[...] Get Rich Slowly published a guest blog – The Lazy Man’s Guide to Groceries on a Budget: http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/03/12/the-lazy-mans-guide-to-groceries-on-a-budget/ [...]

It’s very cheap and rehydrates to look/taste like ground beef (albeit with a slightly smaller “grain” to it). I use it to make tacos, spaghetti, chili, sloppy joes, lasagna, etc. I’ve even made meatballs with it, although that’s a little advanced. The other stuff, though — my kid learned to make TVP tacos when he was 9, so it’s pretty easy!

Another idea is to check out natural food co-ops in your area. I buy my rice, beans, wheat, butter and other basics through the co-op. I get natural chicken for a fraction of the grocery store price when I buy in bulk (every two months) and it is delicious.

I find that having some sort of meal plan for the week, helps me cut down on unneccessary purchases. I shop with a specific list and that eliminates the “very sneaky” impulse purchases. Check your pantry before you go to the store to ensure that you aren’t duplicating products that you already have. While you are checking your pantry make sure that any items that you have, and will need for this week has a good expiration date. It’s a bummer when you have a package of some item in your pantry, and when you are about to use it in a recipe, you realize that its expired.

However, we do have an agricultural university in town, Texas A&M University. The meat raised by that university is sold to university staff and students as the students learn to butcher it. It’s all high quality and is hand-fed by our school’s cheerleading team … … that’s a joke, other Aggies will get it. I buy the meat there. The price is comparable to the grocery store, but the quality can’t be beat. Farmer’s markets are good sources of cruelty-free meat, but be prepared to pay the price. I have a friend that lives in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. She buys meat from her local farmer’s market at a price below the grocery store, and it’s all raised and packaged by a local farmer. She has to order in advance, though, by as much as a month for some items like fresh sausage.

Note that: plan in advance. What I’ve talked about so much in this article boils down to knowing what you’re going to eat in a month, and buying what you will eat in a month at times that it’s beneficial to you financially.

Oh, I do include laundry detergent in the grocery budget, but I only buy it when I have coupons and I stock up… I buy the container that will get me the lowest cost per load. The ‘price per oz’ can be misleading — see how many ounces are in a load’s use. For the 2x concentrated Tide, it’s actually a pretty good bargain. I try to buy it on double-coupon days too. If I don’t have a coupon and need some, I will buy a big container of whatever’s cheapest … if I have a coupon, I’ll buy brand-name because it makes my sensitive skin itch less.

Another example of planning and saving: I eat breakfast. This week, I made muffins for breakfast. I cooked two packages for a total of 10 muffins — it’s supposed to make a half dozen per package, but then the muffins come out small. The muffin mixes were $.39 each at the grocery store and milk is kind of a ‘sunk cost’ — I buy it anyway. The total breakfast, even up to half the cost of the milk (when I only consumed one cup), was under $2.00 for a week’s worth of breakfasts. As Emeril says, Bang! I planned when I shopped to eat muffins for a week. Then I consumed them on schedule. And ended up not succumbing to the desire to stop off at McD’s on my way into work and blow $5 because I had a nice fresh home-made muffin in my hand!

I am a HUGE fan of canned legumes (lentils, chick peas, beans, etc). At less than $1 a can they’re so cheap and very healthy. I chuck them into almost everything – salads, stir frys, pasta bakes, etc, etc.

I’m going to start checking out the Asian stores too…you can get produce and fish much cheaper than at the grocery store.

I buy our chicken breast at the local Asian market for between 1.60-2.18 per lb. We also get our produce there unless I drop by afore mentioned food stand. The produce we like is pretty cheap. I buy a lot of parsnips when they are on sale (root veggies keep well), carrots, sweet potatoes, snap peas, snow peas, and asparagus. We shop Trader Joe’s for most of our other things and Limbo for spices and occasional fruit (they have bulk spices in jars, so I pay at most 1.00 per ounce).

I also buy frozen veggies and occasionally berries in winter (frozen strawberries make great smoothies). These things are cheap (I don’t pay more than 1.20 per bag, ever unless the bag is from Costco and huge).

I also watch sales and clip coupons (and I spend only about 15 mins a week on this every Sunday with the paper at work). Today, for example, I stocked up on cereal and beans. I got 4 boxes of our favorite type of cheerios for 1.25 a box (they’re normally almost 4 per box). I got 9 cans of black and pinto beans for .33 each. Two cans of beans, some minced garlic (I buy it on sale in bulk because it keeps forever in the fridge), cumin or chili powder, a cup of dry rice, and two chicken breasts shredded will make enough burrito filling to keep my husband and I in lunches or dinners for a week. We don’t eat burritos every night, but it’s there to fit into our busy schedules and totally cheap.

My point is that there are always ways to cut down on food costs without compromising health. It just takes research and a little time.

(Btw, this doesn’t include the 20 a week eating out budget. We go out for dinner every Sat as a treat and make sure to spend less than 10 per person).

Ground spices lose their flavor after 6 months. So calculate that into your price.

I find that most grocery stores carry cheap bagged ‘mexican’ spices. It’s slightly limited selection, but they have basil and oregano which are my two go-to spices for 1.50 each. Lasts about two/three months. Just transfer it into a container so that it will keep.

1. Find an inexpensive deep freezer to keep a larger quantity of milk, bread, meats, and other staples after you find them on sale and before you are able to use them.
2. Wait to use the coupons. Coupons are usually the first wave of promotion for a product. Wait for the sale price in the store and use the coupons then.
3. Since I am also one for simplicity, you can combine your FREE discount/frequent shopper keytags onto one card here.

They’re trendy, which raises the prices, and frankly, I can’t tell any difference in quality between a good grocery store and farmer’s market produce. Plus, my stores have way better selection. Then again, this may be a nice side effect of living near the city and working in the ‘burbs where I can get decent stores.

Seriously, though, if I knew that farmer’s markets actually had semi-local produce and was worth the value, I’d be all over it.

The rest of these tips are awesome, though!

~EEE~

JD,
Gotcha. I was wondering about that. I love to eat as well but I save where I can while making sure that I eat well and eat properly. It seems that eating at the expense of your kidneys (via ramen) in order to save a buck is really dangerous and people supplementing their diet this way need to find something better and healthier to eat.

Here’s my tips:

1. Arm yourself by getting calibrated for unit prices. The truly lazy can just keep in mind $~1.50/lb for veggies, $2.00/lb for meat.
2. You-bag-it stores kick butt. Find one and check it out, if you don’t use them already.
3. Wholesale stores are usually a rip off for any ‘ready-made’ food. Their fridge/freezer sections will violate you. Wholesale stores are best for: oatmeal, sugar, coffee. That’s about all I’ve found that’s a good deal there. E.g. peanut butter was 2x the unit price compared to the you-bag-it store I go to.

when I was eating v. healthy, my food bill was $350-400 mn for one person. I had also greatly reduced my eating out bill, so of course my grocery bill went up.

Now that I’ve reduced it greatly in the last 2.5 mns – I’ve started gaining a bit of weight and am a bit more sluggish. I might have to go back my specialized eating healthy plan, even if more expensive. The weird part though, is my portion sizes got less since I can’t be impulsive: if I make anything I have to have a plan. For instance, I made chicken and rice last night. I know I have to get 3-4 meals off it so I deliberately eat less than when I was my old way. I do miss fish too – since I cut that out due to expense.

I also bring stuff to work so I dont fritter cash: I bring all snacks, water, drinks, and of course lunch. I also have really good lunches. I can’t make do with a boring sandwich of deli cuts on blah bread. Wish I could! That adds to the bill though unfortunately.

And food is really going up around here. It might have to go to $300/mn regardless. I’m looking foward the farmer’s markets again too. I dont know if they are cheaper, I just find them fun.

Being single in a small space also adds to the bill: not much storage and if you buy in econonmical sizes, it will go bad before you use it up. SO, I unfortunately often buy the small quantities and/or cant take advantage of major stock ups.

I want you to know that I think your sentiment and concepts of treating non-human animals is well intentioned, and certainly a step in the right direction, despite being based on an ethical and moral framework that enables and encourages exploitation.

However, while you understand and realize that these non-human animals have interests [ie. do not want to be treated "unfairly" as you put it] and we have an obligation [imperative!] to consider those interests *whether we decide that they are aware of their interests or not*.

Ergo, since you understand that these being have interests involving being treated fairly [ie. not unfairly], it takes an incredibly small step to understand that these being would *also* have interests involving being alive [ie. not dead].

In fact, where the interests of these beings are concerned, I would think it very fair to place a relative “value” on those two interests [in this incredibly simplistic model] and say that as strong of an interest that these beings have in being treated fairly, they have an even *stronger* interest in being alive.

That part is easy.

Following through on it, and questioning the assumptions which you have undoubtedly grown up with and been indoctrinated by various forms of media, is where problems arise; not from difficulty in acting according to these ideas, but from the societal pressure that you would face.

As a young male approaching 30, re-entering the education system, there is an overwhelming meme that “meat = manliness” and related social implications.

Recognizing one form of oppression means recognizing the rest.

A friend of mine spends $20/week but his breakfast and lunch 365 days a year consists of a boiled egg.

Farmers markets around here tend to be more expensive then grocery stores but the produce is usually top grade and I like to buy local. I’m going to look into what can be grown on a balcony garden and try out my green thumb this year as well.

For ex. – the post mentioned $2/lb ground turkey. I’m lucky where I live to find it for $2.64 or so ON SALE. Full price is over $4.

I’ve been trying to cut my food costs for a long time and rarely can get below $250 for one person (although I admit, some things I will not compromise on, like organic milk; regular milk tastes yucky to me now). I also make a lot of things from scratch that cost 2-4xs more than buying the convenience item.

When I lived in San Francisco, the cost of food per item was staggering. DC isn’t great I wager but it wasn’t nearly as bad as SF.

I wish I could just eat rice and beans five days a week; unfortunately, I like to experiment and have lots of variety.

========================

I like arugula too. I make a yummy dish with sausage and pasta with parm. You cook the arugula with the sausage and some garlic in olive oil for a few minutes, then toss with the pasta. It shrinks a bit a large amt – like a half lb – will shrink to like a fourth of its size and really add to such a simple pasta dish as mentioned above (and that other poster’s ideas also).

Who do you think that really benefits?
The non-human animal who *still ends up dead on your plate* or your guilty conscience and sense of well being?
So as long as you treat your slaves nicely, it is okay to have slaves, and in the end choose whatever fate *you* decide for them.

Your position is analogous to “do less harm where possible” which is fundamentally problematic, as it can sanction any number of harmful acts, because the individual inflicting harm didn’t do “worse” things.

Praising the serial killer for only having killed 5, rather than 10, victims.
The rapist who only rapes, but does not beat their victims.
The thief who only shoots you in the leg, not the head, when robbing you.

I would think the “humane” thing to do would be not to enslave and then murder for your own purposes.

What is “humane treatment”? We have many different levels of animal “welfare” laws, which simply codify the means of exploitation under a certain set of circumstances, animal agriculture/food production being one of many areas of exemption.

I think your notion of “unfair treatment” is shocking.
It is “fair” to take another sentient creatures life simply to satisfy a taste preference?
Of course, you obviously take it for granted that non-human animal bodies are yours to do with as you please – while alive or while dead – hence your bizarre notion of “fairness”, and that is troubling from more perspectives than that of the creature you last consumed.

You eat flesh, I get it.
That is something you have to live with, and continue to choose [and it is entirely a choice, based on preference and cultural, not to mention economic, pressure].

But please don’t kid yourself that you’re doing some noble and wonderful thing for that piece of flesh on your plate by allowing it to “run free and enjoy life” when you – by transitive property through those whom you support – make a killing from killing.

“Happy Meat” only has a happy ending for the party profiting from the exploitation. Maybe the cow or chicken or pig can express how happy he or she is?
…oh… right…

[Much respect and admiration to Gary L. Francione http://www.abolitionistapproach.com

Having gone back to school after being in business for five years, my cash flow situation is drastically different.
My partner and I aim for around $60 for two of us, and depending on the sales may go over to stock up.

As far as eating on the cheap, veggies from the market or store ~80% organic, bake our own bread [CLUB PACKS = monster savings], spices in bulk [don't pay for packaging!], and stock up on basics when they’re on sale [such as tinned tomatoes at 59¢!!], and anything you can freeze [berries, bananas, squash, corn, etc].
We splurge on things like Soy Delicious [soy ice cream], but we bake all our own sweets and goodies – home-made muffins and cupcakes beat the icing out of store bought stuff.