Take your calculator and do price per checks. Bulk is not always cheaper and many times I've found the standard smaller version to be less expensive per ounce than the on sale bulk item (eggs, baking soda, dry pasta, and canned tomatoes are common in my area for that).
Also FWIW, lots of grocery store apps have really good weekly deals with their digital coupons. I've scored super cheap fresh produce (enough for a family of four) for less than $5 a week on a regular basis.
Most post secondary schools have small food banks (they also generally don't confirm you're a student).
Plenty of food can be foraged (fish, berries, greens, mushrooms, wild rice)
You can freeze bread when you get it cheap or free.
Buy bulk potato flakes. Super cheap, and great for thickening sauces, stews, or making quick potato soups. Honestly one of my favorite pantry items. Hell, even if you are desperate for a full tummy, hot water and potato flakes will do the job. Add anything that goes on baked potato, and some extra milk/water and you have a soup.
There's one meat I go back and forth with whether its actually a good deal or a giant scam that's used years of marketing and history to trick people.
Spam.
Yes you can keep that shit in a can for literal years, but there are cheaper (and better tasting) meats you can buy and store for a decent amount of time if you know how to store them properly. Plus I swear the price for one can is going up faster then any other meat recently.
There's one meat I go back and forth with whether its actually a good deal or a giant scam that's used years of marketing and history to trick people.
Spam.
Yes you can keep that shit in a can for literal years, but there are cheaper (and better tasting) meats you can buy and store for a decent amount of time if you know how to store them properly. Plus I swear the price for one can is going up faster then any other meat recently.
I've noticed the price has been going up since the Hawaiian Spam sushi roll things started getting popular with the hipsters. I don't think there's a massive demand for it like quinoa since Spam isn't healthy for you. I honestly couldn't recommend it, since if you look at the per pound cost, it's over $4 per pound, almost $5, when you can get stuff like pork and beef for significantly less than that per pound without the massive amount of salt, but still get the calories and fat.
The only positive is the long shelf life, pre-cooked aspect of it, and large amount of calories in a small serving size. So I suppose if you were homeless, it'd be a good way to carry around some calories.
For those just beginning to cook at home, look for some cast iron or carbon steel cookware. These pieces are very versatile and basically indestructible with proper maintenance -- invest a half hour watching videos on how to care for them and they'll be buy-it-for-life purchases. Old cast iron skillets and Dutch ovens are readily available at yard sales and thrift stores, sometimes even given away for free when people mistakenly think a rusted piece is ruined.
I know this won't be an option for many of you due to location, but ethnic grocery stores can offer great savings. Asian and Latin shops have diverse, quality produce and huge bulk rice bags for comparatively cheap. Indian shops are amazing for bulk whole spices and lentils. If you're an open-minded eater you can find all sorts of affordable offal and seafood products at these stores.
I love the sorted food channel and they regularily have budget battles where a hobby cook has unlimited budget and is battling against a chef who has a buget of $ 10-15. The Chef is always cooking amazing food with his small budget and is giving cooking and food saving tips.
For example he cooked an entire christmas dinner with a tiny budget:
Also you should learn which ingredients can be used in multiple ways and dishes.
I didn't know you can put fish sauce into meat dishes to make it taste better and to my surprise it doesn't taste fishy (tried it myself). A giant bottle is cheap and lasts long. Miso can be used for salads & more and tahini enhances the flavor of sweet dishes.
Take your calculator and do price per checks. Bulk is not always cheaper and many times I've found the standard smaller version to be less expensive per ounce than the on sale bulk item (eggs, baking soda, dry pasta, and canned tomatoes are common in my area for that).
Also FWIW, lots of grocery store apps have really good weekly deals with their digital coupons. I've scored super cheap fresh produce (enough for a family of four) for less than $5 a week on a regular basis.
I'm going to disagree with you on the Bulk comment. It depends on where you shop and how you shop.
Again as stated before over 60 grand in savings for not going out to eat since the Coof happened. And I did not take in the reduce cost of travel time nor, wear and tear on the vehicle, nor the cost of using gas for the car. Straight up 60 grand for buying in bulk and cooking.
I have to stand by my actions and data as well as how well I did buying bulk over just going shopping.
Also people forget that buying in bulk now is an inflation hedge for the future.
You also save on gas and time by making fewer visits to the store.
As if many people already forgotten that food was close to around 50% cheaper in 2019 than it is now.
The only thing I can agree with you is to take your calculator as well as in the US... READ THE TAGS ON HOW MANY OUNCES ARE IN A PRODUCT.
More for the non murican kiwis here whole chickens and even bags can yield more meat for less. Learning how to bone out chicken drumsticks is somewhat invaluable good source of protein for very little work, plus the bones can be made into a broth which will give everything extra flavour.
Look for wholesale butchers and direct to public places if you can buy in bulk, the cheaper cuts of meat i.e lamb necks and chuck bones can be also a good option to make basic soups. If you buy meat in bulk try and use it for various meals i.e. a rolled leg of pork can be cut up into sections (remove the skin and cook it seperately with a bit of salt and oil for crackling) you can get a small roast, steaks or diced meat for various dishes.
Pressure cookers are you're best friend and nobody talks about Turbo cookers fast cheap and easy to use and clean, fuck a full sized oven your single these babies will smack out anything in an hour.
You have to do math when trying to save money on food, this includes cooking time and effort - which means a subjective variable on a per-person basis. Don't be a lazyass though, if you're budgeting for food you can't afford to be a lazyss.
While most cooking shit is cheaper than buying takeout or frozen food there are some extraneous examples. Like potato-based side dishes like fries and hashbrowns, I think dehydrated mashed potatoes are a cheap thing now too.
Learn how to make soups. Other people here said you need slow cookers and shit, and here's the second step in that process.
Learn how to handmake basic spices and seasonings yourself. Like how to make powdered sugar/barbecue sauce/teriyaki sauce/etc. on your own. Since some of those sauces are niche and thus will be a waste of money buying in bulk, yet are made using basic ingredients.
Don't give up looking for recipes when they say "1/10th cup of prime vineyard wine from the 1920s" a bunch of food blogging retards have sponsorships to shill bullshit to you. Take finding recipes as a learning experience, and learn the why's of an ingredient is there, and then make your own recipe.
Keep an eye out for the sales cycle and the in season foods when bulk buying food and household goods. I try to check the list from "The ultimate guide to frugal living" every month.
In Season:
• Asparagus
• Bananas
• Beets
• Garlic
• Green beans
• Lettuce
• Mangos, Mushrooms
• Onions and leeks
• Peas
• Pineapple
• Radishes
• Rhubarb
• Small baby potatoes
• Spinach
• Strawberries
On Sale:
• Refrigerators
• Mattresses
• Office furniture
• Mexican food (Cinco de Mayo)
• Grilling food and supplies
• Gym memberships
• Spring clearance clothing
Buy a rice cooker. Bit of an up front investment but rice is cheap and you can serve it with just about anything. Even me buying the more expensive Nishiki it works out to like $0.60 a cup. I make onigiri filled with fish just about every morning, set the cooker the night before and it's ready when I wake up. Use furikake seasonings, I really like shimo fumi and noritomago.
Take your calculator and do price per checks. Bulk is not always cheaper and many times I've found the standard smaller version to be less expensive per ounce than the on sale bulk item (eggs, baking soda, dry pasta, and canned tomatoes are common in my area for that).
Check out your local restaurant supply store. Restaurants need to maximize profits so buying wholesale is often a money saver. To take a slight luxury example: avocados. I grew up with avocado trees in the yard and I like them for breakfast and in mexican soups and tacos. The cheapest I can find them in a regular grocery store this time a year is 2 dollars a piece. At the local restaurant supply store they're 15 for 9 dollars, 60 cents each. Not everything will be cheaper (as someone above said, take your calculator and do the math) and cheaper doesn't do you any good if you buy too much of something and it rots, but I pick up things like 50 pound bags of flour and rice there and they last my family forever.
Learn how to turn leftovers into more meals. It doesn't have to be boring. On Easter I bought a frozen turkey because they were 88 cents a pound and roasted it, later in the week I turned the carcass into broth with all of the vegetable ends I collect from other meals in the freezer with my pressure cooker and used the leftover turkey meat in a coconut curry soup.
Obtain produce seasonally, learn to preserve it and learn how to cook with what's in season because seasonal produce is cheaper. In the late summer I harvest tons of blackberries and turn them into jam and can them, it's a weekend project that lasts us most of the year.
If you have a favorite takeout or restaurant meal that you like, you can learn to cook it as good or better with practice, or at least good enough that you don't miss it. I'm a good ass cook but my sushi isn't as good as a great sushi restaurant which is fine. Still tastes good and we aren't throwing 15 dollars or whatever it costs now down the drain on a single roll.
Edit: A recipe, friends and family beg me to make this and it's cheap if you're an amerimutt, otherwise some ingredients might be too hard to source. I make it in the electric pressure cooker but can easily be adapted to stove or Dutch oven
Pozole
Ingredients:
12 dried guajillo chiles (use any combo of dried chiles really)
3 dried ancho chiles
1 head garlic minced
Kosher salt
4 pounds boneless pork shoulder (or similar) cut into cubes
4 tsp ground cumin
vegetable oil
1 large onion (white or yellow), chopped
8 cups chicken broth (8 cups water + tablespoon of better than boullion if no broth but you should learn to make your own)
2 tbs dried mexican oregano
Small handful of bay leaves (I buy these in huge bags at the Asian market for cheap, add just a few if they're expensive for you)
1 108 oz drained can of white hominy (Mexican aisle of grocery)
Break the stems off the chiles and get rid seeds to taste. The more seeds you keep the spicier it will be, it isn't spicy at all if you remove all of the seeds. Boil in small pot of water until soft, 10-30 minutes. Put chiles + about 1 1/2 cup boiling liquid in blender and blend.
Toss pork in cumin and 1 teaspoon salt; set aside. Heat oil in electric pressure cooker and brown pork in batches, set aside.
Sautee onion until translucent, add garlic and sautee for another minute. Deglaze pan with 1 cup of broth (beer or wine works too, just reduce broth by a cup) and scrape up all browned bits stuck to bottom.
Add back pork and remaining ingredients. Pressure cook at least 45 minutes (cooking time will be much longer on stove or in dutch oven, maybe 2 hours). Season with salt and serve with toppings.
If you only have a tiny freezer and no space for a bigger one, buy a vacuum sealer for your food. It stays fresh in the fridge for way longer than usual & that means less trips to the grocery store. To reduce waste you can buy reusable vacuum bags (but use only the ones that are bpa free). Just wash them and use them again. There are also vacuum containers but they are more expensive (but great for soups, sauces etc.). Of course you can do the same if you have a large freezer because the food can be stored for years.
Here's a nutritionally sound meal that's relatively cheap:
1 pound of tomato purée, 1 cup cream, diced bologna.
Mix in a pot and season (I recommend a stock cube, ~1tsp sugar, dried basil or other herbs , salt, basically any red or brown condiment you have on hand but tomato or bell pepper paste in particular) and bring to a simmer while stirring occasionally. Serve with rice/couscous/bulgur/pasta and any mix of vegetables.
When buying vegetables, be sure to compare the per unit of weight price between fresh and frozen veggies. Frozen ones may be cheaper while nutritionally just as good. "wok mixes" are popular and cheap where I live, and a good way to get some variety.
Dandelions are edible, require very little effort to grow, and they spread quickly. You can have pretty much free dandelion greens as long as weather is good enough for them to grow and you won't damage roots and harvest too many leaves. Leaves can be rather bitter, but blanching or right flavor pairings take care of that. They will let you save up a little bit on leafy greens.
Be careful if you are thinking of going the urban forager route. Dandelions in parks might be sprayed with harsh weedkillers and pesticides.
Chicken feet are cheap, and will make a good stock along with some leftover bones and bits. You can oven roast them beforehand to make more flavorful brown stock.
Avoid grocery shopping (and making important decisions) when hungry. Hunger diminishes our decision making capabilities. It leads people to favor immediate rewards and succumb to cravings. You are more likely to spend too much or to buy something unnecessary when you shop on empty stomach.
Give up sweets and sugary drinks. Save your money for real food, and lower the odds of future medical expenses. Make in-season fruit your go-to for sugar cravings. If you really want to eat sweets, eat them as a rare treat and preferably make your own at home. Same goes for salty snacks. And cut down on alcohol if you drink it outside of special occasions.
Do not waste food. Use as much of what you buy as possible. Regular bread should go into trash only when it's moldy. If it's a bit dry, you can put it in microwave for few seconds and make it more palatable. If it's stale, you can chop it into cubes, season, and bake to make some croutons. If it's completely dried and rock-hard, you can toss it into a blender, food processor, or into a bag and crush it with a rolling pin. That will give you bread crumbs. You can use them to stretch meat in meatballs, sauces, and similar dishes, to thicken sauces, or toast crumbs on a pan with butter to use as garnish and flavoring. Or freeze your bread when it's fresh and thaw slices as you need them.
Think about using all other food that is about to go bad soon. Extra milk that will soon expire can be turned into crepes, pancakes, waffles, quiche, cakes, ice cream, buttermilk, paneer, or ricotta. Or freeze it. If in doubt, you can almost always freeze food for later.
One can of chickpeas can be quickly turned into a filling and healthy meal. All you need to do is rinse them, microwave for 2-5 min to get rid of excess moisture, then sautee them on a pan with some fat, spices, and add chopped vegetables towards the end. Liquid from the chickpea can is called aquafaba and can be used as an egg white substitute. You can combine it with some oil, mustard, and spices to make "mayo"-based aioli to top chickpeas with. Aquafaba is very versatile, it works for anything egg whites do, even for meringues.
Frozen meat is usually less expensive than that from fridge section. Same with veggies and fruit, especially if they are out of season. Powdered milk is less expensive than bottled and lasts much longer.
Consider buying whole chickens or chicken halves. They are usually less expensive per pound than parts and can be easily roasted in the oven on a bed of vegetables and fruits you have leftover. Bones and leftovers can be used to make stock. Something like this recipe is simple and flexible https://web.archive.org/web/20220830211429/https://www.thekitchn.com/viking-chicken-182165. There is a longish wait involved but roasting chicken requires only minimal attention and leftovers will last for the next day or two.
Dried beans are less expensive per unit of weight than canned. The trade-off is that you will have to soak them overnight and cook them yourself. Beans take a while to cook, so it's a good idea to get a pressure cooker or an instant pot. Instant pot and similar electric pressure cookers are idiot proof. The 6qt size costs around $99.00 brand new, much less used. It's worth it in my opinion if you are planning to cook beans or want to save some some time. In addition, it also works as a rice and grain cooker, can replace a slow cooker, can cook one week worth of oatmeal in 15 minutes with zero supervision, cook meat straight out of freezer with only extra minute or two of cooking time, make and reduce stock with minimal supervision, etc. Just make sure that you are actually going to use it before you buy it.
Sardines are cheap and underrated. You can easily turn a 4 oz can of sardines, onion, lemon juice, and tomatoes into a sauce that will go well with pasta. Same goes for anchovies.
- 4.25 oz / 120g of sardines (one small can)
- canned tomatoes, about 14 oz / 400g - any kind will do. If they are whole, crush tomatoes (fork or hands work well) or puree them with an immersion blender if you have one. If you have decent fresh tomatoes, you can use them instead.
- one onion, finely chopped
- one clove of garlic, minced
- about 1/2 tablespoon of butter
- some oil
- salt
- whatever pasta you have
- lemon juice
- optional: some grated parmesan, parmiggiano, or a similar cheese for garnish when serving
- optional: some chopped herbs for extra flavor and garnish
- optional: tomato paste for more flavor
0. Cook pasta as described on the package. Sauce should be enough for four "regular" portions or two large portions if you are active.
1. Warm up a pan on medium heat, pour some oil in, add onion, stir once in a while and let it cook until onion starts becoming translucent and slightly brown. Add a little bit of salt.
2. Toss in garlic, butter, and the can of tomatoes including the liquid. Stir a bit and let sauce reduce to your liking.
3. Open sardines, add them to the sauce. Do not add sardine oil.
4. Stir sardines and break them up so they incorporate into the sauce
5. Squeeze in about one tablespoon of lemon juice. Do not skimp it. Salt to taste.
6. Add optional ingredients and mix them into the sauce.
7. Add pasta, and mix it with sauce.
8. Portion the food, garnish it with cheese and herbs right before serving.
it was implied in the OP, but if anyone hasn't already been doing it, learn how to butcher on your own, don't buy fillets of anything. If possible, go for bigger, fattier cuts of beef. Trim the fat yourself and you can then render them into tallow and save money on cooking oil. Doesn't matter if you do a shitty job at first, you can just make stew or stir fry with scraps if it comes down to it.
You won't notice it immediately, but butchering things yourself saves so much money its insane. Depending on where you live and if you wanna be a real champ, learn to gut fish. It's gross and accidentally cutting the stomach/liver during gutting can make the meat smelly, but it's the most satisfying thing ever.
EDIT: Forgot to say I'm not in the US and I forgot that you can't even get whole chicken or fish if you live in a shithole like New York. Ignore this if your area doesn't have access to whole meats.
