I recently asked members of my Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group “How are people affording groceries these days?” which solicited a lot of information. The group is chock full of creative thinkers and people’s answers confirmed this theory. I’m including a few here as there might be some “hack” that you hadn’t considered.
PLEASE add your own hacks in comments section below as there’s nothing better than top notch collective problem solving. Food prices are a definite problem right now and it’s going to take some ingenuity to pull through without depleting our bank accounts.
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There are a lot of ways we save on food. I look for meat priced at $2.99/lb or lower. We usually do ground turkey, ground beef, chicken breasts or thighs, and pork. Tonight we did crispy baked chicken thighs (99 cents per pound) with roasted potatoes and honey glazed carrots. The dinner cost less than $10, I brought some to my neighbor, and we have a lot left over. Potatoes and carrots are usually priced low. We almost never buy packaged foods (chips, cookies, cereal). I made homemade granola this week. We bought a huge box of microwave popcorn from Costco and that’s what we have if we want a crunchy snack. We don’t buy drinks. I make 1-2 gallons of iced tea per week (using 2-4 regular tea bags per gallon). I get a lot of tea from Buy Nothing, but I also buy boxes of 100 bags for the best price I can find. Today’s tea is 2 black and 2 lemon teabags. Yummy and refreshing. I got the app Too Good To Go. We use that for treats, like a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts for $7 instead of around $20. We don’t feel like we’re deprived. There are so many good things to cook at home for way less than a restaurant.
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We’ve stopped eating meat of any kind. We’re saving a lot of money, our cholesterol has dropped, and we’ve lost weight. Win win win!
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That picture there is an invitation to make a gallon of yogurt in the instapot, at least it is in our house. So much cheaper than buying yogurt itself. Other ideas, our garden gets bigger every year. That helps with the budget too.
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Ground turkey or chicken is expensive. Chicken runs $2.99 and up per lb. We bought a 3-lb rotisserie chicken last week for $5 and made at least 10 portions of it. Broth, and gravy made with broth, and creamed chicken breast in gravy served over potatoes and carrots.
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Dry legumes. They’re so much cheaper than canned. Using only the veggies that are cheap. Using up everything in the fridge and pantry. Bigger garden.
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Yeah, I’m always looking for ways to eat frugally, too. So I shop sales & store brands, I know 101 ways to eat beans n rice and all kinds of salads. I focus on healthy dense high-fiber meals. Organic is expensive so I buy only organic salad greens, fruit, & vegs. I eat mostly fish and meat as a side in small portions. I waste nothing. And food co-ops are a good idea. Frances M Lappe’ “Diet for a Small Planet” & Adelle Davis, “Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit…”, got me started. Eatting low on the food-chain.
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We adapt. <– I love this comment!
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I stopped making a full meal list until I go to the Amish Discount, to see what they have and then I buy meat on sale or discount. Last month I bought 4 (15-lb) bags for $3.99. I also shop Aldi and local butcher shop when they have bundles.
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Partly due to cost and partly due to special diets that make eating out difficult, we’ve almost completely stopped going to restaurants (pre-pandemic and an additional dietary change, it was the 3 of us in a restaurant probably 3x a month and my husband sometimes bought lunch in the cafeteria at work which used to be reasonably priced, but has gone up quite a bit). The restaurant budget has gone to groceries and other expenses.
I shop at a store with rummage bins that frequently include food in damaged but safe packaging or are close to the best by date. It also frequently has gluten-free foods (I’m gluten-free). Today’s food items were a jug of gluten-free soy sauce 4 times the volume of my usual brand at lower price than one bottle and a favorite brand of jelly beans at 60% off regular per pound price (junk food, but something we enjoy). Last week it was buckwheat flour (gluten free) at about 65% off regular retail and which I will turn into gluten-free waffles.
One location of a local grocery store chain 1 to a few times a week posts a really great deal on their Facebook page. Frequently they are close to date, but we have freezer space. My last deal was frozen tilapia at $2.50 per pound instead of their usual $4.50 per pound and due to one of the dietary needs in our family we eat fish frequently, including tonight.
Making my own convenience foods/planning leftovers: I cook a big batch of something we enjoy that will freeze well and freeze in single portions or family meal size portions. This weekend it was boneless skinless chicken breast on sale for 70 cents per pound less than what’s usually the best deal I can find and ground turkey turned into burgers and loose crumbles (all 3 are enjoyed in hubby’s sack lunch or by son when he comes home after a late shift–he texts when he leaves work and it’s ready when he gets here), previously it was a batch of flavored rice, and before that it was lentil soup. I got 4 matching silicone trays with lids that each hold 4 portions and the tray is marked at both 4 and 8 oz.–these were $1.50 per tray at the rummage bin store, but silicone muffin pans, which one might already have, may work for others.
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I’ve had a garden since the 80’s. When we lived in an upstairs duplex I had a garden at my parents place. Been gardening here since 1988. One of the first things we planted were fruit trees and I am busy dealing with a glut of plums and lots of apples. Making jams, and will try my hand at apple pectin and maybe cider and cider vinegar. My usuals are canned apple pie filling, frozen apple pies and canned tomato sauce. Been picking blackberries and freezing them for my husband who usually buys frozen berries to eat on his morning cereal. Freezing grated zucchini and also baking muffins, breads to freeze. Been freezing beans and peas and expecting a bumper crop of yellow beans later so will be canning those. I harvested my dry beans they are drying on a tray in the sun room to be sealed into jars later. Front porch is covered in onions and garlic curing as well as some early pumpkins. When I bake I always use skim milk powder in place of milk. We buy what ever is on clearance or in bulk and don’t eat a lot of meat. We’ve raised the occasional beef, pork or poultry in the past but with only two of us now, it’s too much. My husband watches the sales and stocks up. If we go out for a meal we use coupons or go on days when there are discounts. We have two freezers and a cold room to store food. We also make our own wine.
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Salvage stores for all the interesting parts of a meal. Around here, ours are run by people who don’t seem to have a taste for international foods, so we can get some really fun stuff super cheap, because they just want it to move off the shelf. Yogurt that is getting close to dates is a dollar for a quart. Everybody has a garden, so we eat a whole lot of zucchini, cucumbers, and tomatoes in the summer. We buy beef and pork by the half or quarter, directly from the farmer. We do have an Aldi, which is a huge blessing, and every couple months I make a run to the big city to get whatever is on special at Trader Joe’s. The biggest thing, is that I no longer have teenagers in the house! So if I buy it or cook for them, it is a gift, rather than a regular monthly expenditure of hundreds of dollars.
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I’ve been challenging myself on the grocery front since the beginning of June. It’s been “interesting.” I ended up shopping by myself on Fridays at Kroger. I could spend as much time as I wanted with my calculator, hit the loss leaders, and clearance items, AND save at least $1/gallon of gas by taking advantage of the 4x gas rewards. I’ve slowly been switching my shopping strategy to fresh stuff and stocking up weekly rather than buying everything as we need. With the kids back to school, I’m focusing on making food for them to take to school instead of buying. It’s a bit of a challenge with my 16 year old son who is weight lifting and requires lots of protein.
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Been a lot healthier buying and cooking local produce in season from scratch with basics and have joined an online foraging group – I amazed what fresh food there is around for free and how it does not contain all the additives and chemicals, let alone plastic that the food in supermarkets has.
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We cook in bulk and eat the leftovers all week. Saved a ton of money. Currently eating green pepper casserole this week.
{ 43 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t buy any red meat or pork. I don’t eat it and won’t cook it. If my family really wants a burger, they can go elsewhere.
I started shopping restaurant supply on Instacart on Covid lockdown. while I don’t buy 50 pounds of flour or anything, I do find a lot of the prices on sauces and cheese and tofu are better than I can find elsewhere.
When I cook, I make enough for leftovers always and sometimes for the freezer.
I buy rotisserie chicken at Costco and freeze the carcass for soup stock. I also freeze odds and ends of veggies for the same reason.
There’s a restaurant supply store not too far from me, but I’ve only gone a few times as there was no one option that I need to buy in such quantity.
We have a big garden here in central Maine. We harvested 309 bulbs of organic garlic. I bring garlic to friends and family and they are very grateful! We cold store crops as well and can still harvest kale and Brussels Sprouts in the winter and snow. I cook and enjoy it. Mostly plant based meals . When I serve dinner I tell DH “ this would cost $18.99 out”…
We have no salvage and 1 small Asian store but that does not carry vegetables. So it can be a challenge. Kids are out of the house but when they were little used to call the drips and drabs a smorgasbord . Made it seem fancier than it was.
Loving reading the group’s ideas.
Katy could you possibly do a recipe post every so often? I know there’s lots of creative ideas we should all be enjoying. Thanks!
It’s certainly harder when you don’t have so many grocery shopping options. I’m very lucky here in Portland to have multiple choices, as no one store will consistent’y have lower prices.
My husband now has to eat gluten-free, which is more expensive but also puts most restaurants off limits.
I shop at our local grocery store for a few items (it issues good coupons and marks down meats), pick up a lot of non-perishables at my favorite clearance store, and buy a lot of stuff at Aldi. Aldi is particularly good for gluten-free items.
Leftovers get portioned up for freezer and eaten for lunches. I grocery shop with a list, repackage sale meats into smaller portions to freeze (we don’t eat as much now that we are older), inventory the freezer often so that nothing is lost in there, and have a container garden that has kept us in cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, cucumbers and herbs all summer.
Even with using every trick I can think of, the cost of groceries is now 30% higher than it was a couple of years ago. So adapting is absolutely necessary: simple meals, no food waste, and changing how we shop are essential.
Adapting is absolutely necessary! Roll with the punches more than ever.
My daughter had to eat gluten free and I’ve found that it’s easier to switch what I’m serving instead of finding a gluten-free version. Think corn tortillas instead of gluten-free flour tortillas or fruit crisps with oatmeal topping instead of a gluten-free pie crust.
Breadmachine (garage sale or goodwill of course), bulk yeast and bread flour (Sams, Costco) Most of the time I use the dough feature and a simple french bread recipe. I shape and bake in more normal shaped loaves. However, I often set it outside and let it bake too so I don’t have to heat up my oven. I recently purchased baguette pans from amazon, and my teen boys love when I make them fancy loaves (jalepeno & cheddar, Everything Bagel, Italian & parm).
We also purchase meat from local farmers, I’m concious about repurposing “bits and bobs” for new creations, and utilize venison harvested in season.
Although good old fashioned menu planning probably saves us more than anything.
I’m not a menu planner, but I always keep standard ingredients on hand that can be transformed into multiple different meals.
For me, especially since I am at a job where I am making less money AND I need to put on a new roof:
1) Homemade meals. I work from home, but I have been guilty of getting so into work that I order out meals to not cook for the day. Ouch! Instead, I deleted the apps and simply stocked up. My most expensive lunch and dinner has been $3/serving, and I will need to stick to that for upcoming year to pay off my roofing loan.
2) Taking advantage of all the excess fruit that is in season now. I have no shame in gleaning, and I am using leftover jars to store homemade jam (that I will then store in the freezer) from all the figs & plums in the neighborhood.
3) My garden- I am so very fortunate to have a veggie patch! I will have greens until January with the annual hard winter ice storms, and I have started a second planting for salads in late October. Am also drying and using my herbs for tea!
4) Overstock and seconds- I have no problem biking to the overstock, close dated and seconds stores. Many of the produce items that are close dated are still fresh, just needs to be consumed in the next few days, and there things are just fine, just the cans are slightly dented or warped. The other week I save so much money- I was able to get $60 of food for $25.
5) No waste- I mean, no waste. Veggie scraps are put into stock fixings, my old miso was turned into misozake with my collard greens, and wimpy look veggies are turned into green juice.
Less income + a big looming expense? I’m so sorry.
Edie, I would love to hear more about how you’re pickling in miso (assuming you are talking about misozuke?). I do basic lactoferments and have been fiddling semi-successfully with rice bran fermentation (GF, can’t use wheat), and tempeh in the Instant Pot, but am a little nervous about miso because of the moisture level variation.
Also trying to learn to make a successful Nepali gundruk – another option for tough greens like cauliflower leaves and older kale/collards because they’re wilted first (which also helps if you’re processing a lot of greens at once – just spread them out and worry about it later). So much flavor…
We switched to a vegetarian diet two years ago for ethical reasons, but it’s also much, much cheaper. As in, despite the high cost of living and another adult moving into our home around the same time, our grocery bill has not increased at all. It’s also cheaper for my health. Recent heart scans and colonoscopy gave me a clean bill of health as I enter my fifties.
We also don’t drink alcohol. We gave that up over a decade ago and our finances saw an immediate improvement.
In terms of how we save money on our food budget:
– cook most meals at Home. I make my own broth, yoghurt, soups, and when I have time, bread and tortillas.
– set an eating out budget and stick to it
– grow a garden including fruit trees, and preserve a lot. We never buy pickles, jams, salsas, or sauces with the exception of hot sauce, which I have to admit is my weakness. We have a full fridge shelf of those.
– check catalogues and then buy from the supermarket that has the best overall deal. We do an online shop over a couple of days and review our cart for impulse buys before we order, and never pay more than $4 for delivery
– check out the local discount supermarket once a month.
Such smart choices! I rarely drink alcohol as I consider it a waste of money, plus I really don’t the fuzzy woozy feeling that others seem to find enjoyable.
Only a few things to add:
1. We have gotten too old to hunt or fish for salmon or halibut. However, we can still grow a garden and have hunters and fisher persons who are happy to trade for the vegetables and raspberries from the garden. Part of the garden is devoted to things I know will be appreciated in trade—like this week I harvested 30 pounds of carrots for a person who is giving me fish. This goes on all summer and we end up with plenty of fish protein in the freezer for winter. Sometimes the food I trade is prepared from the garden, like pesto for a guy who really loves it. Even with the nuts, it is cheaper to make than buying wild caught salmon.
2. We let people know we will take food they don’t want, for whatever reason. Usually going on trips or don’t like the taste of something they bought 10 of or it is past sell by date and they refuse to eat beyond that. Usually it is something we will be happy to use, but if not I pass it on to someone who will.
3. In the winter we have soup at least three times a week, often the same soup but with a different homemade bread. The soups ensure that we have no waste because we freeze small amounts of leftovers and add them to soups.
4. We let our family know we would prefer gifts of edibles or toilet paper rather than things that will add to our possessions. (This was how I became a slave to Reese’s popcorn. Bags full of popcorn drizzles with peanut butter and chocolate. I refuse to buy it, but I have an accommodating sister.)
5. We eat weeds. In salads and as half the basil in pesto, as well as in soups and casseroles. There are three that grow well in our yard, and are easy for me to identify, so I stick to those. Especially in early spring, when weeds are out but the garden is not producing yet, weeds feature heavily in our meals. Many weeds are higher in nutrients than farmed greens.
6. The only pop we buy is for gas station mystery shops that require the purchase. Otherwise it is iced tea, although I do spend the money for real lemons. I am happy with cheap tea. I used to buy A LOT of soda until I realized how much it was costing me.
7. Potlucks for meetings are popular where we live. If I attend one, I grab things that others are not willing to take home. I am not a pig about it but I am always amazed at how folks are offered free food in the form of leftovers and they turn them down.
Being willing to take food others won’t is a great tip. Both my next door neighbors give us perishables before going on long trips, as they know I’m happy to make sure it doesn’t go to waste.
As I get older and eat less overall, I am careful to only serve myself as much as I really want to eat, and if there is extra, put it away for something else tomorrow. A sandwich doesn’t have to be two slices of bread and filling– sometimes open face is enough.
Because most restaurants near me use those horrible giant Styrofoam dishes for doggie bags, I have started bringing my own old Chinese food container if I don’t think I can eat a whole meal. (I picked that idea up from someone in the commentariat!).
Something random I read once about depression and wartime eating: When eating buttered bread, flip it in your mouth so the butter (or jam or whatever topping) is close to your tongue rather than on the roof of your mouth. More taste that way.
I do this trick when eating toast or bagels — so much more flavor!
We live in a town of 6500. The only store is a super Walmart. We few mark downs except bakery items. We shop Costco for most non edibles: detergent, personal care, tp, dog food, olive oil
We do get beef from a local ranch. We’ve substituted most ground beef with either ground chicken, ground pork or ground turkey. We will go into “town” for meats and produce. Breakfast is usually protein bars or shakes. We very seldom eat 3 meals a day. No sodas or bottled drinks
Drinking water or home brewed tea is such a money saver!
1. I eat twice a day to keep my weight down. It also saves $. The husband eats more. He can make a lunch from leftovers.
2. I frequently find unwanted canned goods, dried beans, cleaning supplies when I do urban foraging. If the cans are slightly out of date we eat the food. If the cans are in date I donate them to a homeless shelter. I recently cooked some dried pinto beans 1 yr out of date. They were tender & good. (I know old beans can be tough & hard or impossible to soften.) We Texans like our pinto beans.
3. I don’t buy beef as it is too expensive.
4. I make soups which is a cheap meal. However, in the Texas heat soup is not too appetizing right now.
5. I learned from online frugal blogs to make my own chx, veg broth. No need to buy it.
I know many people cringe at the thought of eating foraged food. If it’s in a can or a wrapper & I can tell the date then I’m good. My husband eats whatever I prepare & does not ask too many questions.
I too appreciate a man who doesn’t ask too many questions about where some of our food comes from. I got a ten pound jug of honey that a friend found while removing invasive weeds from a local park.
This is amazing!
I’m curious about the canned food that you find. Are you dumpster diving?
The grocery store dumpsters in my city are locked. I find canned goods in the Dol Gen dumpster sometimes. Lat evening my hubby found 6 cans of Vienna sausages in the Dol Gen dumpster. There are several apt. complexes on the way to my gym. When people move sometimes, they put their canned goods in a box outside the dumpster for others to take. Last week when I was taking my long evening walk, I saw a plastic tub on a curb (in my neighborhood) with around 20 cans of unexpired veggies. I went back with my car to get them. Food we don’t like I give to those on a street corner asking for food.
So smart!
* With teens in the house trying to stay within the grocery budget is a constant battle that I mostly lose. Due to very physical summer jobs (son) and iron deficiency (daughter) they need to eat a lot of meat. Myself and DH eat less meat, if we are having meat and veg for dinner we just have a smaller portion of meat and more of the veg.
I cook up at least 2 meat free dinners each week but they are not very popular with the teens.
* As myself and DH eat a gluten and milk free diet (milk free only – we eat yoghurt, cheese etc, so fermented milk products) staples like pasta and milk alternatives are not cheap. I make my own gluten free oat bread though which saves us a lot of money.
* We can only grow herbs and a very small amount of veg and fruit due to renting but still try to increase this every year.
* I love foraging and am always on the lookout for free wild food but there is not too much of it to be gotten apart from wild blackberries, elderberries and sorrel.
* I use young nettles instead of spinach in spring.
* I use my cooking skills to make food presents – energy balls are a big hit as all my friends have become health conscious, too! I also often make stews or soup for bereaved/struggling friends.
* My son recently brought home a big box of (short dated) upmarket raw fruit and nut bars from work. They are way too sweet for our liking (the main ingredients are dates and raisins). So I chopped some of them up and threw them into a food processor together with oats, peanut butter, unsweetened cocoa powder and some coconut oil to make energy balls. They turned out really well! I have lots more packets to go so we will have energy balls for a month at least.
* I do sometimes get free food through the Lidl app that is not suitable for our diet and refused by the teens. I give those to a friend who in turn gives us the free food items she gets and does not use.
* For health and environmental reasons I would LOVE to buy organic produce only but unfortunately I have not won the lottery yet and have to stick to buying some organic veg and fruit. I also buy organic milk for the teens.
* I get gifted free eggs occasionally from a friend that has hens.
* I routinely check the special offer and reduced produce sections first before starting to get the things on my list – often changing dinner plans to include the discounted produce.
* I mostly shop in Lidl and Aldi.
* Along with our diet change to gluten and milk free myself and DH have also given up refined sugar/honey/sweeteners etc which means no more chocolate and other treats for us. Surprisingly, this has saved us less than expected. I guess junk food is cheap!
GK, that’s a great list. I especially love how you turned the overly sweet fruit and nut bars into less sweet energy balls.
Thanks! So happy to have found a way to use up all those bars 🙂
As a long-time vegetarian who used to have iron issues, we have found that cooking in cast iron (especially high acid foods like tomato sauce) really increases iron in my diet.
I cook in cast iron almost exclusively and never have an issue with my iron levels, even though I rarely eat beef.
Roberta, I am a vegan for 3 yrs and I was wondering why I am not anemic, but I also cook in cast iron, so that might be the answer!
That’s a great tip, thank you! We only have one cast iron casserole dish (all my other pans and pots are stainless steel) but I might just use the casserole dish more.
RE: Feeding teens — I remember a mom friend with older kids once telling me that she sometimes takes her big teen sons to an all you can eat buffet instead of cooking dinner as it was cheaper than cooking from scratch as her kids were BIG eaters.
I did occasionally take my teenagers to a nearby all you can eat Indian buffet around 3 P.M. and let them fill their starving bellies. I don’t think that it saved us that much money, but it meant that I didn’t have to cook dinner that night.
My mother in law once told me how her active teen sons would start to eat from the grocery bags before she could unload the bags! She also asked if my husband (her son) still ate an entire bunch of bananas at one time. My answer was “no.”
When my kids were small (and picky eaters) I never believed what people say about teenagers eating like horses but by god, they do eat A LOT. And that eating from the grocery bag scenario? Yes indeed, that’s happening in our house, too 🙂
I don’t keep it a secret from friends and family that I hate food waste. We are often gifted with fresh ingredients that will spoil while family leave for a vacation, bulk buys that friends decided they didn’t like or contents of fridges/freezers when an appliance gives out and can’t be repaired quickly. Sharing back jam and baked goodies made with the excess keeps it from feeling too one-sided and is a fun way to say Thank you!
We also do the typical, sale cycle shopping, less meat, cook from scratch and a backyard garden.
I use alot of online recipes as well as my cookbooks. It can be tough to figure out what to bring to potlucks, as I am vegan, and I want to bring food that everyone else will also enjoy. So my tip is that I google new recipes and try them all the time, when I want to make recipes that use up what I have. That, and I stock up on dried beans when they are on sale, and store the bags in plastic bins or buckets so they do not get nibbled on by little visitors when they are in the basement.”
Today I will soak some baby lima beans so that I can make Lima Bean salad with Sumac Spices tomorrow, to bring somewhere on Saturday.
As other readers have mentioned, I accept free vegetables gladly, and figure out wyas to cook them.
I shop at Aldi and Costco for staples. I also take advantage of the discount grocery outlet that has close to sell by date or past the sell by date items. I also do the rewards at Meijer. I eat a lot of vegetarian and vegan meals and rarely buy meat. Also lately I’ve been more careful about how much I buy ahead as far as perishables. I might have in my head that I’m going to make a couple different meals but with just two of us by the time we eat all the leftovers and I go to make the next meal the veggies or whatever have gone bad. So it means more grocery trips but at least I’m throwing less away.
We bought our house in 200o and have had a garden since the first year. Prior to that I gardened at my parent’s house with my dad. I dehydrate, freeze, can, and barter. I just got my first 3 spaghetti squash(first year growing) and I have 18 more almost ready so I will be eating a lot of that this winter. I haven’t bought parsley, basil, thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, cilantro, dill or coriander seeds in years thanks to my thrift store dehydrator. I just bartered figs for a zucchini with a friend.
I shop sales, loss leaders, clearance, day old bakery, reduced produce and meat mangers mark downs . My kids, mom, sisters, cousins and several friends all look out for each other. If we see amazing prices we get it or call or text to see who wants what. I got 350 bottles of hand soap several years ago for 10¢ each after everyone told me what they wanted. I dropped 50 to the church food bank too.
I use Ibotta, Fetch and Receipt Hog for rebates. I email companies for coupons. I download all electric coupons from stores I shop. I have lots of stores apps to get discounts. I use CVS Extra bucks towards nuts when there is nothing I need. I sign up for lots of birthday freebies which there are a lot for food.
Hubby makes his own red wine with his dad. We drink mostly water from our fridge that is filtered. I make iced tea, lemonade or raspberry lemonade at home. There is always a container of it in the fridge. I make pitchers of it when we have company. I do buy seltzer occasionally for Hubby by the can. It lasts longer. We cook 95 % of our food. I haven’t learned how to make M&Ms yet.
I have a well stocked pantry and a chest freezer. Meals are made by what we have. I have a small whiteboard on the front of the fridge. It lists what needs to be eaten. I make our dogs food so lots of scraps like carrot and potato peels go to her. Everything else that can goes into my compost bin.
People know we are happy to take any food. I have helped clean out several friend’s parent’s homes and am happy to take old bags of beans and pasta for example. We volunteer often at our church and before anything is thrown out they ask if we want it. I have been absent from events and offered food too. Once people know you will take it they are happy to give it to you instead of throwing it away. I have recently started doing mystery shopping. So far I have only been reimbursed for the food but I am happy with that. It allows us some extras.
I love foraging. There are local mulberry and raspberry plants all over my neighborhood. My oldest daughter has wild black berries by her that we have picked with her.
I dumpster dive at our local college every year. I cannot tell you how much unopened food gets tossed. I pass on whatever we won’t eat and I do tell them where I get it from. I dumpster dive when stores close too. It is amazing. I need to find a buddy to do it more with.
I house sit friend’s houses when they are away. I cat and dog sit. I babysit for friend’s and family. I won’t take money but I will happily take food.
Hubbies work always has food at the office. They get bagels 2x a week and an assortment of muffins and pastries 1x a week. They always have fruit, oatmeal, granola, cereal, breakfast bars, coffee, tea, chips, bottled drinks, nuts and candy. They order lunch or dinner depending on meetings. Every Friday Hubby takes whatever is headed to the trash like spotted bananas. He helps do the quarterly meeting cooking so he is usually sent home with lots of extra food. We help with the company picnic cleanup and are always sent home with burgers, hotdogs, buns, salad, ice cream, etc. They even do bonus dinners out with your spouse for going above and beyond which Hubby has won several times.
For my birthday and holidays when people ask what I want I usually say food or gift cards to restaurants.
You are an urban forager par excellence! My meager efforts pale in comparison. However, since I have been semi-retired, I have more time for my hobby.
Time is one of the things I have so I try to use it wisely. I stopped working last year for some health reasons. I am looking for another part time caregiver job but haven’t found a good fit yet.
I’m 67 now, and live alone since I lost my daughter to cancer almost 4 years ago. Grief and loneliness can really change the way one eats. I usually eat a bowl of Cheerios with almond milk in the morning, and maybe some yogurt around noon, then I might eat something around 7, mostly to take my night meds. I have GERD, Hyadel hernia, and Barrett’s. I also have a digestive system that over reacts to emotions, so eating is more of a chore than a pleasure. I am careful and use grocery lists on my phone, using the app of my stores. I get a Butcher Box delivery twice a year, and when I signed up there were promotions, so I receive 3 lbs of free chicken wings, 3 lbs of chicken drumsticks, and 1 pound of bacon every time I order, for life. I give the drumsticks to my sister, because I don’t like them; my daughter did: she was the reason for ordering the box in the first place. I have a small air fryer, and the last time I used my range was to bake Christmas cookies last December. I grew up poor, so being frugal is 2nd nature, my mom and I used to shop at dented can stores together, and I still shop at thrift stores for clothes. I also sew, and do alterations for people, earning a little cash once in a while.
I think my car eats better than I do, LOL.
A year ago our household changed up from 3 adults/2 generations to 4 adults, 2 teens, 2 kids/4 generations. We’ve been adapting a lot, but I’m especially thankful I already had a well stocked pantry and we plan a menu each week. The teens have worked at restaurants, so they often eat dinner at their work, and I cook nearly all of our meals at home. We shop almost exclusively at Winco and the Franz bakery outlet and save a lot that way, but we only go every 2-3 week to Winco because it’s 30 minutes away, and Franz is even further, so only when we’re in that area for appointments. This week was my annual big shopping for a year’s supply of baking ingredients…flour, sugar, brown sugar, powder sugar, chocolate chips, pumpkin puree, evaporated milk, coconut, etc These items are always on sale for the lowest prices right now so I stock up and am ready for holiday, events and baking at any time!
This post is brimming with great advice! I don’t want to be repetitive, but here’s some things I’ve been doing:
– Planting indoor herbs (cilantro, mint and green onions). The green onions were just from cuts from the store and those are the only ones I’ve harvested yet.
– I’m slowly but surely cooking more from scratch. Yogurt, bread, and recently tried mayo.
– I try to shop as much of the sales as I can (particularly the healthy foods).
– I go to a discount store.
– We eat a lot of simple foods (potatoes, rice, pasta, and more rice, we eat a lot of rice).