Frugal SBD

[Magna]

Here's an article about his experiment:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle ... story.html

I guess it's a start. Looking through what he had to say, I get the strong impression that he's rarely if ever looked at food prices in his life. While I guess it can be useful to see how a complete novice adjusts to living on a budget, I think it would be more meaningful if he were interviewed a month into his project, instead of just on day 4.

[Chris55]

I think they're only doing it for a week. I agree, I'll bet he never looked at food prices before. Hopefully it will be an eye-opening experience for him. Just wish members of congress would try it; they'd be much less likely to cut funding if they saw what it was like to struggle every week to put food on the table.

On a happy note, my CSA farmers received a grant to provide half price CSA shares to food stamp/SNAP recipients. I let one of my friends know about it and she's thrilled to be signed up. SNAP recipients here in Maine get a debit card to use for their groceries with a certain amount put on it each month. The CSA program is just taking $10 a week off their debit card until their half of the share price is paid off. Very convenient. She'll get the same share as I do, pick up her beautiful organic veggies at the farmer's market, and nobody will see that she's paying with her food stamps.

Who knows, maybe Mario will be motivated to start a Food Network show on budget cooking

[Magna]

Who knows, maybe Mario will be motivated to start a Food Network show on budget cooking

That would be a welcome addition!

[mjknowles]

I appreciate all of the suggestions that people are making with regards to stocking up and saving and sales and such, but it just doesn't seem to work for me (and I am a MAJOR sale shopper!). When I started the SB phase 1, I chose 12 recipes from 3 SB cookbooks, to make for the first 5 days of meals (including 3 soups for lunches). Making a list of the needed ingredients (mostly veggies, of course), I headed to my local supermarket, which tends to have the cheapest prices in the county. My bill came to $166! For 5-days'-worth of meals! I honestly can't afford to pay that much for food.

[Chris55]

You don't need to follow any of the recipes in the books. Buying expensive meats or vegetables that are out of season are not really necessary to follow SB. Many of those recipes were designed to show that healthy SB foods can be flavorful and interesting, but basic meals are just as effective. If you want to explore new flavors, that's great, but trying to restock a kitchen with all kinds of spices and fancy items will cost a bundle. I'd recommend trying a new recipe once a week and attempting to find unfamiliar spices at a health food store where you can buy small amounts from their bulk jars. No need to pay $5 for a jar of spices.

For each meal, you pretty much need some lean protein, 2 cups of veggies (less for breakfast), and some healthy fat. Those veggies can be whatever is on sale and this time of year you should be able to find things that aren't so expensive. I could easily plan an outrageously expensive meal if I want to eat beef tenderloin, artichokes, some fancy mushrooms, and broccoli rabe. Right now I'm cooking for 4, so that would be a special meal. But generally I go for a cheaper cut of london broil, kale (huge bunch for $2), baby bella mushrooms, and maybe some green beans (frozen when they're not on sale or the whole pile at the supermarket is wilted).

[Magna]

I appreciate all of the suggestions that people are making with regards to stocking up and saving and sales and such, but it just doesn't seem to work for me (and I am a MAJOR sale shopper!). When I started the SB phase 1, I chose 12 recipes from 3 SB cookbooks, to make for the first 5 days of meals (including 3 soups for lunches). Making a list of the needed ingredients (mostly veggies, of course), I headed to my local supermarket, which tends to have the cheapest prices in the county. My bill came to $166! For 5-days'-worth of meals! I honestly can't afford to pay that much for food.

To add to what Chris said, I think the solution is to choose recipes that call for cheaper ingredients. If someone wants to, and can afford to, eat expensive seafood, meats, nuts, and vegetables, that's fine. If not, there are plenty of other good foods that are very affordable. In fact, I think SBD can be a lot cheaper than eating the average American diet.

You might want to check the first post in this discussion for one example - there's a link to my SBD budget challenge journal (a week of p2 meals for $21). Not that you need to follow that (and it's p2, anyway). But it may give you general ideas.

[Kimboroni]

Don't forget to take into account what your habits might be otherwise. For instance, skipping meals and not eating very often isn't healthy, so if it costs a little more to have good eating habits, you will be better off overall, and you might save some money in other areas (medications and the like). Or if you tend to eat out a lot rather than cooking, you may pay a little more on groceries now, but will ultimately save money on your total food bill.

[mjknowles]

If you want to explore new flavors, that's great, but trying to restock a kitchen with all kinds of spices and fancy items will cost a bundle.

The thing is, I wasn't buying spices and fancy items. Here are some examples for basic staples and meats:

Salmon $9.99/lb
Chicken breasts $2.99/lb (value-pack)
Green bell peppers $1.99/lb
Red/yellow bell peppers $2.99/lb
Celery $2.00 ea
Asparagus $2.99/lb
Canadian bacon $4.99 (1-lb package)
Eggs $2.49/dozen
1% milk $2.99/gallon
String cheese $2.99/package
Cabbage $2.99/head
Onions $2.99/lb
Flank steak $3.99/lb (value-pack)

(These prices and items are all taken from the receipt.)

[Kimboroni]

I would consider salmon to be a perfect example of a fancy item.

Some of the vegetables look on the expensive side-- keep an eye on your labels and make sure you aren't buying asparagus imported from South America, for example, and choose a different veggie if it is. Or maybe there are other onions that are cheaper-- that price looks really high.

[Magna]

I agree with Kimboroni. It looks like a few items are driving up your grocery bill. Finding cheaper substitutes for those would significantly reduce your costs.

Btw, for some people this might be a very affordable grocery list - especially considering that if you eat all of this at home, you'll save money by not eating out. But each of us has to adapt to what we like, what we need, what's available, and what we want to spend or can afford. For some of us, that means tofu, green beans, and split pea soup instead of salmon and asparagus. There's nothing wrong with the cheaper food, and the more expensive foods don't necessarily taste better.

[Chris55]

My question is, what were you eating before starting SB that made your grocery bill lower? Unless you were eating a lot of pasta and rice, you still needed to buy protein and vegetables each week.

Shopping around really helps my food budget. I have shopped both in NYC and in a rural town in Maine. Every place I have lived has stores with outrageously high prices on some items and others that are on sale. Where I live now, the large supermarket can charge prices for boneless chicken breast ranging from $2.50-$3/lb, but my local tiny grocer frequently puts it on sale for $1.79/lb, so I buy chicken there. But the small grocery has insane prices on crackers most of the time, over $4 for triscuits but I can get them on sale usually for $2.50. Milk and eggs are much cheaper in my smaller grocery store. I have never paid more than $1.79 for eggs. $2.49 for eggs is highway robbery as far as I'm concerned. All those little price differences add up to a lot of money when you're cooking for a family. I shop in two stores each week and buy a few special items at my health food co-op. My stores are all near each other, so I stick a cooler bag and ice in my trunk and make the rounds of the stores buying what is on sale at each of them.

For items that you eat a lot, like chicken breast and cheese sticks, I'd also encourage you to look at buying large packages less frequently. The chicken I buy on sale is usually in 10 lb. packages and I know that cheese sticks come in larger packages also.

[Magna]

Here's a discussion on saving money on the new sizes of clothes you might need after being on SBD for a while:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=107618&p=1193532#p1193530

[Magna]

On SBD, we're sometimes stuck with food we don't want or can't use. It often happens as people clean out their kitchens to begin phase 1, or when someone gives us a gift we can't use.

One way to deal with those situations is to give away the food to family, neighbors, and friends. You could serve it to them, or just pass it along. Another is to donate it. Here's an article about donating food, with links to resources:
http://earth911.com/news/2013/01/11/epa ... landfills/

[uk.terri]

We don't really spend much on food at all. We're always looking in the 'reduced to clear' sections of the store (my hubby picked up a whole salmon a couple of months ago for £1.50. That's about $2.25 USD). We get much of our meats and fish in that section. It all gets wrapped up and put into the freezer, which we actually have three of...and they are all full!

We also shop at our local farm shops where we can get a 40lb. bag of onions (we eat LOTS of onions!) for about £9.00 ($13.50). I also make and sell homemade pickles and chutneys so use a good bit of onions for that. Just last weekend, we got 4 huge cauliflowers for only £1.00 ($1.50). The other key tip is to shop seasonally and locally. Buy what's in season and buy produce that hasn't traveled a zillion miles to get to the store.

There's also no reason to shop at the most expensive grocery store. We have some discount stores here called Lidl and Aldi and they have just as good a selection of things as the big stores. We do the rounds every Saturday by going first to Lidl (and the farm store if need be) and then to the big store for most of the cupboard and dairy items.

[Magna]

Here's a how-to guide to buying foods in bulk.
http://earth911.com/news/2013/02/04/bulk-buying-guide/

There are different ideas of what it means to buy in bulk. To some people it means buying a 50-pound bag of flour or a gallon of olive oil at the warehouse club. But that's not what this article is talking about. It's about buying unpackaged foods like flour, beans, grains, pasta, dried fruit, spices, coffee, or tea by weight rather than prepackaged. This is offered as an option at a lot of natural foods or health food stores, but also a lot of supermarkets too. As the article points out, people commonly buy produce this way, so it's not really a radical idea.