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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The Best $75 (or Less) You Can Spend That Will Pay for Itself in a Month
Spending money to save money might sound like a contradiction, but when done strategically, it can actually work in your favor. Whether you're trying to lower your bills, save time on daily tasks or cut back on wasteful spending, a small upfront investment can deliver quick returns. Read Next: Check Out: So if you have $75 (or even a little less) to put to good use, here are some of the smartest ways to spend it. Each one could likely pay for itself in about a month (sometimes even less), making it a savvy move for your wallet. Also see seven purchases that may change your life, according to Rachel Cruze. Buying in bulk at warehouse clubs like Costco or Sam's Club can significantly reduce the cost of essentials from toilet paper and laundry detergent to pantry staples and meat. On top of groceries, you can also score deals on prescription medications, travel packages, car rentals and even insurance. According to CNET, a Costco membership can save $1,000 a year in groceries. Add in discounted gas, and your membership could pay off quickly. Costco's Gold Star Membership costs $65 a year, while Sam's Club's base-level membership costs just $50 a year. Explore More: Meal kits like HelloFresh, EveryPlate, Blue Apron and Dinnerly offer heavily discounted intro rates for new users, often up to 50% off your first few boxes. Subscribers receive pre-portioned ingredients and recipes that make weeknight dinners easier, reduce food waste and limit the need for expensive last-minute takeout. If your family has been ordering takeout for two to three nights per week, you can likely save money on your food costs by considering one of these meal kit dinners services. Plus, you can save time planning meals and shopping. Most of these plans allow you to skip weeks or make adjustments to your order anytime, so you can also manage how much you spend overall. According to Bon Appétit, HelloFresh costs an average of $9.99 per serving, plus shipping fees, while Dinnerly comes in slightly lower at an average of $7.99. Investing in durable, reusable household items can save money in the long run. Think water filter pitchers (like Brita or ZeroWater), silicone food bags, beeswax wraps or a quality reusable coffee cup. These products replace single-use items you'd otherwise need to buy every month. If you stop buying bottled water and use a filter instead, you could save on buying pricey plastic water bottles. Replacing plastic bags and foil for lunches or leftovers? That's more savings. Good Housekeeping ranked the Brita water filter pitcher as the best overall. It costs $55 on Amazon. Cooking at home can save hundreds per month, but the key is convenience. A good set of meal prep containers, a slow cooker or even an air fryer can help you plan ahead, reduce food waste and avoid costly takeout when you're busy. Slow cookers are great for batch-cooking soups, stews and proteins, and they work while you're busy living life. Even replacing just two takeout meals per week with home-cooked options can save $40 to $80 month — or more. That's not even counting the leftover meals you can freeze or refrigerate. Kohl's is selling a Gourmia air fryer on sale right now for just $75.99. Or if you want to go the slow cooker route, Target has a 6-quart Crock-Pot for $74.99. A simple tool kit with a hammer, pliers, a screwdriver set, measuring tape and a level can empower you to handle basic repairs and upgrades yourself. You can watch free tutorials on YouTube or TikTok to learn simple DIY techniques for home maintenance. Hiring a handyperson for a one-hour fix can cost an average of $50 to $150, per Angi. If you tackle even one small job yourself, whether it's hanging curtains, fixing cabinet doors or patching holes in drywall, you'll already have saved more than what you likely spent on the tools. A Husky homeowners tool set at Home Depot costs just $74.97, which would likely pay for itself after just one repair. Saving money doesn't always mean cutting things out. Sometimes, it means spending smart. Choose one or two of these ideas to try, and watch how fast that small investment pays off. Editor's note: Pricing and availability may vary depending on location. More From GOBankingRates 10 Unreliable SUVs To Stay Away From Buying 7 Tax Loopholes the Rich Use To Pay Less and Build More Wealth This article originally appeared on The Best $75 (or Less) You Can Spend That Will Pay for Itself in a Month
WIRED
29-03-2025
- General
- WIRED
Dinnerly Costs Less and Tastes a Lot Better Than I Expected
'This is a real Midwestern meal,' my father said, digging into a plate I'd prepared from the Martha Stewart–endorsed Dinnerly meal kit. 'Meat. Potatoes. Green beans.' This, for my father, was high praise. It was the type of meal he'd grown up with as a child in Nebraska: hearty, no-nonsense, balanced, always something green, and always a slab of meat. For a week on a visit while my mother spent time with the grandkids, I cooked him dinners with Dinnerly, the lower-cost cousin of the truly excellent, cheffy Marley Spoon meal kit also endorsed by Stewart (and also by me: 8/10, WIRED Recommends). The biggest surprise for him was how much some of these meals intersected with old-school American home scratch cooking. The 'Greek Lemon-Oregano Chicken' we were eating did indeed involve a bit of citrus, but this character was less notable than the salty savoriness of deglazed chicken broth deepened by the browned bits from the chicken. Oregano hardly felt exotic, to anyone at the table. Heck, they might even serve this chicken in Nebraska. The potatoes were Yukon golds that I'd cut, boiled, buttered, garlicked, and mashed by hand. The beans were fresh, and simple as it gets. Greek lemon-oregano chicken Photograph: Matthew Korfhage As with its more expensive cousin, Dinnerly's chicken breast looked significantly better than what I'd expect to find at a mid-tier supermarket: plump, pink, and nicely trimmed of any un-renderable fats. The portions were large enough that each of us wondered whether we'd finish, but still finished. On its best meals, which tend to be its most classic, Dinnerly doesn't feel at all like a budget meal kit. Just as Marley Spoon does, it can feel like good home cooking. And yet it does cost about 30 percent less than Marley Spoon, adding up to $6 to $9 a serving including shipping, depending on how many you order in a week. (Preferences include 'gluten-free-friendly,' low calorie, low carb, picky-eater approved, quick and easy, and vegetarian. Meals can be paused or canceled at any time.) The seams can show a bit on some recipes, especially in terms of some apparent shortcuts on recipe development. But the real key to Dinnerly's lower cost shows up as simplicity. Simplicity as Parsimony It's hard not to compare Dinnerly and Marley Spoon. Both meal kits come from the same company, after all, founded in Germany but embellished with homemaking demiurge Martha Stewart's brand and cooking techniques. Both arrive the same way, in a box with ingredients for all recipes jumbled together: fresh produce and unrefrigerated food in a little box flat on the top, with meat and dairy and other more sensitive perishables on the box's cool-packed bottom. Basic staples such as flour, butter, sugar, and oil are assumed to be in your pantry: They don't come in the box.
