We spotted this article on "Seven Ideas for Preparing Food at Home" over at The Simple Dollar (via Mark Bittman's blog, Bitten).
Blogger Trent Hamm takes a look back at his college days when money to buy food was almost as short as space in which to cook it. He has some tips to help us with both situations!
It's been a while since we checked in with the rising food cost situation--how are you coping this summer?
Trent's top recommendation is "augmentation." By throwing in some diced chicken breast or fresh vegetables, we can stretch a simple bowl of noodles into several meals and boost its nutrition value at the same time.
This is one of our favorite strategies too, particularly this time of year when vegetables are so abundant and affordable at farmer's markets. We like to make sure we have plenty of veggies like zucchinis, peppers, and onions on hand to fill out quick weekday soups, stir-fries, and salads.
Trent also reminds us not to overlook canned foods like beans and tuna. Both of these items are cheap, healthy, and don't require any cooking at all. They can be thrown into pastas and salads at the last minute, or even used to make meals of barbecued beans and burritos. (And dried beans are even cheaper!)
For Trent's full article and complete list of tips, check out his blog, The Simple Dollar.
What other ways have you been stretching your food dollar these days?
Related: Cooking from the 99-cent Store
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The thing is, I've been living on a reduced income since 2002 -- much as I hate to blame 9/11, it DID affect the two industries I work in (theater and office temping), and my income dropped 75% in 2002 because I simply couldn't find work. I have spent the past 6 years trying to recover from that, and finally just now I have.
And what did it is learning these kinds of cheap-meal tricks. Cooking for yourself and buying produce in season is the absolute best thing to learn how to do.
Big batches of vegetable soup was something I did again and again -- I have a recipe for Provencal vegetable soupe au pistou that is really easy, makes a TON, is healthy, flavorful, and can be doled out into individual-size containers and frozen. I also can make biscuits (using yogurt instead of buttermilk) and freeze most of them -- and dinner then becomes a bowl of the soup and a couple biscuits fetched from the freezer and reheated. Soup also lends itself very well to improvisation, so you don't need to fret if the recipe calls for artichokes but artichokes are expensive -- you can just shrug and skip the artichokes, and make something else with what's on sale.
view empresscallipygos's profile
I do the coupon thing. I try to buy mostly organic or natural foods, and this is STILL POSSIBLE through couponing! After three months of doing this, I no longer pay for most toiletries - will never pay for a toothbrush or toothpaste again! There are great resources out there to help someone get started with couponing... some of my favorite resources are websites like www.hotcouponworld.com, www.afullcup.com, and blogs like www.moneysavingmom.com! As a single person household, I have gone from spending $60-80 a week on food/toiletries to less than $40! And I'm still eating the same stuff I ate before - plus, my pantry is WAY more stocked than it ever was before!
view scuuster's profile
Ethnic grocery stores are, in my opinion, the best way to slash your food costs. A lot of products are significantly less expensive (especially produce!), and you can find a lot of obscure ingredients much more easily. Not everything is cheaper there, but most fresh ingredients are a good balance between affordable and high-quality. My grocery bill has been halved since I've started shopping at these places.
My recent favorite has been a local Korean grocer that stocks excellent produce (only seasonal, which requires some adaption but is ultimately a very good thing), sometimes at half the cost of the chain stores, as well as decent meats and dry goods (rice, noodles, etc.). I'm fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood with eastern European, north African, Latino, and Asian grocery stores, but even if you aren't, it's worth the hike for the savings.
view Leslie in Portland's profile
You can also write companies directly and ask for coupons. I've done this successfully with a bunch of organic food companies.
Some companies offer coupons thru their web sites. Organic Valley is one of them.
Coops are awesome. Usually much better than what you even find at Whole Foods.
CSAs (farm shares) are also GREAT ways to save money. You pre-pay, which means you pay more at the beginning, but ours has seriously slashed our overall food bill.
http://www.SustainableSuppers.com is a GREAT site. It has a lot of creative ideas for stretching food dollars -- with real food (and yummy food at that).
view Frugalista's profile