apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have a long comment but after reading yesterdays thread again, I really wanted to post it.

I am a college student with a full-time job, going to school at night. Considering the fact that nearly half of what I bring home per month goes to tuition, I really have to watch what I spend at the grocery store. BF and I both make very little, are both in school, and are having increasingly more problems with trying to eat healthy.

One big thing about living in Alabama, and even though I live in the biggest metropolitan city (Birmingham) in the state, is that you do not have the benefits most have in larger cities, usually in the north (I have not been everywhere in the US, so bear with me if there are some inaccuracies). In the south, it's about BIG. Big cars, big houses, and BRAND NAMES.

First example, there are NO small markets. When I lived in France I remember there being some sort of market with fresh (sometimes not so fresh) produce - like apples, oranges, lettuce...etc. - on almost every corner. And from what I remember of my visit to Portland, OR in November, they had something similar, or at least smaller markets, like Trader Joe's (another thing we do not have here) where you can shop around AND get quality. There is no variety. We just recently got a Whole Foods in one of the wealthiest parts of the city, called Mountain Brook. So, you have all these people that make exorbitant amounts of money, driving their ENORMOUS SUVs to Whole Foods, bringing out 15-20 bags of groceries – never their own bags. There are smaller health food stores, such as The Organic Harvest, which is really the best one around, and often cheaper, and better than Whole Foods, who are losing so much business – so I have been watching their prices on certain things creep up. So, those who cannot afford Whole Foods prices have really no where to go, other than Wal-Mart. That’s really all there is. There are other grocery stores like Winn-Dixie (also close to going out of business, only in the poorer parts of town) and Bruno’s (only two left out of many).

The problem with these other grocery stores is that almost EVERYTHING in them is genetically modified, full of preservatives, and the only things that ever go on sale are not things that anyone trying to be healthy wants to buy! Things like off-brand hot-dogs with God knows what’s in them, potato chips, etc. Stuff that people do not need to eat.
There are other contributing factors, like the fact that there is little to no public transportation, and our downtown is not livable (although it should be). But that’s another matter.

I love to cook. I am a painter at heart, and when I started cooking for myself I realized that I love it more than anything. But I can barely afford fresh ingredients to last me more than 2 meals, if I’m lucky. What I do, is I go to Costco (or really, wherever) and buy big bags of pasta and (the most) organic pasta sauce I can find, and try to do the most I can with it. I am sick of pasta. But it’s cheapest for me. I stock up on frozen vegetables and keep many types of spices, etc in my pantry in order to change things up. (I have vowed to start a vegetable garden – we used to have one as a kid – and I am sick and tired of spending nearly $2 for AN APPLE at Whole Foods.) I have a TON of vegetable bouillon and make big soups out of those frozen veggies. I guess this stems from being in college and refusing to live off of Ramen noodles, but I think it’s terrible that we have to severely limit the types of food we eat because it’s hard to afford to be able to eat healthy. I think my point is that there are so many places in our country like where I live that creates this type of problem. I feel like everyone in city/state government is so unconcerned with things like these that they miss the big picture and it will never be fixed. For example, they are closing MANY inner-city schools, where they are needed most, and instead of putting money into the schools programs and teachers, they are shutting them down. There is one elementary school near where I live where they have almost 30 kids in one kindergarten classroom. Do you know what they're doing with the money from raised taxes? Repaving the roads.

I'm sorry - I just realized you started the new one for suggestions - errr.

Being a full time college student, I'm on a fairly tight budget so I've had to do some extreme prioritizing. I find that when I invest in my food by making things from scratch, buying quality ingredients and putting time and care into the preparation I'm more satisfied with smaller meals.

Relying on seasonal produce is also helpful because you can get it cheap and local at a farmer's market, bypassing the rising commercial food prices.

We eat a lot of grains, brown rice, quinoa, and beans and combine them with toful and veggies like kale and carrots for simple healthy stir frys, soups, etc. (I even planted a small spinach/kale/lettuce garden this winter; summer is more of a commitment in the desert). We buy a chicken at Trader Joes every week or two, roast it and make stock to freeze, save the chicken for salads, quesadillas, stir fry stuff.
We're very lucky to have a variety of fairly pricey places to shop for organic produce. I try to buy just what I'm going to make, but throw the rest in my happy compost pile.
Almost the only products I'll buy at a regular market are chiles, tomatillos, limes and lemons. Basically, we're ridiculously lucky to have the variety we do in Tucson.
To Elizabeth: maybe container gardening would be manageable and produce some of your faves?

I can't suggest strongly enough to shop at ethnic markets (if you have them). We don't realize quite how many foods have been synthesized into grocery store standards, and how overpriced they are!

~SPICES! I haven't bought the little $5 McCormick spice jars since moving this year - between the Asian, Greek, and organic markets here, I can get any and all of my spices for drastically less, which can really turn around any cheap dinner (graduate student stipends don't go far)

~Proteins: So important to consider, especially on the lean-student starch diet. I didn't eat much pork before, but I can't argue with $2.29 ground pork from my asian market. Tofu @ $.60/block, made organically in store? Okay, guess it's time to learn to cook more tofu!

It's an adventure to find these places: a bag of fresh-baked pita for $1, a tray of ~15 pieces of handmade baklava for $5 (compare that to Chips Ahoy!), 16/20 count shrimp for $5/pound. And this is all of Raleigh, NC - not the biggest metropolitan center, so have faith you can find this in your hometown! I'll happily eat an ethnic diet over hotdogs if it cuts my budget this much!

Here's my tip: the freezer is your friend.

My problem is that I love cooking but with just me in the house, I can't eat everything that I cook. So I very often make big pots of soup and then freeze all but one or two servings.* This works really well with other things, too -- frozen ravioli and gnocchi, frozen cookies (freeze the dough on a cookie sheet in individual serving sizes then, when frozen, throw all the cookies into a bag), frozen scones and rolls, etc.

Because I can cook larger portions, I cut down quite a bit on my grocery bill. And then, during those weeks when I can't really afford to buy any fresh produce (I'm yet another grad student), I have a freezer full of stuff that I can pull out and enjoy.



*A tip about freezing liquids -- use ziplock bags. Freeze them lying down and then, when they're stiff, you can keep them in your freezer almost like books on a shelf. :) I often root through the freezer the night before, find whatever I want to eat for the next night, and then put it in my fridge to thaw over the course of the next day.

Ziplock soup is awesome. I've got what looks like a bookshelf of soup in the freezer.

That said, Pre-prep meals. Sunday night is my kitchen night - I get out all the food containers I picked up at Target and make a batch of steel-cut oats that provides 4 breakfasts. Perhaps a batch of lentils that provides for a few meals. Cook up a pound of chicken or buy a whole rotisserie at the carneceria - perfect for tacos. Make a big salad and divide into portions. At the end of the evening, I have breakfast and lunch for the week, ready to go, and all I have to worry about is dinner. It all takes about 2 hours on a Sunday night and saves me from blowing $5-$10 on lunch each day. The oats for breakfast comes out to less than one dollar per meal, including dried cranberries and almonds. Throw in eggs for one day or pancakes on the weekend. Oh... and I stopped paying $80 some odd a month (that's one quad grande americano a day) for someone to pour me a cup of coffee.

Here is my newly discovered tip.

Rather than doing one massive shopping trip, I've been going out to buy items as I need them for one or two days at a time. We have ended up with so much less wasted food, and so many fewer impulse purchases, and I actually cook what I buy rather than have it disappear into the depths of the freezer never to be seen until months later when it's truly inedible! I've also started walking to the market rather than taking the car. I shop more wisely when I know I have limited means (a stroller and my two hands) to carry my purchases!

Beans. I make soups and stews with red lentils-- a $2 bag of organic lentils will make a meal with enough leftovers for a few lunches. They are filling and healthy, and with brown rice, I believe they make a complete protein.

Here in NYC, cooking at home is still cheaper for us than going out for dinner, at least in my neighborhood.

To anyone interested in growing your own food but lacking garden space I enthusiastically recommend "The Bountiful Container" by McGee and Stuckey.

http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780761116233-0

A pack of mixed salad greens seeds for $1.99 can feed two people for a year (excluding the hot summer months).

Even more of a bargain if you're a renter and the LL pays the water bill ;)

i have several jobs and a family of boys to feed - a big hungry electrician and a slightly smaller hockey player, so i too do my shopping once a week at trader joes (using my employee discount) and spend sunday cooking. this works fairly well except that i often work on sundays and don't have time and i made a new year's resolution to shop at our farmer's markets more often. i got great veggies - i bought tons of stuff because i knew i wasn't going to get to the next farmer's market for a while. but coming home on a weeknight and having to prep spinach, cabbage, carrots, etc., was not fun. then i realized i didn't have enough containers. and it was the same price as trader joe's not-quite-as-fresh produce plus no discount.

it's very frustrating as prices go up and i find i'm also guilted into buying more at farmer's market because you see the faces of the farmers! at a regular market, i only think in terms of what i can afford, not "oh i need to support the strawberry guys" (that made a nice smoothie just now but still - i'm on a budget!)

i like the reminders of beans and rice. my staple is beans and tortillas and salsa fixings from my local mexican market. that is the way to go!

When I had just moved to NYC (to go to grad school full time while working full time) and coughed up the first/last month's rent, etc. (and TOTALLY depleted the savings I had taken a few years of scrimping to accumulate), I made many "Bean Cuisine" soups and saved the recipes from the back lables. I then just bought the beans and followed the recipes. I'd make two kinds of soup and alternate. I walked everywhere to buy what I could carry, because I hadn't figured out the transit system (plus it was 1994 and dicey for my taste). I ate a lot of apples that fall from the farmers market. Cheese sandwiches. PB&J. I'll admit to eating a Pop tart (there was a recipe to make your own a few days ago), an orange and a glass of non-fat milk for breakfast every day during the week. Then for variety, I'd make scones and egg custard for breakfast. Sometimes, I'd eat that with a graham cracker. Lunch was normally a salad from the salad bar so I'd get sliced bell peppers, broccoli florets, romaine, a little hummus and a slice of pita bread so I'd get complete proteins and colorful veggies. This salad bar next to my office had sliced fruit, so I'd get a slice of pineapple, berries, a slice of mango. I got a lot of variety in my diet and it was pretty cheap (in NYC dollars). I drank Britta water and Peet's coffee that I ground and made at home. I also ate pasta with my homemade tomato sauce with olives, capers and vermouth (that bottle lasted the 9 years I lived there), but would splurge on good Parmesan cheese.

I'm a lacto-ovo vegetarian since I was 10. I make more money now that I am out of grad school, but I know I ate better on less money back then. And I was thinner.

I forgot to add that I often made homemade hot cocoa with Droste powder, sugar from baking as above and non-fat dry milk. That's how I'd get my chocolate fix--cheap. I used non-fat dry milk so I'd make sure not to have food going bad on me. I used this to make homemade yogurt, too. Easier to clean up the pan for heating milk, the way I made it.

more cheap recipes -
- oatmeal (not indiv. packets). you can actually microwave rolled oats in milk for 2 mins. just use a high-sided bowl so it doesn't overflow. then add milk and a spoon of honey or brown sugar. or more healthy additions that i never remember to add in!
- eggs scrambled with onions peppers or for kids who don't like onions, add some broccoli and a little scattering of cheese. 2 eggs per person. even if you buy farm fresh organic free range eggs it's still cheaper than meat. my farmer is 3.50 a dozen.
- when you do meat, get chicken thighs or tenders raw or frozen. sprinkle with spices and add peppers and potatoes. bake 30 mins. add broccoli for greens.
- i steam broccoli on top of pasta that i make once or twice a week. then use that throughout the week. even buying from farmers market, $2/pound, or using frozen and microwaving, still great value and kids will eat.
- meatloaf - ground turkey, oats, bbq sauce or tomato sauce, one egg. mush and bake. goes with homemade mashed potatoes.
- saute brats (good ones from tjs are 4 or 5 for approx $5) and add onions. then add cabbage. the trick is to get brats and onions brown, then use a little apple cider vinegar with cabbage. great with mash.
- frittatas are egg omelettes that can use up leftover pasta, veg, meats. just chop and add to eggs (2 per person)
- blt's
- pasta, melt cheese over the top with some butter and mix. then you get "mac n chz" without all the crap.
- desserts - apple bread pudding - stale bread, pour over cream (or milk and eggs). add some sugar and spices like cinnamon and nutmeg and chop a few apples that are less than fresh. let sit, bake until top crispy. sometimes i sprinkle a little more brown sugar and butter over the top.
- good plain whole milk or cream top yogurt with canned peaches and a little granola. or toast oats yourself - super easy.
- make "soup" from frozen berries - maybe a squeeze of lemon or dash of cinnamon. add yogurt or cream - it's german fruit soup.

we mostly live on toast in its various forms. and pb and js. also canned beans (no time for home made. i hate sorting!) and tortillas and fresh salsa. if we have money or a neighbor with avocados, then we make guac to go with. that's my go to meal because i grew up with it here in So. Cal.

Learn to eat an inexpensive filler and plan your meals around that.

I grew up eating meals that are centered around rice. I almost exclusively cooked and ate such meals throughout my poor college student days. I still enjoy rice-centric meals, and we still frequently prepare those types of dishes.

A meal consists of a main dish with lots of veggies and some meat paired with a lot of rice. Dessert is fresh fruit. Following this type of meal plan, we spend $60 on nice groceries -- including fresh fruit & veggies and random things like organic milk and less-crap-in-them fruit bars -- from Whole Foods, and the price per person per meal breaks down to ~$6 (which includes snacks/drinks/etc).

Here's what I do: shop at a diverse cross-section of markets, stop in and check out the prices and selections in each (ask questions). I have a price index in my head and know what costs how much where and at what times of the year. I go everywhere from the local Chinese supermarket, Mexican markets, farmer's markets, Costco (and even Walmart, sometimes, to my shame...).

Create separate lists for what you need from what store. When one list gets long, you go to that store. When another gets long, you shop there... I go to one store a week, usually.

And, I stick to my lists, and refuse to get suckered into things that I don't eat. But, I also scoop up sales (I will clear out whole shelves of scratch and dent cans of organic soup for emergency quick meals when they are 20 cents a can); and super cheap vegetable overstock...

Along with this, I shop seasonally and locally. I go to farmers' markets rigourously and buy the freshest, cheapest in season. With such overstocked vegetables, I pickle cucumbers, cabbages, and radishes; make fresh tomato sauce (sealed in Ziploc freezer bags, they keep for a very long time and stay delicious; much better than canned), quarts of basil pesto during the season where people are trying to get rid of them; salsa (which doesn't last long); freeze raw fruit and vegetables for instant cooking in the winter... I don't buy apples out of season, or any other fruit or vegetable, which drives down the price. Leftovers also get frozen for instant homemade "TV dinners" for later.

Also, buying in bulk... Costco has great prices on bulk meats, which I chop into pieces that I want to use (stew chunks, steaks, roasts) and freeze. Next stop is to purchase quarter sides of beef from organic ranchers (which I am researching right now). And ONLY buy the bulk items you really use and need, because I find I can get carried away at Costco and end up with stuff I don't like. But even with farmers' markets, buying in bulk ends up being incredibly economical because the producers will often recognize you and give you great deals, and toss in vegetables for free...

And most importantly, don't think of meals as comprised of discreet ingredients, allocating one item for a dish, requiring several different items; but think of several purposes for each and use them for those purposes. It stretches the ingredients into many different dishes that are like free bonuses which you can build additional meals around.

Ok. that's long enough

$2 for *an* apple? Wow. That's insane; no wonder people resort to Walmart. I am fortunate enough to live in Montreal, one of North America's great food cities. I can get local apples at the market for $2-3 for a basket (around 10 apples).

For cheap eating, I'd suggest mostly cutting out meat from your diet. Lentils and beans are much cheaper sources of protein and when combined with rice, you have a complete protein source. Learn to make dal with all sorts of pulses (split peas, lentils, etc), and with different spicing.

If you do buy meat, buy the least prepared cuts. I never buy chicken except as a whole chicken because it's the least expensive. And then you can make soup stock with the bones, which is essentially a free extra meal. Soup stock is easy to make and while it does take time, it's just simmering time, you don't actively have to do anything.

You'd still need fruit/veg and that's obviously a price issue in some areas (I find that strange as buying pre-packaged stuff is more expensive than fruit/veg in Canada). Canned tomatoes are often a good bet. They're canned at the peak of ripeness and more likely to go on sale than the fresh ones. You can make your own soups and sauces with these.

I also try to buy things when they're on sale or cheaper because they're in season and prepare and freeze them. I just have a fridge freezer, so I can't go overboard, but making roast veggies purees is easy and versatile.

Whenever bananas are cheap (less than 49cents/lb), I buy dozens, wait for them to brown (if they aren't already) and freeze them mashed up and pre-portioned for smoothies and muffins.

I often freeze things in ice cube trays, then pop them out and store in a bag. It's convenient for portion-size and helps minimize the space it takes up. I mostly do this for stock, pesto, and tomato paste.

I grow herbs in a windowsill garden, but I know that can be difficult if you don't get much sun and they do start to get droopy during the winter. I keep them limping along til spring, when I can take them out for a balcony garden. Herbs and tomatoes do quite well in a container garden.

I have one other thing to add, which is not likely to be a popular sentiment. Forget about "organic". Honestly. It's really not worth it.

I know there's a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) about pesticides and hormones and what-not out there. But most of the pesticide concern is actually out of date and is really related to ones that have been outlawed in N.America at least, since the 60s. Another example is that herbicides tend not to be sprayed on the food product. They're used to control weeds before the target crop is seeded. I know two scientists who work in plant molecular biology who are actually equipped with the knowledge (that I readily admit I am not) to understand the ramifications of the non-organic and GMO foods. Both of them say that people just don't understand and have been duped by marketing. It's not dangerous in the least and you're often just wasting your money on an equivalent, but pricier product.

Free-range meat/eggs *is* worth spending more on because aside from ethical considerations, there is a health basis to it. Not that other eggs/meat aren't safe to eat, but free range animals eat a more varied diet (e.g. chickens eat insects) which results in more nutrients in the end product.

If you want to support a food cause, make it local food and small local businesses. This will have a much better effect on the food available to you.