When it comes to saving cash, it’s not hard to become overwhelmed, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Numerous individuals believe that saving cash on food, vacations or even retirement is a difficult task that needs lots of skill and sacrifice. It doesn’t have to be that way, however, especially if you need to start off slow and small with a couple of minor alterations at home. Source of article - Saving cash on food - an easy way to slim your bill and waistline by Personal Money Store.

Tips on saving cash on food

Let’s keep it simple and focus on relatively easy solutions to conserve, for instance saving cash on food purchases. The price of food is on the rise, but you are able to still prevent the need for pay day loans by learning a few tricks on how to effectively conserve cash on food. Bear in mind each little thing adds up, and also you will soon notice good changes with your finances, including your health, if you continue to practice good eating and spending habits.

Consider purchasing store brands

An easy way to slim down on the grocery bill is to buy store brand food. As budgets get tighter and food prices run high, more and more consumers are turning to store brands — including higher income families. Store brand offerings that are just as good as or better than name brand products can be found almost anywhere you go. Supermarket chains everywhere are now offering a wide selection of store brand products of better quality, so you are able to get the best of both worlds: get the best and save cash doing it.

Purchasing in bulk saves cash

Melissa over at Hunt Gather Love wrote a post titled Memo to Locavores: Animal Rights groups are NOT alllies.

Melissa is a “paleo” eater meaning she follows a diet that matches what folks did a few hundred/thousand years ago. She has both dietary, ethical, and environmental motivations all mixed together which are hard to distill but fun to discuss.

So, what about Chipotle? Well, Melissa had this tidbit in her recent article:

As everyone knows, I am a passionate advocate for small farms, but I think allying with organizations like HSUS to punish factory farms is NOT the way. I improving the infrastructure for local meat farmers and educating people about the health benefits of grassfed meat is the way to go. I’m pretty disappointed with Chipotle for supporting HSUS’s efforts in Ohio for more food fascism. I sometimes used to eat there, as it’s a pretty decent and consistent paleo option, but I think I will boycott.

“Food fascism” is a bit of inflammatory language, but I certainly appreciate the vigor!

The article about Chipotle she links to seems to show that the goals of Food With Integrity, especially when paired with a somewhat controversial animal rights organization, can lead to some negative feedback in social media outlets.

I hope Chipotle will take a cue from Melissa and focus their efforts on changing the world via competition and education rather than legislation. It’s easy to support Chipotle for providing better food at reasonable prices - it’s harder to support them in pushing legislation that will push people out of work and favor “a race to the bottom”.

There’s a new competitor for Chipotl: Tocabe. They serve up “Indian Fry Bread” (sometimes called Bannock). This is a popular meal introduce to many outsiders at pow-wows or state fair type events, but is essentially dough that’s deep fried with the typical burrito ingredients either laid on top (taco style) or stuffed inside (sopapilla style).

The style of their location at 44th and Lowell near Denver’s Highlands neighborhood is very well finished. The beautiful stone wall and nice tables and hanging art create an atmosphere that feels almost too professional. It feels a lot like a chain even though it’s the only location. We left guessing that they plan for expansion and wanted to solidly set the corporate style from the very first location.

Tocabe’s take on frybread

The Tocabe take on frybread is to serve it up with the customers choice of delicious fresh ingredients. One particular bonus is buffalo - either ground or braised and shredded like the Chipotle barbacoa meat - which is both delicious and a lot healthier with lower fat and cholesterol.

Westword did an article about Tocabe a while ago including this video:

Indian frybread health information

I’m mixed on this one, but it is generally exciting. Chipotle announced today a new iPhone application that allows you to order stuff in advance via your iPhone. Pretty awesome. One of the major complaints that I hear about chipotle is that certain locations have such a long wait time. This application allows any of the millions of folks with an iPhone to jump past the line and get their food.

iPhone Application - Should help finances

During the investors call in the summer of 2007 the Chipotle people on the call noted that the speed to process orders each hour was one of the biggest limiting factors for their was the speed of the line and (more importantly) the checkout process during the busiest time periods. This application allows them to utilize a second food-prep line and a totally separate payment process (which should be faster in terms of time spent in the store). If they can process an additional 5 orders during the busy hour that’s actually a big deal for them. Chipotle’s stock was actually down today - perhaps the market already knew that this was happening or perhaps the market hasn’t picked up on this news yet.

iPhone App Bad - Mobile Website Good

Why am I mixed on this? Well, my iphone broke and Apple and AT&T are a bunch of complete morons. (seriously). I would much rather that Chipotle build a mobile optimized website where this was possible. When I go to the Chipotle.com site with my G1 (Android) phone I get a mobile optimized site but all I can do is find restaurants - there’s no order form at all :(

It seems some other folks feel agree with me that the “new” chipotle style is not so good.

http://cheapotle.com/

Chipotle Comes to Your iPhone

According to macrumors a Chipotle ordering tool was added to the iPhone Application store (and then promptly removed).

Update: Chipotle Mobile Ordering has been removed from the App Store for unknown reasons, although users have reported that the app suffered from a number of bugs that may have precipitated its removal.

Bummer. I don’t see much advantage to ordering ahead, but it probably helps Chipotle sell more burritos so go out and get it, everyone!

Chipotle is Headed to London, United Kingdom

Forbes, among others, is reporting about Chipotle’s plans to expand to London. A few years ago they expanded to Canada while copycat restaurants open elsewhere around the globe so now they are heading straight to the UK themselves.

I wonder if the recipes will stay the same or be “Brittified”? I wonder if there are enough farms and ranches around to raise the animals in a way that fits with the Food With Integrity program?

Some of you may have seen “bio cutlery” other plant based plastics. The basic idea is that instead of using petroleum to create the plastics some plant material (usually corn) is used as the basis for the containers. This is often better for the environment in some ways because plants are a renewable resource and these plastics often degrade more quickly.

Chipotle Partners with HAVI/Perseco and Cereplast for Bio Cutlery

In Millbrae California the city government is instituting a ban on non-degradable containers at restaurants. This has restaurants scrambling to find suitable alternatives for their disposable products. This is probably a good idea for restaurants to implement nationwide.

According to this press release:

Chipotle will initially use the cutlery in its Millbrae, Calif. restaurant, with a system-wide rollout in Chipotle’s approximately 800 locations expected in the near future.

This could become another way that Chipotle leads the industry in sustainable and environmentally responsible practices.

Except Chipotle Isn’t Really Planning a Change…

According to QSRMagazine Chipotle isn’t really planning this change…

Currently, through a supplier, Chipotle purchases plastic cutlery made using Cereplast Compostables resin for its one restaurant in Millbrae, California, to comply with a local ordinance. In a Dec. 15 press release, which was not reviewed or approved by Chipotle, Cereplast misstated the nature of the relationship, stating that “A system-wide rollout of up to 800 Chipotle locations is expected in the near future.”

Chipotle currently has no plans to expand its relationship with Cereplast.