundrum: What is the best way to get this situation resolved?
My 2002 self would know what to do of course: go to futureshop and buy the coolest looking surround sound system they had. However, I'd like to think I've grown wiser in the intervening years and think I should investigate the following three options:
(NOTE: time frames and costs are estimates only as I have not done much research yet on options #2 and #3)
Option #1: Get it professionally repaired
Ideally, this option makes the most sense. However, there are a very limited supply of people that do consumer-level electronic repair work. I went through 6 places before I called one that could do it. The catch: they have a two month backlog because the main guy that would do it is always out repairing big-screen TVs since they make more bang per buck that way.
Estimated Option #1 Cost: $50 labour + parts
Estimated Option #1 Timeframe: 2+ months
Option #2: Purchase a new receiver w/o subwoofer and use current speakers
With this otion I would sell/get rid of the current 5-disk changer and subwoofer and get a new receiver which would hook-up to my current 5 speakers. I have to investigate whether any receiver can work for these speakers or it needs to have certain specifications. I'm wary about that since the instruction manual says not to hook different speakers to the subwoofer. Does anyone know if that works in reverse: hooking the speakers to a different receiver?
Estimated Option #2 Cost: $200-500
Estimated Option #2 Timeframe: 1-2 weeks as I need to research my concerns.
Option #3: Bite the bullet and get a brand new system
This option requires the least amount of thought and time yet will be the most expensive by far. It would be great to cave-in to my technolust and get a snazzy wireless suround sound system, but I can probably keep that crazy beast subdued in the back of my brain.
Estimated Option #3 Cost: $300-1500
Estimated Option #3 Timeframe: immediately
So looking at those options it's kind of neat to see the inverse correlation between cost and the time investment to resolve the situation.
However, despite all this, I have to ask the question: "Do I really need a working surround sound system at this point in my life?" It honestly does not get that much use as it is and if we want to watch a DVD we can always hook up the X-box to the tv in the living room. I'm more just pissed off that one of the constants in my life, my entertainment status-quo as it were, is effed up.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Net Worth Update May 2008
A little later in the month than usual, but let's see if I reached my goals I set for May, shall we:
Assets - Up 4.7%
Goal set: +3.0% increase
A moderately higher asset increase than planned. I won't complain! This is due in part to keeping a reign on spending and you know, not purchasing $700 beds.
Goal for next month: I expect a nice bump in assets for next month since I'm getting a fair bit of subbing at island schools and I am back at Resolve full time. I am also going to try and unload some comics finally! As a bonus, I am resolving not to buy items that contribute to my "Latte Factor," such as chips, pop, coffee, muffins, etc... and really curbing my eating out at places like MacDonalds, Wendy's, and A&W. So let's go nuts and say a 5% increase.
Debt - Down 103.5%
Goal set: 2.0% decrease
Wow!!! WTF??? This month saw the total elimination of my current debt. How you might ask? Stay tuned...
Goal for next month: Well, this is interesting, isn't it? Since we aren't at the point where we are comfortable investing our savings yet, I may just keep adding to the bank account that will be used to fuel student loan payback as I will be accruing debt in September. This may be the topic of a future post. In terms of a goal, I think I will keep things simple and just focus on paying off the credit card consistently like I have been doing.
Overall Net Worth - Up 29.5%
That's certainly a hell of a bump. Next month should be back to more moderate increases.
Assets - Up 4.7%
Goal set: +3.0% increase
A moderately higher asset increase than planned. I won't complain! This is due in part to keeping a reign on spending and you know, not purchasing $700 beds.
Goal for next month: I expect a nice bump in assets for next month since I'm getting a fair bit of subbing at island schools and I am back at Resolve full time. I am also going to try and unload some comics finally! As a bonus, I am resolving not to buy items that contribute to my "Latte Factor," such as chips, pop, coffee, muffins, etc... and really curbing my eating out at places like MacDonalds, Wendy's, and A&W. So let's go nuts and say a 5% increase.
Debt - Down 103.5%
Goal set: 2.0% decrease
Wow!!! WTF??? This month saw the total elimination of my current debt. How you might ask? Stay tuned...
Goal for next month: Well, this is interesting, isn't it? Since we aren't at the point where we are comfortable investing our savings yet, I may just keep adding to the bank account that will be used to fuel student loan payback as I will be accruing debt in September. This may be the topic of a future post. In terms of a goal, I think I will keep things simple and just focus on paying off the credit card consistently like I have been doing.
Overall Net Worth - Up 29.5%
That's certainly a hell of a bump. Next month should be back to more moderate increases.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Foodery
One of my main vices for over spending is on eating out. Not nice sit -down, enjoy yourself, enjoy the atmosphere type meals, but rather the quick and dirty, often greasy take-out fast food variety. Those fatty deep fried morsels just taste so good on the tongue that it is often hard for me to resist the neon signs and 2 for $6 burger deals.
So I made a pact to myself: For the month of June I will not buy/eat this so-called food in the efforts to improve my health and also my wallet.
It shames me to say, but I spent over $100 on eating out last month. Not all of those dollars went towards fast food. No sir. Incldued in that 3-digit figure is a coffee here, a coffee there, here a pop, there a pop, a bag of chips sounds good type items. Those little things, which would be considered under the category of the Latte factor, really do add a significant drain on the pocketbook.
I would like to say that things are going very well thus far. I've cooked big batches of food including barley-chicken soup, chili, cornbread, and barley-lemon Tabbouleh (recipes and cost analysis to follow), so I don't have the often-used excuse that there is nothing to eat at home. So far for the month of June I have not indulged in any of my culinary vices.
I almost, possibly, kind-of slipped today though.
I didn't have a large lunch today and as I drove my fiance to work, I felt a familiar pain in my stomach saying "FEED ME". Rather than drive back home to get something to eat, my last month self would have swung into Wendy's or A&W and called it Good Eats. I was sorely tempted to purchase a premade $3.99 sandwich at Superstore today to feed my hunger. I know for a fact that if I did so, a $2 pop and a $1.50 bag of chips would have tagged along with it. This would have represented a $7.49 meal before any applicable taxes. I'm pretty sure that the chips would have been taxed and the pop price is with tax, but for the purposes of this analysis I think taxes will be inconsequential.
I did not take this option.
What I did instead was as follows:
1. I moseyed on over to the discount baked goods section and picked up a 50% off loaf of in-store baked European 12-grain bread. Cost after discount $1.25.
2. I sauntered to the produce section and took hold of an especially firm, medium sized tomato. Cost: $0.80.
3. I wandered to the deli counter and ordered 2 slices of Vermont style Ham and 2 slices of Roast Beef. Cost: $1.89 and $2.40 respectively.
4. I strolled to the condiment aisle and snatched a small bottle of mustard as the deli counter did not have small fast-food type packets. Cost: $0.89.
5. I side-stepped in the condiment aisle and secured a jar of deli-style bread and butter pickles. Cost $1.99.
Total price of the goods here: $9.22 and these items are tax-exempt.
I then drove to work, spent 5-10 minutes constructing two, 1 meat slice sandwiches, grabbed a free leftover bleuberry-bran muffin and a cup of free leftover Vanilla-Hazlenut coffee from the cafeteria, and had a delicious and nutritious meal.
Going the non-last-month-me-way provided the means to create 4 sandwiches with ample leftovers for other delicious things. Based on the total price of $9.22, this works out to be $2.31/sandwich. 42% cheaper than buying the premade one.
One could argue that since I had two sandwiches I really spent $4.62 on sandwich food, more than what would have been had with Superstore's convenience item. However, the calculation above ignores the fact that I have most of a tomato, a nearly full bottle of mustard, a jar packed with pickles, a good many future pieces of toast, and two more slices of meat leftover, all of which will be used. It also ignores that I had a free beverage and muffin rather than the pop and bag of chips. A deeper analysis could be performed to get the price of each pickle and slice of bread based on the number of each in the package/container, but that's a bit too anal even for me.
Thus ended my almost slip-up of not eating junk food. It was a good choice I think both for my health and my wallet and will think about options like this in the future if I feel myself craving those convenience foods.
[Edit 06/11/08: Turns out I am that anal. As a per item cost the breakdown is as follows:
1. The loaf of bread had 16 slices that were suitable for sandwiches. Unit cost:$0.078 per slice.
2. The jar of pickles had 16 large pickle slices. Unit cost: $0.124 per pickle.
3. I figure I could get 12 tomato slices out of the tomato I got. Unit cost: $0.067 per slice.
4. The bottle of mustard had 250 mL in it and I'm guessing that each sandwich can have 25 mL in it. Unit cost: $0.089 per 25 mL serving.
5. The ham was $0.945 per slice and the roast beef was $1.20 per slice.
Thus as a total cost for each sandwich:
Ham sandwich: $0.945 + $0.078x2 + $0.124 + $0.067 + $0.089 = $1.38 per ham sandwich.
Roast Beef sandwich: $1.20 + $0.078x2 + $0.124 + $0.067 + $0.089 = $1.64 per roast beef sandwich.
Total cost of sandwich goodness for this one meal: $3.02. Again, cheaper than the pre-made variety.]
So I made a pact to myself: For the month of June I will not buy/eat this so-called food in the efforts to improve my health and also my wallet.
It shames me to say, but I spent over $100 on eating out last month. Not all of those dollars went towards fast food. No sir. Incldued in that 3-digit figure is a coffee here, a coffee there, here a pop, there a pop, a bag of chips sounds good type items. Those little things, which would be considered under the category of the Latte factor, really do add a significant drain on the pocketbook.
I would like to say that things are going very well thus far. I've cooked big batches of food including barley-chicken soup, chili, cornbread, and barley-lemon Tabbouleh (recipes and cost analysis to follow), so I don't have the often-used excuse that there is nothing to eat at home. So far for the month of June I have not indulged in any of my culinary vices.
I almost, possibly, kind-of slipped today though.
I didn't have a large lunch today and as I drove my fiance to work, I felt a familiar pain in my stomach saying "FEED ME". Rather than drive back home to get something to eat, my last month self would have swung into Wendy's or A&W and called it Good Eats. I was sorely tempted to purchase a premade $3.99 sandwich at Superstore today to feed my hunger. I know for a fact that if I did so, a $2 pop and a $1.50 bag of chips would have tagged along with it. This would have represented a $7.49 meal before any applicable taxes. I'm pretty sure that the chips would have been taxed and the pop price is with tax, but for the purposes of this analysis I think taxes will be inconsequential.
I did not take this option.
What I did instead was as follows:
1. I moseyed on over to the discount baked goods section and picked up a 50% off loaf of in-store baked European 12-grain bread. Cost after discount $1.25.
2. I sauntered to the produce section and took hold of an especially firm, medium sized tomato. Cost: $0.80.
3. I wandered to the deli counter and ordered 2 slices of Vermont style Ham and 2 slices of Roast Beef. Cost: $1.89 and $2.40 respectively.
4. I strolled to the condiment aisle and snatched a small bottle of mustard as the deli counter did not have small fast-food type packets. Cost: $0.89.
5. I side-stepped in the condiment aisle and secured a jar of deli-style bread and butter pickles. Cost $1.99.
Total price of the goods here: $9.22 and these items are tax-exempt.
I then drove to work, spent 5-10 minutes constructing two, 1 meat slice sandwiches, grabbed a free leftover bleuberry-bran muffin and a cup of free leftover Vanilla-Hazlenut coffee from the cafeteria, and had a delicious and nutritious meal.
Going the non-last-month-me-way provided the means to create 4 sandwiches with ample leftovers for other delicious things. Based on the total price of $9.22, this works out to be $2.31/sandwich. 42% cheaper than buying the premade one.
One could argue that since I had two sandwiches I really spent $4.62 on sandwich food, more than what would have been had with Superstore's convenience item. However, the calculation above ignores the fact that I have most of a tomato, a nearly full bottle of mustard, a jar packed with pickles, a good many future pieces of toast, and two more slices of meat leftover, all of which will be used. It also ignores that I had a free beverage and muffin rather than the pop and bag of chips. A deeper analysis could be performed to get the price of each pickle and slice of bread based on the number of each in the package/container, but that's a bit too anal even for me.
Thus ended my almost slip-up of not eating junk food. It was a good choice I think both for my health and my wallet and will think about options like this in the future if I feel myself craving those convenience foods.
[Edit 06/11/08: Turns out I am that anal. As a per item cost the breakdown is as follows:
1. The loaf of bread had 16 slices that were suitable for sandwiches. Unit cost:$0.078 per slice.
2. The jar of pickles had 16 large pickle slices. Unit cost: $0.124 per pickle.
3. I figure I could get 12 tomato slices out of the tomato I got. Unit cost: $0.067 per slice.
4. The bottle of mustard had 250 mL in it and I'm guessing that each sandwich can have 25 mL in it. Unit cost: $0.089 per 25 mL serving.
5. The ham was $0.945 per slice and the roast beef was $1.20 per slice.
Thus as a total cost for each sandwich:
Ham sandwich: $0.945 + $0.078x2 + $0.124 + $0.067 + $0.089 = $1.38 per ham sandwich.
Roast Beef sandwich: $1.20 + $0.078x2 + $0.124 + $0.067 + $0.089 = $1.64 per roast beef sandwich.
Total cost of sandwich goodness for this one meal: $3.02. Again, cheaper than the pre-made variety.]
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