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[normative_]

I do most of the things Redding does, but also get my rice, couscous etc. at the local Mid East ma and pa store. They also have the best fruit and veg, and I can buy as little or as much as I wish. Not the packages you buy in a supermarket, which are often more expensive and too much.

For a basic vegetable soup stock, use 1 litre of water, throw in 1 kg of veggies and cook for 30 minutes. The classic vegetable assortment consists of carrots, onions (or leeks) and celery (if you get a hold of the celery root, a big, turnip-like thing, try it, you'll like it). You can use anything, though, including cauliflower, zucchini, turnip, tomatoes etc.

Add some spices as you like: salt and pepper, some cloves, pepper corns, bay leaf, maybe even some coriander seeds. If you want to vary with some meat, you can buy a little and throw it in, or of course, throw soup bones (always cheaper to buy a whole chicken, cut the pieces you want for a separate meal, and then throw the rest of the carcass into the soup pot for the 30 minutes, and fish out, naturally.

For soups, canned tomatoes are inexpensive and remarkably good quality. Better than anything you'll get in the fresh produce section at your local market.

And get to love risotto. It's good, good for you, and doesn't cost much. Just buy the round rice and cook up with stock for 15 minutes with whatever you like.

And regarding the question of hamster buying (stocking up): the senior citizens here buy a carry cart with a bag and two wheels that they take shopping with them, pulling it along behind them. It's like one of those suitcases with the trolley wheels, but with soft material and an open top. They can walk and stock up, no problem.

Here's a more humorous version:

http://www.bs-live.de/xratgeber/54011298201340708/0336dc9992138b708.php

[missemily]

When you find a good buy on canned black beans, stock up so you can frequently have the best healthful, quick meal around. Drain the beans. Saute a little garlic and chopped onion. Add the beans and whatever spices you like, such as oregano, or leave them plain. Serve over brown rice or white rice. Add grated cheese, salsa, and plain yogurt or sour cream if you have them. I like to add a little avocado when I have one on hand, or chopped fresh tomatoes.

This can also be made with the dried beans, of course, but the canned beans are good, and they're quicker.

Sometimes I add a little frozen corn to the beans when I'm heating them. Black beans and rice are good when served with flour or corn tortillas.

[nana72]

As tempting as all the stuff is at a farmer's market, buy only what you will use and go more frequently.  The trade-off of not getting to the store in time doesn't matter if the food is no good to eat anyway.

Good point. I'll try to keep this in mind. Or I'll spend all day cooking those tender greens before they go bad. My hoarding is a family joke. They ascribe it to the legacy of my grandmother, but she at least had the excuse of having lived through two world wars. About once a year the local store has de Cecco pasta (my favorite) on sale for 99 cent a box - I usually buy fifty pounds. At least it keeps... Same for seasonal items - cranberries etc.

Shopping at several places requires a lot more tiime than I have. Also, with current gas prices, I sometime wonder if saving 50 cents on milk or eggs is worth the extra trip (not to mention the environmental issue).

[navelgazer]

Shopping at several places requires a lot more tiime than I have. Also, with current gas prices, I sometime wonder if saving 50 cents on milk or eggs is worth the extra trip (not to mention the environmental issue).

Yup, this is a big concern of mine. We live close to a nice amount of stores (including Whole Paycheck and Trader Joe's), and when I move this summer I hope I can find a place almost as well located. The bad part is that we've gotten used to shopping in the "European style," getting almost everything the day of or day before we cook it. (Except for canned tomatoes, pasta, rice, dried beans, etc.) This is actually not much more expensive, but I've lost a lot of the freezing/storing/planning muscles that I built up during graduate school.

For reasons of time, gas money, the environment, and potential spoiling I am very reluctant to begin to cruise the store advertisements I get in the mail and drive around to get the best deal on XYZ. I *did* get a rain check for a whole chicken at the local food co-op yesterday, which made me happy. They had a really good sale and sold out of 10 cases of chickens in 3 hours!

[scheherazade]

Black beans reminded me...

Make a batch of pico de gallo.  Toss in a can of drained and rinses black beans and about the same amount of corn (you can use frozen and cook it quickly with water in the microwave, then drain).  Mix it all together.  eat it with tortillas, tortilla chips, or rice.  So good and cheap!

[d_w_s]

Doing my part to the forum that's been so good to me, I took interest in this topic cos I love to cook!

I didn't read all the other replies, but here's a couple of things I do:

1.) RICE!!! Buy a rice cooker ($20) and a big bag of rice. Invest in some spices/sauces (I like soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, coconut milk, and anything that's on sale) and make fried rice. Cook an egg and throw in some frozen spinach, cooked onion, cooked carrots (you can really get away with cheap veggies on this one). I fancy it up by adding some sesame seeds. VOILA! Cheap, fast, reheats well.

2.)  TOFU!!! Cheaper than meat, easy to fry/bake/saute, and is good for you too

3.)  SOUPS!!! make a big ole pot. Freeze half of it in mini-containers immediately, pull those out for lunches/dinners later in the month.  Eat the rest for a week. Seriously, dude, you can't go wrong with some tomato sauce, sauteed onion/carrot/celery, plus  canned veggies (beans, peas, corn, string breans). Make sure you cook it for at least 4 hours to get it all good together.


4.) FROZEN VEGGIES!!! They supposedly are almost as good as the real thing, if not better, because they are frozen at peak freshness. Spinach works well, and broccoli (I like to get the stuff that isn't any good canned).

hope this helps!

[scarletbegonia]

I also often buy more than I need, especially produce, which sometimes goes bad, because if I don't I might run out before I have a chance to go shopping, and the kids will be starving ;)... And I admit I splurge on things such as organic berries - my eldest alone can devour an entire clamshell of raspberries in three minutes. Last week I spent almost fifty dollars at the farmers' market (fresh lettuce and baby spinach, apples, three pints of organic strawberries - a find for 10 dollars -, a ten pound bag of oranges, broccoli and cauliflower, kale, herbs, fresh garlic - everything was so good it was irresistible).

Farmers' markets are fantastic places to get good produce at cheap prices, especially if you go toward the end when farmers don't want to pack it up and take it home again. Prices in the afternoon are often half what they were in the morning at my local farmers' market. I also buy a lot of produce, but a lot of produce can be frozen when it's close to going. For example, chop peppers and onions, put them in a baggie and use them for sauces, soups, etc. Corn cut off the cob freezes well. Fruit can be chopped and thrown into a blender frozen for smoothies that don't need ice. Citrus fruits juice better when frozen and allowed to thaw. Ginger can be frozen and shredded into a recipe without thawing it.

Also, shredded cheese freezes well and can be used frozen because it thaws so quickly in the cooking process.

[wegie]

If you have the time, invest in a good knife and learn how to dissect a chicken.

If you look at the unit prices on whole chickens versus the packaged cuts, you rapidly work out that free range, non-GMO, organic-fed chicken actually costs less per ounce than a convenience pack of nasty, fishmeal-tasting, intensively farmed chicken (and tastes soooo much better). If there's only one of you in the house, take off the breasts and legs, split the legs into drumsticks and thighs and clingfilm and freeze what you don't want immediately. Then stick the carcase into a big pot with water and stock veggies to make a soup/stock base, which you can freeze in small tupperware bowls a few hours later once it's done.

Oh, and learn to love lentils, chick peas and all the other members of the bean family.

[kiana]

re: milk

Some unexpected places that aren't that far out of the way have cheap milk. The best prices I've found are at gas stations, which are on the way to or from the grocery, so don't add more than the cost of a stop in gas prices. I'm buying now at 2.79/gal, which is still expensive, but far cheaper than anywhere else I've found in town.

Avoiding preprepared foods is huge as well. I've got an old book called Good Cheap Food, which is available pretty cheaply on Ebay, and has some pretty good recipes to use.

I usually end up around 15/week. I can get it lower, but I drink a lot of milk(by a lot I mean at least a quart daily), and that adds up. Now that I've finished paying off the loans I took from family members, I figure I can afford the extra 5/week to drink milk instead of water. :p

[normative_]

With the large stock of flour on hand, you'll be able to make your own pizza in addition to baking bread.

You need a packet of yeast, mixed with pinch of sugar and some lukewarm water, and then mixed into a pound of flour and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil for the dough. You'll need to leave the dough for an hour to rise before for spreading out and topping.

A pizza needs less cheese than you think for taste, and it's often the most expensive ingredient. Lots to experiment with there.

[deleteplease]

Keep a good assortment of lentils and spices around. There are several really good
Indian dishes which require just lentils, onions, and tomatoes (canned OK). You can
freeze fresh curry leaves and ginger/garlic paste. The small red lentils will cook in 30
minutes -- and require only washing, not soaking.

I like a 50-50 mix of whole wheat and regular cous-cous. Cook with raisins and cinammon
and top with soy milk and maple syrup for breakfast, or add boiling water and use it
as the base for dinner, or stir in veggies, canned chick peas, and olive oil for a salad/
lunch/snack. Do-it-yourself hummus is also cheap, and makes good sandwiches.

Vegan meals are far cheaper than anything with animal products (not to mention cruelty
free, cholesterol-free, and good for the environment.) For protein, just use beans or lentils,
tofu, soy milk, nuts, peanut butter, portabello mushrooms, etc. rather than meat or
cheese.

For shopping, my wheeled shopping cart is great -- it actually fits more than a backpack
and is quite comfortable for 1-2 mile (each way) shopping trips. It's even rain proof (the
only time it doesn't work well is in heavy snow).

[clean]

When I was in grad school I cooked a turkey every semester.  They go on sale a few time a year for 49-69 cents a pound.  I cooked it and had a big feast, then cut it up  and froze it in ziplock bags.  A favorite meal was to take a can of mushroom soup and a bag of frozen turkey, heat in a pan and pour over Virgo yellow rice.  White rice will do, but I despised the mahatma yellow rice!


http://www.angelfoodministries.com/about.asp
This is a link to a church related group.  They buy in bulk and for about $25 they sell you about $40 or so in groceries.  It is designed to be enough for one person to eat for a month, I think.  I did it for a few months, but I was not able to pick the food on the days it was delivered, so I got out of the habit.

"Generally, one unit of food assists in feeding a family of four for about one week or a single senior citizen for almost a month. The food is all the same high quality one could purchase at a grocery store. There are no second-hand items, no damaged or out-dated goods, no dented cans without labels, no day-old breads and no produce that is almost too ripe"

[offthemarket]

I'm a prophet for pressure cookers.

You can make a very fast, healthy meal in no time.  Often with ingredients that have a long shelf life.  You'll be eating things you otherwise would never cook.

Brown rice cooks in 20 minutes.  Same for wild rice.  You can make a lentil soup or stew in 10 minutes.  Risotto, 7 minutes.  Steam artichokes in no time.  Instead of eating sodium-laden and expensive canned beans, cook dried beans from scratch.  Chili practically instantaneously.

Get a pressure cooker and a book of recipes to go with it (one by Lorna Sass).  If you plan several hours in advance, I guess a slow cooker would do the same thing, but man there's nothing like a pressure cooker.

[slac_vap]

Draw up a menu, and draw up a list of what you need to buy to make what's on the menu.  Pay for your groceries in cash.  Take with you to the store only the amount you plan to spend.  Don't take a penny more!  This will force you to stick to your budget and resist the urge to pick up "just one more thing" that will eventually get wasted anyway or cause you to waste something else.

[poiuy]

These are great suggestions.  ITA with the idea of taking a list and a fixed sum of cash to the store and not wandering far from the list.  However, if something is on a good sale, and it's similar to one of the items you need, buy that instead, and modify your meal plan accordingly. 

I mean something like in-season or on-sale vegetables at a great price, or I have often seen stores put bags of at-sell-by-date fruits or veggies in a specific place, get those instead of any specific fruit or veg on your list. 

I too could not survive without my pressure cooker.  I found mine (big stainless steel model, brand new) for pennies years ago in a yard sale because the owner had no idea what to do with it.  Score!  It's still going strong.  I use it almost every time I cook (beans, lentils, veg stock, risotto, pasta sauce, some veggies, some kinds of soup, all kinds of things.).  A crock pot is also a great gadget.  These save so much time and money.....

And (unless you have neurological issues or allergies) get to know and love ingredients that appear unfamiliar or unpopular in Western kitchens (assuming that's where you are; and assuming you don't already have this knowhow). 

I don't know why there is all this negative mythology about some of the cheapest and tastiest (and healthiest) ingredients - beans, cabbage, root veggies like turnips, and so on.  But I was lucky to grow up with cuisines where these are staple ingredients and are made with extremely tasty and simple recipes.  So find a rotation of good ethnic recipes maybe online or from a friend or cookbook, and you will be surprised how far you can stretch your money.

For e.g., many spices can be had at the dollar store (I think someone has mentioned this upthread).  Get 2 or 3 each week until you have a good range.  Though dry beans are cheaper and better, it's great to have canned in the pantry for when you are very busy.  I've often seen canned beans go on sale for 2 for 1 $, can't beat that with a stick.  1 such can (e.g. Black Eyed Peas), with tomatoes (canned OK), onions, spices (be generous), a little cooking oil, and a small box of frozen chopped spinach makes a drooly amazing dish (crock pot and pressure cooker friendly); and will feed you for 2 to 3 meals (you can freeze and reheat), with rice or flour tortillas or similar.  You could use almost any kind of bean really.  It's wonderful on all dimensions:  taste, nutrition, and price.  This is far from deprivation food. 

Do let us know what's working for you, I am always on the lookout for more costcutting tips.  Food prices have more than doubled lately (in all the places I've traveled).  I try to eat organic, seasonal, local, etc. as much as I can (especially for fruits and vegs) and want to combine both goals (quality and affordability).