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A lot of excellent things have been said in this thread. Me and my girlfriend eat like loving kings for 70-80 a week in groceries. We eat out too, but we could easily not and save the money. Even though we have a lot of wiggle room in our food budget, I watch it carefully out of habit so we can get the best stuff and have money left over for other things. We also pay exorbitant prices for groceries (we use FreshDirect in NYC, so unless you're in Alaska or Hawaii, I seriously doubt you pay more for most items than I do.) Everything I do to make our food expenditure 70-80 rather than 250-300, you can do to make yours lower as well. 1: Buy Whole Foods. I don't mean for health (though, yes) or because it puts you in tune with the world (although there is a greater satisfaction), but because it is so much loving cheaper that you will goggle. I buy whole chickens at -- no poo poo -- ONE THIRD the price per pound the same store is asking for bonelessskinlessbreasts from the same source, and I get more (stock, schmaltz sometimes) out of it. My time is valuable, but if I can save ten dollars in three minutes of knifework, that's an hourly wage of TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS NET (call it $300 gross!). Worth it. Same goes for other cuts and varieties of meat, all veggies, and easy to prepare snackfoods (hummus, applesauce). 2: Buy in Bulk When possible of course, but my costco membership paid for itself in the first visit, and I go five or six times a year (this goes beyond food too: underwear, socks, toiletries, bedsheets etc etc etc, and it's usually top-quality stuff at below the price of the worst, cheapest stuff). Where this really shines is in a part of our budget that you mention -- the GF is a teacher and runs on portable snacks. Depending on what we're talking about buying at Costco can see savings of 75%. If you have the space for the really industrial-size stuff you can reap even greater benefits (if I had somewhere to put those giant bags of rice...) 3: Dinner is Lunch I plan every dinner to make between three and five servings. Two for dinner, two for lunch the next day, and a bit of wiggle. Yes, you can super-cook ahead but A: Eating the same thing every day for a week gets tedious and B: Wastage is the enemy of thrift. I used to cook every weekend, but by Thursday we just couldn't look the food in the face, and our food waste was approaching 20%! A big pot of tomato sauce, especially if it includes meatballs and something else is a different story as you can put it over different pastas, make lasagna, make subs, just have it straight, but when your third lunch is slices off the same roast and carrots from the same pan, you don't want it. 4: Don't Waste It! I mentioned this above, but getting wasted food under control is job one. Keeping food varied and tasty is the first step to this, but so is having good storage and keeping your fridge well organized and at the right temp. 5: In Extremis Rice. Beans. Maybe some eggs. Edit: ONE MORE THING SHOP OFF YOUR CIRCULAR! WATCH FOOD PRICE FLUCTUATIONS! DON'T ASSUME! Since I last got groceries (Monday), the price ratio on whole chickens to boneless skinless breasts has gone from 1:3 to just under 1:2. Test Pattern fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Oct 10, 2011 |
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Oct 10, 2011 03:46
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 04:38 |
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I got faster at breaking down chickens, and vs boneless-skinless breasts, I can look at it as paying myself $30 an hour and getting free legs, thighs, wings, backs, and breast skins. I'm also told that they're about 36 hours fresher than the b-s breasts.
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Jan 16, 2012 00:15
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The sodastream syrups are incredibly disgusting. Make your own or buy the branded mixes. Coke syrup is <$15/gal, which makes a truly stupendous amount of coke.
Test Pattern fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Mar 16, 2012 |
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Mar 16, 2012 18:43
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