Fighting Food-Budget Killers
Saturday, 13th September 2008 (by J.D.)This article is about Food, Frugality, Shopping
At MSN Money, Liz Pulliam Weston has an article about fighting what she calls food-budget killers, those items at the grocery store that can put an extra strain on your pocketbook.
Weston’s story gives tips for how to save money on the five foods with the biggest price jumps in the past year: flour, eggs, sweet peppers, milk, and dried beans. But the article got me thinking about food-budget killers in a different way. High costs on staple foods put a dent in everyone’s budget, but often the real culprits are the foods we splurge on to treat ourselves.
I picked up a bottle of maple syrup the other day, for example — real maple syrup, not the imitation stuff — but I was so fixated on the nutrition information that I didn’t notice the price until I got home. $10! For a bottle of syrup! That, my friends, is a budget killer. Fortunately, it’s not a regular occurrence (and that bottle of real maple syrup will last me a year).
We do have a few recurring weaknesses, though, such as:
- Fancy cheeses. Kris and I like good cheese. We often treat ourselves to fancy cheeses we find at Costco or natural food stores. Not cheap. We control costs a little by buying only what we know we’ll use, so that nothing goes to waste.
- Juices and protein drinks. Since starting to focus on fitness, I’ve tried to cut back on soda pop — I mostly drink water. For a bit of variety, I’ve been picking up protein shakes and juices from Naked and Odwalla. These are expensive, so I make a point of only buying them when they’re on sale.
- Coffee beans. Quality coffee beans are expensive, but Kris isn’t willing to settle for second-best. She doesn’t make coffee very often, but when she does, she wants it to taste just right.
- Dinner parties. When we entertain, we spare no expense. We just spent a small fortune on six pounds of fresh halibut for our book group tomorrow night (at which we’re discussing M.F.K. Fisher, who believed that eating well was one of the “arts of life”). Fortunately, this only happens a few times a year.
The costs are high when I make clam chowder, too, but it’s worth it. (It’s delicious, and it produces a huge batch.) I stock up on clams and clam juice if I notice them on sale, which doesn’t happen very often.
If these examples were typical of all our food purchases, we’d have a problem. They’re not. Most of the time, Kris and I are pretty good about shopping for bargains. Kris, especially, makes a habit of planning her purchases, waiting for sales, and finding coupons for products we use often.
I suspect that even the most frugal shoppers have certain foods that put a dent in their grocery budgets. What are your weaknesses? Do you have any strategies for keeping costs down, even on the things you splurge for?
Fresh parmesan cheese! We will spend about $10 for a 5 - 8 oz. block of the really good stuff. We grate it, put it in a baggie, and freeze it. Then we pull it out of the freezer as needed - it thaws in about 10 minutes. That’s about as economical as we can be with our splurge.
Just can’t go back to that tasteless sawdust stuff that comes in a green can!
I think that if you are getting enjoyment out of a good purchase, than it’s worth it. Not everyone is a foodie, but those that are will be willing to save money in other areas to be able to afford the good stuff. As your article said, these things are an occasional treat, not every meal.
I’ve noticed our food budget has been climbing, but it’s partly because of trying to buy more organic, local, and fair trade foods. It’s actually the topic of my most recent blog post!
as much as it pains me, i have to stay away from the fancy cheese section of the grocery store. occasionally we’ll have just salad with a piece of cheese on the side, and then it’s worth buying a small piece. if i don’t have specific plans for it though, i won’t buy it just to snack on.
we buy the growth hormone free milk, and $6 a gallon is starting to be a splurge.
if we are eating seafood, i try to buy smaller portions.
It’s worth spending money on real maple syrup. There is no comparison in taste, you are supporting the livelihood of maple farmers and the continued existence of maple trees rather than the business of some company pumping out flavoured hydrogenated corn syrup, and as you say, it will last a year. It’s a luxury but the amount per usage is actually quite small.
The best way to save money on groceries is to reduce the amount of meat that you eat. This has the added benefit of helping to save the planet. I’m not advocating vegetarianism, though that’s an option for some, but treat meat as a luxury. Then you can afford to buy the best.
As you’ve said before, frugality is not about being cheap, it’s about making sure you get good value.
I still haven’t fully felt the effects of the economy on our food budget. That is because we live in the city and have access to a wide variety of merchants. We shop at the independent markets and only go to the big chain grocery store for certain things or when we’re lazy. I suppose milk is more expensive these days, but the big chain grocery store must sell it as a loss leader because it’s always on sale. Cereal is something I would never buy at the big chain grocery store, and I stock up when I go to Target, Walmart, Trader Joe’s or the warehouse store. (TJ’s is especially awesome for cereal)
Our food costs have climbed more as a result of an effort to eat healthier and more natural, or as a result of less free time and more dining out.
I think that if you are getting enjoyment out of a good purchase, than it’s worth it.
I agree, as long as you’re not spending beyond your means. In my original draft of this post, I pointed out that Kris and I know that we spend a lot on food, and we’re okay with that. We make up for it by cutting back in other areas. Neither one of us spends much on clothes, for example. We drive old cars. We don’t go out for non-food entertainment very often. We’d rather spend our money on good cheese and on dining out!
I also love good cheese- and a good piece of steak.
Fred Meyer has a basket of 50% off cheeses and occassionally there are some great finds! The FM at Johnson Creek has an uber-specialty cheese selection and bought some great Parm-reg and blues for half off the half off. Score!
FM also has a marked-down meat bin where you can get some choice cuts at a resonable price.
Having grown up in WI (though now in PA), I can absolutely understand and relate to desiring good cheese. There really is no substitute. I find that our budget gets beaten up on organic food for my children. All else the same, I just get this feeling that paying a little more for organic things for them is worth it (yet don’t necessarily adopt that thought for myself?!?).
We just look at it like this: as long as we’re paying cash for it we’ll just chalking it up to “budget variance” - you HAVE to have wiggle room for food!!!
I try to keep all my food purchases to less than $.20/ounce. There are staples, such as meats and cheeses (though I’m becoming a vegetarian I think, mainly b/c it’s cheaper) that can’t fall within this category, but my diet consists of mainly fruits and vegetables, rice, bread, peanut butter, nuts (also expensive, but at Whole Foods you just shovel them into a bag instead of buying a brand name with a container and cashews are only $4/lb), beans, pasta, tuna, pop tarts (my one snack food), oats, yogurt, etc.
The one thing I do buy that is expensive is beer, and I don’t buy the cheap stuff. But I try to get it on sale and I don’t drink much anyway. All together my grocery bill is about $150/month and I eat incredibly healthy. It’s weird: healthy food is often cheaper than unhealthy food…
I consider myself a bit of a foodie — mostly because I strongly prefer real food, not prepared or processed items. It’s more expensive (I guess) to buy the real stuff and make meals from scratch, though I couldn’t say because I don’t buy the other stuff.
Among my strategies:
Costco. Safeway sells a gallon of Naked orange juice for $19.99; same thing appears in Costco’s cooler for $9.99. Costco also has excellent cheeses that you can buy in bulk. And I buy a package of rib-eye steaks there, cut each steak in three pieces, and end up with many meals’ worth of meat. This wouldn’t work with a family that includes a grown man, because it probably wouldn’t be enough for him — but half of one of those steaks would do most men, if you provided enough vegetables and starches to fill the plate.
I also have bought coffee at Costco; the beans there are almost as good as the premium stuff I buy at the overpriced purveyor of gourmet goods that I prefer.
Costco’s maple syrup, btw, is incredibly cheap compared to what you’ll pay at a grocer.
If you have a Trader Joe’s in your area, check out the prices there. TJ’s cheeses are just fine and they sell for a fraction of the price of similar cheeses elsewhere. Wine and beer are even cheaper at Trader Joe’s than at Costco, which consistently underprices grocery stores. Maple syrup: much better prices. Nuts: can’t be beat for variety or price. Cereals: TJ’s has some that are actually good for you — naturally, not because artificial vitamins have been dumped into them. TJ’s carries a lot of organic produce, it that’s your thing.
Around here there’s a chain called Sprouts. It’s a low-rent answer to Whole Foods. At Sprouts you can get many grains, beans, cereals, and other products in bulk at substantial savings. Sprouts often has good prices on produce, including organic fruits & veggies.
Reconsider organic. In many cases it’s not worth the cost. You can wash most pesticide and fertilizer residue off many produce items simply by dipping in a sinkful of dilute dish detergent and then rinsing well. There was no such thing as organic food when I was a kid; today I’m an old bat and I’m neither dead nor sick.
Excellent tea can be had at relatively reasonable prices at Cost Plus World Markets, and ethnic grocery stores often carry rice and beans in bulk.
And finally: I make my own bread, mixing & kneading it in a breadmaker and baking it in the oven. It’s infinitely cheaper and infinitely better than anything you can get in a store.
I completely get the fancy cheese being a budget killer, but I am having a hard time contorting my mind around dried beans being a major strain on one’s budget.
Buying organic foods gets us. Have to be careful with that one. So we only buy organic for the foods most affected like apples, and then only if it’s something we eat daily.
Otherwise, our grocery bill has been fine the last few years. We’re semi-vegetarian, so we only eat meat when visiting relatives on the holidays or when we eat out, about 3 times a month. This saves a lot of money.
Replace those Naked & Odwalla drinks with Green Smoothies. They’ll turn out to be cheaper, more nutritional, & you know EXACTLY what’s going inside your body. All you’ll need is a blender & a plethora of fruits & veggies (which are probably in your garden).
http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showpost.php?s=1d2f22a3c371bae99efe8c33ac9a8b84&p=438347&postcount=1
You should probably quit drinking those odwalla and naked protein drinks.
Get yourself a 5lbs tub of just straight protein powder (whey). Cheaper. Throw some fruit and cinnamon and natural PB in there to make a shake that tops your bottled stuff.
Beer is my grocery buster. I like good beer. Don’t drink that much - maybe a bottle every other night. I prefer Sam Adams and their varieties. But I’m also partial to Abita Beers and Leiney’s Red. Those are all now close to $9/six pack.
Good meat and cheese are my grocery busters, last week I ordered 2lbs of chipolatas from the butchers and it came to $23 (I’m still recovering from that). But it’s so worth it to get good quality products from people who know what they are talking about.
i shop the fresh meat departments later on in the evening, when they put out the “manager’s special” aka stuff that’s reached its sell-by date. usually, the package says to use or freeze by x date. i buy it super cheap and use it immediately or freeze it. works great for me!
i have 2 salmon filets in the freezer that cost me under $2 each, a portion of shrimp also under $2, and i have been enjoying salmon entrees that normally go for $8.99 each but cost me under $4. unfortunately, i haven’t had as much luck with the beef and chicken lately. i haven’t had time to shop around at different stores at night.
I switched to the cheap store brand of coffee for my espresso machine and I noticed the difference, way more bitter. After I use it up I’m switching back to Arabica beans. I don’t need to buy the expensive Starbucks brands, the store brand is just as good.
I’d rather cut back somewhere else where I’m not as picky.
I now make food in smaller portions and more veggies / less meat. This ends up being healthier and stretches my money more.
Whereas before I used to stuff my self silly every meal, I only do that for breakfast and cut back with smaller portions for lunch and dinner. I also tend to make dishes that aren’t meat-centric as much too.
re: “protein drinks”…. Humans don’t need tons of protein. High protein diets have been linked to cancer. You’re probably getting plenty. I would suggest you check out the book “The China Study”.
Organic milk! You think gas is expensive…$6.29 a gallon for the Whole Foods brand. I think it’s worth it however, since this milk comes from pasture fed cows. After doing some research on non-organic milk I decided to switch to organic dairy products. I can’t stand the thought of feeding my kids milk from cows who stand around in their own waste and are fed a crummy diet. We do ration the servings. No drinking milk like it’s water.
M.F.K. Fischer was a fascinating woman - and an even more fascinating writer! I’d venture a guess that her How to Cook a Wolf would make for a fascinating series of posts for your GRS blog. And if not, fill us in on your discussion and menu!
In the meantime, keep up the great work. I truly appreciate what you do.
Amen to organic milk - big grocery budget buster for me too. But it tastes so much better. It lasts longer, too. Milk from jugs just doesn’t last long - it always goes bad on me after a few days.
I basically only buy staples–my food budget might see more of a hit than other peoples, but I wasn’t splurging on prepared foods anyway, so it probably started off lower. I use cooking to relax, so I save money by trying to avoid eating out. If I can buy a good cut of meat (or even just a meh cut of meat) and cook it perfectly so I don’t want to eat out, that saves me more money than being super careful with my purchases in a grocery store ever would.
I too got rid of soda pop (a little over a year ago) and I’ve found that white grapefruit juice is a good replacement for that morning can of caffeine, at least for me. But the prices they charge for bottles/jugs of ready-made juice are too high for my taste, I’m lucky that my grocery store stocks frozen concentrates of white grapefruit juice. I’ve been to several other stores when traveling looking for it and none of them seem to stock it, or if they do they sure hide it well.
I make my own protein smoothies using protein powder and fruit (usually a banana for a thick texture and frozen berries). Protein powder may seem expensive but a little goes a long way and it is cheaper than individual bottles of naked juice! Whole Foods and Trader Joes both carry their own brand of protein powder which is relatively inexpensive.
We try to use mostly organic foods, which are usually more expensive than conventional. Lately we’ve hit the jackpot at our local Big Lots (also known as McFrugal’s in some parts of the country, but basically an overstock store). Since prices have been going up, seems there have been lots of overstock organic foods, and they end up at Big Lots for half off! Organic cereal, pasta, canned tomatoes, juices, even our favorite soy milk. It is hit or miss and you have to go often, but this has really helped our food budget.
Our biggest food expenses are also entertainment… we LOVE having people over, and when we do, we go all out.
Groceries are our biggest expense each month, other than rent and savings. We don’t mind too much.
Sorry to comment again so soon, but I just noticed Funny About Money’s comment about organics, the it is sufficient to wash off the pesticides from fruit and veggies. That only works for pesticides that get sprayed directly on fruit and doesn’t get absorbed! I used to think at least bananas would be safe, until I learned the the farm workers who tend and harvest the bananas have a much higher incidence of cancer than the general population.
For anything (pesticides or fertilizers) that goes in the ground and gets sucked up by the plant’s roots, it is in the fruit or veg and you can’t get it out by washing. Plus the USDA based the acceptable level of pesticides on what a 180 pound man could handle, so if you’ve got a 30 pound kid, they’re getting 6 times the amount of pesticide per serving.
Go organic! Its worth the price.
We have gotten very simplified in our menus, especially during the week. Soup & salad on Mon., pasta on Tues (w/ or w/o meat), rice dish on Wed., eggs on Thurs., then homemade pizza on fri. Sat/Sun tend to be our ’splurge’ days for ‘real’ meat, where we’ll roast, grill or bake something. As a result, our family of four has managed to get our food bill down to $50/week without planting a garden (something our non-green thumbs have trouble maintaining).
Our biggest food money pit usually occurs on the weekend when my husband, an over-the-road tractor-trailer driver, stocks up on ‘portable’ foods, which tend to be brand-name and convenience driven. Even so, it keeps him from eating the greasy food at expensive truck stop restaurants and diners.
JD,
Not sure if someone above already mentioned it, but my wife and I by the Crystal Light mixes. It is healthy and adds a little variety every once in awhile to us “water” drinkers.
That was the thing that always irked me about being frugal: there are always going to be things that are perfectly fine but that won’t fit in with the frugal philosophy.
The example of cheese is a good one: if I am financially responsible, why shouldn’t I buy 9 dollar cheese once in a while? Frugality, it seems, tends to put a cap on whatever item you’re trying to buy. Perhaps I’m interpreting it incorrectly, but the frugal philosophy seems to me to say “why buy one thing if there’s a cheaper alternative?”.
I think it’s why I advocate financial reponsibility rather straight up frugality. Frugality seems far more restrictive to me. And it seems like a lot of people, myself possibly included, would have a hard time living a philosophy of restriction.
Aw man now I want cheese.
I won’t give up…
- avocado: I love it, plus it’s very healthy
- raspberries
- organic sliced bread
- Novi, an Italian cocoa-nut cream which is waaay better than Nutella, and with only the good fats in it
- coffee: locally produced
- good cheese
That’s called cheap.
Buying the best cheapest item that will fill the need is more in line with being frugal, and where people get into disagreements about frugality.
eg. If I’m buying apples, I’m not going to buy the mushy ones with rotten spots for $0.99, I’m going to buy the cheapest ones that taste good.
I try to follow a McDougall based menu. It’s a really healthy diet and because you’re not buying processed foods it’s a lot cheaper.
http://www.drmcdougall.com/
My grocery busters, when I examine my receipt each week, are NOT food - they are cleaning products. I spent $10 on a “clean and green” book, and I’ve started using homemade cleaning products. NO bottled hand soaps anymore, just leftover soap bars. Etc. You’d be surprised how much you spend on non-food items!
I’m with you. Good cheese is worth splurging on. We’re also meat eaters in our household, so I buy only organic ground beef, non-nitrite lunchmeats and uncured hot dogs. That way we can enjoy our sandwiches without poisoning ourselves. I’m a budget shopper on other things so that I can buy them.
I have food allergies, and don’t eat out. This means most of my groceries are budget busters. Rice pasta, gluten free rice cereal, and allergen-free chocolate chips are all very expensive.
I don’t eat out, or eat many processed foods, so it does balance. I would give my eye teeth for a buy on get on special on my allergy-friendly foods though. They never go on sale.
brooklynchick-I try to buy those items outside the grocery store at K-mart or Target. It saves me 20-80% per item.
I won’t give up organic milk, but it is a HUGE budget buster. To cut the costs, I only let the kids drink it at meals and the rest of the time they get water. We gave up juice a long time ago because it is just so expensive and nutritionally it just isn’t worth it. Better to give them an apple and some water than apple juice.
I also won’t give up meat although we’ve cut back significantly. Since we prefer the pastured/grass-fed variety, I’ve found the best way to save money is to buy directly from the farmer. Last fall my extended family went in together on a whole steer. And this year we’re going in on a hog. You end up paying a flat price per pound regardless of the cut. Plus you can have it butchered to your specifications. We ended up saving a ton. And our share of the beef lasted us a year.
The only downside is that we had to buy a separate stand alone freezer. The freezer of our little side-by-side couldn’t hold our share of beef. I don’t think the addition to our utility bill has diminished the savings from the bulk purchase, but I haven’t really done the math.
Ah another Stumptown fan. They have a roaster up here next to my law school boy is it an impact to my budget. But the quality is so much higher than anything else around.
If you’re really trying to lose weight and save money, you’ve got to ditch those protein drinks and juices. Protein drinks have more calories than it seems, when you consider most are “two servings,” and they’re very expensive per oz. Juices are more caloric, less filling, and less healthy than just eating a piece of fruit. Drink plain old water and eat simple fruits and veggies; maybe make a smoothie with them once in awhile and supplement w/ protein powder if you really think you need it (doubtful, if you’re eating halibut and cheese). If you miss having a “special” drink, put some lemon in a pitcher of water and keep it in the fridge; serve it on ice.
I think you have to look at your overall food budget that includes restaurant meals, not just grocery stores when you’re talking about budget busters.
For instance, if you buy real parmigiano-reggino and whole wheat pasta to make a nutritious home-cooked meal rather than go out to Italian restaurants, you’re actually coming out ahead economically and possibly nutritionally, too.
Or, when I cook a fabulous birthday dinner of filet mignon (usually from Costco) to make the evening feel special, I need to compare this to the cost of what I would have spent at a restaurant to feel like I had a special meal.
As a separate issue, all of my doctors and nutritionists classify juice in the same category as they do soda. As someone who is pre-diabetic I can say I get as much of a sugar-headache from both. Nixing juice from a diet would be good.
Food itself is our budget buster. We overspend that category nearly every month (it’s my current budget “project”). I don’t know if we’re buying more food or more expensive food than we did six months ago or if prices have gone up enough to “cause” us to overspend.
My general strategy is to stock up when it’s on sale and/or when I have coupons. We don’t drink pop. We don’t usually have juice (on a juice kick recently, too, though), and we usually buy chicken or ground turkey for meat and only then when it’s on a “buy one get one” sale. We usually buy milk at our local gas station because we can get a gallon of the name-brand (much tastier than store brands in our area) milk for $3.50 a gallon. We also accumulate “points” that we can redeem for discounts coupons for gas or other things in the convenience store. Lately our “splurge” areas have been cheese and juice (we’re not buying fancy juice, we’re just buying and that’s not something we normally do). Our splurge items vary from month to month. One thing we almost always have around, though, is ice cream. I buy it when it’s on a good sale or I have a coupon for buy one get one.
I’m always trying to find the happy middle ground between buying better-quality food and not spending a fortune on food. Still haven’t found it yet…
Grocery Outlet has awesome deals for those of us in the NW. A lot of basics and a lot of splurge items at super-low prices: cheeses, wines, organic canned goods & coffee; the body care section is also a godsend for those who like natural skin care but can’t afford the hefty price tag.
When a block of good cheese is under $3 it doesn’t feel like too much of a splurge!
The inventory rotates regularly, and the deals help me avoid the guilt of buying items I’d otherwise forgo.
It’s important to analyze meals, not just particular items. Maple syrup makes a lot more sense when it’s going to be used over a lot of different meals and primarily as an accompaniment to $1/box pancake mix, say. On the other hand, if you often have meals that involve $3/serving worth of meat, that could be doing a lot more damage. (I’m not a vegetarian, I just have found that’s one area that has the potential to add a lot to my budget.)
“Lately we’ve hit the jackpot at our local Big Lots (also known as McFrugal’s in some parts of the country, but basically an overstock store). Since prices have been going up, seems there have been lots of overstock organic foods, and they end up at Big Lots for half off! Organic cereal, pasta, canned tomatoes, juices, even our favorite soy milk. It is hit or miss and you have to go often, but this has really helped our food budget.”
Ditto! That has been the best grocery saver for us. We make sure to hit it every week before we go to the grocery store or farmers market. I get Organic udon, or lo mein noodles for like 1.80. (We eat asian like crazy.) so I stock up every time. I also like most stated here skip the meat unless the free range no antibiotic beef is on serious sale I buy almost all they have and freeze what I don’t use. As far as our milk we are lucky enough to have a farmers market that sells organic so we buy our milk there for 5.00 a gallon. Only a dollar or so difference but that is an extra bag of noodles for us!
Splurged this morning at Costco in the produce section. I bought 12 huge Gala apples, 1 lb baby spinach, 4 lbs of bananas, 4 lbs of green grapes, 6 bell peppers, 20 lbs of baking potatoes, a dozen tomatoes, 2 lbs green beans. All in larger quantities than we could usually consume in a week or so, but if we eat more fruits and veggies this week for the sake of eating them before they go bad, then the family is eating healthier for it.
For me, it’s organic milk. I try to cut costs by using the milk to drink and also to make yogurt.
For the non-organics, it’s coffee, chocolate and ice cream. The coffee and ice cream are made locally (well, the coffee is locally roasted) and it’s really amazing. The chocolate is just my favorite brand. I just try to keep them as treats, and not everyday things.
I do homemade smoothies instead of Odwalla, too. Rather than protein powder, I use vanilla yogurt, a banana and fresh or frozen berries. I’m not sure whether this is cheaper than Odwalla, overall, because the berries can be pricey, but I think it tastes better. (If you grow your own berries, it would definitely be cheaper.)
Organic milk. I buy it for the kids. I buy the spouse and I a store brand that is “hormone free” but I go the whole way with the little ones and buy them (store brand) organic milk.
Which is way expensive. heh.
I try not to grocery splurge too much but I do go for fresher and organic produce vs the bargain bin stuff.
I shop with a food diary and monitor prices.
Keep plenty of staples at home and cook from scratch.
Buy the loss leaders such as boneless skinless chicken breasts when they are $1.89/lb and get a ton of it. Once home, I separate and freeze 1/2 of them and cook the rest before I freeze them. After a long day at work, I get the diced chicken from the freezer and throw it in a pan for a cheap stir-fry meal or another quick meal. As are result, we end up eating less meat overall, cutting costs.
We have more whole wheat pasta meals with less meat and more veggies.
Cutting out the processed and prepared meals saves more money than anything else.
For budget minded coffee drinkers out there, I have to recommend Deans Beans (www.deansbeans.com). Fair trade, organic, excellent coffee at $7.25/lb. Hate to sound like a commercial, but it is hard to beat.
I just want to chime in about coffee for a minute. I’m a bit extreme with coffee according to my co-workers and friends, but it’s something I enjoy. I went from a drip machine (don’t care how spendy it is, they all junk) to a French press (best way imho to make coffee) to an Italian lever espresso machine and primarily drink Americano’s (espresso with hot water added). Because I go through coffee much quicker now, and my espresso machine is sensitive to coffee freshness, I keep very little on hand, only what I know will be made within 2 weeks or so.
Find a local roaster, quality coffee can be had at almost any place in the US for about $10 a pound for single origin or blends. I don’t care how fancy that can of Illy looks at the grocery store, it’s junk and could have been roasted 6+ months ago. If you can’t find one locally, there are a dozen or so sites online that are worth buying from.
Consider buying green coffee beans and roasting yourself. Green will last, in some cases, years until you roast it. Roasting isn’t hard, it can be done with a heat gun and metal dog bowl, often called the HGDB method, old popcorn makers can be converted or you could buy a dedicated roaster. Green coffee beans can be had for around $3-4 per pound online and shipping isn’t anywhere as bad as you would think. That is again for single origin coffee.
I’m lucky in that my boss shares the same passion (his is a bit more intense) for quality coffee and has bought / pieced together / made a 6lb roasting drum coupled with a 45,000btu grill. I can get fresh single origin or blend coffee anytime I want for a great price. But he saves money by buying green coffee in 60lb bags from buying groups (free to join) that run specials depending on what is in season around the world.
I don’t drink alcohol, but I will spend money on good coffee, but do get the most bang from my buck. He’s currently working on a site, but if you are interested drop me an email and I’ll pass his info onto you if you wanna try his coffee out.
I have just been discussing this with my wife. We spend $700 to $900 a month on food, including groceries and eating out. We’ve also determined that eating out (or at least, ordering out and eating at home) is not always more expensive as my wife will get food for a meal at the supermarket for $15, and buying the same amount of similar food at a restaurant might be $12. We have talked about it, but we can’t figure out what is causing us to spend so much!
Also, soda isn’t really that expensive when you get it on sale. I’ll pay $10 to $12 for 3-4 12-packs,, which works out to $.21 to $.33 per 12 oz. and it’ll last nearly a month. This is pretty cheap!
Good coffee may be more expensive, but brewing it at home is going to be cheaper and/or better than anything at Starbucks or another coffee shop.
I try to shop the sales and like most I try to find a good deal on good products. The big splurge for our family is a certain orange juice (around $6 a gallon) and a certain type of spaghetti sauce. Both of these I can get at a wholesale store, but I definitely stock up when there is a sale in regular stores. I’m not one for organic milk yet. We go through too much to make the cost worth it. However for all those folks who do buy milk by the gallon you can stock up when it is on sale and freeze it in a deep freezer. This is a little trick that some VERY frugal people taught me. Just stick it in your freezer. When you are getting low, take out a gallon the night before you need it and put it in lukewarm water overnight (~8 hours). Shake it real good in the morning and it should be ready to go.
Olives, glorious olives … I’m quite frugal when it comes to shopping for food, and my grocery bill without the olives usually runs about $40-50 every week, even if I eat out with friends once a week (I live alone, so I shop for one). But ever since my favorite grocery store added an olive bar ($9.49/lb.) with blue cheese-stuffed greens, kalamatas, provencales, and marinated garlic cloves, I find myself spending an extra $10-11 bucks every so often to feed my addiction. I try to keep it to around $20/month, but sometimes I can’t resist. Okay, so I never can resist … sue me.
Our weakness is Wine. Up until recently, we were spending $8-$10 a bottle at Costco. This was putting a pretty good dent in our budget since we eat (and drink) at home quite a bit. More recently, we’ve found that Trader Joes carries some excellent South American wines for less than $5. We’ve had wine connoisseurs over and conducted some informal taste tests comparing the Argentinean wines to some of the more expensive Italian/American varieties, and the Argentineans have performed well. We haven’t looked back since switching…
Thank goodness for Costco. We stock up on meats, cheeses and veggies there and only use the grocery store for incidentals and desserts (for some reason buying oversized pies for 2 people seems extravagant while huge blocks of cheese don’t)!
We’ve cut milk out of our grocery list and limited our bread consumption. I don’t have the desire to bake right now… but I should learn. I always think we’d save a lot of money if I could buy 25# bags of grains and transform them into baked goodness. For now I think I’ll settle for learning to prepare oatmeal 10 different ways this fall and winter
#57’s comment about wines…
For me, kosher wine is a big expense. There is *one* kosher wine the BCLCB carries that’s under $10. (Think liquified grape jelly left out to ferment.) The other dozen or so kosher wines they carry (some of which are quite decent) range from $16.99 to about $29.99. It’s preferable to have a bottle of wine each week for the Sabbath, but I’ve been using grape juice more recently (at about $6 per bottle) and only buying wine some of the time.
I also drink Bolthouse protein drinks every morning for breakfast, but they’re expensive, $4.99 for a big bottle that lasts 2 days if I buy it at Safeway. (This is for the correct amount of protein for my body weight for one meal.) Another store, slightly less convenient to get to, carries them for $3.89 each. I’m trying to go to this other store once every couple of weeks to stock up on my drink and a few other items.
Protein powder and making your own drink is a good solution for some people, but it can be hard to find a good brand of protein powder that doesn’t taste awful and not everybody has time to actually make a shake and clean up the blender, etc. If you won’t actually make it or can’t stand drinking it, it’s not a saving.
I’ll pay more for good bread. I love bread and a really crispy baguette, fluffy wholemeal loaf or something a bit more unusual like potato bread is really worth the money.
My husband and I are kind of foodies, but do manage to save at the grocery store (to the point that I have had neighbors ask me to go grocery shopping with them, just to show them how I shop). Our splurges:
*FRESH wild alaskan/coho salmon. For some parts of the country you can get this relatively inexpensive due to proximity (OREGON - I lived in Bandon for a while), but for us it is $12-15 a lb, and a meal is 1 1/2lb for our family.
*Good lunch meat. We pay $9 a lb for lunch meat, but rarely eat it. Usually it is more of a dinner meal and only occasionally.
*Cage free eggs (double the price, really?)
Mainly, I try to set good, healthy eating habits for my family. I have a toddler who will eat almost anything fresh. (Regularly requests sushi, loves asparagus spears, thinks raw broccoli is a snack food, and will steal tofu out of the pan if I let her). So I make it a point to illustrate that no matter how many kids think that an Oreo is really a snack food, she has lots of great, healthy, REAL options at home. (But let me tell you, we really have to be careful in other areas…)
COFFEE SAVING TIP: Regarding saving on coffee (which we both love) what we do is during the week brew up Folgers Gourmet or some other low priced brand and then on the weekends when we really have time to sit and enjoy the coffee brew the high end coffee that we love. It has saved quite a bit over the last year. We have found that during the week when we are in a rush that you don’t really miss the good stuff, plus we enjoy it even more on the weekend.
Budget buster? Having a teenaged boy in the house! While no one category of food we buy is that expensive — and I meticulously match coupons and sales each week — he eats such quantity that it’s hard to keep up. Our food bill was cut by 50% when he was gone during the summer. He’s not overweight, he’s fairly sedentary, and he’s short for his age; I can’t imagine how much our neighbors with several tall, athletic teenagers spend on food!
#32 said: Perhaps I’m interpreting it incorrectly, but the frugal philosophy seems to me to say “why buy one thing if there’s a cheaper alternative?”.
Merriam-Webster says that “frugal” means “characterized by or reflecting economy in the use of resources”, where “economy” means “thrifty and efficient use of material resources”. Digging deeper, “thrify” means “given to or marked by economy and good management” and “efficient” means “productive without waste”. (Tried to avoid circular definitions, but it was hard!)
So putting the definition into the original question: “Why buy one thing if I can satisfy the same need less wastefully?” Of course, needs are different for each person, and one persons “waste” is another person’s necessity. “Good” cheese, coffee, meat, beer, produce, milk are frugal choices if you savor them. If you can’t appreciate the difference, then that’s not frugal.
My most unfrugal grocery area is fresh produce. I love local, seasonal fresh produce, and I tend to go nuts in the farmer’s market and produce aisle during the summer and fall. Some of it doesn’t all get used before it goes bad. However, I’ve found that my family tends to eat a lot more produce when it’s around in (over-) abundance than in moderate amounts. That dietary area important enough to us to risk the waste.
My weakness: Fresh berries, when they’re in season (June to August). Antidote: Bring only a limited amount of cash when going to the farmers’ market.
We purchased a half cow and whole hog last year for the meat. Since we have switched to free-range/organic meats, this was much less expensive than grocery store prices.
I’m with you on the cheese…love a good extra-sharp Cheddar!
Free-range eggs and organic dairy tend to be budget busters for us.
Here’s what Jeff Smith, the original Frugal Gourmet (and host of the TV show) said in his book of the same name:
“The term frugal does not necessarily mean cheap. It means that you use everything and are careful with your time as well as your food products. And the term gourmet does not mean ‘food snob.’ It means a lover of good food and wine and, as far as I am concerned, of people. So we can all qualify by preparing meals for one another. We know deep in our hearts that the table is the proper place for understanding.”
I recommend all his cookbooks, by the way. They’re easy to understand, the meals are affordable and delicious, and he always has sweet and insightful comments about the meals, such as their history or how they fit into his family’s traditions.
Good coffee and good cheese are our budget breakers too. But I tend to put the fun food, entertaining and eating out in our entertainment (fun) category, rather than groceries.
Groceries are the food (and other things) i buy to keep our house going day-to-day.
Having said that, we entertain often, and find that it’s usually simple food that goes over best. i cooked a three course dinner for 4 last week, and it cost $27 -including fancy cheese.
I kind of agree with what Richard said about apples.
I look at two of my favorite things: pizza and ice cream. They’re not really the best thing for you to have all the time, but one has them occasionally, because they’re *enjoyable*.
My dad’s approach: buy the cheapest ice cream, and have it in the freezer at all times. Wouldn’t it be better to not have ice cream most of the time, and then when you’re in the mood for it, get the best, most tasty, and nutritious kind you can? This is supposed to be stuff that’s ok once in a while, when you’re in the mood for it.
Dad likes to have pizza sometimes once a week, but he gets the el cheapo kind. I’ve worked in a couple of pizza parlors, and I know there is pizza that is so over the top good it’s *worth* splurging on occasionally. You can even get dough at the store and make your own–and that’s also delicious.
I just feel like food is a reasonable thing to spend money on. We’ve got in the mindset that the proper way to live is to spend practically nothing on food so we have lots left over for flat-screen TVs and enormous pickups and stuff, because it’s very profitable for a lot of people for us to think that way and they spend a lot of money on advertising trying to get us to.
My cohabiting boyfriend and I have a weakness for prosciutto, fine cheeses, and wine with meals.
But probably my biggest budget-killer, in the sense that I know it’s really stupid to spend this money, is making homemade cheesecake with my Jewish-New Yorker mom’s perfect recipe.
There are only 8 ingredients, but 3 pounds of full-fat high-quality cream cheese is NOT cheap; I usually spend at least $50 every time I make it, plus 5-6 hours prep, baking, and cooling time. I’d easily spend half of that buying one at a high-end bakery. But it wouldn’t taste as good. And it wouldn’t be mine.
So it’s totally worth it for me. Luckily, I rarely bake one more than once a year.
I sometimes make recipes that call for mascarpone or chevre, and I’ve discovered you can freeze both! Apparently they may “shatter” when defrosted, but I figure that’s fine if I’m stirring them into a sauce anyway.
Those occassional splurges such as maple syrup or good dark chocolate are my biggest budget busters though I’ve cut down on the chocolate to reduce the sugar I’m eating.
Have you looked into the Grocery Outlets? They have lots of great cheeses and high quality food items at reduced prices. Sometimes the expiration date may be nearing but most of the foods can be frozen or refrigerated. You can find some amazing cheese at rock bottom prices (cheaper than TJ’s).
Naked and Odwalla are pretty expensive and it’s healthier to make your own. I made an heirloom tomato smoothie with apples, peaches, plums and silken tofu in the blender. I was surprised it tasted better and lighter than the big name brands. What I couldn’t finish I put in the freezer. And the ingredients were local and fresh.
Someone mentioned that they don’t know how to make their food bill go down. If you plan your dinners for 2 weeks on paper, make up your grocery list and try to go grocery shopping once every 2 weeks, it’s a big savings. I have 6 kids and I always run out of milk/fruits/vegetables but I can dart in and out for that or stop at a roadside stand.
I’ve got cost-cutting tips for the protein drinks & coffee - a little DIY saves a lot of cash.
DIY protein shakes/smoothies: if you’ve got a blender, this is a no-brainer. Protein powder costs 66 cents per scoop (I buy Wegmans brand whey protein) and then you can mix it with milk, fruit, juice, whatever you like.
For coffee: there is a great solution for someone who doesn’t make a lot of coffee but wants to have it on hand and wants it to taste great when they do make it. Ground coffee goes stale and bitter within hours, roasted beans within about a week. The unroasted beans, however, last basically forever.
With a certain type of popcorn popper (got mine off ebay for $10 including shipping) and a coffee grinder, you can roast the beans the day before guests come, then grind them just before brewing. There are some tutorials on the process at sweetmarias.com
What really kills us, is that I have gone almost totally organic in our shopping list for food. So basically our grocery bill is now doubled. The reason for the switch was since before I had my son 3 years ago, I became aware of all the pesticides and hormones in our food, meat, wheat, and dairy products. And I never realized that a lot of products is made from wheat. So even this scare of what we are putting in our bodies may be hype for all the organic companies to make money, I decided about 4 years ago not to take that chance. We already do, when we decide to eat out or at someone else’s home. But now we have to cut back on other things so that I am able to spend more on the quality food. I decided that I would buy less clothing for myself and cut back on impulse shopping. This was my thought long ago: if I had to spend more money on anything, it would be to spend it on what we are ingesting. Hopefully we are healthier because of it.
Food and wine are weaknesses of mine, and I know that my monthly expenditures in this area are above average.
However, as is the case with other posters here, I don’t spend much at all on clothes, housewares, and many other categories, so I don’t mind spending a little more money on quality food. I love good cheese, olives, crusty bread, berries, artichokes, and many other relatively expensive items.
My spending on food could potentially be extremely high, but I’ve developed habits to help me balance my spending somewhat. For most of the week, when I’m working, I eat a standard fiber/fruit breakfast, pack my own lunches, and have simple and healthful dinners. This routine, extending from Monday through Thursday, costs me hardly anything. From Thursday night through Sunday, I let myself spend a bit more at the market and on a couple of meals out. Ultimately, it’s a standard dollar-cost-averaging strategy: a frugal and healthful diet most of the week allows me to indulge a little on the weekend.
I also used to spend lots of money on books, but I’ve managed to take care of those urges. For the most part, I use libraries now, and only occasionally buy a book (usually at discount stores).
+1 for all the suggestions to roast coffee.
I am a total amateur when it comes to roasting coffee, but EVERY batch I’ve produced (minus the first charcoal test) has been better than all other pre-roasted coffee I’ve had, and has not turned me into a coffee snob. I used to buy coffee at $15-20/lb in the dark days, but now I get my green beans from Sweet Maria’s at ~$5/lb (and Fair Trade Organic at that!). Just haul out the popcorn popper (hot air and Whirley Pop both work great) and you’re in business!
One tip: if you’re going to use the Whirley, do it outside on a Coleman camp stove. The smoke around second crack will is intense!