- Joined
- Dec 7, 2013
I've been noticing a lot more kiwis casually commenting on food prices. I'm sure there's a lot more who aren't saying anything and based on the number of users on the site, I'm willing to bet some of you poor fucks who are really needing to stretch the food budget out right now. I see you and I'm here to help. You should listen to me because I grew up a dirt poor redneck who still ate really well, plus my food budget for the month is usually around $50 tops. I know what I'm doing.
Please note this is very American-centric but can apply to most places.
I will be adding more to this from other kiwis or adding stuff I've forgot. Please share your stuff or ask questions if you're new to all this.
Saving Money on Food 101
Why Do I Need to Cook From Scratch
Let me give you an example.
Other Tips and Resources
Recipes
To be added to later. Share yours so I can link.
Please note this is very American-centric but can apply to most places.
I will be adding more to this from other kiwis or adding stuff I've forgot. Please share your stuff or ask questions if you're new to all this.
Saving Money on Food 101
1. You need to cook. I don't mean putting something frozen in the oven or a prepackaged meal. You need to actually cook.
2. Invest in seasonings
3. Invest in a slow cooker
4. Make large batches of food at once.
5. Check the discount bins, especially with meats.
6. Start reading labels
7. Go for high-satiety nutritious foods
8. Don't be afraid to look for help
9. Grow/gather/hunt your own
10. The Forbidden food
"But Yaks I don't have time--" 99% of the time someone tells me this they're liars or they have poor time management.
You highly likely can take 15 minutes of your bullshit netflix special or gamer time to chop up something and put it in a slow cooker. Don't lie to me, don't be lazy.
2. Invest in seasonings
I don't care if its a bag of onions, jars of minced garlic, or powdered shit. Just get some and get the staples. You don't need to buy this all at once. If you have a couple extra bucks, instead of spending it on something stupid one time like a latte or a candy bar, invest in a spice instead. If you want more bang for your buck, you can buy it in bulk (which ends up being cheaper if its something you really like) or places like The Dollar Tree sell the same damn spices you get at walmart for $1 (1.25 with inflation). Buy some seeds to make a window herb garden for year round. After a little bit you'll have a nice juicy spice rack to help make your food taste better.
2b. Don't throw out scrapsTake your veggie cuttings, bones, etc and freeze it. You can use this to make stock.
Green onions/chives can be cut up and then the bottoms (white parts with roots) watered and they'll keep growing. Fresh is always better for flavor.
3. Invest in a slow cooker
You can get these for way cheaper than something like an instapot and can make a buttload of easy, cheap, nutritious food in it. You can practically get them for free if you peruse your local thrift stores and missions. I suggest this because it's easy for people who are new to cooking to not fuck up and you can let it work its magic while you're at work or something.
4. Make large batches of food at once.
Freeze the extras. I don't meal prep, but I have created my own personal freezer section of pick and choose meals I just need to reheat by portion size. I've got everything from breaded cod, to pulled pork, bread, vegetables, perogies, etc etc hidden away in there ready to stuff in my mouth. To stop them from sticking you use the "flash freeze" method, which is setting them out on a tray in the freezer, then putting them in a bag after. Its amazing and you can do it with most things. I take one day a week to cook a few things at once and add it to the frozen bin or prepare vegetables for the freezer or whatever. The longer I've done this the less often and less food I've had to make.
5. Check the discount bins, especially with meats.
There are two types of bins. There's the "no one is buying this here's a huge discount" bin and the "this is going past when we're legally allowed to sell this" bin. Be smart about this. If it's already frozen in the expiration getting close section, unless you know you're gonna eat that soon don't bother. Fresh, unfrozen meat you can get away with longer by freezing or cooking and freezing. Same with vegetables. Canned goods you can get away with for quite a while, but again be smart about it. You'll have to fight little old men in these sections for good sausage for some reason though. Local smaller groceries and chains are more likely to have these bins. Check local butchers too if you still have one in your area.
6. Start reading labels
I was shocked to find out how few people do this. You're checking for a few things, especially with canned goods. You want the price per ounce and calories per serving. You would be surprised how many foods look like they have the same amount from the packaging, but are an ounce to several ounces less of food compared to another brand or even the same one. Sometimes they add stuff like sugar and bulkers to make it seem like there's more than there is. It's all on the label. Give it a little shake. You can sometimes tell how much water/sauce/etc vs beans, tuna, whatever is actually in there. Stuff like those pre-sauced tuna packets seem cheap but they're a huge scam when you can just buy the plain can and add the sauce yourself with maybe a few seconds extra effort and get way more food.
7. Go for high-satiety nutritious foods
These are foods that make you feel satisfied and full longer. Luckily a lot of them are cheap as balls too and can bulk up a meal in a healthy way.
Some of these are:
- Potatoes - These are like super foods. They're off the fucking charts when it comes to keeping you feeling full. The skin is also high in potassium. I like to puree mine and add it to stuff like split pea or carrot soups to make them more filling and add up the nutrition.
- Legumes, Lentils, Green Peas, and Beans - These are good for you, have a long shelf life, can make a ton of different foods, and are cheap. (Not high in calories, but that's not what they're specifically for here) Pintos are apparently the highest satiety of the beans.
- Red Meats, white fish - Wild caught fish has higher satiety than red meats, but depending on where you live can be more expensive. Steak, chicken breast, and ham/pork are tops. Bacon is not, sorry.
- Apples and Oranges - They rate the highest for fruit, plus apples in particular can be used in a lot of different meals.
You don't need to get on food stamps. There are places all over that offer free staple foods to people in need, some of them are just grab an go.
- Food Pantries will often ask you for your ID and ask you what your income is. If it's above a certain level, they won't help you. Small town ones sometimes don't ask for proof of income, some do. These are sometimes attached to churches, missions, or general community pantries. The food will not always be top shelf, but you will be fed. Sometimes they get rare treats from local groceries like frozen shrimp and high end desserts. They'll always have fruits, vegetables, and the staples for you to choose from. Yes, you get to pick, but they'll only let you pick certain amounts (1 meat, 1 dairy, 3 carbs, etc.)
- Missions and Churches will often have emergency boxes, no questions asked, filled with staple foods, fresh vegetables, and sometimes even fresh meat.
- There is a church mission thrift store near me, super small population town, that has a section of bread, potatoes, nuts, and a few other odds and ends completely for free that they allow you to take once a day, no questions asked. Find these places, they exist everywhere, they're just poorly advertised. They're your community eagerly there to help you. If you feel bad, give back by volunteering or donating when you have the time and/or money later.
Time is usually the biggest sticker here. However if you have the time, you can gather a lot of wild edibles, fish, or grow your own veggies in the garden. High yield veggies to grow are stuff like green beans. You'll also have to be willing to gut/skin anything you catch. I'm not a snitch, but you probably also want to follow your local hunting and gathering laws. Some licenses can be very expensive, even for locals, so I'm not going to put much info here since it varies wildly between state and country. Seeds are cheap. Gardens don't need the fanciest dirt, our forefathers didn't have that. Your scraps can become compost to feed them if you want. If you don't have a job, this can also give you something fun to do other than laugh at autists on kiwifarms.
10. The Forbidden food
Dumpster diving is a fun petty crime many poor people enjoy. Lots of bakeries will throw out bags of day old bagels and stuff you can nab. Obviously be smart about this, you filthy animal. Sometimes if you go in at the end of the day before closing and look sad, and they aren't a chain, they'll take pity on you and give you a loaf. I'm just mentioning this as an option for either the very desperate or people with more balls than me.
11. Know your Budget, then make a secondary budgetIf you pay attention to your bills, gas prices, etc you can make a pretty good estimate on how much you want to budget for food. This might take you a little while to learn if you're new to making stuff from scratch or caring much about a food budget. What do I mean for the secondary budget? Look at the money you have left over from your bank account. How much extra of that would you be potentially willing to add on top of your budget if there's an insanely good sale on something like meat you can keep for later? Keep that into consideration and don't go over it unless it's an offer you just can't refuse.
Why Do I Need to Cook From Scratch
Let me give you an example.
I love the shit out of perogies. So I'm gonna use those and also Walmart grocery prices because that's where all the poor people shop.
1. This bag of 48 perogies is $10.46.
Yields: 4 dozen perogies
2. This recipe for homemade perogies, as an example
5lbs of potatoes $3.67
1lb brick of sharp cheddar $5.48
5lb bag of All-Purpose Flour $2.24
3lb bag of onions $2.58
1 dozen eggs $2.22
I'm going to assume you have staples like water, salt, and vegetable oil in your house.
Total Cost before tax: $16.19
Yields: 12-16 DOZEN PEROGIES
AND you have shit left over to make more tasty shit, since you're only going to use one of those onions, 6 cups of flour, and 2 of those eggs.
I think you can see which is the better (and healthier) deal here.
All the stuff you like that comes prepackaged, canned, etc? You can do the same thing with. You don't have to go full Little House on the Prairie canning god, but you've got tupperware and a freezer, use it.
The biggest obstacle to you is going to be time investment. If there is a time you would normally just be relaxing, watching tv, playing a game, browsing the farms, double of that time a couple days a week (I take about 1-3 hours of my time, usually just 1 day a week to do this stuff. Sometimes more or less), and bulk make some of your favorites. I mostly do this for stuff like my perogie addiction and large yields of soups, stews, or bread. But I'll also pre-cook meats and freeze them for later too. Sometimes I take this time just to freeze fresh veggies for later.
Some things won't be worth the time investment for you. This is fine, but take it into consideration with everything you shop for now. Pre-plan a little and know what things you can eat a lot of regularly without going insane.
1. This bag of 48 perogies is $10.46.
Yields: 4 dozen perogies
2. This recipe for homemade perogies, as an example
5lbs of potatoes $3.67
1lb brick of sharp cheddar $5.48
5lb bag of All-Purpose Flour $2.24
3lb bag of onions $2.58
1 dozen eggs $2.22
I'm going to assume you have staples like water, salt, and vegetable oil in your house.
Total Cost before tax: $16.19
Yields: 12-16 DOZEN PEROGIES
AND you have shit left over to make more tasty shit, since you're only going to use one of those onions, 6 cups of flour, and 2 of those eggs.
I think you can see which is the better (and healthier) deal here.
All the stuff you like that comes prepackaged, canned, etc? You can do the same thing with. You don't have to go full Little House on the Prairie canning god, but you've got tupperware and a freezer, use it.
The biggest obstacle to you is going to be time investment. If there is a time you would normally just be relaxing, watching tv, playing a game, browsing the farms, double of that time a couple days a week (I take about 1-3 hours of my time, usually just 1 day a week to do this stuff. Sometimes more or less), and bulk make some of your favorites. I mostly do this for stuff like my perogie addiction and large yields of soups, stews, or bread. But I'll also pre-cook meats and freeze them for later too. Sometimes I take this time just to freeze fresh veggies for later.
Some things won't be worth the time investment for you. This is fine, but take it into consideration with everything you shop for now. Pre-plan a little and know what things you can eat a lot of regularly without going insane.
Other Tips and Resources
- Budget Bytes - neat site that calculates recipe costs by yield and portion. Some of it isn't cheap at all and they obviously don't list everything, but it can give you a good starting point and more of an idea of the actual cost of making from scratch vs buying certain items.
- Atomic Shrimp's Limited Budget Challenges - I'm linking his playlist particularly because he shows the creativity and critical thinking you can apply to making meals on a budget. He usually aims for 1 Pound a day challenges for 7 Pound for 7 days so he can buy bulk foods like potatoes. He also goes for calorie and nutrition, sometimes mixing in foraging.
- Ardent Michelle - She does extreme budgets and budget meals almost exclusively. A highlight was a $35 budget, 107 meals for a family of 6 only shopping at Walmart.
- More to be added later
Recipes
To be added to later. Share yours so I can link.
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