Support Group for Day 3: Grocery Shopping

[LiquidSapphire]

I thought it would be interesting to create an ongoing centralized thread that focuses on reducing expenses on one particular goal, this case, food/groceries. Maybe if it catches on it can become a sticky or something.
The idea is that this thread is for anyone who is working toward reducing their grocery expenses. Post here your concerns, thoughts, struggles, support and successes. This is meant to be a virtual support group!
Here is the main Jacob post on Groceries for newcomers:

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/2008/ ... pping.html
I am personally trying to reduce this expense, but have yet to come under $200/mo/person (Family of 2).
Things I have done with success:
*Maintaining a Price Book (I'm sort of lazy with it, but it's been helpful)

*Buying in bulk when it makes sense

*Purchased used bread maker, now make my own bread and pizza dough (the qualiy is far better than the crappy bread at Safeway, which starts at about $2 per loaf, and hey, bread on demand is awesome!) The only costs that are more than a couple pennies are basically 3T shortening (sometimes) and 3-3.5 cups of flour per loaf and electricity.

*I make my own greek yogurt. It costs about $5 for roughly 4 cups at the store. I can make probably 7 cups for $2.15 (not counting electricity but it can't be much). I use this recipe. http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/skinny-se ... eek-yogurt It's pretty easy. Instead of using a stove, I have been using a water bath hooked up to a temperature controller my boyfriend built for cooking meat for hours at low temperatures (He's an engineer, can you tell) and that works really awesome. I tried it without the dry milk and it worked fine.

*BF and I bring lunch to work every day. Or rather, on Mondays I bring breakfast & lunch for the entire week. I eat the same thing every day at work. I am vegetarian so I try to eat lots of protein to make sure I'm getting it most days. I stick with hard boiled eggs, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, protein bars, and sometimes 100 calorie packs of popcorn and instant oatmeal. Oh and instant coffee with Torani syrup from Amazon. I'm attempting to get used to zero creamer. BF slums it even more, he eats a can of Chef Boyardee straight from the can most days. He does occasionally go out though, whilst I rarely do.
Stuff I intend to try:

* Weekly meal planning around loss leaders. I guess this is obvious but for some reason I haven't tried it yet. I hope to chart out a week's worth of meals that we actually stick to at a cost of less than $100/wk. I will probably try this after Thanksgiving.
What have you tried that has worked for you? What are some successes and failures you've had?

[Bingeworker]

LiquidSapphire, I see a spot in your existing routine where you could maybe save money if I'm reading it right, and that is on the instant oatmeal packs. If you're using the little pre-made packets, you can replace that with instant rolled oats, dried milk, spices, dried fruit etc. and put it in a little baggie (that you re-use, of course!). Assuming you have access to a microwave at work, you can make it pretty much as quickly as you can a little packet. If you want the recipe let me know and I'll post it here. The nice thing about making your own (if you're not already doing so, and maybe you are) is you can control the sweetness, saltiness, flavours etc. to your own personal taste perfection.

[Bingeworker]

Oh, plus, if you have somewhere at work to stash a re-useable microwave popper, you can make your own popcorn too for way less, although if you want butter on it that could get a little messier and make it not worth it. I bought one of those microwave poppers 2 weeks ago (had had one over a decade ago but it didn't work well, the new ones do though) and it's wonderful, the homemade stuff is so much cheaper and so much less chemical than the pre-made bags of it. The poppers aren't small though, they're the size of a medium-size mixing bowl, so that might not work for you.

[Bingeworker]

... but, if you don't have room for the popper at work, the guy at the Target check-out where I bought it says you can use a paper bag as well. I haven't tried that, but would be worth an experiment, which I plan to do someday but haven't yet.
Good topic, I'm sure I'll have more to say later... I manage to eat on around $200 per month without much effort and with no deprivation (i.e. my frugality includes the odd steak, shrimp etc.), so you can definitely do it.

[akratic]

I had a problem with my food expenses until I made eating at home *more convenient* than eating out.
The key changes that I made:
1) stocked up on exactly these staples, bought in massive quantities large enough to last more than a month at a time:

- grains: brown rice, quinoa, pasta, bread, oats

- beans: black, kidney, chilli, refried

- meat: chicken (4x 10lbs frozen bags from costco [$2/lb!]), eggs, some veggie burgers

- flavor: onions, minced garlic in a jar, 5x large bottle of Sriracha sauce, garlic salt, sea salt, cayenne pepper, cumin, white pepper, pasta sauce, pesto sauce, banana peppers, sometimes random veggies

- misc: olive oil by the liter, almonds, stove top popcorn for snacks, yogurt for snacks, sometimes hummus + pretzels for guests
2) got a rice cooker like this one (I'm not sure what brand I have; it doesnt' matter.)
3) learned which stores to go to. I get 50% of my stuff from Costco, 49% of my stuff from Aldi, and 1% of my stuff (banana peppers, sriracha sauce) from other stores. For me there's no real need for a price book, because Costco and Aldi are *always* cheaper than the other stores if they have the items.
4) decided to stop eating red meat at home, and to instead eat it whenever circumstances force me into a restaurant.
5) learned to cook some basic dinners from the above staples. Here are my favorite two:
Meal A:

- 1 part quinoa, 1.5 part water in the rice cooker, press start

- olive oil in frying pan on medium heat

- onions + garlic in frying pan

- take thawed chicken from the fridge, cut it up, put in frying pan, add garlic salt directly to it

- clean cutting board, cut up bananna peppers, put them in; cut up onions for tomorrow if necessary

- move frozen chicken from freezer to fridge for tomorrow

- when the rice cooker is almost done, add one or two types of beans to the frying pan

- everyone chooses their quantities of quinoa from the rice cooker, chicken + beans from the frying pan, and hot sauce from the table
Meal B:

- water in pot, lid on pot, wait for boil

- add pasta

- olive oil in frying pan on medium heat

- take thawed chicken from the fridge, cut it up, put in frying pan, add garlic salt directly to it

- move frozen chicken from freezer to fridge for tomorrow

- strain water from pot, add chicken from frying pan to the pot, add either pasta sauce or preferrably pesto sauce, stir
Both of these meals take about 25 minutes of time, about 10 minutes of which I'm doing something, and 15 minutes of which I'm browsing the internet or reading a book. This is easier than eating out, and healthier, and cheaper.
For breakfast I have a smoothie (oats + frozen fruit + protein powder) or scrambled eggs and toast and hot sauce.
Lunch has been the most difficult one for me (the Sirens of Subway beckon...), but recently it's been almonds + yogurt at work, and that's been working out well.

[LiquidSapphire]

@Binge Worker - I have mainly been eating the prepackaged stuff because they've been laying around the house for months... but those are awesome ideas for keeping it going! I have heard the paper bag for popcorn thing works too. You can buy massive amounts of popcorn at Costco for cheap. and hell yeah post your oatmeal recipe! That sounds interesting. Not just for me but anyone else who might read also.
@Akratic - I will totally try out your recipes, especially the first one.
For breakfast, I love this little trick. Take a piece of homemade bread, toast it. Take a tupperware, spray with Pam. Crack an egg or two in it. Microwave for 1 min per egg. Meanwhile, put some butter or mayo on the bread (Optional, I like mayo though). Eggs are done. Flip the tupperware upside down on the bread. Tada, you have an egg sandwich in 3 minutes ish. Slice of Cheese optional. Canadian Bacon slices optional.

[Phayen]

I've also had a problem in this area but have been trying different methods for getting the price down.
For dried beans, I'll make a big batch, but undercook them by about 15-30 minutes. I'll then freeze them in family size portions (about the same amount in a can) in ziploc bags. This way I can take them out and just throw them in a pot of boiling water for about 20 minutes and then they'll be finished and perfect.
I also try to make a chili once every other month in the crock pot. I also freeze this in ziploc bags (I lay each bag out on a cookie sheet in the freezer till they freeze and then I can stack them without everything getting messed up).
I guess my approaches are leaning more and more towards batch cooking. My problem is mostly in lunches as well though, generally go out to eat with coworkers maybe twice a week. And my wife is stay at home mom, so she likes to go out to eat on the weekend once. Even with all of that, we're probaby close to $250/pp/pm. (Our son is probably about $100/mo in formula and baby food, but should go down as he eats more and more real people food).
Akratic, how do you like the frozen chicken? I've been moving more and more to frozen foods as they add convenience and reduce spoilage. Just wasn't sure about those giant bags of meat

[B]

I second akratic's approach: make it more convenient to eat cheaply at home. You can tell yourself you "should" eat at home, but you can't run on pure willpower. Make it easy on yourself.
I have another very simple, very cheap recipe:
Garbanzo & Noodle Soup:

Bring some water to a boil, add noodles. Cook them to taste (al dente or whatever)

Add canned garbanzos (or pre-cook some raw ones. This makes it a bit less convenient, but cheaper)

Add salt or other spices to taste.

Usually this is good enough for me, but I don't mind bland food. To make it tastier you can add a chicken bouillon cube.

I prefer to add a little diced chorizo (the Spanish kind, not the Mexican) while the water is boiling. I haven't tried other meats, but I imagine anything fatty and flavorful will do.
Using a single can of garbanzos, I usually get two large meals out of it, and it only takes a few minutes.

[gawping]

I've managed to reduce my food bill to about $20/week, if I don't end up buying a whole heap of crap... I cook it all on a Sunday and refridgerate it. Wish I started doing this years ago.

[TLV]

@Phayen
I also use a lot of frozen chicken, as well as ground beef and various cuts of beef/pork - we buy a lot when they go on a steep sale, and divide them up into meal-size portions before freezing (make sure to label the bags!).
With chicken and ground beef, I've never been able to tell the difference as long as it's thawed before cooking and not microwaved (to thaw it quickly, put it in a bowl of water for an hour; if you need it faster than that, you can put it under lukewarm running water and it's almost as fast as the microwave). For the other cuts it can depend on the preparation method, but we usually cook them in a crockpot and it turns out great.

[akratic]

@Phayen, you have to be careful with the frozen bags of chicken:
The frozen Aldi kind and the cheaper (Kirkland) frozen kind at Costco are no good. They're mostly rib meat, and they're jacked up with all this sodium and extra junk that you can read about in the ingredients list.
However, the frozen Purdue kind from Costco, with the boneless, skinless chicken meat is perfect! It's pure chicken, and it's only $2/lb or $2.19/lb at my local Costco. (Buying algorithm: if $2.19/lb, buy enough to get me to next Costco trip. If $2.00/lb, buy as much as will fit in the freezer, which holds about five 10lbs bags.)
The trick for me is in the dethawing. Dethawing in the microwave or under water is no good. The best thing is to leave it in the fridge for 24 hours. What we do at my apartment is constantly have a dethawing breast or two that we replace every time we cook. There is a special dedicated tupperware for holding the dethawing chicken and everything. Because we cook every night, or at least every other night, it never goes bad.
PS: frozen fruit actually beats fresh fruit for smoothies, in my opinion, because you can skip adding ice to the smoothie with the frozen kind, in addition to frozen being much cheaper and more convenient.

[LiquidSapphire]

@gawping - How do you eat for 20/week? What is your strategy?

[Maus]

Back when I was eating grains (pre-Paleo), I used to put a half-cup of quick oats and an ounce of dried raisins in a zip lock bag with a tsp. of cinnamon. Work had a 200 degree water tap. 2 minutes in a large cup and breakfast for less than $0.25.
WRT popcorn. If you like it with some "fat," take a paper lunch-sack type of bag. Add Tbsp. of kernels and a tsp. of olive oil, salt and any other flavoring (garlic powder, cayenne, etc.). Crimp the top of the bag shut. Microwave on 10. It shouldn't take more than three or so minutes. I set the timer on five minutes the first time and waited patiently until popping ceased for 10 seconds. Then I new the proper time for my microwave on future batches. The bag will not be reusable because of the oil, but this is WAY cheaper than the store-bought microwave stuff and avoids the nasty chemicals as well.
In general, I let my weekly menu be guided by the store's loss leaders. There is typically a meat, a vegetable and a fruit on offer. Focus on developing a recipe file that can exploit these loss leaders. E.g. carnitas when it's pork, chicken enchiladas, carne asada when it's beef, etc. (I tend to favor Mexican because rice and beans will round things out very cheaply).

[clarkai]

A tip for chicken meat: You can buy whole chickens and cut them up and debone them yourself. It's not that hard, and I often see whole chickens for $.99/lb. Sometimes I see them for $.69/lb when they are getting close to the pull date.
Also, you can make chicken soup from scratch with a whole chicken. Boil the chicken, and then when it's done, take the meat off by hand.

[gawping]

@liquid
1kg mince

3/4 cans of tomatoes

2kg frozen veg
Brown meat. Add stuff, spices & water for volume. Does lunch & dinner.

[frugalfreddy]

One of my favorite low cost healthy snacks is air popped popcorn. I can get popcorn from a local amish store for $4.25 for a 15 lb bag. Just get you an air popper like this one.
15 lbs of popcorn goes a long way. I have been eating a brown bag full every day for about 6 months and still have quite a bit left, my calculations has it at slightly under 5 cents for a full brown bag. To keep it healthy I do not add any salt, butter, or oil, just plain popcorn. Before purchasing this I read online that the kernels would go bad if not popped or froze, but after six months of staying tied up in their original plastic bag they still taste and pop the same.
Sams Club and other bulk stores also sell a 50lb bag for $19.99.

[Bingeworker]

LiquidSapphire, here's my oatmeal recipe, this version replaces an "apple cinnamon" packet:
1/4 cup quick-cook rolled oats

2 tbsp instant powdered milk

1 1/2 tsp sugar (I use maple syrup, but I'm making at home)

1/8 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

dried apples, broken into small pieces
To cook add 1/2 cup water or slightly more (and if you think of it, add the water 15 minutes or so before you cook, it lets the apples plump up a bit) to the mix in a bowl, and microwave for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes on high for an averaged powered microwave (adjust as needed.) I stir it halfway through for more even cooking.
Dried cranberries work well in this too, and you could substitute dried blueberries etc. too.

[peterk]

When I'm trying hard I can get it down to $30/week. On that budget I eat eggs for breakfast, have milk and juice, and create a massive pot of soup and a massive pot of pasta sauce that lasts the week of lunches and suppers.

Of course other times I'll get steak or a roast or make a pulled pork when things go on sale. $50/week is the limit though. I find I'm not willing to cut out meat from my daily consumption.

[frugalinCalifornia]

We can get the food budget down to a couple dollars a day per person when we feel like cooking.
Beans, rice, assorted nuts and cheese from Costco, meat stockpiled on sale as loss leaders from 59 cents to $2 a pound, produce from the local markets at 30 - 50 cents a pound, and potatoes for 10 to 20 cents a pound on sale.
So for an evening meal we can have something like a half a pound of chicken (50 cents), a baked potato (10 cents), and a half a pound of steamed veggies (15 cents) with cheese (15 cents) for 90 cents a person.

[beav80]

This is something I'm working on. I lfind it a challenge and am not great looking for loss leaders, but I will be exploring a few options in the next little while.
I'm interested to follow along here for some ideas.