Shopping for Gourmet Food on a Budget

Real food is worth spending a little more money on than fake food.  Sometimes it is even worth spending a LOT more money on – if you showcase it in a special dish and use more economical ingredients in the remainder of a meal.  Over the years, however, I have learned to spend less eating well than the average American spends eating poorly.  

My husband and I really like to eat.  We have pared our bill from $150-200 a week for two down to $50 (summer)-60 (winter) a week, primarily out of necessity.  He is retired; I am back in school and only working part time.  We just don’t earn what we used to.  That $60 still covers French roast coffee, steak and a decent (but not great) quality red wine.  

To get from $200 to $60 took almost a year because I didn’t want to seem mean about it!  First we replaced the highest end products like Bubbe’s sauerkraut at $6.50 a jar and lamb chops at $12/lb. with imported sauerkraut at $4 a jar and local lamb shoulder at $7/lb.  The coffee and wine also got traded down.  I always raised and butchered my own poultry and bought beef at the local butcher; I now buy more organ meats and stretch all meats farther.  I also always grew a garden and canned and froze what we did not use immediately; these I continue to do.  Now I also barter with the neighbors when we have more plums than we can use.  They give us their excess eggplants and squash. 

Instead of shopping every week, I drive a little farther every 9 days or so to the closest thing I’ve found out here to a low cost multi-ethnic grocer.  I live in rural Oregon now, so this isn’t anywhere near as multi-ethnic an option as it was when I lived in Northern Virginia.   Anything I can’t get there, I save for trips to Eugene, when I’ll stop in the Asian store or Big Lots, which is one of those places that buys surplus merchandise.  (I never quite know what you will find so I go prepared for some normal purchases like Bigelow teas, hair conditioner and Bob's Red Mill quinoa, but I may end up buying European gourmet items, including high end chocolates, olive oils and sauces.) 

I go to farmer’s markets early in the morning, when they first open and their produce is at its best.  Yes, produce is cheaper when they are packing up at the end of the day, but it may be wilted, too.  Occasionally at the end of the season, I will call around to see if anyone is selling boxes of produce cheaply to add to what I am already canning from my own garden.  Yes, I will be very angry with myself while I am actually doing the canning and my back is hurting and I am dripping sweat.  But in December, when I have a cupboard that contains a nice variety of salsas, spaghetti sauces, apple, plum and pear butters, chutneys, etc., do I remember the back aches?  I do not. 

In the winter, if I find a particularly good sale on apples, carrots and potatoes, I store them in my mud room, which is unheated.  In the summer, bruised or single bananas, which are sold at the reduced price of $0.49 a pound most of the year, often go for $0.29 a pound and I buy half a cart load of them.  Sounds silly, but what else is so good for you at such a low price?  I peel them all, break them into bits and put them in freezer bags for making delicious dairy free smoothies and ice creams – with a very realistic dairy-like texture - all summer long.  

If you have an apartment with a balcony, you can grow basil and tomatoes in big pots on it.  I would not bother growing anything else.  Those two things are so much better grown at home and picked fresh than anything you can buy elsewhere and bring home.  Make sure you plant quick growing varieties that are indeterminate, meaning they will produce for a long period, not all at once – I would do one cherry and one slicer, both in 5 gallon buckets with multiple holes drilled in the bottom and a tray underneath to catch the drainage.  The basil does not need such a large pot – maybe 12” tall.  

I don’t think Costco or Sam’s Club are really great bargains unless you have a large family.  You have to pay a membership fee up front and most things come in gargantuan packages, which you will then feel compelled to use, whether you like it or not.  I think such stores foster either overeating or resentment, depending on whether you have the personality to finish off or be repelled by the presence of too many leftovers in the refrigerator. 

It is a good idea to go to a grocery store for perhaps three of four of your shopping trips and to save one shopping trip a month for a place like an Asian store or Trader Joes.  Then confine yourself to cooking only from items you bought at that store or that you have leftover from your previous trips.  Do not go to two stores in one week or you will overspend.  

Don’t buy anything but groceries at a grocery store, unless you really do get a better deal on it (sometimes cat and dog food qualifies) than you would elsewhere.   

Go with a list.  Vary from the list only when the items ON your list are NOT on sale and can be replaced with items that ARE on sale for a GREAT price.  For instance:  if I want tomatoes, but they are not on sale, but red bell peppers, which usually are expensive are on sale, I will buy a lot of them.  They are sweet and juicy.  They can be roasted and have a texture similar to cooked tomatoes or they can be sliced and be added to salads.  

Buy produce so that it will last for at least a week, with some items ready to use immediately and some that can keep.  Break bunches of bananas so you have a few ripe ones and a few green ones.  Buy perishable produce and also hard, long keeping produce like carrots, onions, cauliflower and broccoli.  Buy frozen vegetables, too.  That way you can stretch out your shopping trips and go less often, therefore spending less in time, money and gasoline.  

Despite what I said about going with a list, I don’t believe too thoroughly in planning meals ahead of time or being a slave to the ads.  Nor do I believe in cutting coupons.  Ads and coupons generally get you to buy the big name products.  Do people who read food blogs really want corporate cereals and sliced processed cheese?   I believe in knowing what you have in your kitchen RIGHT NOW, in knowing what you like to cook and like to eat.  

Learn to write your list in the order in which things are laid out in the store – for instance, I  always enter the store in produce, then go to bulk foods, then head back towards wine and meat, then over towards coffee and butter, then to frozen vegetables and then to the cashier.  This is the order in which I write my list, every time, so I never have to backtrack. 

Also, don’t go to the grocery store when you are hungry, or everything will look wonderful.  Also, don’t linger too long – go with a purpose and stay out of the aisles where you are most likely to cheat on your budget or your diet.  

Make sure you pay attention to unit pricing. Sometimes packaging is deceiving and a bigger box may actually contain less product.  Sometimes a sale price of a brand name item may still be more expensive than a different size of the store brand.

Know your spending goal before you even enter the store and how much you are willing to vary it if you come across something truly spectacular.  (Have a pretty clear idea of what spectacular means to you and what you will sacrifice from your list to buy it if it puts you over budget.)  Add things up as you go.  You can take a calculator if you want, or a pencil and paper and use the tally system, writing a slash for every dollar (rounded) you spend.  If you do this four or five shopping trips in a row, you probably won’t need to thereafter unless your spending creeps upwards again.  

Check out the bulk section of your grocery store.  If your grocery does not have one – or if the lids don’t close well, consider finding another grocery.  If the store has good traffic, many bulk items will be just as fresh, or maybe even fresher than packaged goods.  I buy as many spices as possible in bulk, for huge savings.  I also buy an assortment of specialty flours like stone-ground malted wheat, buckwheat and almond.  Nuts and dried fruits are usually half the price of gourmet and health food stores.  I get a lot of short grain brown rice, a little long grain basmati and a little wild black rice and mix them after purchase, for an expensive looking, flavorful blend that costs me very little.  I also use red lentils and azuki beans often.  Like the rice blend, they are attractive, so I store them in glass jars on the counter.  

If you buy designer coffees away from home, buy yourself a coffee machine and start making it at home.  You will save money (and probably calories) doing this.  

You can also save a lot of money on fast food or other meals out by buying precooked rotisserie chicken and packaged “baby carrots”, washed snow peas and other such convenience items at a grocery store when you are in a hurry.  You will be getting real food, just as quickly, for less money – and you will have leftovers!  

Hope some of these ideas help you save money at your own grocery store.  I may add more later.  I am supposed to be studying for a psychology exam.