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Good grief, you people. $50 a week is plenty of food, and they aren't going to wilt if they eat the same thing twice in a week. Buy your big bag of rice, buy your big bags of beans. One thing - just don't forget to buy a bunch of vegetables. Just get whatever's on sale, and plan your meals around those. It's easy, when looking for kcal/$ ratios, to forget to buy veggies and stuff. Sometimes buying pre-cut, flash frozen ones are a better deal (avoid canned, if possible, excepting tomatoes). Learn to spice well! You can go from Mexico to China sometimes just by swapping out your spices.
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Mar 12, 2013 16:10
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mediaphage posted:Good grief, you people. $50 a week is plenty of food, and they aren't going to wilt if they eat the same thing twice in a week. Buy your big bag of rice, buy your big bags of beans. One thing - just don't forget to buy a bunch of vegetables. Just get whatever's on sale, and plan your meals around those. It's easy, when looking for kcal/$ ratios, to forget to buy veggies and stuff. Sometimes buying pre-cut, flash frozen ones are a better deal (avoid canned, if possible, excepting tomatoes). Learn to spice well! You can go from Mexico to China sometimes just by swapping out your spices. I grew up plenty poor and eating like this, and no amount of spices will cover up the fact that eating the same rice-and-bean variety day in and day out is awful no matter how much frozen broccoli with curry powder you throw on top. You can only get so many textures out of rice and beans and eventually that poo poo feels like nutritive slurry in your mouth. The OP of this very thread bemoans a lack of variety. Sure, you can survive on slop-in-a-dish, but I'd rather skip dinner every other night and afford something interesting than go back to eating that poo poo every goddamn day. Throw some pasta and bread and potatoes in there even if the kcal/$ ratio isn't perfect. Nicol Bolas fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Mar 12, 2013 |
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Mar 12, 2013 16:27
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mediaphage posted:Good grief, you people. $50 a week is plenty of food, and they aren't going to wilt if they eat the same thing twice in a week. Buy your big bag of rice, buy your big bags of beans. One thing - just don't forget to buy a bunch of vegetables. Just get whatever's on sale, and plan your meals around those. It's easy, when looking for kcal/$ ratios, to forget to buy veggies and stuff. Sometimes buying pre-cut, flash frozen ones are a better deal (avoid canned, if possible, excepting tomatoes). Learn to spice well! You can go from Mexico to China sometimes just by swapping out your spices.
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Mar 12, 2013 16:33
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TychoCelchuuu posted:Exactly - it probably depends a bit on where you live, but ~$50 a month for one person is doable if you're smart about what you buy (and you don't have to eat some sort of weird nutritive slurry slop in a dish for every meal, Nicol Bolas). Sorry, I challenge this whole-heartily. Show me $50 of food that lasts 2 people a month, hell, 1 person a month, that is let's say 3 totally different dishes. edit: 3 different dishes that aren't "beans and rice with spice 1, beans and rice with spice 2, beans and rice with spice 3"
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Mar 12, 2013 16:37
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Etc. etc. etc. but let's still remember the central point here: It is possible to get better quality ingredients for the same or even less money without even having to go to Walmart.
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Mar 12, 2013 16:59
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Nicol Bolas posted:I grew up plenty poor and eating like this, and no amount of spices will cover up the fact that eating the same rice-and-bean variety day in and day out is awful no matter how much frozen broccoli with curry powder you throw on top. You can only get so many textures out of rice and beans and eventually that poo poo feels like nutritive slurry in your mouth. The OP of this very thread bemoans a lack of variety. Sure, you can survive on slop-in-a-dish, but I'd rather skip dinner every other night and afford something interesting than go back to eating that poo poo every goddamn day. Throw some pasta and bread and potatoes in there even if the kcal/$ ratio isn't perfect. Yeah. Which is why I suggested making sure you get plenty of vegetables, not a bag of frozen broccoli now and again. Grow lettuce - anyone can grow lettuce. $50/week is enough to get eggs and cheese. Flour, sugar. Milk. Your monthly quota of rice, beans, flour, sugar, other staples, etc can be taken care of with less than one week's budget. That leaves you three weeks' budget for everything else, which is plenty.
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Mar 12, 2013 17:54
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Mr. Wiggles posted:Etc. etc. etc. but let's still remember the central point here: It is possible to get better quality ingredients for the same or even less money without even having to go to Walmart. I don't particularly love or hate Wal-Mart, but I would point out that their food is almost never cheaper than other stores - it's not where they cut down to nothing to get you in the door; it's there so that you buy your milk there while you go to find that household item you wanted.
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Mar 12, 2013 17:57
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mediaphage posted:I don't particularly love or hate Wal-Mart, but I would point out that their food is almost never cheaper than other stores - it's not where they cut down to nothing to get you in the door; it's there so that you buy your milk there while you go to find that household item you wanted. I haven't had Walmart meat, but it has never been cheaper than any other place. Their vegetables are pathetic and I've seen rotting produce sitting out in moldy cardboard boxes. While I can understand doing Costco for bulk stuff (no matter how much Wiggles hates them), there's no point in doing Walmart. 90% of the food they have is very processed canned crap. A few years ago I tried to see if I could live on $50 a week (not counting rent and car payment) by going to Walmart. I found I could if I was OK with eating lovely canned pasta every day or HFCS-rich peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The only reason they sell so much is because it's what the generic American population wants and expects. They trust big name brands and don't know how to cook for themselves or choose not to. My parents realized this and I grew up not eating canned stuff for the most part (they still insisted on canned vegetables because my mom grew up in the midwest), because my parents grew up poor and knew that making your own food is way cheaper in the long run if you know what the hell you're doing. So uh, yeh, TLDR don't go to Walmart, limit but still consider Costco (sorry Wiggles I will murder each chicken with my bare hands if it gives me cheap bandoleers of chicken breasts), and I really want to know more about $50 a week variety eating. Things off the top of my head that make a ton and are cheap: * Cabbage into kimchi (lasts forever and makes a massive amount) * Country style pork ribs ($2 a lb, a little less in bulk, good in the slow cooker) * 50 cents of potatoes, ~$1 onion, $1 bell pepper, $5 package of sausage = at least 4 meals for 1 if you aren't a fat idiot like me and eat it all at once Has this thread tackled beer? I just started making my own with a very experienced friend's help and besides the initial equipment investment, you're looking at $30 for 5 frigging gallons of beer. A very basic ale but still very good. Adult Sword Owner fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Mar 12, 2013 |
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Mar 12, 2013 18:03
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Not sure if it's similar in the US but in the UK you can really make a lot of savings by shopping late at night - the supermarkets heavily discount a lot of fresh food close to midnight. If you shop smart you can make savings of 50-60% easily and it's not like the stuff is on the verge of rotting - it'll still stay good for days in the fridge (or freezer depending on the item).
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Mar 12, 2013 18:10
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Saint Darwin posted:I haven't had Walmart meat, but it has never been cheaper than any other place. Their vegetables are pathetic and I've seen rotting produce sitting out in moldy cardboard boxes. Kimchi is a brilliant suggestion. So is making tofu, if anyone is up for it - it's super easy to do, and you get a ton for your money. Same for sauerkraut or any other fermented thing. Other suggestions: soups, gumbo. Cornbread. Doing a pizza completely from scratch costs just $1 or $2 per pizza and will easily feed two, especially if you eat a salad with it.
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Mar 12, 2013 18:13
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Also, a big money saver is portion control and to eat slowly. If you wolf your food down you skip the stomachs natural "I'm full now" message.
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Mar 12, 2013 18:17
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mediaphage posted:Kimchi is a brilliant suggestion. So is making tofu, if anyone is up for it - it's super easy to do, and you get a ton for your money. Same for sauerkraut or any other fermented thing. On the soup track, dashi and miso are cheap and make a lot of delicious miso soup. Throw in tofu! I got a huge, huge package of dessicated Shitaki from I think Costco and a few of those go great in it.
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Mar 12, 2013 18:19
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WastedJoker posted:Also, a big money saver is portion control and to eat slowly. The biggest money saving tip is not to waste any food. So much food gets wasted in the US, Canada, UK, etc. Insane.
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Mar 12, 2013 18:27
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Saint Darwin posted:
Not in this thread, but we do have a great beer thread! (Though you know this as you're posting there now.) http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&threadid=3437782&perpage=40&pagenumber=272#pti36 Generally we are pretty conservative with suggesting that people brew to save money since the hobby isn't exactly for everyone. It's kind of time intensive and there is an initial $100 dollar cost for just a basic equipment kit. Add on top of that ingredient kits (if you are going extract) for a bare minimum of $30. That's for 53 beers of generic pale ale. For about the same price you can get about 60 PBRs without the month of lag time for fermentation and carbonation and all the effort time of the brewing itself and bottling. Now, if you don't like lovely beer, brewing can be a great hobby since you can get ales instead of adjunct lagers for pretty cheap, but you still run into the month of waiting and the price for ingredient kits increase a lot as you get more exotic (Belgians, heavily hopped IPAs) or you start needing a fermentation fridge for lagers, etc. I've seen extract kits that go for $60-$70. If you do all grain brewing, you will probably have to spend around $250-350 on equipment. The trade off here is that you can buy grains instead of extracts and save a TON of money that way. I believe one of the guys in the brewing thread has his house beer down to 10 gallons at $15. That's $15 for around 107 beers. I recently started a 5 gallon batch of sour brown beer that something similar would go for 11.99-15.99 per bottle (750ml) in the store, meaning for the volume I made, I would have paid somewhere around $300 to $400, and instead spent around $30. It's awesome and fun, but if I didn't have the equipment BEFORE I started needing the "I'm poor, help me eat good food" thread I probably wouldn't have been able to drop the money on equipment. I'm also partially enabled by having roommates who also like to drink and subsidize my brewing a bit.
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Mar 12, 2013 20:02
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mediaphage posted:The biggest money saving tip is not to waste any food. So much food gets wasted in the US, Canada, UK, etc. Insane. that and buy food as far down the capitalist food chain as you can. Every step of the way, from seed to package, there is some company who needs to make money. Growing your own food and making your own food from scratch can save you a shitton of money. Bread for example. So simple to make, so cheap, marked up like what. Some greens and other vegetables grow practically like weeds. Scarlet runner beans, sunchokes, arugula, etc.
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Mar 12, 2013 20:04
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Daedalus Esquire posted:Generally we are pretty conservative with suggesting that people brew to save money since the hobby isn't exactly for everyone. It's kind of time intensive and there is an initial $100 dollar cost for just a basic equipment kit. Add on top of that ingredient kits (if you are going extract) for a bare minimum of $30. That's for 53 beers of generic pale ale. For about the same price you can get about 60 PBRs without the month of lag time for fermentation and carbonation and all the effort time of the brewing itself and bottling. I'm going by the only batch I've ever made, but it cost $32 for the consumables and it's only taking 14 days to ferment, and it's going to be an oatmeal stout. No carbonation it seems (unless the plan was in the bottle? Does that even make sense? Shouldn't I have been told ahead of time). I can see that it's not the cheapest beer, but I think it is worth mentioning that barring the initial expense, it IS possible to save quite a bit and still enjoy good beer. PBR...not really good beer there. Yuengling is very inexpensive if you can get it and is really not bad for its price, but you get sick of lager. GrAviTy84 posted:that and buy food as far down the capitalist food chain as you can. Every step of the way, from seed to package, there is some company who needs to make money. Growing your own food and making your own food from scratch can save you a shitton of money. Bread for example. So simple to make, so cheap, marked up like what. Some greens and other vegetables grow practically like weeds. Scarlet runner beans, sunchokes, arugula, etc. Arugula being an actual weed and all  Welcome back Gravity!
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Mar 12, 2013 20:16
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14 days is a minimum for fermentation for most styles, though with few exceptions they only get better with age, then you'll want a minimum of a week in bottles to carbonate (Yes you should have been told about this, you mix sugar j to fermented beer right before you bottle so that the yeast produces CO2, otherwise you get flat beer). Anyway, it's still usually only marginally cheaper then buying unless you are going to invest in the equipment to go all grain. That also doubles to triples your brew day length. The main point is you should get into brewing because its a hobby you're interested in, if you're just trying to get cheaper beer, you probably won't keep up with it and you'll waste whatever your investment was on equipment. Generally if you are poor enough to only be able to budget $30-100 in groceries, you probably won't have the time to make the hobby worth your while. Don't take this as me telling people not to brew, I love the hobby and the more brewers the better! But you really need to measure the marginal utility and should at least try to contact a Homebrewer and brew with them first if you're unsure you will like the hobby.
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Mar 12, 2013 21:36
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Saint Darwin posted:Orange_Lazarus, $50 a week for you and another is going to be tough but probably doable. Personally I can't do under $100 a week for myself and another, but I also get pretty depressed if I can't make decent food and have a real problem with eating the same thing within a few days of each other. I grew up having vastly different food every day from all over the world, so I just can't do it. Let's do this. I just bought a 20 lb bag of rice for around $22. For me, that's extremely high, because I'm used to spending $14 on that same 20-lb bag. However, let's assume that everyone is doing that, because it's hard to hit up Chinatown, and you want to eat healthy. That $22 will last me about a month, because Puppy and I eat a /lot/ of rice. Most normal humans will have that bag last a couple of months. But let's assume a couple where both eat rice like mad. That's basically $5.50 per week. Oatmeal costs me about $1.50/lb. A pound will easily last me a week. We're at $7. I can generally buy bananas for 2lb/$1. For a week, I need about four pounds, because what we'll do is cook the oats, and throw it into a smoothie with banana and a bit of soy milk. My soy beans cost around $0.69/lb. When I soak soy beans for soy milk, I can generally get around 4 litres of soy milk from 1 lb of soy beans. This is more than enough for the two of us to drink in a week. Let's be generous, and say that my soy beans are $1. So we're at $9. So far, I've got breakfast sorted, as well as the base for my lunch and dinner. My expensive beans at the local supermarket cost about $1.25/lb. This includes chickpeas, black beans, pinto beans, roman beans, white beans, split peas, and lentils. Aside from those, I don't buy too terribly many beans. If I'm being generous, I'll go through about 4 lbs of beans in a week. Let's see, that's about $5. $14 so far, right? Onions are 2lb/$1. That'll last me a week. $15 total. Garlic I can get that sleeve of 5 for $1.50. That'll last me around a week. $15.50. We've covered my beans and rice, which accounts for the bulk of my meals, because I'm loving poor, and that's what I can afford. Every day, on my way home, I stop by at the grocery store. I see what's on offer from the Manager's Specials counter. They sell bags of veggies for $1 - $2. This will be around 2 lbs or more of vegetables. If I vary what I buy, I can keep things interesting. Suppose I buy 2 bags of these veggies every day (and this is assuming that we're eating four pounds of vegetables PER DAY, which is a gross exaggeration). That tacks on $14 a week. I don't use the entire amount at once. I use one or two of the veggies, and leave the rest for another day. We're at $29.50, and I'm eating a varied diet. Just because you fail at cooking, and can't imagine interesting ways to cook those things doesn't mean that the rest of us need to spend obscene amounts of money on food. I buy 1 gallon of oil at a time, which costs $10. If I don't deep fry frequently, and cook like a South Indian (which I do), where you use just a little bit of oil for your cooking, my gallon of oil can last easily two months. So add on $1.25. We're at $30.75. I buy all my spices for $1.50 - $3/lb. A pound of spices lasts me /months/. To the point where I don't need to go spice shopping but once every six months. My spice bill every six months comes to about $20. We're talking about $1 - $2 per week on spices. On really good whole spices, which Indian cooking calls for. We're at $33, give or take. Now at this point, I've got another $17 to spend on interesting fruit, pasta, corn tortillas (a pack of 24 costs me $1, and that'll easily last me a week, which means that a couple of nights that week, I can do a taco night to keep things interesting). Oh look at that. I'm at less than $50 a week, in Manhattan, unable to wait for sales (because neither I nor my husband has the time to hit up that many stores), unable to buy in bulk (because we don't have the space, or the manpower to drag those things up four flights of stairs, and after you've been on your feet for eight hours, this is not the time to go shopping for bulk anything), and cooking "international food", as you call it. Hopefully, you're not enjoying the smell of your own rear end in a top hat so much that you can't get your head out of there. Also, gently caress you.
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Mar 13, 2013 01:58
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dino. posted:You sound like a pretentious rich oval office. $100 a week means $400 a month. You mean to tell me that you're creating this retarded dichotomy of "either you eat utter poo poo, and spend what most of the country spends on food, or you shop at lovely places like Walmart, and STILL SPEND $100 A WEEK." gently caress you. gently caress you and your wrong opinions, and your high grocery bills. If you can't imagine life without $100 a week, get the loving hell out of the goddamned poor people thread, and go masturbate about whatever it is you're buying that's costing you and ONE OTHER PERSON $100 a week.  Exactly. And I'll point out that buying like this doesn't necessarily require a ton of planning.
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Mar 13, 2013 02:04
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On the same idea as making tofu/kimchi/fermented things, has anyone ever tried making their own tempeh? I think the ingredients would be pretty cheap (whole soybeans), and would break up the monotony of plain 'ol beans all the time. It's really expensive around here though in the markets I shop at, so I don't buy it but I prefer it to tofu.
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Mar 13, 2013 02:40
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Saint Darwin posted:Sorry, I challenge this whole-heartily. Show me $50 of food that lasts 2 people a month, hell, 1 person a month, that is let's say 3 totally different dishes. If anyone wants to see every single item of food I've purchased since January of last year, I've got the data...
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Mar 13, 2013 04:13
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My parents raised me on the microwave and I didn't really start to experience real food until I met my wife and her aunt. So I'm able to go long periods eating the same thing but I at least try to make the things I cook delicious. I'm sure I'll get tired of chicken recipes in a week so I'll just switch to beef. Either way most of my meals have rice/beans on the side and I really don't get tired of them as long as I try different spices. I'll start trying to incorporate other vegetables into my dishes soon. SAMS club is horrible but my dad has a card there. We (My wife and I) usually do most of our grocery shopping at Aldi and I just want to go to Sams once for a 50lb bag of rice  When a Costco moves into my area I'll try to convince my family to make the switch. edit: You know what, I'll try to shop around before I go to Sams, spending a couple extra bucks elsewhere is worth it and Sams is a bit out of my way anyway. edit2: Yeah, Walmart is like Geico. They did an excellent job convincing people that they have the lowest price/best rate but it isn't true. I always find better deals at Aldi and I think Geico is actually one of the more expensive car insurance companies. I think someone realized that there's a large chuck of people out there that believe the company with the most commercials it the one to go with. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 04:51 on Mar 13, 2013 |
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Mar 13, 2013 04:32
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TychoCelchuuu posted:It's a little tough because I don't track individual dishes and because I don't start over anew each month, but here is a spreadsheet documenting nine months worth of my food purchases that average out to $47 per month. Some of what I ate during the first month of these nine months was stuff I had bought previously, so that doesn't factor into the spreadsheet, but I still have a bit of this food in my pantry and anyways I have an extra $3 per month that I could've spent. Also I have occasional meals paid for from other sources that don't come from stuff I cook, but those are once or twice a month at most. I'm gonna steal your spreadhseet and just write "grocery list" on it.
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Mar 13, 2013 05:10
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TychoCelchuuu posted:It's a little tough because I don't track individual dishes and because I don't start over anew each month, but here is a spreadsheet documenting nine months worth of my food purchases that average out to $47 per month. Some of what I ate during the first month of these nine months was stuff I had bought previously, so that doesn't factor into the spreadsheet, but I still have a bit of this food in my pantry and anyways I have an extra $3 per month that I could've spent. Also I have occasional meals paid for from other sources that don't come from stuff I cook, but those are once or twice a month at most. Where do you live because holy poo poo those are some amazing prices on: All of the Vegetables.
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Mar 13, 2013 05:28
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dino. posted:Also, gently caress you. Jesus christ I issued an actual request, not a smug reprisal to people who spend less on food than me. I'm trying to figure out how to save money as someone who cannot make himself like beans. So right there, I need a protein. Which you don't cover besides beans, which I have to avoid. Now please explain this: " I stop by at the grocery store. I see what's on offer from the Manager's Specials counter. They sell bags of veggies for $1 - $2. This will be around 2 lbs or more of vegetables. " I just...what? I buy the cheap meats all the time, the things that are going to expire that day or the next. I have never seen that for vegetables. I have never, ever seen discount vegetables. I have never heard of that concept. I would do it if I saw it. Hopefully you can respond without being loving nuts this time? Seriously. I didn't come in here to spit on anyone. I want to save money. I thought I had a few good ideas to do so as well. You're blowing up at me for being actually ignorant on how people can eat a crazy varied diet for less. I think the big deal is that you're not eating any meat and you're filling up with rice. TychoCelchuuu posted:It's a little tough because I don't track individual dishes and because I don't start over anew each month, but here is a spreadsheet documenting nine months worth of my food purchases that average out to $47 per month. Some of what I ate during the first month of these nine months was stuff I had bought previously, so that doesn't factor into the spreadsheet, but I still have a bit of this food in my pantry and anyways I have an extra $3 per month that I could've spent. Also I have occasional meals paid for from other sources that don't come from stuff I cook, but those are once or twice a month at most. Yeh uh, 2 green peppers for 50 cents beats any sale around here, so I too want to know where you live. Your cilantro is 1/4th the price at Asian markets. I feel like I should start OCDing and tracking as well. Adult Sword Owner fucked around with this message at 05:53 on Mar 13, 2013 |
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Mar 13, 2013 05:50
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http://www.zionmarket.com/sale/store1.htm (I also sometimes shop at other ethnic markets near me, like Miramar Cash & Carry or Balboa International Market, and I often shop at Sprouts, the "white people" store. In fact I just updated the spreadsheet with info from where every food was purchased. Hooray for being anally retentive!) TychoCelchuuu fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Mar 13, 2013 |
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Mar 13, 2013 05:59
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Saint Darwin posted:Yeh uh, 2 green peppers for 50 cents beats any sale around here, so I too want to know where you live. Your cilantro is 1/4th the price at Asian markets. I feel like I should start OCDing and tracking as well. If it helps, some places just have across the board higher food prices. Both of the places I live will demand $1.50 for 1 bell pepper on sale (which is straight up ridiculous) unless you go to the farmer's market that's only on weekends. And even then, everything's the same price or more expensive unless you can find people to buy entire boxes of the item and split it with you. (Think 25 heads of cauliflower at once.) I started tracking for awhile but didn't find it worth the time investment. I just browse the sale leaflets, and use those prices as a guideline for what's cheap at the market and you pick up trends over time. If you know relative quality of meats, giving yourself some guidelines like cheap cuts of beef/pork is a bargain at $3/lb etc. TychoCelchuuu posted:http://www.zionmarket.com/sale/store1.htm I want this store.  Rurutia fucked around with this message at 06:07 on Mar 13, 2013 |
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Mar 13, 2013 05:59
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Our mobile green grocer carries all chiles (that includes bell peppers, when he has them) for 50 cents a pound, or sometimes 25 if there's a glut. Of course, you have to speak Spanish/Spanglish/Italian and he only sets up in the Ace Hardware parking lot on Sundays, but it's pretty nice for those times of year when you don't have anything fresh coming out of your garden.
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Mar 13, 2013 06:00
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Also just for shits and giggles I updated the spreadsheet to have a second tab (check the bottom) with all the data from Jan 2012 to a month ago. The average is a little less than $54/month I think, and I'm very far from "conserve all the money" mode - I'm actually fairly spendy, I'd say. Although I don't buy a lot of luxuries, I do buy basically whatever I want to eat and I eat about as much of it as I want to. You can see my purchases for the latest ICSA near the end of the spreadsheet, for instance, which includes $10.99 for sesame seeds and $3.59 for a bag of za'atar. Except dried fruit. I could eat that poo poo all day but it's so expensive that I usually don't. Obviously this isn't doable for everyone because I have some sweet rear end markets near me, but the lesson here is that $100/month for one person is a shitton of money for food if you're "poor." If you're poor, and saving money is really an object, you can seriously do better than $100/month.
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Mar 13, 2013 06:05
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TychoCelchuuu posted:http://www.zionmarket.com/sale/store1.htm Green onions, 10 for 99 cents  Mr. Wiggles posted:Our mobile green grocer carries all chiles (that includes bell peppers, when he has them) for 50 cents a pound, or sometimes 25 if there's a glut. Of course, you have to speak Spanish/Spanglish/Italian and he only sets up in the Ace Hardware parking lot on Sundays, but it's pretty nice for those times of year when you don't have anything fresh coming out of your garden. You are the luckiest. TychoCelchuuu posted:sheet Thanks for this, it's pretty neat to look at. I don't see meat which to me seems like the biggest expenditure. I don't really buy red meat anymore, mostly chicken and pork, going to pork has saved me a loooot of money. edit: Going through my history for this year so far, I actually only do average about $60 a week. $100 a week came from me thinking of $100 a trip which apparently isn't even accurate. That's also with buying some horrible things such as storage containers for my rice and a bento thermos for work, and having both a girlfriend's birthday which demanded quite a paella and a chili cookoff. edit2: VVVV As I've mentioned I can't stand beans. I've started using more and more tofu when I can but the texture, I can't do it. Adult Sword Owner fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Mar 13, 2013 |
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Mar 13, 2013 06:06
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Go vegan = your wallet will thank you. Unless you go hella-vegan and you have to throw out your wallet because it's leather.
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Mar 13, 2013 06:11
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Maybe we can have less moral prescriptions about the virtues of eating tofu, beans and rice for lunch and dinner every day (except for taco night; this is important to remember, it's there for variety [you put the rice into the taco shell]), and more ideas on how to make meat into more of a garnish than a main course. Some people eat meat. Some people cook for folks who can't even wrap their minds around vegetarian Indian, no matter how good your aloo mattar is. I pick up flank steak where I can and add strips of it to everything. Seriously, a few strips or a little diced marinated cheap beef bits will keep carnivores happy. However, I live in Toronto, and EVERYTHING is more expensive up here. Despite the fact that I really think dino should be the one getting his head out of his rear end, I'm going to try making my own soymilk (the stuff from the grocery store tastes like sucking on a penny).
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Mar 13, 2013 06:30
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Fuzzy Pipe Wrench posted:Where do you live because holy poo poo those are some amazing prices on: All of the Vegetables. California produce prices just kick the poo poo out of most of the rest of the US. Our gas may be a buck more a gallon, but asparagus was $1.99 lb today (and could be less at the farmers market on Thursday).
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Mar 13, 2013 06:38
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How about we don't act like dicks. Dino set me straight on my food expenses. I can't help but think that if you're spending triple what he spends on two people and frequent guests, you're managing your food budget poorly. Meat and pre-made, pre-packaged foods are expensive. I'm not going to take a moral stance on it, because I eat meat, but the poo poo is expensive. Don't make it the focus of a dish. Make it an accent. An addition to the flavor. If you seriously can't eat any of the many, many varieties of edible beans/pulses/legumes then I really don't know what to tell you, because that's a staggering variety of foods that can be prepared in a lot of different ways with different flavors and textures. That's a lot that you're denying yourself.
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Mar 13, 2013 06:49
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Bertrand Hustle posted:How about we don't act like dicks. Dino set me straight on my food expenses. I can't help but think that if you're spending triple what he spends on two people and frequent guests, you're managing your food budget poorly. Meat and pre-made, pre-packaged foods are expensive. I'm not going to take a moral stance on it, because I eat meat, but the poo poo is expensive. Don't make it the focus of a dish. Make it an accent. An addition to the flavor.
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Mar 13, 2013 06:57
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I just want to know how Dino makes his soy milk. I've searched for the topic and found lots of variation on how much water to use, how long to soak the beans for, and how to extract. So how do you do it Dino? I've googled it and only found an old recipe by you on how to make soy mayo from store bought milk and that was all.
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Mar 13, 2013 09:28
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While I don't at all agree that having trouble eating cheaply somehow makes you a terrible person, I do think it's possible to do so even as an unabashed carnivore - though certainly more difficult. It also will require being okay with a bit of repetition (though more on that in a second). But, as an example, this week I bought the following: 3# Beef Brisket, $2.50/# = $7.50 2# Ground Chuck, $2.50/# = $5 1 Bag o' Carrots = $1 1 Bunch o' Celery = $1.50 ~2# of bananas = $1 ~3# of apples = $3 ~2# of escarole = $2.60 3# bag of onions = $2.50 2 bulbs of garlic = $1 (it's pricey here for some reason) 1 can tomato paste = $0.69 1 gallon milk = $3.29 2# of pasta = $2 1 whole chicken = $6 That's $37.08 From that, I was able to eat fruit for breakfast every morning (again, repetitive, I know, but you could easily mix this up with the addition of some oatmeal, yogurt, etc). From the ground chuck and tomato paste (and mirepoix), I was able to make bolognese this weekend. This used some oil that I already had on hand and a couple glugs of wine, but when pro-rated these costs are immaterial. Combined with the pasta, I had easily 5-6 meals worth. Even more, if one were to reduce the portions and add a small salad (chop some of the escarole, onion, carrot, and celery, along with whatever other veg is in the fridge, toss with a quick viniagrette). There, we've already covered breakfast every day, and lunch pretty much every day. The brisket I seasoned and braised in beef stock (free, if you save your scraps from past meals) with some onions and a few dashes of worecestershire. Chopped and tossed on some home-baked rolls (maybe $1's worth of flour, yeast, salt and sugar) with some sliced onion and mustard. Enough for 4-5 generous portions of those bad boys. After all that, we've theoretically already got enough food for all but a couple lunches and a couple dinners, and there's still an entire chicken left, plus another $13 in the budget. Buy some potatoes and some more leafy green veg, you can have roast chicken dinner one night (drumsticks!), reserve the breasts to go with salads or to throw in a tortilla, seasoned with chili powder and cumin and assorted veggies. Mix the thigh meat with some ricotta cheese, get a couple eggs, roll out pasta dough, make delightful chicken raviolis. Or spend another $2, buy dried lasagna noodles and a can of tomatoes, make chicken lasagna. Reserve the bones of the chicken, throw the scraps of onion/carrot/celery in a pot along with it, make chicken stock, make many soups. Not only can you realistically feed yourself for $50 on this stuff, but you can have meat (and not just meat, but beef, even) for basically every meal except breakfast. You could knock the cost down much more by going vegetarian for a few or several meals. Of course, this assumes you're OK with eating the same thing four times in a week - except a lot of the stuff here (like the pasta sauce) is freezable. So, you have it twice, freeze three or four portions, and the other days pull something from the freezer you made last week (or just eat the leftovers of last night's roast chicken dinner). This also disregards the cost of spices, oil, vinegar, and things like that, but I presume that you have those already. When you pro-rate, unless you're using $70/L olive oil, the cost addition to any particular dish is negligible. The real trick is making things in large batches and avoiding waste - use every part of that chicken, get ingredients that are either shelf-stable or that can be used in a variety of things you know how to make. If you love meat, and particularly if you love beef, learn to love cheap cuts (and, by extension, to love the art of braising).
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Mar 13, 2013 13:31
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nm posted:Meat doesn't even need to cost that much: a whole chicken just isn't that expensive and can last a bunch of meals (at least 5 for two). $10 or less for something humanely raised. $5 for something from a factory. And then you get to make stock, which you were going to spend $5-10 on anyhow for some meal in the future. Can you go into more detail on how you make it last that long? I've tried the whole chicken thing a number of times. The only way I can figure it will last that long (for a $12 chicken, $5 for a factory chicken where?) is by splitting each breast in half, one half for each person, so 2 meals with the breasts, then 1 with the thighs and anything I can pull off of the legs, which still does not come to a lot of meat. Am I missing something? edit: Alright, I see what you've done rj, but if I understand correctly, you're cooking the whole chicken and then using leftovers in everything? Maybe it's just a personal problem but when I try that I end up drying the gently caress out of the chicken if I'm doing anything more complicated than just heating it to straight up eat. Adult Sword Owner fucked around with this message at 13:48 on Mar 13, 2013 |
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Mar 13, 2013 13:46
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A 40 oz bag of frozen drumsticks costs us about $2.70 at Aldi (so I doubt this will be cheaper elsewhere unless I buy in bulk) and lasts 2-2.5 days (2-3 drumsticks each for dinner) for my wife and I. We're only eating meat for dinner though.
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Mar 13, 2013 14:04
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I do the whole chicken thing too, likewise, it costs me $10-12 though. I cut it up raw. Use both thighs for something like a curry dish. Use one breast sliced thinly for something like a asian wok stirfry with heaps of veg. The drumsticks get roasted with roasted veg or potato bake. the remaining breast either cooked and sliced thinly for sandwiches for lunches, or more likely since I don't each lunch often, the other breast gets diced and cooked with a pasta and tomato sauce dinner. Bones get frozen and saved to make a stock, wings do as well. Could use the wings for the stock, or if you buy enough chickens in a 3 month period could have enough to make a meal just out of the wings. I haven't done that yet though as I only buy chicken once a month.
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Mar 13, 2013 14:09
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