A few weeks ago a co-worker came into my office and started complaining about the high price of her lunchtime grocery run. She went to New Seasons, our local organic-type-healthy-grocery, and got a few things for dinner. Her bill came out to $45 and she was appalled. She starting listing off the things she bought and I was appalled. There was out of season produce on her list, buying chicken stock off the shelf, and judging by her reaction I'm sure there was no mind to actually looking for the best deal while she was there. She and another co-worker commiserated and talked about how expensive it was to shop there and how they prefer to do their shopping at Win-Co. I'm sure the produce there is very high-quality....eh-hem.
My goal is to spend about $50 per week on groceries for our house. I usually come pretty close. Clearly shopping the way my co-worker does I couldn't do this. One meal for $45 is not going to get me in under $50 for the week! It can be done though - even shopping at the store they consider so ridiculously spendy - I just got back from a lunchtime New Seasons grocery run and I spent about $55 and I got a lot more than food for just one meal.
First of all, I spend a good chunk of time when I sit down to make a grocery list. I will get out my cookbooks or open up my browser and start looking for things to make. When I find something that 1) calls for ingredients I already have 2) is seasonal and 3) sounds good I'll start my list there. Then I have a base list of ingredients and I try to find other recipes that will use the same things. If I decide to make a soup that calls for celery, I'll also buy tuna to I can make tuna salads. If I buy mushrooms for a pasta, I'll be sure we have eggs so I can make a quiche. If I buy broccoli for a veggie side with fish, I'll be sure to find a casserole that takes broccoli too. I keep doing this until I have about five meals worth of food on my list. The goal of the game is to have as few ingredients with the most dishes available. By the time I'm done there has been a fair amount of crossing out certain items when they didn't fit in, or modifying recipes slightly to fit better with my grocery list.
I will also group my shopping by store. If I have a lot of household items I need that week, like toilet paper and toothpaste then I'll adjust my shopping list to cater to a bigger grocer like Fred Meyer and try to limit my produce. If I'm buying a lot of produce I'll go to New Seasons, but I won't get my aluminum foil that week.
Most importantly is that I rarely buy pre-packaged food. I try very hard to only buy ingredients. It's so much cheaper that way - and healthier! I also always buy seasonally! There is no reason to need zucchini in early spring in Oregon. It's just not natural and your wallet feels it. What would be $6 a pound and of inferior quality in March will be $1 a pound and delicious in August.
Other things I do to cut down on money spent at the grocery store is that I make things myself. I would never buy chicken stock off the shelf. It's a few dollars per quart. I use bouillon paste as a substitute, and for special meals I use homemade chicken stock from spent bones and veggie ends. I make yogurt from aging milk. From this I can have a pint of Greek yogurt for about two dollars. Off the shelf it costs at least four times that. I don't buy bread. I have a loaf rising at home right now, artisan crusty-type bread. If I had bought this loaf at the store today it would have added $4-5 to my bill. Instead it's free if you say I already had the ingredients and even if you add up the cost of those it's about a $1 loaf. I also have a garden. Though it's not producing as well as it should be, come summer our produce bill should shrink down to almost nothing.
When I went to the store on lunch today I didn't have a list. I just haven't had the time to sit down with my recipes around me and figure out a meal plan. So that is strike one against me. I was also buying for a guest coming into town tonight, so I had beer and wine in the cart. Strike two. It was also my lunch break, so I got lunch at the deli, onto my weekly grocery tab. Strike three. In the end I walked away with onions, garlic, celery, bananas, mushrooms, 5 pounds of potatoes, asparagus, apples, tortilla chips, 2 six packs of beer, a bottle of wine and a grilled salmon Caesar salad with a root beer for lunch all for $55.
If you take the time to check the price, look around for a better deal and know what is in season it can be done!
My goal is to spend about $50 per week on groceries for our house. I usually come pretty close. Clearly shopping the way my co-worker does I couldn't do this. One meal for $45 is not going to get me in under $50 for the week! It can be done though - even shopping at the store they consider so ridiculously spendy - I just got back from a lunchtime New Seasons grocery run and I spent about $55 and I got a lot more than food for just one meal.
First of all, I spend a good chunk of time when I sit down to make a grocery list. I will get out my cookbooks or open up my browser and start looking for things to make. When I find something that 1) calls for ingredients I already have 2) is seasonal and 3) sounds good I'll start my list there. Then I have a base list of ingredients and I try to find other recipes that will use the same things. If I decide to make a soup that calls for celery, I'll also buy tuna to I can make tuna salads. If I buy mushrooms for a pasta, I'll be sure we have eggs so I can make a quiche. If I buy broccoli for a veggie side with fish, I'll be sure to find a casserole that takes broccoli too. I keep doing this until I have about five meals worth of food on my list. The goal of the game is to have as few ingredients with the most dishes available. By the time I'm done there has been a fair amount of crossing out certain items when they didn't fit in, or modifying recipes slightly to fit better with my grocery list.
I will also group my shopping by store. If I have a lot of household items I need that week, like toilet paper and toothpaste then I'll adjust my shopping list to cater to a bigger grocer like Fred Meyer and try to limit my produce. If I'm buying a lot of produce I'll go to New Seasons, but I won't get my aluminum foil that week.
Most importantly is that I rarely buy pre-packaged food. I try very hard to only buy ingredients. It's so much cheaper that way - and healthier! I also always buy seasonally! There is no reason to need zucchini in early spring in Oregon. It's just not natural and your wallet feels it. What would be $6 a pound and of inferior quality in March will be $1 a pound and delicious in August.
Other things I do to cut down on money spent at the grocery store is that I make things myself. I would never buy chicken stock off the shelf. It's a few dollars per quart. I use bouillon paste as a substitute, and for special meals I use homemade chicken stock from spent bones and veggie ends. I make yogurt from aging milk. From this I can have a pint of Greek yogurt for about two dollars. Off the shelf it costs at least four times that. I don't buy bread. I have a loaf rising at home right now, artisan crusty-type bread. If I had bought this loaf at the store today it would have added $4-5 to my bill. Instead it's free if you say I already had the ingredients and even if you add up the cost of those it's about a $1 loaf. I also have a garden. Though it's not producing as well as it should be, come summer our produce bill should shrink down to almost nothing.
When I went to the store on lunch today I didn't have a list. I just haven't had the time to sit down with my recipes around me and figure out a meal plan. So that is strike one against me. I was also buying for a guest coming into town tonight, so I had beer and wine in the cart. Strike two. It was also my lunch break, so I got lunch at the deli, onto my weekly grocery tab. Strike three. In the end I walked away with onions, garlic, celery, bananas, mushrooms, 5 pounds of potatoes, asparagus, apples, tortilla chips, 2 six packs of beer, a bottle of wine and a grilled salmon Caesar salad with a root beer for lunch all for $55.
If you take the time to check the price, look around for a better deal and know what is in season it can be done!
mmm, root beer.
ReplyDeleteThis was SOOOOOO helpful. Thanks for explaining this. I *just* started a meal plan two weeks out and I spent probably roughly 100 bucks (trader joes and new seasons) for these two weeks, but a lot of those items were things that will last me the month. For me, I try to find things that will feed me for at least more than one meal. I think on my next two weeks, I'll try your strategy and see if I can cut down on things. I don't make a lot of my own stuff, but then again, I don't eat bread (cuz that is literally all I'd eat if it was around the house) and I don't eat dairy, so that adds many strikes due to the coconut yogurt =/
ReplyDelete