You are currently browsing the Groceries category
I was grocery shopping with a friend in late December. We were in the dairy department. As I went to reach for a carton of cream, she exclaimed, “Check the expiry date!” This is something you shouldn’t forget. Reach in the back and grab the farther-out dated ones. The grocery store won’t love you but your food will keep longer.
Sometimes it’s just better to buy a smaller size if you’re not going to use it quickly. Wasted food costs money too. You can get that fridge-is-full feeling but when you look, you have a refrigerator half filled with expired food. Get rid of it.
If you really want to save money, particularly at the grocery store, it’s important to know when you are looking at a deal. In The Tightwad Gazette, she talks about having a price book in a cheap notebook. If you are gazing at the store shelf, can you tell if that bag of flour is a bargain or not? Remember, it’s the unit price you are interested in. Price per ounce or per pound. Sometimes the bigger size isn’t cheaper.
We’re not talking hundreds of items. Let’s say you pick up 30-40 items a week. There is some variation for holidays and when you’re low, but you tend to buy a lot of the same stuff. You need to know what they cost so that you can spot a deal. You may scoff and say, hey, what’s 20 cents? Multiply it by the 40 items ($8.00), times 52 weeks and you’ve bagged yourself $416.
Organized Home shows a page from a price book that you can use.
I know some people who can tell you the exact price of a car on the road so just as important to know what your food costs.
On the occasion that I go shopping for food I always compare the ‘price per’ on each item. Sometimes there are sales that make the smaller quantity the better deal. If the price per ounce is less on the smaller jar of peanut butter I’ll buy that one, and maybe pick up two or three jars while it’s on sale. I have to do this every time as things change on a regular basis. It may not add up to a huge amount of savings but if I’m diligent in my shopping I can add up a lot of bits into a few hundred dollars a year. It adds a bit of time to the shopping but I love to save so I enjoy the challenge.
You might want to bring a calculator along to do the figuring. I’ve done it so long I can do it in my head but my wife prefers using a calculator.
-Phil
Today we had our Canadian Thanksgiving. I hosted the dinner. A few tips below for a less expensive dinner.
If you can plan a little ahead, buy your turkey on sale. Turkeys can stay frozen for months, so if there’s a deal, grab the bird. Not always easy to know how many are coming for dinner. I ended up buying a fresh turkey but it was a good price and I was able to get the exact size I needed.
Potatoes around here are $2.99 for 10 pounds. Feeds a lot of people. We have a pear tree and I made cranberry pear relish from this Epicurious recipe. I heeded the advice from the reviews and reduced the apple cider vinegar to about 1/2 cup and also reduced the sugar by half as well. I made Monkey Bread in advance and reheated it in the warm turkey oven.
Many guests brought food and wine. My mother-in-law brought a beet salad vinaigrette. Others brought a squash casserole, green beans and wild rice. I used my daughter-in-law’s slow cooker and served the gravy from that (her idea).
I made three pumpkin pies from scratch. I used the recipe for pie dough on the Tenderflake package and followed the directions for the pumpkin pie filling from the can of pumpkin. Easy.
This is a big money waster. I’ve been known to buy lettuce and forget it in the fridge. When I look at it, it’s gooey and ready for the compost.
It’s important to look at what is in your refrigerator and toss what is past its “best before” date. Try and use up what is in your refrigerator before you buy more food. Throwing out yogurt and vegetables can cost you money.
I have a friend who brings home the vegetables and then very carefully cuts up the broccoli into the flowerettes and puts them into ziplock bags. He does the same with cauliflower, carrots, celery and radishes. I was very impressed when I saw this. He said that he finds that if they are ready to cook, he does not waste food. He found it only took about 10-15 minutes each week. He said that he could wash the bags and use them again. It also makes your refrigerator look very organized. You can have ready-made snacks with carrots, celery and radishes.
This would also work with vegetables for an omelet. Chop up the onions, peppers, mushrooms and put in a bowl for a few days and use some each day.
I discovered this website called Hillbilly Housewife.
You may think it’s a little radical and it is. But sometimes when you’re strapped and you want to get out of a debt situation, drastic measures are in order.
This is a great menu plan and worth modifying for shopping lists and getting some control of your weekly spending. It’s also vegetarian but she offers a menu including meat for a little more per week.
I remember taking stale bread and letting the slices dry and making breadcrumbs. I whirred them up in a Cuisinart food processor gotten for $5 at a yard sale. I used them to coat chicken legs bought on sale. The ultimate in recycling.
I once asked a friend of mine how he fed his family of six. He told me that he shopped at one of those deep discount, no-frills type grocery stores. Each week, when they had a loss leader of say, canned tomatoes or hamburger, he’d buy as much as he was allowed. He worked the menus around the food he got.
I check these as often as I can. Being in Niagara Falls, I can cross-border shop. Around Thanksgiving, Wegman’s sometimes has turkey for 25 cents a pound if you spend more than $25 in the store. What a deal.
Here in Canada, Smart Canucks has listings of all of the flyers available on the right-hand side of the home page.
In the U.S. here is a listing of stores and their current flyers.
You can comparison shop and plan your meals around the specials.
I consider a freezer a must. Even if you live in an apartment, a small freezer can be had for under $200. You can avoid eating out if you have frozen meals in your freezer. It is not worth buying an older one as you’ll spend a lot in energy costs compared to these new energy saving types.
I have in my freezer now – enough buns to get me through the winter, meat bought on sale, beans grown in the backyard (blanched and frozen), frozen fruit bought on sale, some spinach, frozen juice on sale and some black walnut hulls (that’s another posting story).
If I see meat on sale, I load up with the maximum you can purchase. In the summer I freeze whole tomatoes (I just take out the stem bit). I usually cook extra spaghetti sauce or chili or rice and I freeze that. I can always come home and have a decent home-cooked meal in about 20 minutes. There are cookbooks that teach you how to cook frozen meals for a month. I admire these types of people but I am not one of them.
Why buy jars of baby food when you can make your own? I’m not talking about buying these expensive Magic Bullet thingies or using a food processor. A French friend gave me what she called a “moulée” which is a hand-cranked food mill. My son ate pretty much what we ate.
I put whatever we were eating for dinner into this contraption. Had a little more texture than the commercial pureed baby food. My son developed quite a sophisticated palate as a result.
Always check the flyer as you go into the grocery store. Those front page “loss leaders” are the items to get you into the store and then, if you’re hungry enough, you’ll buy everything else at inflated prices. The loss to lead you into the store. They’re usually a good deal if it’s something you use.
Fruit and vegetables already bagged are a better deal than the loose ones you bag yourself. If apples are bagged and priced for five pounds, that marked weight is the least they can weigh. I weigh the bags and take the heaviest one I can find. Use the scale. Check for bruised/damaged vegetables.
I buy meat based on cost per serving. If I can buy three big chicken legs at $2.10, that’s 70 cents per serving. I have cut my bills by thinking “per serving”. Even if you buy a large family pack and break it up to freeze, consider the cost per serving rather than the price per pound. This way you can buy a prime rib on sale and cut it up into steaks. Mmm.
« Older Entries
