$10 A Week for Three Meals A Day

Herman Cain Republican presidential hopeful

Herman Cain's 9/9/9 is catchy, though pundits say it won't work. My 10/4/3/7 does. What's 10-4-3-7? It's $10 for (4) 3 meals for 7 days plus snacks.

Want a fat wallet and a skinny waist? If so, I dare you to try my 10/4/3/7 plan.

If you haven’t time for couponing or following weekly sales, take a trip to the Dollar Tree. In addition to non perishables, many of these stores, where everything is really just $1, also have a well-stocked refrigerated section. Like any store, the better the neighborhood, the better the selection.

For just $10 at Dollar Tree plus a trip to your local farmer's market, you can buy ingredients for healthy meals and snacks that will last you all week long.

With some advance meal planning, including planned “overs you'll save-- not only money--but time and calories too!∞
 

Here’s a sample of planned menus for the week using items bought at Dollar Tree. I bought a bag of eight Gala apples for just $1.99

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	Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
Monday	Toasted thin sliced bagel with strawberry jam Boiled egg	Egg salad sandwich	Apple with string cheese	Great northern beans Rice Cornbread muffin (Planned overs meal)
Tuesday	Strawberry banana smoothie	Great northern beans with cornbread muffin	Apple Boiled egg	Hamburger helper Green Beans (Planned overs meal)
Wednesday	Oatmeal	Hamburger helper Green beans	Banana with Peanut Butter	Macaroni and cheese Kielbasa links Broccoli Garlic bread (Planned overs meal)
Thursday	Cereal with soymilk	Great northern bean soup	Crackers with string cheese	Spaghetti and meat sauce, salad (planned overs meal)
Friday	Toasted thin sliced bagel, turkey bacon, egg sandwich	Pasta salad Yogurt	Applesauce with string cheese	Personal Pizza
Saturday	Oatmeal	Hot dog Sweet potato fries	Apple Yogurt	Baked chicken breast Green beans Rice or Pasta
Sunday	Oatmeal Boiled egg	Spaghetti and meat sauce, salad	Peanut butter cookies with Soymilk	Baked barbecued chicken breast Pasta Lettuce and tomato salad with balsamic vinagrette

  Recommended Items

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Bread-Most Dollar Tree stores have a large selection of day-old bread, bagels and sandwich rounds that retail for $3 and up	Dried  Beans (red beans, pinto, great northern)
Eggs	Tuna
Soymilk	Peanut Butter
Macaroni	Shredded Cheese/String Cheese
Flour	Oatmeal
Frozen Strawberries	Brown Sugar
Apple Sauce	Canned fruit
Spaghetti Sauce	Frozen chicken breast
Macaroni, Spaghetti	Hotdogs
Jam	Kielbasa sausage

Stock up on other Dollar Tree items and save

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Spices	Add your own list here:
Laundry Detergent
Household cleansers
Beauty and first aid
Vitamin supplements
Pet food and supplies
Insulated cup- save on bottled water
Foil, plastic wrap, sandwich bags
Buy seeds and plant your own patio garden
Stationery and office items

Cash, Gas or Apples (Nobody Rides Free)

Okay I fess up. There was a bumper sticker from the 70s that went something like that.

Only the "apples" in my title was replaced with "ass." I remember reading that sticker that seemed to  be plastered on nearly every semi truck my mom and I passed traveling Interstate 95 from Daytona Beach, FL to a tiny Alabama town called Brewton to visit my grandparents.

Seems that Jacksonville, Florida-based Winn Dixie grocery stores has revived the notion with their new money-saving program called
fuelperks!® 

This is how it works.

You sign up for the store's reward card on line or in the store. Each purchase you make goes toward reducing the price per gallon of gas at participating gas stations.

You have to eat. And in the Southeast where most Winn Dixie stores are located, you have to drive. What a stroke of brilliance, Winn Dixie, for helping us save on both.

Sign up for fuelperks!® today and hit the road. While you're at it, pack a lunch... and an apple or two.

Some of the Best Things In Life are Still Free

One of them is a library card.

As a cinephile, I watch at least three movies a week. At first I was using www.redbox.com where you can rent movies for just $1 a night. Pretty good-- even if you neglect to turn it in the next day.

But when you're counting every dollar, $3 dollars a week is $12 a month. That's $144 a year, a month's worth of groceries for me. One of my goals is to see every "Best Picture" Oscar winner ever made. I've found a free way to do just that.

For the cost it takes me to drive there, I rent movies from the local library for the week. Quiet as it's kept, new releases are shelved every Tuesday. 

While there I look at the latest magazines for ideas on home design and fashion and may check out a reference book or two. (I'm especially interested in selling on ebay these days and there are some"how to" titles available.)

I've also taken a few classes in Excel. I'm actually up to level three now. You'll find classes are offered for a variety of interests-- blogging even!

Once you find your nearest library, check out their calendar of events. If you don't see anything that interests you, suggest it. Better still, submit your name to teach what you know how to do best.

In addition to movies, you can select blue rays, cds, books on tapes, ebooks and MP3s. Oh yeah, I forgot, you can still check out real hard back books.
What's more, some libraries even offer at-home delivery if what you're looking for isn't on the shelves for no fee at all. You can always use a desktop computer or take your laptop and use the free wi-fi.

Remember that libraries have fees for late returns. I signed up for the online reminder and get a text sent to my cell phone when due dates are approaching.

Fees add up, so be sure to turn your items in on time.

Visit your local library online. Here's a link to public libraries by state. www.publiclibraries.com
∞

Pack Your Lunch & Save $2,000+ A Year

For as long as I can remember I’d spend no less than $10 a day for lunch. I justified the expense as a break from the office and would eat out daily without fail. I absolutely never took my lunch from home.  This was my practice for more than a decade of my working life.

Those days are gone.

At $50 a week that quickly adds up:

$50 week x 4 weeks = $200 month x12 months – give or take a two-week vacay, a few days off here and there, the occasional non-Dutch outing, office-sponsored lunch and those    forgot-my-money involuntary fasts—and that’s $2,400 a year. 

Did I really eat $24,000 worth of lunches over 10 years? You better believe I did! Earlier this year I lost 50 pounds of the evidence. Let’s just say I gave new meaning to “penny wise pound foolish”.

With just a bit of advanced planning and prep, you can create delicious lunches for pennies on the dollar. From sandwiches and salads to planned overs, you can save a couple grand each year.

To sweeten the pot, pay yourself and watch your lunch money stash grow.∞

photo credit  pan bagnat.(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)