Thrifty Foodies

Thrifty Foodies know that to be sure you get the most from your grocery dollars you need to do your grocery shopping with a plan.

Recently some friends and I were discussing that teaching “Home Economics or Domestic Science” should be reinstated in schools where it is no longer a part of the curriculum. Learning meal planning and how to shop wisely has saved me thousands of dollars every year and in these times every penny counts.

Spending half an hour a few days before shopping day to walk around the house and check on the supply of staple items (things you use almost daily) and also those odds and ends things like the spice rack and the condiment shelf will save you a fortune in both money and time.

In the past I have wasted so much money buying things I did not really need and forgetting to get the things that were key ingredients to a particular dish I wanted to make. Often I’d have to make a special trip to the more expensive but closer store to grab that one item I overlooked. That one more expensive addition then throws off the per serving cost in a huge way.

Many grocery stores offer Blank Lists broken down by aisle or category, but I prefer to make my list according to store and then the layout of the store. That also helps me to spend less time shopping, and after all time is money.

Of course, everyone has heard “Don’t go shopping when you are hungry” at least once in their life. Remember it! Failing to heed that warning can and will cost you money and time (on the treadmill).

Here are some things I have learned that have saved me a lot of money over the years.

1. Make a general meal plan for the week before you make the grocery list.
2. Set a budget for the week for food and for essentials and stick to it.
3. Know the prices of items you  buy often, in specific stores.
4. Don’t stock up on something just because it’s on sale unless it’s something you use VERY often.
5. Buy family packs of meat even if you are only one or two people and portion it into meals and freeze it.
6. Don’t buy everything in one store unless you have no choice.
7. Don’t assume warehouse stores are less expensive just because they sell bulk quantities.
8. Don’t buy bulk unless you’re going to use bulk!
9. Check packaging and sell by dates on everything!
10. Know the coupon policies of each store where you shop. Some allow coupon stacking and that can save you tons of money.
11. Don’t be afraid to buy “reduced” meat if you will use it or freeze it right away.
12. Carry coolers or at least cool bags and ice packs with you when you shop. Keeping vegetables and fruit temperatures even helps them last longer.
13. Spend the money for some of those Fresh Bag or Green Bags
    they do work. (more on this later)

What do you do with your big kitchen dreams in a teeny-tiny space? It’s not always easy to have a nice dinner when you are constantly juggling food from counter to tray table to sofa to counter again. The truth is, living in the Big Apple ain’t always so easy. Living as a thrifty foodie to make your gourmet meals is a necessity… unless you’re The Donald.

My kitchen… if you can call it a kitchen… measure 9 feet in length. Yes…. 9 feet in length. So I hear you asking me the width. There is none. That 9 feet is from the side of the refrigerator against the wall (2 feet), the width of the stove (20 inches) and the length of the counter (63 inches – 25 of those inches taken up by a sink and a microwave 18 x 13 inches taking up space on the counter). My “working” space is 9 x 18 inches (the space in front of the microwave oven) and 14 x 18 inches (the space between the microwave and the sink). Cooking is more like a juggling act so preparing a big meal requires a lot of planning and organizing.

This is really my kitchen space.

Tiny NYC kitchen

I’m not showing you the rest of the room (which is the living room) as there’s really nothing to see but stuff. When I cook a meal, I usually set up a tray table to move things back and forth. As you can see, there’s not much room but I have prepared 15 dozen cupcakes in the span of a couple days for charity as well as made 20 dozen cookies and other baked goods for holiday gatherings. I would love to have people over for dinner but other than a sofa and a couple folding chairs, there’s no table to sit at. But I digress…

My point is, even with the tiniest of spaces and smallest of budgets, you can eat like a Queen!! Here’s an example: The other day I was wanting to have some roasted chicken. Not having a lot of time shop or roast a whole chicken, I decided to pick up some chicken thighs at my local supermarket. The cost: $5.79 for a package containing 5 good size thighs. For the dish, I purchased an onion and some loose crimini mushrooms (.39 for the onion and 2.15 for the mushrooms). So far, that’s $8.33 for the entire chicken dish. I already had my herbs on hand as well as some chicken broth concentrate. Not including the ingredients already on hand, that comes down to $1.66/serving for a hearty chicken dish.

My thrifty chicken dish!

So you see, nothing is impossible… even in a tiny space.

Growing up in the Midwest, St. Louis to be exact, you get exposed to many ethnic cuisines. Let us not forget that wagon trains and railway tracks went through St. Louis as the country expanded West and some immigrants just had enough travel and stopped there. Let’s just say that St. Louis is ethnically very diverse, or at least it was when I lived there from the early 1960s to the late 1980s.

In those days “The Hill” was called Dago Hill and no one got upset about it (at least I never heard anyone get upset about it). It was the home of authentic Italian restaurants and bakeries. Some of them are still there after many decades in business.

My maternal grandmother was born in St. Louis but raised in Chicago, so Summer vacations with her to visit family and friends meant an obligatory trip to Chinatown there.

Then there’s the area known as Dogtown in St. Louis which is the Irish neighborhood and the German area where Anheuser Busch is located. For those who want to know more about the ethnic history of St. Louis, this is quite interesting (at least it was to me). Peopling of St. Louis

The point is I grew up eating very ethnically diverse cuisine so when I met my mate 22 years ago it seemed logical for me to learn how to make his ethnic cuisine which is Jewish Moroccan food. Although some dishes are similar between the Jews and non-Jews of Morocco many things are unique to the Jewish Moroccans or the technique and seasonings are different.

So the question begs to be answered can one be a thrifty foodie and create authentic (or at least close to it) ethnic dishes and maintain the thrift aspect.If one can, where does one find those authentic ingredients and the utensils and gadgets.

In truth it is actually easier to do it in a thrifty manner than to eat it outside. I’ll give you an example. I’m also beginning to think that eating traditional ethnic cuisines may be the thriftiest of all approaches.

The last few weeks I have had the Asian bug. Never been a sushi eater, and fish is NOT my choice if I have a choice. However, after starting to work on this site with Linda and after all of our discussion and “dinner sharing” on Facebook a pattern developed. We do NOT cook like the average American cooks. Macaroni and Cheese is NOT a main dish in my house. It will NEVER be one! Am I a food snob YES.  But before you get your nickers in a twist let me clear up the confusion you may be feeling. My mother made in my opinion the MOST delicious macaroni and cheese I have EVER eaten and it is a perfect SIDE DISH when made from scratch.

As usual I digress, get used to it.

The next few posts from me will be sharing the stuff I have learned about shopping for those exotic ingredients and making Asian food at home. That means techniques like stir-fry, and chopping all those fancy veggies, and even rolling sushi and making Miso soup from scratch. Now as we go along on this you’ll see both Linda and I often end up cooking nearly the same thing on the same night.

It’s not something we plan, it just happily happens. Linda posted about pan fried noodles a few days ago, and that set me hankering for them and so I went in search of ingredients here in Orlando. The whole noodle thing and after getting the hang of sushi rolling set me off in the direction of Soba and Udon which are Japanese noodles. So I got carried away trying those out with various types of noodles and toppings and accompaniments.

I have a lot of the gadgetry because I have the space to have it, and I am a bargain stumbler. I stumble onto bargains for EXACTLY what I want very close the the time I decide I want it.  But Linda doesn’t have the space so she often makes do with something else. So that’s where our thrifty line blurs as she mentions in her “Why a Thrifty Foodie” post.

The obvious answer is “why not?!”

I have always been thrifty… or at least tried to be.  I dislike over-spending on anything.  I find it strange people would pay more just because… as if money didn’t represent anything.  I can understand paying more for the convenience factor.  Sometimes it’s easier to spend a little more and save my time and energy.  So the thrifty bottom line, at least for me, isn’t just about money… Thriftiness incorporates money, time, energy, value, convenience and a willingness to learn new skills along with need vs desire as in “I need to eat everyday… I may desire a steak but I don’t need it.”

These days I need to be a little more thrifty than usual.  My hours have been cut back so there is less coming in this year as well as a contract not being renewed after June… so my income will be reduced even further.  Instead of freaking out over it all – I’ve decided to make a game of it.  Exactly how thrifty can I be and still eat well, including splurging on more expensive food now and then??

I’ve all but eliminated spending money on eating out but there are times when it becomes necessary due to my work schedule, last minute changes and energy. Thriftiness can be accomplished… even if you live in the Big Apple where rents are astronomical and grocery prices can vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood; sometimes I have to schlep across town to find what I’m looking for…. on public transportation.  The amount of groceries (number of items and weight) needs to be factored in – I can only buy as much as I can carry and I have no room to store food.   Health and nutrition is at the top of the list.  I’m very concerned about food safety, how it’s processed and getting the highest quality for the buck.  I try to buy organic and from the local greenmarket as much as possible but sometimes I just don’t have the time to get there.

Thriftiness incorporates learning to make some of my favorite dishes from various restaurants at home.  I will surf the internet and look through cookbooks reading up on techniques and ingredients and then come up with my own recipe depending on the taste I’m after.  A few days ago, I decided to try making chicken with pan-fried noodles – something I had never done.  There’s a wonderful Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn (Pacificana)… amazing food but it’s a little pricey and it takes a while to get out there.  They make the best pan-fried noodles on the planet.  I’ve only caught the tail end of dim sum so i have to go back at some point for the whole kit and caboodle.

The dish I made at home came very close to the restaurant version.  My cost: $3 – $4 per serving… restaurant version: $9.95 per dish.  To top it off, I purchased my chicken and veggies at Whole Foods.  I don’t own a wok but a large stainless-steel skillet did just fine and I used a cast iron skillet to pan-fry the noodles.  I was so good, I had to go back for seconds.

Very thrifty indeed!

Chicken with Pan-Fried Noodles

Welcome to the first day of Thrifty Foodies adventures.

Alright so this is not the first adventure either Linda or I have ever had but it is our first shared adventure and we also wish to invite you to come along and share it with us as well.

We’re off and running with a few words about who we are and where the vision for this site first began.

Visit our About Us page and then stop on over and get to know Linda and Lori as individuals.