Comments on: Eight Simple Ways To Reduce Food Costs http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/ Financial talk for the rest of us Sat, 16 Feb 2013 01:14:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: lisa http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-188203 lisa Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:49:39 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-188203 it is fairly easy to make dinner if you have a foreman grill.. have used one for 9+ yrs almost nightly. you can put your meat ( that you bought in bulk and broke down into single servings) on the grill and 7 minutes later it’s done. pop sweet potatoes (that you bought at farmer’s market) in the microwave and then some veggies in a steamer wah la… 15 minutes later dinner!! for dessert you make marinated fresh fruit(that you bought at farmers market)and a little whip cream and dessert is served. not too hard and very pleasing to the palet.

]]> By: Rob in Madrid http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-74920 Rob in Madrid Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:33:10 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-74920 Looking at all the comments above Trent I think it’s time you thought about starting a food blog of some kind.

I make bulk meals for the wife and I (no kids) and freeze them into individual portions, that way we always have an instant meal ready and it doesn’t if I’m home or not or feel like something different.

I used to eat out all the time but never do now, but once I got used to making a meal (even something as simple as fried eggs for dinner) I stopped eating out.

Best part about living in Spain, the sun, the worse, the produce. Stuff is horrible real crap shoot if it’s edible. Today bought carrots that were starting to rot and bananas that were so mealy I threw them out. Bought a watermelon that was rotten. Found one stall at the market that is pretty good but expensive. Crazy but the only decent tomatoes are the ones imported from Holland. Everything is sold by the kilo so a decent watermelon runs 10€ ouch.

]]> By: jan http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-71420 jan Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:24:58 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-71420 I definately plan meals around sale items. If whole chickens are 59 cents a pound one week I usually buy 4 or 5 knowing I’ll see it for sale again in a month. Same goes for red meat, pork and chicken (like legs, thighs, quarters or breasts). I buy fresh vegetables and fruits once a week and plan that way. My husband loves fruit of any sort so if watermelon is 6 lbs for a dollar, he’ll probably get two of those, instead of 3 dollars a pound grapes. It seem in the end we are never deprived or repeating constantly the same dishes. I have to make variations of the same ingrediant say chicken: one meal mexican, one italian, one more american. My family is in awe my ability to spot a great deal or flat out not buy something to due to very high cost. I feed
3 to 4 people a month for less than $200 a month.

]]> By: kate http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-69279 kate Mon, 10 Sep 2007 21:36:38 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-69279 meat is expensive! have a vegetarian night or two per week, beans and rice are much cheaper! or, just go veg all together!

]]> By: Saving Diva http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-69264 Saving Diva Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:53:55 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-69264 Great post! I used to spend about $400/month on food. I have my food budget down to $200/month, and I’m working on getting it even lower…I just eat out too much!

]]> By: Elaine http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67852 Elaine Fri, 07 Sep 2007 17:25:24 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67852 Jillian – no, nothing wrong with them in themselves. Except the environmental impact of shipping them 13000 km, plus the apple growers in BC having a hard time selling them, plus the people in NZ being left with crappy apples! I think it’d be better if you had good apples from NZ and I had good apples from BC, yes?

]]> By: plonkee http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67803 plonkee Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:30:21 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67803 I find it difficult to stick to making meals every evening. I can probably manage to make 2 or at most 3 homecooked meals a week, otherwise I just can’t be bothered. I think that I need to accept the way I actually do eat, and try to do that more cost-effectively than I do now.

]]> By: Kim http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67720 Kim Fri, 07 Sep 2007 11:59:33 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67720 Your tips are good as always, but I do believe that the $250 budget for a family of 4 is misleading. It really is only 2 and a half who are eating. My 3 children are older, though still grade school age and eat as much if not more than their parents. I have been utilizing these tips for years and the best I can do is about $800 in a good month.

]]> By: Jodi http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67538 Jodi Fri, 07 Sep 2007 01:13:04 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67538 The whole not impulse buying thing was a lot easier when I wasn’t pregnant.

]]> By: Jillian http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67491 Jillian Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:13:38 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67491 @ Elaine

Nothing wrong with apples from New Zealand! Trust me, you guys get the good ones. You should see the rubbish that we get in the shops here after all the nice produce has been exported.

]]> By: Alex http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67385 Alex Thu, 06 Sep 2007 19:15:37 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67385 Remember The Milk is a good website. But, here’s a shameless plugin to my own Grocery List Maker type of website (it’s free, and much easier to use than RTM). Give it a shot, Trent, and let me know what you think: http://www.shopgetwhat.com

Thanks!

]]> By: Erich http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67369 Erich Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:35:56 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67369 A couple other ways to save time and increase variety during the week:

Traditional Sunday Roasts…leftovers for the rest of the week or use the roast in other preparations. A leftover roast chicken can be turned into tacos / sandwiches / salads.

Fewer menu items…more varieties. Taking the chicken sandwich as an example; you could have a chicken sub, chicken salad, pulled bbq chicken, grilled cheese with chicken. I think of it as a “item matrix”. Change the breads, condiments, and additions (pickles, peppers, onions, etc.) This idea came from Alton Brown’s pouch cooking episode of “Good Eats”
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season7/EA1G08.htm

]]> By: martha in mobile http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67367 martha in mobile Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:27:31 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67367 An additional freezer definitely helps here. Making extra meals and freezing them, buying on-sale items for later use (buy your Christmas Turkey the day after Thanksgiving), and making bulk dry mixes (for muffins and such); these are great uses for a freezer. And when you lose power for a week after a hurricane, you can break out the grill/camp stove and feed the entire neighborhood!

]]> By: Monica http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67351 Monica Thu, 06 Sep 2007 17:47:08 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67351 It’s important to me to cook from scratch every day, even if it wasn’t cheaper (which it definitely is). It’s better for my health to eat less processed stuff, and more foods where I know exactly what I am eating. I am also willing to pay more for my values: avoiding businesses whose practices I disagree with (e.g. Wal-Mart), purchasing locally grown food, buying from farmers’ markets and by-passing the middleman when possible, etc.

]]> By: DrBdan http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67349 DrBdan Thu, 06 Sep 2007 17:41:04 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67349 I’d like to put in a good word for the “How to Cook Everything” cookbook that Trent recommends. I got it for Christmas last year and it is excellent. It has a tonne of useful information and lots of good recipes.

]]> By: Tara http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67344 Tara Thu, 06 Sep 2007 17:26:05 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67344 Just before I read this, I was skimming the list of in-season food to prepare for this weekend’s visit to the Farmer’s Market! I found the list at this great website:
http://www.sustainabletable.org/shop/eatseasonal/

]]> By: Heather http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67337 Heather Thu, 06 Sep 2007 17:05:30 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67337 Super Wal-Mart still price matches, so we cut about 10% off our grocery bill this way. I make a list, go through all the grocery store sale fliers, find the best deals, match them with the coupons I have, and then only have to shop at a single store. Saves lots of gas and time over driving around to pick up the loss leaders from each store.

]]> By: FIRE Finance http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67336 FIRE Finance Thu, 06 Sep 2007 17:00:58 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67336 Nice tips. But for busy professionals with 10 to 12 hours work days and another couple of hours in commute, cooking daily might not be practical. To keep ourselves from eating out, we do some bulk cooking during the weekends from basic staple ingredients (like Trent). But we make it a point to eat organic. And when we do eat out, we follow some rules to keep our bills down (“Tips To Save On Dining or Eating Out! [Click on our name to get to the post - we did not want to leave a link inside the comment]“).From experience we have found that it pays to strike a balance between eating out and cooking for busy people. And also, eating frozen or processed food is cheaper than eating out. The cheapest is to cook on our own.
Great post by Trent. He has covered all the bells and whistles of keeping the food bills down :-D.
Cheers,
FIRE Finance

]]> By: blackliquorish http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67335 blackliquorish Thu, 06 Sep 2007 16:54:55 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67335 dong, you can have a food budget too, just make it for dining out, and keep small stuff at home for everything else. (At home: eggs, frozen veg, frozen staples like ground beef, rice, pasta, small container of milk, plus on-the-go stuff like granola bars and yogurt.) Have a total $ budget for every restaurant meal (e.g. $15) and keep what you order under that. If you go over (like on a special occasion), then a couple of nights at home eating canned organic rice and beans from Whole Foods will make up for it.

]]> By: Jon http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67334 Jon Thu, 06 Sep 2007 16:50:11 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/06/eight-simple-ways-to-reduce-food-costs/#comment-67334 Love this piece, as I love all articles that you do.

Jon

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