(Not So) Frugal Groceries
Posted by Victoria | Filed under Victoria
Grocery budgeting is one of the hardest parts of my efforts to be frugal. Apart from rent, it is by far what I spend the most money on in a month, the area I find hardest to cut back on, the one I can always make excuses for, and the one where I have the most discretion. My rent is fixed, my internet and phone are fixed (and I am pretty good about extraneous long distance charges), and I have been trying to put money for planned expenses such as work clothing and trips.
By virtue of not going to book stores, Canadian Tire, Lee Valley, flower shops, stationers, handicrafters’ fairs, farmers’ markets, or any of the other places I tend to spend money except when I actually plan ahead to buy something, I have more or less managed to rein in my spending in those areas. I can usually avoid the liquor store. I’m rarely tempted to get take out, and I don’t go out all that often, so it stays a treat.
But when it comes to the grocery store . . . I am weak.
I eat pretty healthily, in that I don’t like much junk food except ice cream. However, I really like good food. I love fine cheese, and fancy olives, and imported British pickled onions. I have a longing for unusual condiments, for fig spread and onion chutney and morello cherry jam and Portuguese hot sauce. (And Jamaican, bought after reading one of Gail’s recipes.) I have more kinds of black tea than most cafés, including several dedicated tea houses. I love charcuterie and good bread and very good cookies and expensive crackers. I buy spices I’ve merely heard of — juniper berries (I’m not sure how you tell when the ones on garden shrubs are ripe, so I’ve never picked them.) — Aleppo pepper — Za’atar — Powdered galangal root. Oh, all sorts of things. Rose water. Pomegranate molasses. Elderflower cordial. More cheese.
I can easilyconvince myself to buy these things by inviting people over. I love having people over to eat, I love extending hospitality, I enjoy cooking and I’m not too bad at it. But — as I said, this is my weakness. It’s one thing to do this once in a while, for a party that’s been budgeted in advance, for a friend visiting from out of town just for a little while, for a special occasion. Eating well is an important part of my life, for the cheer of the soul and the body, but it’s still something that’s worth being a little less extravagant about. If I made pots of money — of course! It’s another thing to splurge on these small pleasures when I have a bigger goal I’m working towards.
Getting the CSA weekly box of vegetables and fruit, and bi-weekly meat, has meant that I am not going to lose out on good fresh produce. Since starting the box I’ve been very good about not buying meat otherwise — though I have bought some frozen shrimp (on sale), as I like to have it in the freezer — and generally I’ve been managing with those vegetables through the week. It’s the rest that I have to watch for: dairy and staples and those pesky specialties.
I have made a resolution to eat out my cupboards. Not just of things like tinned tomatoes or tuna or beans, all of which I have, but all these partial jars of spices, of jams and pickles, and especially of tea. I’m planning on moving next summer, and I don’t want to have very much of anything left to dump on my friends (delightful as it was to receive spices and pickling salt and sugar cubes from mine who moved this summer).
Most importantly, I am going to stop going to the grocery store — which is about three minutes’ walk away and the quickest route downtown lies through it — when I’m bored. I’ll make do with what I get in my box, what I have in pantry and in my fridge, and only when it’s truly necessary — when I’m out of all kinds of mustard, not just the one I like best — will I replace it. This isn’t just sticking to the perimeter for fresh things. This means wholesale change of habits.
I’m hoping this will help me trim my grocery budget considerably this fall, which I will be able to put into savings to my Europe trip (where I will learn to make a lot of the foods I now buy), and encourage my ingenuity in the kitchen. The great cuisines of the world arose out of people making do with lack, after all. If I want to be a good cook, I should do likewise. That’s the reward of frugal grocery shopping I’m hoping for, anyway.
Working on finishing up a PhD in Medieval Studies, what Victoria really wants to do is walk around the world and write books. Twenty-nine and single, Victoria lives in Halifax and is trying to balance work and life.
August 3, 2012 at 7:54 am
Victoria, you are a woman after my own heart. Our cupboards must bear an uncanny resemblance to each other. In the trade, when people use up what is in their pantry (love that word) versus add more food, they call it ‘cupboard clearance’. I am trying my own version of the temptation resistance you write about. My 4 kinds of pepper, 4 kinds of salt and 6 kinds of vinegar know exactly what you are talking about!
August 3, 2012 at 8:03 am
The problem is it’s so easy to justify having cool food on hand! It makes life more interesting! It’s not really all that expensive! It’s healthier than going out! But — it’s still unnecessary expense when we have other goals.
For some reason I’m pretty good with salts and vinegar — or I was thinking I was as I read your reply, then realised: no, I definitely have four kinds of vinegar and three kinds of salt, too. Ah, well. “Cupboard clearance” it is this fall!
(I have been doing the same with notecards. Four months and I still haven’t needed to buy any . . .)
August 3, 2012 at 10:41 am
This is one reason that I became a consultant for Epicure Selections. I was buying a lot of product anyway, and was always trying new dips and sauces and combinations. Now at least, I get my spices and sauces for the salesperson discount.
Every spring I go on a cupboard and freezer clearing bender. Use up the half full jars in the fridge, the mystery foil-wrapped bundles in the freezer, the soups that i have made over the winter, etc. Expired stuff gets tossed. Freezer burned stuff goes into compost. Any gift food not opened and not expired goes to the food bank (if I havent touched it all year, I am unlikely to). It’s a fun challenge to try to come up with recipe combinations using random ingredients like fig balsamic, feta cheese and leftover turkey. Lemon chicken soup? No problem. Cherry and mango smoothie? Unexpected but yummy (the cherry kind of dominated).
August 6, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Food is one area where I do not make serious efforts to economize. That being said, I avoid prepared foods and what I eat is largely determined by what’s on sale – I find that gives me good seasonal variety and the low prices are just a bonus.
Also, staples are so inexpensive that I can buy what I like, even if it’s not the cheapest. There’s no reason not to eat the best pasta or rice – even at double or triple the price it’s just pennies extra per serving.
August 19, 2012 at 10:06 am
I started a health revolution (not a diet!) that involves eating lots more fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, even in the summer when things are in season it is easy to spend hundreds to feed one person for a month. Part of me wants to save money and go back to eating cheap pastas and frozen pizzas like I used to but the other part of me understands that this is an investment in my health instead. That being said, I wish there were coupons available for fresh stuff instead of all the packed junk so I could save some of my hard earned cash.