When I think of authentic pre-made Asian food, Safeway is quite possibly the last place I would expect to have good quality….anything. Most of what they call “sushi” is nothing but wet, mashed rice with fake surimi (fake crab) and a smidge of avocado half-rotted.

But now what about these Annasea poke bowls? Are they legit and tasty or nasty like the store’s sushi? Hmmm….do I dare invest $20 and play guinea pig for everyone…hm…raw fish from a grocery store makes me nervous. But instant “authentic Hawaiian style” poke anytime without any prep work sounds pretty nice.

*Buys 2 flavors to try out*

We live in Seattle in the Pacific Northwest so it’s nice being near so much great seafood. When my family makes our poke bowl or DIY our own sushi we go to a reputable local fishmonger to source our sashimi-grade fish. But if we didn’t have a fish market nearby…these Annasea poke kits would be awfully, awfully tempting.

I’m giving these a rating out of 10 (10 being perfect.) My expectations coming into this were LOW so take that into consideration too. I also purchased 2 different flavors in both tuna and salmon and they tasted drastically different in every way so I rated them each accordingly.

Annasea Poke Bowl Kit: Value

I mean the price isn’t bad. They were $10 per box at my store, your store (Safeway, Target, Walmart, etc.) might vary. The box says 12 oz per box – but that’s not all fish. It includes the packaging and sauce too.

OK, we make sushi at home frequently enough I can tell you the per pound of tuna and salmon (in our region) off the top of my head.

Sashimi-grade Tuna (Maguro) Pricing:

• Cheap-end tuna (usually sourced from Indonesia pre-cubed or mashed and vacuumed sealed) are $9 per pound.
• Tuna (fresh maguro) on average is $23 dollars per pound.
• If you want the good stuff (like toro or belly) – it goes up to $50-$60 per pound

I just had to weigh out how much of the 12 oz in Annasea’s poke kit was actually fish…7.75 oz. That’s almost half a pound of raw fish…which was actually better than my lowly expectations of food poisoning whilst being robbed.

The salmon poke kit I got looked about the same too so I think Annasea portions these out equally across the board.

Sashimi-grade Salmon Pricing:

• The lower end is $10 per pound for the usual H-mart/Asian grocery kind.
• Fishmonger will have theirs from $14 to $16 depending on the breed.
• Premium grade salmon (like the King Ora breeds) is $23+ per pound.

So is Annasea a value buy? Nope. But I didn’t think it was going to be so really I give it a flat-out average rating. I ate one box with some salad and rice, it was a good, filling enough meal. I didn’t feel robbed. It was about the same price as if I had gone out to get myself a poke bowl from a nearby shop or cafe.

Value Rating:

Annasea’s Ahi Tuna: (7.5/10)

Annasea’s Spicy Salmon: (7/10)

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Annasea’s Poke Bowl Kit: Fish Quality + Taste

I’ve been a broke college student craving cheap, cheaaaaaaap sushi buffet fish before. I’m talking $11.95 all-you-can-eat sushi & sashimi in a dingy crappy Stockton restaurant…which doesn’t taste very fresh but I knew nothing back then. Broke college girls’ gotta eat.

These days we always go for the good stuff: fat tuna belly and king Ora salmon, mmmm! We’ve also been to a few fancy-schmancy, reservation-only Japanese sushi restaurants…so I can say I’ve tasted both highs and lows.

Annasea’s closer to the lower end.

You know the pale off-red color the tuna has? It means the water content is higher to increase the weight (which means you’re paying for less fish.)

I think the Annasea ahi tuna is half a grade better than the cheapest quality tuna I’ve had in my life. But the Annasea salmon is the same quality as the cheapest, worst quality sashimi salmon I’ve had.

If you have a local Asian grocery store, you can probably find the same pre-cubed, vacuum-packed fish that was in Annasea’s poke kit. I think H-mart had it for about $10/lb in both mashed and frozen cubed varieties. But if you don’t, Annasea’s wasabi ahi tuna is pretty decent fish considering it came from a kit.

The ahi tuna is not as tasty as Costco’s wasabi and it’s about the same price (Costco $19.99/lb poke) but we also live much closer to Safeway than Costco.

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Fish Taste + Quality Rating:

Generally, I like salmon more than tuna so my standards for salmon will naturally be more strict than tuna. I take texture, taste, color, and freshness into consideration. 10/10 fish grade would be what I consider a well-done Japansese sushi restaurant instead of a poke restaurant (where toppings and sauces change the taste of fish too much.)

Annasea’s Ahi Tuna: (6.5/10)

I was surprised at my first, unmarinated bite of ahi tuna. Not much of a fishy taste and fairly neutral all around. There wasn’t that much “water” in the fish to dilute the flavor and the texture was nice. Maybe my expectations were low but it was pretty good for what it is.

Annasea’s Spicy Salmon: (3/10)

The salmon…uh…it was very fishy. (Sorry Annasea!) It tasted like salmon you buy from a grocery store that isn’t sashimi-grade and they didn’t bother to trim it properly. The texture was stiff – and there wasn’t a light sweetness in what you find in higher-grade salmon. There was no buttery texture or taste. I know it’s frozen Safeway poke…but…texture and quality-wise, it’s nowhere as good as the Annasea’s ahi tuna. I’m actually surprised the color is nice and bright…because it doesn’t taste it.

Annasea’s Poke Bowl: Sauce + Seasoning:

You know Annasea’s packaging got me…they said “AUTHENTIC” “HAWAIIAN” poke bowl? Oooo-realllyyyy marketing department?? Challenge accepted. Not many Americans know this but “traditional” Hawaiian poke doesn’t usually have any soy sauce; a type of salt is used instead.

Annasea’s Ahi Tuna: (8/10)

Ooooh yum! Not soy-based, LOADS of sesame oil and sesame seeds. Not overly salty or grainy, omg this is actually tasty and like the packaging says…Hawaiian style! :O

I’m a happy camper, oh Annasea you…

Annasea’s Spicy Salmon: (2/10)

What in the hell is this cat vomit? Annasea what did you do to this salmon poke recipe? WHY DOES THIS TASTE LIKE MAPO TOFU SAUCE?! With a tinge of bitter aftertaste….BITTER aftertaste!!!! Nooooo. It’s not sriracha, there is NO way in this universe they have sriracha in there. That’s a marketing lie. It’s chili oil…and not good chili oil. The only thing it delivered was the spice level, a pretty good spice. But everything else about it was bad. Maybe they know the salmon’s bad quality and trying to cover it with a strong sauce.

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Assembling Our Poke:

The preparation takes a little planning, we let it thaw overnight. But after it’s thaw, it’s as simple as dumping it into a bowl, dump the sauce packet over, stir, and boom! Done. You can add to it, of course, I think it’s natural to haha.

Hubby and I threw together a bowl with a few ingredients on our hands to pimp out our shared poke bowl.

A few “supporting ingredients” that you shouldn’t miss even if you have the avocado and cucumber: fried onions (flavor/texture), fried garlic (crunch texture), and red onions slivers (zing & flavor!)

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Overall Rating:

I did not expect these 2 to be so different in terms of rating and taste. Obviously, their tuna was much better than the Annasea salmon. I think Annasea’s wasabi tuna is a good buy, especially if you don’t live near a fishmonger or poke shop. The ahi tuna’s poke sauce is really tasty which was the big selling point because I do think it is authentically more Hawaiian. I sadly can’t say the same about the Annasea salmon, which is akin to cat vomit.

Annasea’s Ahi Tuna: (7/10)

Would rebuy if we’re in a pinch and if I had a craving for ahi tuna poke. I am really surprised that this was actually decently good!

Annasea’s Spicy Salmon: (2/10)

I would never repurchase this, for all the reasons above: cheap fish, and confusedly bitter.

P.S. you can find my beautiful poke bowls in this poke review on Amazon.

What Is a Tea Bag Made Of? 

In general, a tea bag is a sealed packet of dried tea leaves which can either be made of whole-leaf tea or shredded tea leaves. Although the mesh in the bag is usually non-biodegradable, the tea leaves inside can be used for a lot of things. 

Is It Safe To Re-use Tea Bags? 

Reusing tea bags is usually safe unless you’re doing sun tea and you’re not experienced to do so. You might risk getting yourself or other people poisoned because of wrong preparation. Sun teas are made by using the sun’s heat instead of brewing the tea in the conventional matter. However, if the heat is not enough to steep the tea (usually from 170 to 200 degrees), bacteria growth might lead to poisoning. 

How To Properly Store Tea Bags 

In most applications, you’ll need to use the used tea leaves dry. But for storing tea bags, you should put water on it, enough to keep it moist. Keep it in a jar or cup and store it in the refrigerator. This is to minimize the chance of mold and bacteria growing in the tea leaves. Check your tea dust once in a while for funky smell or discoloration. If it looks and smells bad, throw it away.

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59 Things You Can Do With Used Tea Leaves

For Beauty Remedies

1. Hydrating Dry Skin 

Don’t you just hate it when you have those itchy patches of dry skin? With used tea bags, you can refresh your skin in no time. All you have to do is to re-brew the used tea bag, cool it down, and spray it in the area affected. 

2. Restoring Hair Shine

Re-brew the used tea bags and let it cool down. Use the rebrewed tea by pouring it in your hair and leaving it for ten minutes before showering. This trick has been used in ancient times to give women smoother and shinier hair. Depending on what your exact hair needs are, you can read about the types of teas that have different hair benefits.

3. Reducing Dark Circles

If you want to reduce the puffiness in your eyes, a quick frugal fix is reusing old teabags. Refrigerate the tea bags if you want to use it as a cold compress good for anything from mild eye irritations, dark circles, puffy eyes, to minor eye injuries. For a warm compress, let it cool down to room temperature level. Just make sure that all the excess liquid is squeezed out first. 

4. Tea for Body Scrub

Body scrubs are so easy to DIY, you don’t have to pay $30 for a tub. DIY tea body scrubs are a natural and frugal alternative trick to add to your skincare routine. Dear Crissy’s tea scrub recipe for a body scrub only needs two bags of green tea bags, sugar, and melted coconut oil. 

5. Eliminating Bad Breath

Tea leaves are known to be effective at eliminating odors. In fact, according to a study from Kashan University, gree tea mouthwash can actually reduce plaque and gingivitis. If you want to make a tea-based mouth wash, steep your used tea bags, combine with some baking soda, and let it cool down.

6. DIY Tea Face Scrub

Used tea leaves are still rich with antioxidants and TLC “good stuff” (tartaric, lactic, and citric acid). Pop up a used tea bag, mix it with honey, and gently rub the mixture in your skin. Let it sit in your skin for five minutes and then rinse off properly. You can check out a more detailed detox recipe here.

7. Revitalize Dry Hair

If your hair is damaged or turning gray, its time to do a hair revamp. Graying hair is caused by follicles dying. To make it dark again, steep three used tea bags and one tablespoon of rosemary on it. Let it rest overnight before straining the content. Spray the mixture after shampooing. 

8. DIY Face Mist

If you add hydrating elements to tea’s antioxidants, you can create a great face mist. To make one, steep your used green tea bags and add your favorite essential oils, jojoba oil, and water to a spritz bottle – that’s it!

9. Smooth Your Chapped Lips

Dry lips are an annoying problem during winter and cold weather days. Chapstick can only do so much to prevent drying out, but it doesn’t add moisture. And if you’re unfortunate like me to be allergic to chapstick… After you use your tea bags, place it onto your lips directly. This will help moisturize your lips and plump them back up.

10. Tea & Henna Hair Dye

If you want a temporary, all-natural hair dye, you can use henna with black tea for a black dye. It’s temporary, but it gets the job done at a cheap price. 

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For Practical Household Uses

1. Easy Carpet Cleaning

Carpets are prone to dirt and unpleasant odors. To freshen up your carpet, all you have to do is to dry out used tea bags and baking soda. Mix the two ingredients and sprinkle it in the bad spot. Leave the mixture for 20 minutes before vacuuming the area.

2. Revive Old Wood Furniture

Do you have a woodworking restoration project? You can use tea bags to polish your work without spending too much money. Re-steep used tea bags and use soft wag to polish the wood surface.

3. Eliminating Odor

Like charcoal, tea leaves are known to reduce or eliminate funky smells with ease. Dry out a fragrant tea bag and place it in the smelly area that needs a little pick-me-up.

4. Cleaning, Shining Mirrors & Glass

Mirrors are notorious for being one of the most annoying things to clean. It shows fingerprints, grease, and dust easily. To avoid leaving smudges while wiping, you can use a weak diluted black tea solution from a used teabag. Soak soft rags in the solution and use it to wipe the mirror.

5. Revamping Old Clothes

Black tea is also a good dye for clothing, not just for temporary hair color. Steep several used tea bags to make a strong tea and pour it into a container with clean water. Soak your old clothes in the solution for several hours and then apply dry heat to seal the color. Add in a dash of regular table salt into the tea liquid to help seal color.

6. Make an Air Freshener

By adding your favorite essential oil, you can transform a brewed tea bag into a DIY air freshener. Add a few drops of essential oils to the brewed bag and attach it to the affected area. Add in more oil drops anytime you need it and hang it up in an area that needs refreshing.

7. Mice Repellent

Mice and pests are not fond of peppermint. Simply grab a good scented tea bag (ie. peppermint tea) and add in more peppermint essentials oils. Hang the bags of this strongly scented mixture to places that you want to keep rodent-free.

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8. Easy Fireplace Cleaning

Cleaning up a fireplace can be tough work if you don’t know how to deal with the fine ash particles. By pouring damp tea dust or tea leaves into the ashes, you can scoop it up with more ease. Adding tea leaves reduces fine particles to escape in the air, as well as reduces the smell in the fireplace.

9. Cleaning Cookware Grease

Washing greasy cookware is a pain in the neck, but that doesn’t have to be the case. For an effortless grease removal, pour used brewed tea bags with hot water into the dirty pan and let it sit overnight to soak.

10. Preventing Cookware Rust

Black tea leaves have a weak acid called tannic acid which converts rust into a protective barrier that prevents oxidation. All you have to do is to rub a damp tea bag to your cookware after washing them.

11. Soothe Your Dog’s Paw

Teabags can also be used to give relief to your pet’s paw during the winter. The tea’s properties are also beneficial to your pets to regenerate and hydrate their paw. 

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12. Clean Cast Iron

Cast iron is tricky to clean. You can’t use the dishwasher, soap, or steel wool on it. We have a beautiful cast iron pan in our home…but getting a proper seasoning on them while being so limited in cleaning makes it a rare use in our busy family kitchen. But if you have a bag of old black tea, rubbing the surface with damp tea bags erases the old food smells and lessens the grease. 

13. Natural Floor Wax

Just like in woodworking, the tannin in a used tea bag can be used to shine wooden floors. Depending on the size of the floor, you might need a lot of used tea bags.

14. Absorb Shoe Odor

A dried-out used tea bag can be used as a deodorizer to absorb the stinky odor coming off worn shoes. Put bags of dried out seeped tea bags inside your shoes, and the odor will be eliminated out over time. 

15. Polishing Leather

The tannin in the tea can also polish leather effectively. In fact, tannin is used traditionally to cure leather. Rub the used tea bag to clean your leather shoes.

16. Potpourri

A potpourri is a mixture of dried plant materials used for its decorative and fragrant uses. Adding a dried used tea bag can infuse your favorite tea fragrance with your favorite potpourri mixture. 

17. Campfire Starter

For an easy DIY campfire starter, using tea bags are cheap and easy. All you have to do is to dip the used tea bag in melted candle wax and set it aside until it hardens.

18. Cat Deterrent

Used tea bags are an exceptional all-natural cat deterrent. Cats just tend to avoid tea altogether. If you don’t want any cats digging or urinating in your garden (without hurting them), just scatter around your old used tea bags. 

For Improving Food 

1. Tenderizing Meat

The tannin in tea leaves is a natural tenderizer. Additionally, the natural flavor of the tea will add savoriness and sweetness to the meat. Just add your used tea bags to the marinate. Note that this tenderizing technique works best on red meats like pork, beef, and lamb.

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2. Make Tea Eggs

Even after usage, there are still tons of flavors left in used tea bags. By using both new and old tea bags in one tea egg brew, you will get a slightly stronger flavor for tea eggs. Tea eggs work best with black and red tea varieties, opt for dark soy sauce along with dark teas (it gives the best color).

3. Tea Fused Pasta & Grains

Another way to reuse tea bags is by adding flavor to pasta and grains. Even a simple oatmeal dish can be leveled up.  Before cooking, soak your tea bags to the pot of water before it boils. Remove the bags when you start cooking your pasta and grains.

4. A Tea Cocktail

Who said that you can’t mix tea and liquor together? Tea cocktails are known for being refreshing and relaxing. If you want a nice long island tea in summer, be creative and experiment with the liquor of your choice. As a general rule, use one tablespoon of used tea leaves for every six ounces of spirit. Let the mixture sit for at least an hour. 

5. Make Sweet Tea Syrup

Love Southern comfort recipes? Try this classic! If you like to infuse sweet tea flavors in your cocktails, tea syrup is your best bet. To make this concoction, mix three teabags, a cup of water, and a cup of white sugar in a saucepan. Let it simmer and keep it in a jar. 

6. Make a Cold Brew

A cold brew is also called Sun Tea, is a way of steeping tea leaves using cold water. Most people use sun tea for its distinct flavor (because of lower temperature during extraction) or just a quick way to get their cup of tea. Use at least 10 tea bags (or more if used) in a gallon of water and let it sit in a very warm place, but not directly under the sun.

7. Perk Up Bouquet Garni

Infuse a herbal flavor to your soups and stocks by adding used tea leaves in your bouquet garni. Bouquet garni is a collection of herbs (for example, include thyme, bay leaf, and parsley etc.) wrapped together to flavor your soup and is fished out later after the usage. To make your own bouquet garni, wrap your used tea bags with the herbs of your choice using a cheesecloth.

8. Season Your Rice (Ochazuke) 

Ochazuke is a flavored bowl of cooked leftover rice, usually with green tea or dashi. The rice will then be garnished with toppings like nori, scallions, or wasabi. Reheat your leftover rice while steeping the used green tea bags. Add your preferred garnish and pour your tea on top of the rice. 

9. Make Your Oatmeal More Flavorful

Instead of your usual milk or hot water, why not try to cook your daily oatmeal with tea? Steep your used tea bags and pour them in your oatmeal. Start with your favorite green tea before trying other kinds of tea with bolder flavors.

For Medicinal Purposes

1. Reduce Sunburn Inflammation

Tea leaves have medicinal properties too, and one of them is reducing inflammation. Black Tea is specifically used for this purpose because of its stronger tannic acid content. Unwrap the used bags and steep them with room temperature water. Apply the tea gently in the affected sunburned area. 

2. For Treating Bug Bites

The same soothing component that tannins provide in sunburn inflammations is also applicable for treating bug bites. Instead of using black tea extracts from a teabag, gently apply the cooled down teabag to the affected area directly and leave there. Green tea is recommended.

3. Relax By Taking a Herbal Bath

Having a tea bath is a cheap and relaxing alternative to having a paid spa session. The smell of tea, in general, is therapeutic and helps relax you after a bad day. To make a tea bath, just add the used tea bags to your bathwater. Chamomile is a great tea to start with if you haven’t made a tea bath before. Also, try to add a few drops of lavender essential oils as it’s been proven to help relax sore muscles.

4. Treating Acne

Teas, especially the green tea variant, can help in making dreadful acne disappear. A lot of tea components can help in reducing or removing acne in the skin. The first one is the catechins, which are both have anti-inflammatory and antibiotic properties. Green tea also has epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG, which reduces oily skin.

5. Treating Wounds

The anti-inflammatory and antibiotic properties of tea are not only used to treat acne. According to medical research in Iran, green tea extract can help wounds heal faster. These leaves are even considered effective in helping surgical wounds heal. 

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6. Treating Poison Ivy

The unfortunate few of us that have run-ins with poison ivy, accidentally or not know it’s never fun. By brewing used tea bags and applying it to the rash for 10 to 15 minutes, you will feel rash relief. Take note: avoid touching the tea bag after, it can spread the poison ivy.

7. Removing Warts

Brewing used tea bags and applying it gently to the wart is an effective way to naturally remove painful, unsightly skin growth. After steeping tea, wait until the soaked tea bags cooled down, apply it to the affected area, and let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes. 

8. Soothe Swollen Gums

Swollen gums are often caused by gingivitis, infection, or dentures that don’t fit properly. While these problems have a lot more complex and expensive solutions than just tea, lessening the symptoms is a lot easier to take the edge off. Gently press a room-temperature wet tea bag into your gum to ease the swelling. Note: Avoding using tea bags and discuss other methods with a pedictirian or dentist as children are more sensitive to caffine in tea if they are having teething & gum pains.

9. Soothe Small Burns

Black tea bags can be repurposed as medicine for small burns. Pressing a wet tea bag in a small burn can initiate protective skin coagulation and soothes the affected area. 

10. Helps Promote Hair Growth

Most tea variants have quercetin and EGCG that promotes healthy hair growth. For the best results, using green tea is recommended. Rinse your hair with the tea water extracted from used tea bags. You can also try this with a combination of rinsed rice water.

11. Calm Razor Burn

One of the cheapest remedies for healing pesky razor burn is brewed tea leaves. Get a bag of your preserved black tea bags, soak it in water and squeeze out excess liquid. Gently apply the bag to the irritated area. 

12. Canker Sore Removal

Canker sores are small white ulcers that appear in the mouth. These sores are very painful and prevent you from enjoying any food. You can apply tea extracts from used tea bags to canker sores to speed up the healing. 

13. Soothe Skin Blisters 

Skin blisters, particularly in the hands, can be treated with used tea bags. The tea bag works by draining out any excess liquid that makes these blisters terrible. Similar treatment to canker sores, just apply the extract from the used tea bag to soothe the blisters. 

14. Provides Toothache Relief

Tea leaves have been proven to give relief to inflammed gums by gently applying the extract to the affected area. You can rinse with a mixture of peppermint tea and a pinch of salt for added relief. 

15. Removing Toenail Fungus

The toenail fungus appears when a crack in your nail buries itself to your skin. In the best case, you will only have discoloration in your nails. In the worst case, it’s very painful and tricky to treat. One home remedy for a mild case is to use black tea bags and apply it to where the toenail fungus developed.

16. Cure Sore Throat

Both chamomile and peppermint tea can temporarily lessen the pain caused by a sore throat. Lemon and honey also contain anti-inflammatory properties that you can mix into diluated tea for added benefits to tea’s natural astringent properties. 

For Gardening

1. Speed Up Compost Pile

Organic things like used tea bags are often thrown in the compost pile to give nourishment for garden plants. Open up the bag (some manufacturers use plastic for bags so watch out) and throw the leftover tea leaves inside onto the compost pile. 

2. Fertilizer and Fungus Fighter

Teabags have a considerable amount of nitrogen which can fertilizer a potted plant. Brew the used teabags and set the tea aside to cool down. Use the tea in watering your potted plants. 

3. Improve Rosebushes Health

It takes a lot of experience and effort to perfectly grow rose bushes. To add more love to your plants, sprinkle the soil with used dry tea leaves. Cover it with mulch right after. The nutrients in the tea leaves will be added to the soil if you water your roses.

4. Help Ferns Grow

Ferns also love the tea extracts because of these plants love acid. You can make the soil a little more acidic by watering them with tea (either brewed from new or used tea leaves) once in a while.

5. Grow Seedlings

A lot of gardeners use containers to start growing their seedlings. For a cheaper alternative, you can substitute containers with tea bags to jumpstart growing your seedlings. Put the seeds in a moist tea bag and wait for the seeds to grow.

6. Retain Water In Roots

Last but not the least, tea bags can help plants retain water in the plants’ roots. Tea leaves have a high amount of potassium and phosphorus that help water retention and reducing weed growth.

If there is one staple that we have at home, it’s our roll of paper towels. We used to use it for practically everything that called for a quick clean up and just about a zillion uses in the kitchen. We always catch it on sale and stock up – a big fat jumbo roll would cost us just a buck. Those were the good old days!

When we face health pandemics like the 2020 COVID-19 virus, proper hygiene is one of the best ways to protect ourselves. I never thought there would be a shortage of paper towels! This is probably why a lot of people felt the need to stock up on toilet paper and paper towels. It’s ridiculous, but one psychologist explained why it made sense. According to psychiatry professor Steven Taylor of the University of British Columbia, we think of toilet paper as our tool to avoid things that are disgusting. When there is a need to boost personal hygiene, it makes sense to hoard paper towels, right?

After I retired from Airbnb hosting (a month before the COVID pandemic hit actually! I have lucky timing) we only had 2 rolls of paper towels in our house left when the pandemic began.

(P.S. When I was an Airbnb host, I provided paper towels to all guests in the bedrooms because I don’t want to give anyone an excuse to not be clean hehe.)

We had to start weaning off our paper towels. There are tons of ways for you to make your roll of paper towel last longer. So if you are one of the unfortunate ones like us who were left with an empty paper towel stockpile, it’s a perfect time to wean, adapt, and learn how to try to live without.

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6 Simple Tips to Make Paper Towel Rolls Last Longer

Hopefully, these tips will help you save some cash and make those rolls of paper towels last longer. Here are effective tips that will make your paper towels last a lot longer than before.

1. Opt for high-quality rolls

Instead of buying the 1-ply, buy the 2-ply or 4-ply paper towels. That way, you don’t have to pull a lot of sheets every time. You can even buy both. Use the 4-ply for when you need a more absorbent paper towel and the 2-ply for the not so absorbent needs.

This will be a bit more expensive. But if you calculate it per sheet, you might be surprised that it will be worth it. A lot of times a thicker sheet could even be reused. You can REALLY push a nice, plush sheet of paper towel’s capacity. Challenge yourself with a high-quality sheet, it’s usually a lot more “worth your buck” when it’s good quality. We get our paper towel rolls from Costco, but Amazon also has good subscribe and save deals on paper towels (if you want it delivered to your door!)

Just make sure that you educate the people at home to save and push the capacity of new paper towels. That way, they will be careful not to pull the same number of sheets as they did before.

2. Pretend it’s your last roll

We usually buy these toilet or paper towels in bulk. It ends up cheaper if you do it that way. However, if you display all the extra rolls you have, it will make you careless about using it. This is why it is ideal for you to keep all the extras hidden. Don’t show it. Store it somewhere like in a cabinet or in separate storage space.

In an article published in Psychology Today, it explains the concept of scarcity and how it can affect how we think and how we feel. When both our thoughts and feelings are affected, it also influences our actions.

That being said, if we hide the extra rolls, it encourages scarcity mentality. Everyone will use the rolls sparingly.

“That’s Interesting!“

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2. Buy absorbent materials

We’ll get into alternative ideas below but a quick guide to absorbent alternative fabrics include cotton, hemp, bamboo, flannel, microfiber, and wool. Wool is out due to the high cost of natural wool. But bamboo and microfiber are a great budget-friendly alternative fabric to replace your kitchen paper towel roll.

Your best bet for maximum absorption and speed is bamboo + microfiber blends and the classic 100% cotton fabrics (the denser the cotton fabric the better.)

3. Squash it

Make your roll of paper towel look flatter. Just squish one side to do this. So what’s the purpose of doing this? When you squash your roll, it becomes oval in shape. This makes it harder to rotate it. If it stays in its usual circular form, one pull and a lot of tissue slide off. Sometimes, we don’t want to roll the excess back. So we just pull off everything and use it.

If the roll has an oval shape, the rotation will be more controlled. You don’t have to worry about any paper towel being wasted.

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4. Fold it

When we pull the sheets, some of us usually wad it up. This will lead you to waste more of the toilet paper or paper towel. To maximize the absorbent feature, we need to use more of its surface area. So instead of wadding up the paper, fold it. It is neater and you will be more cautious about the thickness of the paper that you are using. It will make you pull out less of it every time you need to use it.

5. Rinse and hang dry them

Most people don’t take advantage of the strength of a top-quality paper towel. A quality paper towel sheet can be hand rinsed and hung up to air dry in the kitchen if it isn’t too dirty. When we wipe down or soak up a spill (example – spilling red wine, miso soup etc.) those sheets can be reused for another spill if they’re rinsed and air dried with a gentle hand. Yes, it will be a little stained, but the durability is still there – ready for another soak up.

6. Buy half sheet varieties

Regular paper towels traditionally came off as a big 6×12 inch sheet. Smart paper towel brands adapt to adding more tear-offs per roll in response to frugal consumers who learned to only tear off what they need. I found that using half sheets in our household made each roll last about almost 20% to 30% longer (your miles may vary of course.) We used to go through a roll of paper towels every 2 weeks but using half sheet paper towel rolls lasted us almost 3 weeks.

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7. Buy in bulk

Everyone should be buying their paper towels in bulk if they can. When the sale is good, stores often put up purchasing limits to 1 or 2 transactions per customer. In this case, my husband and I divide up into separate transactions and check out separately.

Reuseable Paper Towel Alternatives

The best trick to make paper towels last longer is simply trying to find other alternative materials that are reusable. Paper towels should only use for something you definitely want to throw away or is unsanitary enough you don’t want it even near the dirty laundry. Otherwise, for most things, you can invest in a bundle of extra absorbent cloths as an alternative.

These different varieties of cloths will save you more money in the end. Plus, they’re great for the environment because you simply have to throw them in the laundry once in a while, and bam, clean towels ready to be reused!

I highly suggest going to your local thrift store and locate secondhand cloths in the linens section. We go to our local Goodwill every weekend and have always seen a good selection of materials from cotton to hemp to terry cloth. Here are some options you can look into:

Sponges

Buy a set of non-abrasive super-absorbent sponges and always have them handy. A good kitchen sponge made from bamboo are super absorbent and ideal for dishes, stove tops, pet messes, countertops. They’re versatile and reusable.

Dishcloths

These can be easily cleaned and are made of really absorbent material. You want to make sure that you keep a couple for specific purposes around the kitchen. Like you have a dishcloth for drying dishes and a different one for pots and pans. It’s best to have a different cloth for cleaning spills on the counter and table surfaces for extra sanitation.

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Kitchen towels

Kitchen towels are more absorbent and thicker than dishcloths. You can use these to dry your hands while working in the kitchen. If there is a huge spill on the floor, you can also use this. But make sure that if you used it on the floor, don’t use it on your countertops anymore. At least, not unless you have washed and sanitized it.

Face towels

These can be used to wipe the dirty, messy, and sweaty hands and faces of your kids. If you have old face towels, you can feel free to use these as dishcloths or kitchen towels.

Cloth napkins

We just had to include this here because some people actually use paper towels in place of napkins while eating. That’s a huge waste! Buy some cloth napkins instead. You can forget about paper napkins too. Have a couple of napkins that you can use repeatedly and just wash when they are dirty.

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Utilize Rags Instead

Any combination of alternatives listed below would really help you make your roll of paper towel last longer. But what about the gross stuff? That’s what rags are for!

See what’s great about using paper towels is being able to wipe away gross stuff then throw it away. But if you want to save money by making your paper towels last longer, you need to equip your home with a lot of rags.

Old T-shirts

You probably have a lot of these lying around. Instead of donating them or throwing them away, leave a few for you to use around the house. If the material is 100% cotton it’ll make for extra absorbency. You can also cut up your old t-shirts – preferably the plain ones without any prints. Thrift stores like Goodwill will stock secondhand men’s t-shirts for 99 cents. Just take those home, trim it up with scissors and you’ll have a stack of rags ready to go.

Cloth diapers

If your kiddos are all grown up, you can use the cloth diapers that they used. These are made of absorbent materials because, well, they were originally meant as diapers. Use these to wipe the gross spills or clean around the house and in the bathroom.

Cloth diapers aren’t exactly “cheap” especially not the fancy all-in-ones so don’t go out of your way to find cloth diapers. But do know that they are definitely highly absorbent since parents use it for…well yeah.

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• How To Make a Roll of Paper Towels Last Embarrassingly Long

Flannel shirts or sheets

Flannel, as a material, is very soft and also quite absorbent. If you have old cotton flannel sheets that you don’t mind repurposing, then use these as rags for around the house. Old flannel shirts will also work. You only have to sacrifice one and you can end up with a lot of rags when you cut it into pieces.

Bath towels

No matter how soft and fluffy they are, these will wear out over time. So if you have worn out bath towels, don’t throw them out. These can also be cut up and used as rags. Since these were meant to be towels, you can trust that these will be very absorbent.

Imperfect buy those imperfect and overproduced products and sell them at a lower price to lessen the food waste in the United States. Besides the environmental impact, they are also in partnership with different non-profit organizations making social changes through feeding and hunger programs. With that, I made a list of reasons below to help YOU see why I think Imperfect Foods is pretty cool!

Imperfect Foods Update (2021)

Yup, still a royal user of Imperfect Food. I can honestly say 2020 was a crap year for the majority of us. Global health pandemic? No one saw that coming. I didn’t think Imperfect Foods was going to be such a stress saver for us at a time like this.

Picture it, first-time mom (me) giving birth at the first week shutdowns started in the U.S. and having every post-partum birth plan completely decimated.

We had no prep – no groceries, no meals, no help, nothing. We thought we had lots of family coming to help so we were unprepared for a pandemic with a troublesome newborn. Imperfect Foods did pull through for us. We didn’t have to leave the house for groceries and it was comparable to prices in stores. It wasn’t about convenience anymore – it was about health, our babies’ health, my elderly father (living with us) health, and our mental health running on 4 hours of sleep.

Anyways, it’s been 2 years since I did an unboxing so I have another unboxing video for you below for 2021.

If you find this review helpful, you can sign-up to get $80 off ($20 off your first 4 orders!) with Imperfect Foods for a limited time!

Why Try Out Imperfect Foods?

But it’s not for everyone. It’s not for people who live 10 minutes from a good grocery store. It’s not for people with time to spare. It’s not for people who like browsing the aisles and big selections. It’s not for people who like superficially perfect produce. If you’re not one of these people, then you should try out Imperfect Foods. Besides helping the US in terms of food waste and the food system, there are lots of reasons to choose and shop at Imperfect Food!

1. Affordable products (especially delivered to your door!)

Like any other grocery store, there are also plenty of variants at Imperfect Foods! They offer you a list of items right in front of you – from produce to home and beauty products. We all know that it’s hard to sell fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats online, but they smoothly handle it because of their organized and systematic approach.

2. Personalized preference and shopping

Upon signing up, they will ask you few questions regarding your preference for your food and groceries, so all you have to do is honestly answer it. When you feel like there is a sudden change of mind while on window shopping, don’t worry because everything is customizable, meaning you can add or remove any item from your cart.

3. Free sign-up and subscription

Every website invites you to sign-up on your first visit, but not all of them are free! Good thing that they offer a free sign-up on Imperfect Foods. You also don’t need to worry about your monthly subscription because there’s none! You’re only charged during your shopping until after the delivery day. No hidden charges apply.

4. Comfortably shop from your home

Doing essential things in the comfort of our homes is so much time-savvy, especially for busy and working mums; thus, effortlessly shopping from our house! You can add and remove items on your cart, depending on what you need and like from their store. Of course, your chosen preference matters, but your shopping cart is really customizable!

5. Organized shopping window and delivery day

Sacrificing their products and service quality is not in their options, so they decided to have an organized shopping window and delivery day according to their customer’s location. Each location has a scheduled shopping window, which means there are days in the weeks which you can’t add or remove products on your cart. The same goes with their delivery day, and you’ll know when to expect their package because it’s on schedule once a week.

6. Convenient door-to-door deliveries

Relax and enjoy while waiting at your doorstep for your weekly groceries! They have scheduled delivery days for each specific place, and charges apply at the end of your weekly shipping window and go through the day after your delivery. You can also skip the delivery for a specific week, but ensure to skip it in the app, or else you’ll automatically receive a weekly grocery.

7. Services, pricing, and delivery fee

They aim to expand their services quickly but currently deliver to most West South Central Region, Midwest, Northeast, and West Coast. The pricing for your groceries is the same in any other grocery store, while the delivery fee ranges from $4.99 to $8.99, depending on your exact location. Again, no hidden charges apply!

Free Delivery From Imperfect Foods

I think starting around 2019 they began a “limited-time” promo that any Imperfect Food order above $60 gets free shipping. We live in Seattle, not sure if it’s nationwide, but I was delighted about free shipping! Who doesn’t love free shipping? Even though $5 for shipping is totally fair, I am a cheap-o haha. Shipping fees were the only string holding me back from saying…”Hey you need this service. Screw Safeway.” But post-pandemic life in 2021, this free shipping promo is still alive and kicking 2 years later. So I’m going to say it, it’s a solid service.

Oh, a lot of people neglect this portion of Imperfect Foods but I appreciate it: they text you. They don’t spam text you with advertisements, which is nice. Imperfect Foods text you only about your order when it will arrive, where is it currently, when you should be expecting it, how far away in minutes it is, and they will text you the moment it lands on your doorstep. This is the only company (besides eCommerce juggernaut Amazon) that has been SOOOO good about keeping customers in the loop on their order. I tip my hats off to that, that’s amazing.

What I Like & Don’t Like About Imperfect Foods (Nit Picking Here…)

No service is perfect. I have to nitpick here so I am going to even though I’ve never had a shipping or delivery issue with them after 18-20 orders. Quality is stellar for “imperfect” – the only thing I want everyone to stay away from is buying grapes. Every. single. time. I’ve ordered grapes in my cart they have come (at least a few) half mashed and partially rotten. I know grapes are hard to pack so it’s probably damaged from transit but yeah.

I don’t have this issue with lemons, apples, oranges, spinach, lettuce, even easily bruised avocados come just fine.

Another thing I don’t like is simply waste. Imperfect Foods has become better about it though since 2 years ago. You can return the ice gel packs and bubble insulators back to Imperfect Foods if you wanted to. Their mission, which is to eliminate food waste and build a better food system for everyone, is being practiced.

Since they rebranded from Imperfect Produce to Imperfect Foods in general, I’ve seen an increase in product selection. Now even carry their own brand of shower gels/shampoos/body butter etc. I did end up buying these haha – you can see in my videos. I’ve tried the Imperfect Foods Avocado & Honey body butter, pretty good! It’s not $400 fancy Sephora HG cream but it’s not the cheapy Walgreens brand quality. It smells just like Bath & Body Works body butters I have and the scent is amazing!

Diversity of foods like produce and meat I give them a B+. The produce section has 85% of the selection as a Safeway. A lot of their items are seasonal so it depends.

They have become good at carrying meat & meatless substitutes. I’d say they carry about 40% of the meat options at a regular Safeway. They have core staples like ground beef, beef chuck, chicken breast, ground chicken, lamb, salmon, tilapia, and tons of their own brand of Imperfect Food sausages…(which are DELICIOUS by the way! Gouda & apple = my favorite non-spicy sausage at a great price. Pedersen’s jalapeno & cheese kielbasa = SOOO good. I can’t make my signature Viet seafood cajun boils without these. We literally had 15 of these sausages in our chest freezer. Lol!)

For meatless substitute products…they have like…120% the selection of my Safeway store lol! I’ve never had jackfruit intimation meat before…was always afraid to try. Has anyone bought the jackfruit meat from Imperfect Foods? Let me know if it’s any good in the comments below!

~

If you find this review helpful, you can sign-up to get $20 off with Imperfect Food for a limited time!

~

Imperfect Foods Review/Update (2020)

Imperfect Produce expanded itself to Imperfect Foods because their selection has widened to more than just surplus and damaged produce. We still get Imperfect Foods delivery about once a month, not for their “cheap” produce (to be honest, it’s not that cheap.)

We use Imperfect Foods because they have a wide selection of really cool products from snacks to sauces to meat to their own brand of snacks. We LOVE to explore and try these products we’ve never seen before — such as European grade butter, Swiss cream cheese, dark chocolate cherries from Japan, hipster cookies we would have never picked up in stores otherwise, etc.

I love trying out products I’ve never seen in stores – the produce part is an afterthought because we can find cheaper produce at our local Asian market. But their selection of snacks, drinks, bread, butter, chocolates is pretty amazing. Shipping is still $5.99 for any box size which is very reasonable.

~

Outdated: Imperfect Produce Review (2018)

Have you heard of Imperfect Produce? Mums rave about it because of the convenience it offers, from saving time in the grocery stores to eliminating food wastes! So I decided to do some research and try them, and I want to share everything I have discovered about Imperfect Food.

Let’s get started!

(I made a mental note to look into Imperfect Produce. That was about 3 months ago. It slipped my mind until last Tuesday I saw an ad online and went, “ooooh, yes, I wanted to try it!”)

(Short opening clip below)

With the $10 off coupon I received, I placed a medium size box (11-13 pounds). My pre-order estimate totaled $14-$16.

Get $10 Coupon (First Order Only!)

The coupon should apply after you confirm the order and confirm your selection for the week.

My actual total came out to be exactly 12 pounds and $14-$15 bucks before $4.99 shipping. So that’s pretty dead-on.

One thing to note…12 pounds INCLUDING the box it shipped in. I think we got 9-10 pounds of actual produce (it was a heavy box).

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Why I’m Trying Imperfect Produce

I was interested in trying out Imperfect Produce the very first time I heard about it.

I’ve been very happy with my ThredUp (secondhand clothing) experiences and buying ugly produce seemed like it fit the motif.

If it seems like a good way to conserve and save money, count me in to try.

Plus, it was the ONLY one delivery related app service coming out of Silicon Valley that wasn’t…stupid.

By stupid I mean: wasteful and solving very minimal first world problems that majority of humanity don’t have.

Blue Apron? Pretty stupid, even worst execution.

Flower delivery? Honest to goodness dumb. What kinds of rich morons funds these? I was living in San Francisco when one of these flowery delivery startups launched. I can’t recall the name now but if I ordered a bouquet of flowers through them to be delivered to someone then I get $8 off my first order.

Wow -$8 flower delivery from my phone, my life begins today. *sarcasm* -_- I don’t what to know even say, is it cultural? I think the most impractical, wasteful, overpriced, impersonal way to greet someone is with flower delivery.

What is Imperfect Produce?

Imperfect produce is the general name for fruit and vegetables too cosmetically ugly to ever be allowed into your local grocery store.

(I wish you can do that with people — LOL so so so kidding!)

Imperfect Produce is the name of an Emeryville, California startup that ships you the store’s ugly and unwanted fruits and vegetables. The prices, therefore, should – theoretically – be a little cheaper and save consumers money.

Does it Fight Food Waste orrrr…?

Some people think Imperfect Produce is taking would-be donations to food banks etc., disguising it as Feel Good Purchase, and placing them into high-income families tables instead of poor families who need it.

I personally don’t think that’s true. Americans waste 20 billion pounds of food. That’s B, like as in, Billion. Which means we’re all basically shit heads when it comes to being food frugal.

Food Banks will get their food because there is a lot of imperfect waste to go around. There is enough food going to waste for everyone to get their fill.

The fact that grocery stores can reject produce based on tiny cosmetic imperfections paints how generally spoiled we are as a plentiful nation.

Plus, Imperfect Produce gives 33% off for EBT and SNAP benefit holders. This could be a good alternative for neighborhoods designated as food deserts.

ANYWAYS!

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Can You Save Money With Imperfect Produce?

So the REAL question is…did it save any money?

Ordered Item	Imperfect Produce Price	Rough Retail
Kiwi	$1.79/lb	$1.69/lb
Organic Beets	$1.89/lb	$1.99/lb
Organic Grapes	$1.59/lb	$3.99/lb
Apples	$1.29/lb	$2.99/lb	Why are apples so expensive in Seattle...
Onions	$.60/lb	$.70/lb
D'anjou Pears	$1.19/lb	$1.99/lb
Collard Greens	$1.59/lb	$2.99/bunch
Limes	$1.75/lb	$1.35/lb
Asian Pears	$2.34/3 each	$4/1 each	Asian pears are the yummiest pears, if one can find them, get them.
Ginger	$1.54/lb	$4.99/lb
Total =	$15.57 + $4.99 shipping = $20.56*	$26.70	*Before the $10 off code.

I got about 9 pounds or so of the actual product.

Shipping cost is $4.99 per order, which isn’t too bad considering they’re shipping me a box of fruits and veggies (they’re heavy). I guess for the convenience since I don’t have to go produce shopping. That’s just us though, we live car-free so it saves me 30 minutes of work to go back and forth

Imperfect Produce did not save a significant amount of money after shipping costs. With a coupon, there were minuscule savings. But it didn’t cost an extra arm and a leg to get some really nice quality products without leaving your house.

Your miles may vary depending on what you order.

If you notice on the list, ginger and apples are significantly cheaper buying them through Imperfect Produce than my local grocers.

We didn’t buy avocado (just got a huge bag that day) but 3 count of them on Imperfect Produce goes for $1.59! That’s amazing! Avocados go for about $1/each here in Seattle ON SALE. Boo!

How Is the Quality of Imperfect Produce?

Excellent. The selection was pretty good too – I ordered 10 different things but the selection was probably around 30+ items.

I noted there were more labeled “surplus” than anything wrong with size, color, shape etc. The only thing that was wrong/not fresh was one single grape in the green grapes we got. I consider that normal. Every single bag of grapes I get from the grocery store has at least one busted grape. So it’s pretty much perfect to me

I tried both the pears, omgosh, so yums! The produce quality tastes better than the stuff my dad buys at the cheap Chinese market. The Chinese supermarket is about the same price but probably from lesser sources. On that front, I’m totally happy with Imperfect Produce.

Imperfect Tips & Strategies

*Familiarize yourself with local prices vs prices on Imperfect Produce. If I do it over again, I would double check the Asian pears, Anjou pears, avocado, beets, and grapes. They’re cheaper than my local grocers AND they taste better.

*Your miles will definitely vary. They need your zip code so check if the service is available in your area

*Buy ROOT vegetables, they’re easier to transport and takes longer to expire.

*Variations are unclear sometimes. I ordered beats and they look like those super red beets in the photo but they’re actually a slightly different variety of striped yellow beets. No real harm but just be mindful of variations.

Imperfect Produce Pros & Cons

Pro:

*Effortless to shop!

*Size choices great for all family sizes (from small to x-large).

*Fair selection of conventional + organic produce.

*Overnight delivery keeps things fresh and nice.

*Box was well chilled.

*Box had no padding material…that’s a pro/con depending on where you stand on padding material vs the environment thing.

*Not expensive.

Con:

*Not exceedingly inexpensive either.

*Shipping costs.

*You don’t get full control of what you get (ie. variations are sometimes unclear.)

*Limited delivery (only on Fridays).

*Limited location to only certain zip codes.

*Weekly or bi-monthly delivery schedules. Little customization.

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• Eat Ugly, Save Money? Imperfect Produce Review (+ FREE COUPON)

Who Would Imperfect Produce Benefit?

For those trying to trick themselves into eating and buying more fruits and vegetables, it’s a great service because when it’s in your house, you will reach for it.

In the grocery stores they have tons of other temptations to lead you away.

We don’t have a car so hefty produce(like melons and beets) are a rarer treat.

Families without cars or living in a food desert would benefit from Imperfect Produce too.

Those on EBT/food stamp benefits or anyone looking to shave a dollar off their grocery bill can benefit from Imperfect Produce too. None of the products I received was old and very few of them had detectable imperfections.

But if you live near many stores with great produce selection then it’s probably not worth getting Imperfect Produce because it isn’t much cheaper at all. Plus, you don’t have exact control over the variation selection or shipping schedule.

Would I Use Imperfect Again?

[Updated] Imperfect Foods have become better and better in the transformative 3 years I’ve been shopping with them. They have been up and running without fail so it’s not another dying Tech Startup. To sweeten the pot, they even started the $60 order + free shipping perk with their own fleet of delivery drivers and trucks! I do recommend them because the 2021 Imperfect Food has improved so much over my experiences in 2019 when they were still Imperfect Produce.

Ehhh. Yes maybe in winter when we’re snowed in but it’s not much of a money saver. The medium box would last a family of 2 for 2 weeks and a medium box will cost about $20ish+.

I said I needed to reach for more vegetables in my life than red meat. Most produce from Imperfect is a littttttle bit cheaper than getting it local from our grocers. The shipping cost balances it out any savings pretty much, except I don’t have to lift a finger. Without the coupon, I wouldn’t have jumped on it.

Get $10 Coupon (First Order Only!)

The coupon should apply after you confirm the order and confirm your selection for the week.

Like..really cheap. Besides salt, sugar, homegrown scallions, and garlic – this yummy thing was free.

(Quick set up)

Howdy on this Frugal Friday!

It seems like my father has officially declared retirement. He is continuing to live with us for now and he is receiving social security checks according to our mailman. With that and being rent free, he is living the high life (by his standards). Yesterday, he went out to some Chinese buffet all by himself and then I think he went to hang out at the senior center in Seattle’s Chinatown.

(These are all just my educated guesses since we don’t speak the same language. He might be in a street gang for all I know.)

With his new retirement activities, I’ve gone back to grocery shopping and foraged for myself this week.

It’s really nice even if cooking takes 2 hours of my time sometimes. It’s all worth it to have my little kitchen back now that he’s out and about more.

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Pho Yeah!

Everybody loves pho! This famous Vietnamese noodle dish is my grown-up version of chicken noodle soup.

Another thing I love is when my meals come with little side dishes, like in bento boxes and Korean dishes. Sometimes I end up liking the sides more than the main entree and the only disappointment is they didn’t give me enough.

That’s not a problem with Vietnamese pho places though. For just 2 people, my husband and I get a plate of garnishes each to ourselves at our pho places. The only non-issue is…pho is amazing on its own. I don’t think it needs a lot more of the stuff on the plate. I came for the beef broth flavor!

OK, so…what do you do with the leftover pho garnishes?!

While my dad was out, we had a pair of Airbnb guests leave 2 orders of eaten pho when they had to make an emergency return home for the babysitter. I told them I would dump out the takeouts and clean up for them while they get going. The mom handed me a small box of pho side garnishes (radishes, mint leaves, a tub of fish sauce, lime, chili sauce etc.) and told me they haven’t touched it yet and left.

I thought of dumping them out with the old broths but it’s such a shame for food (even garnishes) to go to waste so I popped them in the fridge instead.

It irked me a little when people in pho restaurants don’t use all of their sides even though it might not really matter in the big picture. But I want to go to their table and ask to have it every time. Most restaurants dump them out with the scraps and it’s a pity.

The next day, low on groceries on the old man’s new schedule, I rummage through our cabinet for something I could prepare. It’s weird. Going 10+ days without a grocery trip made me realize how many dried and canned things we stockpiled recently intending to use them but forgot.

I had everything in cabinets for a decent meal except fresh vegetables but………oh yeah that box of hand-me-down pho sides!

“Do I dare use other people’s leftover garnishes? What if they actually hated my Airbnb and spat in it?” I thought to myself ??

But I don’t want to throw it away. It looks good. Don’t judge me! I’ve eaten out of the kitchen dumpster before. (But that’s a story for another time.)

Anyways, I did dare. And heck yeah, it was yummy!

RECIPE – Cheapo’s Pho Salad

This post may contain affiliate links, read our disclosure for more info.

Ingredients (I Used)

I wasn’t exactly planning for it to turn out so good so here’s the roughy recipe. It doesn’t have to be specific at all, more of a tailored taste thing if you’re unfamiliar with Asian food.

Shredded daikon (or mung bean sprouts), fresh mint leaves, green onion, salt, sugar, garlic, chili oil, fresh lime juice, fish sauce or soy sauce (the 3 crabs fish sauce is my favorite.)

If it’s bean sprouts, cook the sprouts in hot water for a few minutes before continuing with the recipe.

Directions

1. 3 cups of shredded raw daikon or 3 cups of boiled sprouts, thoroughly drained and put it in a mixing bowl.

2. Cut 2 stalks of scallions into shreds or sticks and put it into the bowl.

3. Cut or toss in mint leaves whole, don’t worry they won’t overpower. It actually makes the salad for me :9

4. Add 1 tbsp of salt + 1½  tbsp of white sugar to the bowl and mix well.

5. Wait 10 minutes, the salt will suck moisture out of the vegetables and drain again.

6. While you’re waiting, mince 2 to 3 cloves of garlic. *Ginger is optional.

7. Drain again then throw the minced garlic into the mixing bowl along with fresh lime juice (1/4 of a small lime should be good.)

8. Add 2 tbsp of fish sauce or soy sauce – salt level and exact flavor depend on your fish sauce brand.

9. Add a doseage of chili oil and mix again.

10. Mix well until it starts to look all exotic, taste to test.

*Spicy peppers flakes are optional. *Sesame seeds are optional.

I packed it in my husband’s lunch (only for the 2 days he had jury duty this week) as a side to his stir-fry pork and rice. He said it was yummy and went well. I didn’t tell him it was the free leftovers of strangers though hahaha. Pop it in the fridge and it should last a week.

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Variations

I’m not the pho police so you do whatever you want and change it up. I encourage anything as long as it reduces food waste.

Depending on your local pho restaurant, some establishments will give you bean sprouts and some will give you shaved radish/daikon as the main side garnish.

Different establishments give different types of ingredients, sometimes there are shreds of pepper and sometimes they give you a little tub of sauce too.

It’s common to get a slice or two of lemon or lime. Every pho place I’ve been to gives mint leaves. Those two ingredients are what I think makes this side dish “pop.”

It’s pretty healthy besides the oil!

I put in a little more sugar because I like my flavors salty, sour, and sweet.

If you ask for more garnish with the intention of taking some home, remember to leave a gracious tip.

I’m going to say it…

I’m going to say it and you can’t stop me…

pho shizzle.

Hahaha x)

“Vanity Pounds”

Holy cow, how have I never heard of this term before? Hahaha! That’s exactly these last stubborn few pounds are, they refuse to go yet so close!

I know I’m within the healthy weight range but I would be more presentable if I stop wearing a developing double chin in almost every photo. Due to my face shape and small stature, if I gain even 5 lbs, it will very much show on my frame. I’ve been trying to lose an extra 10 pounds since, uh, last Christmas. It’s been more or less 2 steps forward, 2 steps back.

When I was in college I never had to worry about my weight so my habits were never great. I skipped breakfast. I ate sandwiches and fries for lunch at the university café. And for dinner, I usually have a grilled steak, another taco salad and double the desserts from the university dining hall. I was one of those girls that could eat anything and still be a rail. I could eat the sun and still be around 100 to 105 pounds. Sadly, those days are starting to slip away.

My 27th birthday is coming up in about a month and I’ve already started wailing on my husband for comfort.

“I don’t want to get any older!”

“Do you want me to kill you?”

“What?”

“Go lie down in the driveway because there are only two ways of going about this: You die at 26 or you march into 27 breathing.”

“……..so that’s the joke I’m going to get from you every time I whine about my age?”

“Pretty much ?”

Actually, I was making fair progress! But my mom stopped by last month to visit us. I knew it was game over when she told me she was coming to visit for 2 weeks. No one loses weight with their mom around and I was not about to miss out on some real home cooking for vanity pounds.

By the time she left, I had regained the pounds I shed and that number hasn’t moved much since. When she left, she also left a fridge and freezer of food and told us to eat it soon. That’s like the good mommy signature everywhere, huh?

Despite this, I’m still determined to shed those 10 pounds slowly…and stealthfully and with these 23 guidelines. I opted for more budget-friendly choices than the $60/hour personal trainer and $20 dieting tapes as you can see Here are 23 inexpensive weight loss tricks to rid those last few vanity pounds.

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1. Small Incremental Changes

I read this article from a skinny Korean woman that she keeps her figure by eating a banana in the morning and half a glass of water¹. For the rest of the day, she eats traditional meals and drinks a full day more of water. That’s how she keeps her awesome figure.

Although the morning banana diet is controversial due to its sugar content, it’s still better than a 900 calorie breakfast burrito or eating nothing at all until late noon. Very often, we all just need something inexpensive to fill our tummy in the morning quick. I thought bananas would be the easiest food to replicate without meal prep, disturbing the rest of my day, or a hard hit to the wallet.

2. No Drastic Overhauls

I try not to do fad diets even though they’re so tempting. I tried the Paleo one, the lemonade one, the Rachel Ray, and the morning banana one in the past because they sounded easier without giving up food I love for vanity. Losing weight is mostly calories in, calories out so responsible weight loss is about making long-term incremental life changes, not fad diets. In fact, I’ve lost interest in most of these diets as they get older and less “hip.”

The hard part is changing your routine every day as you get older. That’s a problem of mine. I’m so set in my ways after a lifetime of not having to worry about weight, now I have to cram bananas in the bedroom so I remember to reach for them instead of a plate of pot stickers with a side of spicy mayo sauce…. ah, ah, out of my mind pot stickers!

Drastic overhauls are not for vanity pounds, in one form or another, it could backfire.

3. Out of Sight Is Out of Mind

…and vice versa.

My entire bedroom smells like bananas. I have a bunch of bananas next to my bed because that’s the only way I would reach for it. If they’re right next to me when I wake up, I would have no choice but to grab it for breakfast. The banana and water thing next to my nightstand and another bunch of bananas on the computer desk makes me grab them instead of going all the way downstairs to rummage in the kitchen cabinets for my miniature Reese’s cups.

The principle of out of sight out of mind is a super easy thing to understand. If we see something our brain processes in the background, it comes up with a reaction to that something, even subconsciously.

It’s kind of amazing how this small trick can make such a big difference. It’s a principle applied in retail, finance, and weight loss.

If a person like me wants a successful weight loss, they can’t just cut back on food, they have to reorganize their home and kitchen. They have to design it in such a way that snack foods would be up high and healthier foods within grasps.

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4. Stop Drinking Your Calories

Everyone knows this one but I’m going to hammer it home: sugary drinks don’t make you feel full! The sugar is turned into fat by the human liver, it’s addictive, increases belly fat, and increases the risk for other illnesses such as cancer and type 2 diabetes².

5. Track Weight Every Morning

My weight fluctuates 3 to 5 pounds throughout the day. I’ve seen it with my own 2 eyeballs. I never made a huge habit of weighing myself in the morning around the same time since I always forget. Therefore, I end up with the craziest, pointless readings.

If dieters don’t make a habit of weighing themselves at the same time the whole weight thing is pretty meaningless as data points³.

6. Use MyFitnessPal to Measure Intake

I used the MyFitnessPal app on my phone to look up every nutrition information available. They have an online website too. In terms of nutritional information, it was like a huge calorie dictionary. I would eat the most obscure snacks and still be able to find at least comparable calories and nutritional information within the app. It’s very helpful for weight loss since it boils down to calories intake and calories burned. It’s also completely free to use.

7. It’s Going to Be Slow Goings

I’m trying to lose some vanity pounds on a budget, it’s not a gastric bypass amount of progress. The progress is still slow. If anyone has lost 30 or more pounds, you have my respect because it’s sooooo annoyingly long. But the most rewarding thing is when momentum builds in weight loss. Changing small habits make for a big difference in a year (ie. eating just 100 calories less a day means 36,400 fewer calories a year.) Losing 1 pound in caloric terms is about 3,500 calories; 36,400 calories divided by 3,500 means BYE BYE ~10 vanity pounds! ⁴

8. Snack Healthier

Most people don’t get enough fruit and vegetables and changing snack habits is the best way to inject those missing essential vitamins and minerals into your system. This isn’t just about vanity pounds. Think about the cost per ounce of fruit vs chips. The chips will be more expensive. A lot of things that are good for your health is good for your wallet. Repeat after me: flavored water, ants on a log, and air-popped popcorn

9. Find Any Chance to Go for a Walk

Every 1 mile walked burns 90 calories for a person weighing in at 150 pounds⁵. Similarly, running will burn 112 calories per 1 mile. Depending on your speed, it’s easier to think about it after each minute. If you can jog a mile under 15 minutes, that’s 6.00 calories burned per minute. The world is a gym, if you’re on a budget, you don’t need a gym membership to shed those vanity pounds.

 Cheap Eats Reads:

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10. Don’t Eat 3 Hours Before Bed

This is an iffy one. Does it work? Technically, yes. By not eating a few hours before bed, you essentially eat less overall. However, it’s important to not starve yourself because you will have trouble falling asleep. I break this rule constantly because I have a very hard time sleeping on an empty stomach. Hence the banana populated nightstand…

If some fellow bloggers out there get messages or comments from me at 3 AM Pacific Standard Time…I was hungry while doing so.

11. Brush Your Teeth 30 Minutes After Dinner

You can brush your teeth after dinner to refrain from snacking. There’s no real magic to it just like not eating 3 hours before bed. It’s merely a strategy to avoid contact with food out of impulses. Also, remember if you had anything acidic like lemon or grapefruit, avoid brushing your teeth for 30+ minutes because it might damage your enamel⁶.

12. No Alchohol

I’m such a good girl, I didn’t know alcohol had calories in it until I was half done with college. I thought it was like water…? Apparently, a 12 oz can of beer has 150 calories. 1 fluid oz of vodka has 60 calories and 5 oz glass of wine has 123 calories. Vanity pounds doesn’t vote well with any sort of alcohol. Skipping out on the alcohol will definitely save you money!

13. Don’t Underestimate or Overestimate

They say “muscle is built in the gym, weight is shed in the kitchen”⁷ but it goes in this order: we underestimate the number of calories consumed and we overestimate the calories burned. When I was using MyFitnessPal, I was underestimating my calories burned and overestimating my calories consumed by rounding down respectively. I do the exact same thing with our finances and round down at the bottom line.

14. Spices Over Sauces

Oh, this is a new one. It never occurred to me like that before. I took a look in my fridge and all of my sauces are around 30 to 80 calories PER serving. My favorite BBQ sauce of all time is 60 calories per serving and don’t get me started on the sesame oil I put on everything. Geez, what a sneak attack. Maybe that spinach and candied walnut salad weren’t so healthy after all.

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15. Go for the Lite Option

Speaking of salads, if there is a lite version of dressing, definitely reach for that instead. I know most dietary versions of full-fat foods just don’t taste as good. Like most people can taste a difference between a can of diet cokes vs non-diet cokes. I can too. Diet Coke and diet Pepsi is disgusting-tasting compare to the full-sugar version! By then I rather drink tap water.

But oddly, lighter versions of most dressings and sauces taste very comparable to me. I can save off half the calories for something that tastes almost as good, that’s a good trade-off.

16. Keep Idle Hands Busy

I can definitely say it’s a mixture of frizzy drinks, constant (unhealthy) snacking, and my aging metabolism that is wrecking havoc on my vain self. When my hands aren’t busy I reach for snacks – and given I run an Airbnb – I have tons of snacks in bulk purchased at clearance prices to tempt me. Keeping busy comes in the form of cleaning and tidying up various areas of your life. If I keep my hands busy at the computer, I end up not reaching for them by habit. I remember I sat around idle, waiting or my husband to walk in the door any minute. By the time he got home, I had an unwrapped peanut butter cup in my hand. — “How did that get here!!! Who took this peanut butter cup out of its wrapper!!! I was possessed!”

17. Invest in Your Shoes

I read this interview that Oprah gave to college graduates and there was one thing I couldn’t get out of my mind: “don’t cheap out on your shoes.” I wish someone gave me the logic on that on my graduation day. How much time does the average person spend in their shoes? 10 hours? Invest in the quality and comfort of your feet. I’ve had this issue before last year where I was experiencing minor foot and knee pain as a result of ill-fitting shoes. It turns out…arch support is kind of important. If your feet’s comfortable, you will be more inclined to move and walk which converts to calories burned.

18. Read The Labels

Be prepared for some shocks. I just went to read the kitchen labels tonight. I thought my healthy, fancy-schmancy brand of olive oil would be better calorie-wise – and maybe it is – but good golly, 1 tablespoon of our olive oil was already 160 calories!! 1 tablespoon being 1 serving at 160 per spoon and the container had 70 servings of olive oil! Are you kidding me! I doused you in my salad! Then I started reading all the labels in my kitchen: potato hash browns are 690 calories each, meatballs are 500 calories per serving, my potato salad…it’s a bit of a miracle I’m not 180 pounds then. No wonder I’m having trouble losing these last few vanity pounds.

19. Increase Protein to Feel Fuller Longer

Generally, it’s more important to eat until you are not hungry anymore. Not until you’re already feeling full. I thought that was a bit mindblowing because in my household, you shouldn’t leave the table until you’re full.

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20. Don’t Watch TV While Eating

Watching TV could distract and lull you into eating more⁸. I’ve tested this theory on myself. Without anything streaming in front of me, I finish eating in half the time (20 minutes) because my brain is focused on receiving those “stop eating now” signals from my brain. While streaming food shows on YouTube, I end up eating for the entire duration of the videos (40+ minutes). I don’t notice until my tummy starts to get painful…and only then do I stop. Once again, it’s a small miracle I only have vanity pounds for now with my trashy eating habits.

21. Use Dinner Plates Strategically 

Larger plates of food make our perception underestimate the amount of food on the plate. It also makes us more likely to underestimate those calories. This “optical” illusion is powerful and can even trick you into thinking you’ve consumed less food overall. To take advantage of this mental trick, put vegetables and healthier foods on larger plates and unhealthy foods on smaller plates. This same trick is employed in many all-you-can-eat buffets to help their financial bottom line. The customers think they ate plenty on small plates (since people count by plates) and the restaurant comes off generous with their portions.⁹

22. Carry Gum & Tic Tacs

Ugh, I love frizzy sodas, don’t get me started. It’s my weakness. That and hot Cheetos because apparently…I have the palate of a teenie bop. Whenever I get a snack craving while out now, I grab a tic tac from my purse instead of going to the food court. That’s mainly because most food court foods are unhealthy and it doesn’t even taste that good for the amount of grease you’re ingesting. A single tic tac is much better for your wallet than a $3.99 spring roll. I will always want to spring roll, not going to lie, but humming gum and tic tac make the temptation easier to curb.

23. A Little Depressed

Shouldn’t be hard…comes with dieting…(grumble grumble). Aha, no, it’s not really a joke. Being depressed could make you lose weight really fast. Depression makes me lose weight scarily quick whereas stress makes me gain weight and stress eat the other way. None of the two avenues is healthy and there’s a near-guaranteed the weight will be gained back. I don’t recommend it. But it works well. Post breakups, feeling shaken after fighting with a friend, coming under new pressure at work etc. decreases a person’s overall appetite for food.

Conclusion

Losing the last of those stubborn vanity pounds doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. It’s persistence, time, and a little while longer. Even though the motivation for vanity pounds doesn’t come unless there’s a high school reunion or wedding date looming, picking up these 23 really good diet habits above can mean you never have to worry about vanity pounds or unnecessary weight gain. It’s good for the wallet, good for your body, good for lifestyle and good for your health.

I wrote a pretty basic post on our approach to keeping our grocery bills super low almost 6 months ago. It’s how we approach shopping and it doesn’t necessarily follow all the standard recommendations. We don’t plan our meals ahead of time and we only glance once or twice at the weekly sales flyers.

But our method really does work for us or else we wouldn’t have been able to live on less than $300 in food expenses every month to feed 2.5 people*!

We usually spend $100 for 2 weeks which makes our grocery budget slimmer than the average family of 2.5.

Instead of explaining, this is an itemized list of my discount grocery haul so everyone can see what we’re buying.

*(Hubby eats at work on weekdays but we also give our Airbnb guests bfast & snacks so it balances out to about 2.5 mouths to feed per month)

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What’s In My Fridge?

Usually, we have food piled on top of food in the fridge but Seattle has been on a week-long downpour and our fridge was looking slack. There was nothing left except 2 cartons of eggs and little else to make a full meal. I took notice we had tons of condiments though.

This is one small trade-off between living car-free and being a bad driver. You have to walk a few blocks in the rain to a rental car and drive then park it in the heavy downpour. Ugh, I rather have a nice stroll honestly.

On Sunday, there was a break in the rain with real (behold doubters!) SUNSHINE and I decided to take my trusty Rosler cart (*Amazon affiliate!) for a nice grocery trip.

Normally, I don’t like to do shopping on Sundays. Sunday is a typical shopping day for most people – it’s something you do after church and meal prep for the week on Sunday night. Sunday grocery trips are usually when I find the least sticker clearances. Sunday people take them or there isn’t that much leftover good stuff on sale from the busy day on Saturday. But our fridge was getting bare and it was going to be heavy downpour until Wednesday so I went anyways.

As usual, I went in with no gameplan. I went to Albertson’s/Safeway like usual (they’re basically the same thing.)

Annnnnnnd blink, I spent $100+ in grocery stores.

Waaaaaaaaaait, wait, wait. Before you burn me at the frugal stake, that’s not bad for what I got. This was one Sunday (maybe because of the rainy downpour) with a decent selection of clearance tags.

Here’s the receipt breakdown in chart form, I’m hoping to tell you guys what a normal week for our family is purchase by purchase since that’s different than a long listicle of general tips.

Item	Quantity	Price	Comment
ALBERTSON/SAFEWAY
Curly fries	1 lb	$1.99	It's way more expensive than when I bought 8 lbs of frozen hash browns from Sam's Club for $6. But...this is curly fries! Also we don't have a wholesale membership anymore. And it's curly fries, therefore superior in every aspect of its geometric curves.
Frozen pizza	20 oz x 3	$3.33 x 3 = $9.99	I only buy these when they drop down to $3.33. That's the lowest the store will ever hold them and that has been the price bottom for years. They sell out at $5 but I don't play with that price knowing they will eventually drop down to $3.33. I stock up when they drop because...frozen pizzas are yummy and easy.
Frozen meatballs	3 lbs	$6.98	I'm the last person you ask to make Italian meatballs. I've tried making them and the meatballs sense soy sauce in my veins and refuse to cooperate in the pan. Cafeteria style spaghetti (no fancy stuff!) is my comfort food so I buy meatballs and Ragu as convenience.
Chocolate chip muffins	4 count	$1	Scoreeeeee! They're normally $3 to $4 but I caught them on sale.
Pumpkin muffins	4 count	$1	These are for our Airbnb guests since chocolate can get messy.
Peppered beef shoulder steak	2 lbs	$7.28	It was a 50% off clerance for vaccum sealed pre-marinated beef. I wish we had a photo but we ate it already (yummy!). Beef shoulder is a cheaper cut but robust on beef flavor. It came out to be less than $4 per lb for pre-marinated beef so I take that as a frugal win.
Organics fresh herb salad mix	1 lb	$5.99	No sale in the veggie or fruit department worth noting. I had to bite the bullet on this and get some sort of green for every meal even if I hate...it.
Roast beef and pickle sandwich	6 inch sub	$2.50	Prepared deli clearance sandwich that I ate for lunch. It's super dense and marked down from $5 to $2.50. It was perfect as a lazy lunch.
Chicken wings	3 lbs	$5	My dad wanted to make some spicy 5 spice wings and I found a pack of wings for regular price so I bit the bullet. Usually, we keep it around $1 for chicken.
Deli meatloaf	2 lbs	$4	This was another clearance item for 50% off and I regret buying this. It was a fair deal for precooked food but they way overcooked it. Not doing that again.
ASIAN GROCER
Ribeye steak	3 lbs	$20	My Asian grocery store has gotten expensive in the meat and fish department but they do have one everyday deal: 4 inches thick, beautiful, cuts of rib eye steak for $5.69 a pound! IT'S CRAZY. I cleared the entire rack of cuts. It's basically a week of dining like a king for just $20. Steak if quick and easy.
Hamachi (yellowtail) sashimi	4 lbs	$19.99	Yup, another block of raw fish. This is a staple in our household. We eat lots of rice and simple veggies so for the protein, I buy a block of yellowtail sashimi, cut it up, vacuum seal them individually and defrost the fish in the fridge the day before I eat it. No cooking neccessary. We buy some osinko (super cheap) and Korean side dishes and that's a wrap! For people squirmish about eating raw fish, for sashimi, the standard preparation is freezing to kill off all the bacteria. I eat a lot of raw fish from tuna to yellowtail to salmon, so far, zero issues. I know $20 seems like a lot of money but it's a hugeeeeeee block of fish. I eat 5-8 slices of sashimi with rice and I'm stuffed. That $20 is definitely going the long route. I would estimate it could last for 1.5 week if I ate a proper meal of fish everyday.
On-choy greens	2 lbs?	$3	On-choy is one of my favorites. You can get them at any decent Chinese restaurant. Bok-choy is overrated man. All our veggies from the asian grocer are about $1.29 to $1.99 lbs.
Mangoes	4x	$1	Super cheap mangoes from the clearance corner of aging fruits!
12 Eggs	Carton	$1	Stocking up on more eggs because my dad eats eggs for almost every meal.
Broccoli crowns	2-3 lbs	$2.59	We stir fry it with vietnamese fish sauce! The stems are given to our bunny to eat.
Bread loaf	2 Loafs	$2	I hate bread. I don't know where the old man finds these but he always get them for 89 cents to 99 cent per loaf.
Boston cream cake	8 inch	$5	These go on sale once in a while - my only regret was I didn't buy more. They retail for $11!
	Savings Rate =	46%	I aim for a 40-50% savings rate. Sometimes I would pull a 60% or a lowly 38% if I'm being silly.
	Total =	$100.37

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So yeah, that’s the item breakdown of my usual food haul.

Everything above would last our family almost 2 weeks (except the mangoes, they need to be frozen soon) at $100. If you multiply that by 2 for a total of 1 entire month then we still would be about $250 to no more than $300 for 2.5 people. Easy!

*I use Ibotta for a free 25 cent back per trip. Hey, it adds up! You pick up a quarter off the street wouldn’t you? This is like that!

*Don’t go in with a set menu in your mind. Keep your mind OPEN and go with whatever is on clearance. Sometimes the weekly flyer ads aren’t even all that good. On those weeks, I go on Fridays and once on mid week (Tuesdays are great) to hunt and hope for the best.

*Multi-grain purple rice as a staple – yums!

*I loveeeeee oshinko (pickled Asian radish) is cheap and healthy because it’s…just pickled radish. We get it for less than $1/lb. I eat it with rice and one protein for a quick meal. Seaweed and kimchi are good too.

*That chunk of yellowtail fish is going to last me over a week alone.

*A thick ribeye steak for $5.69 (everyday price) is a delicious blessing served with a side of rice and salad.

*Meatballs with pasta and salad are economical and a comfort food.

*$1 Banquet dinners make quick lunches in a pinch (I didn’t need anymore this time though.) I grew up on $1 Banquet dinners because it’s the cheapest, most affordable food when my parents were working late. So I still stockpile them like a poor kid. Habits are really really hard to break.

*Find heavily discounted bakery goods as occasional treat (it depends on the store. Some just won’t mark down their baked goods ever whereas one of my stores does and the other store I use to go to didn’t).

*If no veggie is on sale, I default to those tubs of salad mixes. They’re kind of expensive to me…but it’s quick and it’s healthier so it’s a good buy even if the kid in me hates it.

*As much as I love artisan cheese…I don’t buy cheese. That’s just me being cheap though, plus it’s not the healthiest thing. Only if the famous Beecher’s brand went on sale, I would consider it. (Weird fact: Hubby’s family is part of the Beecher’s founding family! They worked in wine and cheese…how stereotypically french. I still don’t buy cheese.)

*Go later in the night because the delis put out discounts. At my local Safeway, you can find corndogs, pizza sticks, burritos, potatoes wedges for 50% off after 8/9 PM because it’s the end of the day.

*Rainchecks are encouraged if you can just hunt down a store associate.

*Every store has a random clerance section for non-perishables. I don’t usually buy anything but it’s fun to dig around for useless things anyway like emoji lipsticks and Harry Potter body glitter.

*I very rarely clip paper coupons and didn’t use a single paper coupon in this haul.

*Also did I mention…rice is awesome?

I think I’m stealthy with deals. It’s not because of a one-time hit deal but it’s because of a constant hum of knowing what to buy at which price point.

Keep things simple. One carb, one veg, one protein and sometimes a treat.

Plus, frugality is soooooooooooooo much more fun than people give credit for. You get to experiment with what might work without fearing too much about the final price tag if you’re not backed into a financial corner. You get to get creative because limitations bring creativity.

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Why no seafood?

It’s rare for me to get non-sushi grade seafood like crab and clam. It’s more expensive and I don’t get great joy from it. Ugh, I hate crab, so much work to get a bite.

I’m not a huge fan of salmon either (unless it’s sushi grade). I found it on sale a few times for $5 per lb with clearance but I’d skip it. Not my thing.

The shrimps in chain grocery stores are just sad, dead and ugly. Ugh!!! I use to buy discounted shrimp for Thai coconut curry when we lived near Pike Place in downtown Seattle. Now we’re stuck with the crap at Safeway/Albertsons and I rather avoid it altogether.

Why no fruit?

‘CAUSE IM AN ADULT!!! There’s always fruit in the house. It’s ONLY gala apples, bananas, and oranges though. Fruit is my dad’s job and he gets the big 3 for really cheap at this latin grocer near our house. Not the greatest quality for $1/lb but hey, I don’t have to eat it! I hate fruit. You can’t make me digest fruit. I only like melons, grapes…and that’s it. Maybe honey crisps apples (but holy crap they’re expensive!!! It’s $6 per lb around here!!!)

Say no to fruit! Fruit is murder!!! They’re the ovary babies of trees!

Special Treats

There was a sushi coupon in the mail for $5 off orders of $25 last week. This is grocery store sushi believe it or not! But steps above the bad stuff at Safeway and Albertsons. It’s like a mini Japanese stall in the center of a grocer. They give these coupons out a few times a year! I always wait for them to mail me a coupon. I also had a 20% off gift card with a balance of $35 left on the grocery card so I bought a bunch of sushi like I usually do. It was delicious! All for $20 dollars after coupon (FYI – Seattle sushi is expensive, this is the best deal I can get in these parts…I’m sure other coastal cities can get it cheaper.)

Summary

I use to be kind of bad at grocery shopping before my dad came and I started noticing what he was doing differently. Now whenever I go shopping, I know there will always be a saving grace (at least 90%) of the time for me. Something will be on clearance or tagged with a 50% discount if I just look close enough. Maybe the universe is good to me but, realistically, logically, it’s not that. It’s practice, restraint, timing, and going in with an open mind.

I will and always will blow money on food happily – but that doesn’t mean I’m going to be reckless about it. I’m still going to be money savvy when I can. It doesn’t have anything to do with smarts. If you’re struggling with the food bill, you just need training and restraint, young grasshopper. You make your own luck, catching my drift?

Since I finally figured how (I hope) to poll, here’s the same exact question from our Financial Illiteracy post. This is now open to EVERYBODY to vote, not just Twitter users. I’m curious to see if I could replicate the data. Let’s do it for science!

[socialpoll id=”2497951″]

(McDonald’s hosts this annually as well. Don’t forget that food giant!)

The monopoly prizes vary between cash, gift cards, cars, spas, houses and more. All the total prize and money-saving offers total over $250,000,000.00! These monopoly games must be very lucrative for the “house” since they’re doing pretty darn good business even after hosting these $250 million dollar giveaways!

$250 million smack-a-roos. It sounds too good to be true…

Found this article helpful? Check out our sister blog that has all topics related to making extra money and working from home.

Are They Scams?

Short answer: No! But scammy varies by your definition.

As some may know, our Sam’s Club closed their doors last month. We are back shopping at our nearby Safeway for the time being. It’s a bit of a shopping shock – not buying everything in 5-pound packages like I’ve been doing for the past 2 years.

Bigger surprise! The monopoly games are back for the 2018 year!

I remember my husband and I playing the monopoly game 2 years ago since we shopped at Safeway. I told him I didn’t want to get too obsessed even though they are quite fun. We didn’t want to get too into it for (realistically) a shot at a $25 gift card. The last thing I wanted was to get addicted and spend money on purchases I didn’t need.

Related: 21 Frugal Pantry Staples List On A Limited Budget

We went about our regular shopping and ended up with about 50 or 80 tickets in grocery rewards in the span of 2 months. We open the monopoly game tickets while watching Netflix after dinner. It was like retirement home bingo nights except we were newlyweds.

My thinking was this: if we win, awesome. If we didn’t win, oh well. I didn’t go out of my way to get these tickets.

And that is the right mentality you should have for these monopoly games! Our half-baked attempt never won anything worth a separate trip to the store. Monopoly was good and exciting for the mild rush. Especially if we were going to need groceries, this was just the sprinkles on top.

Thinking back now, we had the right mentality but we definitely could have strategized better. There was one key thing we didn’t look into…

Here is what I’ve learned about these games (in Q&A form):

Should I Play Shop, Play, Win Monopoly?

Do you regularly shop for groceries at a participating store like Safeway, Albertson, Carr’s or Vons etc.?

Will you be offered monopoly tickets at check out either way?

If you answered YES to both questions then YES! You should play. The monopoly 2018 game runs from February 7th to May 8th, 2018.

Related: How We Save On Groceries (Lessons After 6 Months Of Receipts!)

How Do I Play?

First, pick up a Monopoly game board at your local Safeway/Albertson/participating grocer. Buy qualifying and bonus ticket items each item purchased. Inside game tickets are numbered markers to match up on the Monopoly board. Collect the correct markers and win corresponding prizes. There is also an android app available to scan and match pieces to boards electronically. You have to keep the physical ticket pieces to claim a prize so don’t throw anything away even with the android app. There is no Apple app available yet.

Why Should I Play?

On the monopoly game board, there will be smaller prizes that need 4 ticket pieces to win and the amount goes up to 8 pieces for the grandest of all prizes.

Sounds annoying and impossible, huh?

Well, actually Monopoly is sort of an “all or nothing” game despite the fact that you need multiple pieces to win.

I mean “all or nothing” because not all game pieces of those game tickets are created equal.

A few of the ticket pieces are extremely rare. Naturally, the more lucrative the prize means the rarer the tickets.

And I mean rare as in…

The monopoly grand prize of $1,000,000 cash will only have 2 possible winners in this huge, vast, beautiful nation we call America.

That means they were only print two pieces of the rarest winning game ticket. Worst yet, it doesn’t mean those winning pieces IS even in active circulation.

How many grocery stores are in operation in this country? How many million, billion tickets are in circulation? For one little winning quarter of a ticket, paired with 7 other common and semi-rare tickets that you will also need. The vast majority of tickets will be filled with common game pieces.

Related: That Time We Hit $1,000,000 For Reals

Some tickets are never claimed or worst yet some tickets are lost, forgotten, or trashed before even opening!

That’s why I think EVERYBODY should CASUALLY play UNTIL if luck has it, they happen to land a rare ticket.

Don’t go crazy before then.

Do not lose a ticket or have it go to waste unopened. It’s NOT worth going crazy unless you land one of the rare tickets.

The rare ticket is easy to figure out, it’s whatever one’s shows up the least!

2018 Rare Pieces List:

108AH
110BB, 116BH*
119CC
121DA
126EB
132FD
135GC
138HB
144JD
145KA
149LA
154MB
159NC
164OD
166PB
172QD
173RA
179SC
181TA*, 182TB
189VD, 190VE
193WC, 194WD
199XD, 200XE*
203YB, 206YE
207ZA, 209ZC
213AB
218BC
220CA
227DD
228EA
235FD
237GB
242HC

“Woah, I’m Just One Ticket Away!”

Tell me about it stud…

Nah!

The real objective is to locate and find a rare ticket. It’s not to piece every little ticket together and go “ooh, I only need one more.”

Each prize has 1 or 2 rarer tickets. If you end up with a ticket classified as rare then that should boost your chances of winning a lot since the rest of the tickets are much more common.

I saw this couple spent $120 on groceries trying to load up on monopoly game tickets. That was their 2nd trip back to their truck. They had another trip in the works. I never saw so many cartons of milk in a check out before. You gotta hustle those bonus tickets, I guess.

Needless to say, that couple was super addicted.

I hope they knew that even if they were “1 ticket away” from the grand prize does not mean they’re much closer to the grand prize.

The ultra-rare ticket they need could be all the way across the Mississippi river, stuck to the bottom of a Breyers ice cream carton, and never claimed.

I Found a Couple of “Rare” Tickets? What Now?

Each prize has 1 rare ticket and 1 semi-rare ticket. You need both. If you find a rare ticket then sweet! From there you can do a cost analysis on the prize and see if it’s something you want to go all in on. If the prize is, say, $20,000 cash then I recommend concentrating on the volume of tickets you need.

REMEMBER: Any monopoly ticket you can purchase for under or around $0.50 cents is a fair price. Put that into your cost analysis before you go all in to play.

Related: Why The Rich Are Frugal Even When They Don’t Have To Be

My Ticket is Not Totally Worth It…

Sometimes, the prize might not be worth clearing off your grocer’s shelves. If you don’t want to play – but find 1 out of the 2 rare tickets and don’t want the potential prize, you can hustle it on Craigslist or eBay.

The ticket might not be worthless. Your magical piece might be the one someone else needs and they could make it worth your while.

Some rarer tickets could go up to thousands of dollars on eBay.

(I would consult the fine prints of the Monopoly game agreement first but there are lots of sellers on eBay doing it right now.)

How Do I Get Lots of Tickets?!

For every purchase (there is NO minimum spend) you will get 1 monopoly ticket.

In the monopoly game rules, they require a 3-hour cooling window for the first monopoly ticket with any purchase so don’t think you can go through checkout a million times in succession with 5 cents worth of carrots to keep getting the free monopoly ticket

If the item you checked out qualifies for a bonus ticket (and I strongly encourage you to locate the CHEAPEST item that will spit out bonus tickets) then you will get 2 tickets. 1 ticket for any purchase, 1 ticket for the bonus ticket item.

Example: A cup of yogurt is on sale for 88 cents in my local Safeway and it comes with a bonus ticket included. That means for $0.88 cents, I can drop by and get 2 monopoly tickets in one Safeway trip. That means those monopoly tickets cost me $0.44 cents each. A monopoly ticket will go for around $0.65 each on eBay.

And yes, every time you go into the store, there’s a possibility of you picking up something you weren’t going to before. The House always wins, don’t ya know? So keep your wallets closed.

Related: How We Saved An Extra $640 And Didn’t Even Know It!

You can mail in a request form for 2 free monopoly tickets but with postage stamp costs, it might not be worth it depending on what shopping strategies you employ.

Clever Girl…

The at marketing department must have hired a bunch of behavioral psychologists working this out and setting it up. They really want you addicted to this game! Not only can you technically not “lose” until the very, very end when all drawings are up. Besides the possible $1 million prize drawing, discounts, and pointless Fandango there is a percentage of insta-win tickets out there for the instant gratificationers!

Related: Top Reasons Why Some People Don’t Save Money

The insta-wins tickets are prizes you can claim right then and there. Instawins can include prizes like 2 free monopoly tickets, $0.50 cents off dryer sheets, or claim a “free donut or bagel of your choice” etc.

Not a Winner? Use The Online Codes!

No tickets are complete “losers.” All monopoly tickets have a chance to nab small prizes besides the four squares of tickets that are included. But these Insta-win rewards are much smaller and less lucrative than the $500,000 vacation home or dream truck for example.

Most of the tickets contain an online code which requires you to log onto ShopPlayWin.com to enter them. About half the code will spit out nothing. But even the non-winning codes aren’t losers. If not a single $1,000,000 million dollar cash prize (out of 2 possible wins) is claimed by May 8th, all the codes submitted online will automatically enter into a drawing for $1,000,000 million dollars.

Some online codes (in my experience, barely half) will give you consolation prizes like Fandango points or a code to take $10 off Safeway flower delivery etc. These are consolations. The Fandango rewards are a stretch. You need to collect 30 Fandango points to get $5 off theater tickets. An adult fare for movie tickets cost over $15 per head, which means you have to collect 90 Fandango points in total to get a simple theater ticket.

Extra Tips

Joe (Retire By 40) bought up some excellent tips that I totally missed.

1. Remember to be a nice customer and show kindness, patience, and respect to your cashier. Always! Not for extra monopoly tickets but as a nice thing to do in general. Plus, not being a jerk will increase chances of them giving you extra tickets too.

2. If the person ahead of you during check out do not want their tickets then you can ask them to give them to you. For shybugs like me, I’ve always considered asking because those tickets would just go to waste otherwise but never did. I’m too shy, next time I’ll ask. Since most people don’t play and it’s free since they don’t want it.

3. Lastly, during the end rounds of the game, the stores will usually have a surplus of tickets (since most people don’t play) and that will be when they’re generous with them.

4. Do not tape down the game pieces since removing the tape might damage the pieces. It’s best to keep them in a small zip lock bag. -Elise (commenter)

Summary!

You should CASUALLY play the monopoly game for groceries you need.

It’s not a scam per se.

It’s just highly improbable. The actual chances are rarer than having a winning Powerball lotto ticket. Having 7 out of 8 of the necessary monopoly ticket pieces doesn’t necessarily mean you will have a surefire way of winning if you didn’t luck out with the rarest piece in the first place.

You’ll just end up with tons of duplicates of ticket pieces, make a mess and feel sad.

The Safeway monopoly game is very improbable until it’s very probable.

Besides that…remember to have fun!!! It really is a lot of fun. Everybody should play in moderation. The more tickets opened and noted the higher chance the ticket will be active in circulation and someone will find that rare piece.

Teamwork across America, right?

Anyway – I don’t think winning is easy but I welcome these annual monopoly gigs because it adds a little spice to our grocery shopping.

Be smart about it and not caught up. Only freak out when you have a rare ticket, otherwise, don’t get your hopes up or throw your finances out the window. Life is more than these monopoly games. Definitely do not get monopoly near your credit cards either!

Related: How We Lived On Less Than $300 This Month

Updated 2018 Results

As of May 05 in Seattle, they have stopped giving out monopoly tickets. They upped the amount of those tickets towards the closing days when they’re clearing inventory – that is why people (like me) got like 65 tickets for a grocery purchase of just $14. They’re just trying to clean house. and giving away oodles of tickets. In the end, all the prizes worth redeeming, we won…..

*drumroll please*

*3x $5 cash prize

*13 cans of tomato sauce

*7 packets of gravy

*3 free donuts

*1 bottled water

*2 aspirin bottles

*1 pack of 4 AA batteries

*2 fresh baked french bread

*1 pack of sour cream

*And no million dollars ;(

There’s always next year!!!

Prizes can be redeemed by May 29, 2018.

Although I wouldn’t wait until the last minute. Substitutes for items out stock are possible. For the two bottles of aspirin we purchased, we were able to switch them up for name brand Tylenol instead of the Safeway Signature brand.