Now this is a post that could go on and on...but I will try to refrain and stick to the basics.
Food is something that is very adjustable for most people. If there's wiggle room in a budget, it tends to be here. It's a necessity, for sure, but there are a million ways to reduce your food costs. I'm going to go over a few of the ways we save money (and don't!) in the food realm.
Please note: I feel like I need to confess that I haven't been doing many of these things since getting pregnant. While I don't feel sick exactly, I still almost never want to deal with food. I have food aversions to, well, nearly everything. *sigh* So lots of these suggestions are best case scenarios right now but I've done them all at one point or another!
We garden. This is not necessarily a money saver, but can be. We have two 4x6 raised beds in our (rented) backyard and over a dozen large pots or buckets on the porch. There is definitely skill, and a lot of luck, involved in making a garden come to life and produce edibles but if you have that skill (and good luck!) then it can make it all worth it. Last year was our first year here and if you factor in the cost of the wood to construct the raised beds, the soil, the seeds, etc. then we certainly didn't come out ahead, financially. But it is an investment. This year, we have virtually none of those costs - the beds are constructed, the soil is in place, we composted over the winter and are still using many of the seeds we bought last year. (We did need to replenish a few and of course I ordered some more because it wouldn't be my garden if I wasn't trying to fit too much into it...) But you never know how things are going to produce - our tomatoes, for example, didn't do well last year. Some of them caught early blight and others just didn't flourish. Luckily, the seedlings were a gift from a farmer friend, so we hadn't wasted any money, only garden space. On the other hand, I bought two tomatillo seedlings for a couple bucks in the spring and by fall we had baskets full of tomatillos. So many! We're still eating salsa verde I canned from those fruits.
We cook. Yes, we cook. Shocking, I know. In a world where there's a drive thru fast food joint on every corner, we make most of our meals at home. We use simple ingredients - beans, rice, pasta, veggies - and are able to keep our food costs down that way. Cooking at home can be super expensive, if you choose to cook filet mignon and out-of-season asparagus at every meal. But it doesn't have to be. And again, there is some skill involved. But with all the food blogs, cooking shows and cookbooks out there, there's really no excuse for not being able to learn. And you really don't need to stick to Kraft mac 'n' cheese and frozen food either.
We bake. I (used to) bake all our own bread products. Every loaf of bread, every tortilla, all the English muffins, any necessary cakes or pies. Recently, we've taken to buying that cheap fluffy wheat bread because I just can't seem to make a good fluffy PB&J-worthy sandwich bread at home and, well, I have a toddler. So there you go. (But that stuff is terrible for any other type of sandwich...blech.) If I have time, I make regular loaf bread - I usually use a recipe from the Joy of Cooking. And if I'm busy, but don't need the bread immediately, I make no-knead bread, which is excellent for hearty ham sandwiches and takes mere minutes to mix up. Yum. I refuse to buy store bought tortillas anymore - homemade ones are so! much! better! Seriously. If you've never had a hot, fresh, homemade tortilla...GO. Make them. Now. I'll wait.
So anyway, now that you've had some tortillas...I also make our own burger buns, for the relatively rare occasion we eat burgers, and have made our own English muffins but don't do it often as the cooking process is a bit time-consuming. Cakes, pies, cupcakes, cookies...those all are homemade too. I admit to having a weakness for boxed brownies though. Ghirardelli...yum. I also have to admit my weakness for toaster waffles. I hadn't had one in years and recently bought some and I love them. Why don't I make our own waffles and freeze them? Well, largely because we don't have a waffle iron and I don't need one more large-ish specialized kitchen gadget taking up space in my house.
We buy in bulk. Sometimes. Buying in bulk can be cheaper. But not if you buy too much of something perishable and end up throwing most of it away before you can eat it. Also, check the unit price - sometimes bulk items are not actually cheaper! For instance, at our local grocery store, organic white rice is $2.99/lb from the bulk bins but when you buy it packaged it's half that. We particularly benefit from buying larger bags of flour (for baking) and, if you ever make bread, don't ever buy those teeny packets of yeast. We buy 1 lb bricks that last most of the year in the refrigerator but even if you can't find those, buy a jar. Trust me on this. The price difference is astronomical.
If you have a co-op in your area, look into joining. Sometimes they can be very beneficial. We briefly joined our local co-op, but found that it actually wasn't cost effective, so we stopped using it. Oftentimes, it will depend on precisely what you buy from them so check it out and see if it could help your budget!
We don't eat a lot of meat. Meat is expensive. We're not vegetarians but our meat intake is low and what meat we do eat is a treat. I'll often get meat when we're out for something special (added bonus - not having to cook it!) or if we do have it at home, we buy larger packages, split it up and freeze it into smaller portions. Where do we get our protein? Lots of other places - dairy, eggs, beans, etc.
We use dry milk when we can. I know...what? Are we in the depression here? Seriously though - I buy a big box of dry milk and store it in an airtight container. When I need milk for baking or cooking, I reconstitute what I need. In situations like that, where taste isn't really the issue, it works just fine. We save our "real" milk for drinking and other occasions where it's needed. (We still go through a ridiculous amount of milk but it cuts down a little!)
We buy generic. Mostly. Through some trial and error, it's pretty easy to figure out what stuff your local grocery store stocks that's just as good (or better!) in a generic version than "name brand." Most of what we buy is generic, unless there isn't a generic option or we've discovered that the generic version is really awful. (Our local store's generic pudding for example - blech.) This comes in particularly handy at Whole Foods - I've found that many of their generic products are really good and often quite inexpensive, less than our regular grocery store often!
We rarely eat cereal. (Um, except while I'm pregnant...) Boxed cereal is expensive and much of it is highly processed and sugared and not necessarily all that good for you. It's easy, this much I admit. (And I actually love cereal. Especially right now in my lazy, food-averse, hungry-at-odd-hours pregnant state. Lately, I've been buying big bags of this all-natural Lucky Charms-type cereal and loving it. I'm embarrassed.) Usually, I make our own granola and instant oatmeal. I've blogged this granola recipe, but the one I find myself defaulting to lately is from this book - there's a honeyed granola in there that I am absolutely loving. And I can't recommend the oatmeal enough - it's super easy to whip up and if you do two batches at once, it saves even more time.
We (sometimes) make our own yogurt. It's really incredibly easy. (Just Google it - I've cobbled together a method from various blog posts and this pamphlet, which I picked up at a general store in rural Texas.) Making yogurt is very inexpensive - all you need is milk and a little bit of starter (yogurt). It sure beats paying big bucks for quarts of yogurt at the grocery store, let alone the little single serving cups.
We can. Can! Canning, again, is one of those things that can (heh) be cost-effective, but isn't necessarily. I generally only can in-season fruits and some vegetables that I can get for relatively cheaply at our local farmers market or from my own garden. For instance, I desperately wanted to make raspberry jam last year but with raspberry prices the way they were, there was no way it would be worth it. (Financially speaking, my tastebuds think it's always worth it.) But I made blackberry jelly instead because we have blackberry bushes in our yard and thus the fruit was free! Check out my little series on canning here.
If you need some recipe ideas, feel free to follow my food board on Pinterest. I intend to pull together a list of my favorite budget-friendly food blogs, recipes and cookbooks in the near future.
So there you have it. There are probably more things that we do that I don't even think about, but these are the ones that my poor addled brain can come up with at the moment! Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments!
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