Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Right now, before switching to vegan/vegetarian completely, I have $100 a week to feed a family of 4 and that includes all cleaning and beauty supplies, plus any treats away from the house. Sometimes I spend $60 and sometimes the full $100 depending on the week. I shop with a list, coupons, and a calculator. Yes, I am 31 and I carry a calculater, just like my mom did back in the day. I have yet to see another shopper out there using one. That does not include dog food or beef. We are still in transition and husband just gave me the okay to ditch the beef.

This week will be the true test because I have made a menu for the week out of vegan meals, but I don't have any pantry staples other then some of the spices. I am good at making stuff instead of getting processed stuff so that should make a difference.

My partner and I spend a fortune on food. Today we decided to make a list of all of our bulk beans, pasta, grains, etc and found that we have stockpiled so much! Seriously, we could eat for months as long as we had fresh produce and spices. So our new plan is to build all of our meals around what we have and this will most definitely cut down on our bill. It's going to be a fun challenge!

enmommy, my coupon binder has a calculator built in. :-)
(and if i don't have my binder, i always have the calculator app on my ipod.)

I use my phone to calculate the unit value of everything.

So for breakfast if name brand cereal is on sale I can check to see if it's still cheaper to get no-name or if something like oatmeal is even cheaper still (it usually is, but sometimes the thought of more oatmeal makes me loco).

I also found this thread which is pretty brilliant: What do you make when you 'have no food'?. Because I always definitely have food, food enough for a few weeks in fact but I'm guilty of going shopping anyway.

This is something I want to try.

Would some of you who can do $20/week or even $50-60/week for one person be willing to share what your typical shopping list looks like? That would be really helpful information for me in trying to think about how or whether I could reduce my spending by that much.

It takes a lot of creativity to do it and keep it a healthy diet, and time to prepare. Mostly I eat beans, rice, bready things, noodles and potatoes in various forms, most fresh produce isn't cheap where I live. Its easy to slip into the habit of eating junk too because very cheap things like a large bag of french fries are easy to make quickly, whereas the more healthy dishes take some time. I keep telling myself to invest in a slow cooker!

I also don't go on big grocery trips, but go once a week, since its easier to figure out how to ration what I got.

Another thing I found after going from a decent wage to a really lousy wage was that I'd buy a lot of things, eat the most delicious/quick things first and then have nothing left but food I'm not THAT crazy about or need prep time, so disciplining myself not to do that to save myself from making a second trip when the stuff I love is gone.

I do that *ALL* of the time!!! I buy stuff that I need to make recipes and then some other delicious tid-bits and then I realize that i really should be cooking instead of eating field roast sandwiches........I need another few hours in every day!

I also spend an embarrassing amount on groceries (1 adult). I try to keep it to 70 a week, but maaaaaan, it's summer and I can eat my weight in fresh fruit. I've also started to use the "don't go shopping until you've used everything, no really everything" rule and it kind of helps (but fruit!).

Yes, fresh fruit. I'm going to the pick-your-own strawberry farm this weekend and I plan to spend $20+ on fresh strawberries - some for pies, some for freezer jam, and some for eatin'. FRESH FRUIT.

Here's my recent grocery list (well, what I came home with, not just what was on the list), which came to $80 for 2 people but will be supplemented with some stuff I already have in the pantry/freezer (my guess is that it shakes out to $50/person/week):



That was kind of a random shopping trip as I had a few staples that I was running out of (I definitely don't go through $20 in nuts on a weekly basis), but otherwise it was mostly stuff for the next week or so. I planned to make miso soup, sloppy lentils, mushroom stroganoff, and kik alicha (Ethiopian split peas), with leftovers for lunches and dinners. I am planning to make extra to freeze too. We have lots of dried beans, rice and pasta in the pantry to go with these things. We probably don't eat enough fruits and veggies, but I'd consider this one of my more healthy and balanced shopping trips. My spouse can't eat any raw fruit and veggies, so the lettuce, bananas, and apples are just for me.

This has probably already been mentioned, but the cost of groceries varies hugely regionally. Prices can be almost double in New York compared to here (mid sized Midwest city). I should also say I buy conventional produce, as that can make a big difference.

Yesterday I bought:
2lbs Carrots 2.49$
1 bag of coleslaw mix 0.99$ (not really worth it, but I wanted a lazy salad helper)*
1 lb washed baby spinach 1.99$*
3 heads of garlic 1.27$
Bananas 0.87$
Inari tofu pouches 5.99$ (super expensive, but the student deal get 10% off only works if you spend 25$+ which I wound up not doing anyway)

*on sale not regular price

My total was 15.47$. But the key is I keep my pantry super well stocked at all times so I only ever need one or two things like fresh produce for next few weeks. Other cheap options I didn't get because I don't currently have room for them turnip were 0.49$ lbs, cabbage was 0.89$, red cabbage was even less. Bread was on sale 3/4.59$ which if I was not feeling up to baking I might have grabbed.

Pay attention to sales and I stock up when things like flour, potatoes, yeast, sugar, oil etc go on sale. If I see something on special in the flyers that I normally don't get due to price, I'll pick it up.

So with my groceries I'm making Dilly Stew (ppk blog) as I have flour, oil, spices, cooked white beans etc at home and I'm leaving out the celery because I don't feel it's worth 3$ when I have celery seed.

Spinach/coleslaw made into a light salad that I ate with some canned gravy+bangers and mash (same white beans + vital wheat gluten made ppk sausages). I'll make Vegan Dad hoggies later and do a sausage with coleslaw and some indian spinach/potatoes. Try to cook some sushi rice to make inari and maybe spicy tempeh rolls as I have a large block of frozen tempeh in the freezer.

Breakfast has been smoothies with spinach, bananas, cocoa, water (turns out I should have bought soymilk, so back to the store I go), oats and flax. But even in terms of soy milk I get the crappy stuff or store brand because I don't drink it straight up but cook with it. Although sometimes rice/almond milk is on sale so i'll grab that instead. Plus some stuff that expires this week or is approaching it's sell by date can get you 50% off if you talk to someone or shop somewhere that auto marks it down.

I normally get 10lbs bags of potatoes, flour etc to keep on hand. When sugar goes on sale for 0.99$ a bag i buy 2-3, flour normally goes on sale every 5 weeks or so. If you have something like bulk barn they do weekly flyers/sales and have student/elderly discount days. I never manage to remember those, but I could save a lot considering most of my trips there to stock up (every 2-3 months) is 100+$. They do dry bulk goods, dry beans, coffee, teas, spices etc and they have a surprisingly large offer of organics.

So called 'ethnic' markets are also sweet spots. the indian grocery has curry paste/bulk spices/bulk legumes which are all fantastic quality. Asian stores offer fresh tofu for far cheaper, although I haven't gotten any in a while due to pricing.

substituting for what you have can suck at times ( i really like celery in soups etc, but celery seed taste the same and won't rot in my crisper) but overall if it gives me more $ and less stress about bills I'm ok with it. Plus sometime I'll make something when celery is on sale and it'll be twice as good.

I'm going to see if I can track down the author of The Cheap Vegan Zine. I know she closed down her press and stopped distributing but the zine is so inspirational. If she's ok with it, I'll copy it and share it here.

Bless California, right now strawberries are super cheap and often two-for-one, because the stores want to sell them before they go bad. Strawberries have joined apples as my cheap go-to fruit. :'D Just in time, too - my boyfriend and I want to move out, which means scrounging money for a deposit on a new place. My mom gave me her old slow cooker so it looks like a steady diet of beans, rice, and farmer's market veggies for the next few months.

When I spent ~$25/week, I bought:

Whatever was cheap at the farmer's market or co-op - usually some combination of potatoes, greens, carrots, garlic, and fruits like apples
Pasta
Dried beans
White rice
Cheap frozen vegetables to supplement
Spices in bulk at the co-op (so I would spend maybe a dollar on spices each week)
Bulk oatmeal
If soy/almond/rice milk was on sale, I would buy it, otherwise I wouldn't
Coffee/tea

Every so often I'd buy things like soy sauce in a big container. My diet was very basic, but healthy. Sometimes I would splurge and get a cheap bottle of red wine or a bar of dark chocolate to supplement.

I have all my grocery lists in my email so these are past ones:

-garlic
-nut yeast
-avocado (1)
-strawberries
-bananas (4)
-soy creamer
-almond milk
-small sourdough rolls
-kale
-veggie sausage or tofurkey
-almonds
-tofu
-broccoli
-tomato
-blackberries
-sweet potato
-refried beans
-1 red pepper
-1 yellow onion
-hummus
-crackers
-tofu
-mushrooms
-cereal

another one
navy beans
-earth balance
-yellow onion
-celery
-2 bay leaf
-1 medium white potato
-curly pasta
-purple or red or white mini potatoes (enough for 1 1/2 cups)
-large portobella muushroom
-shittake mushrooms (tiny bit, 1/2 a cup)
-nutritional yeast
-field roast spicy chipotle vegan sausage
-1 1/4 cups leeks
-firm tofu
-strawberries
-bananas
-bread
-kale
-avocado
-oranges
-almond milk
-2 tomatoes
-greens
-dishwasher soap
-1 red pepper
-2 small lemons or 2 really big
-coco powder
-sugar
-flour

this is an example of meals I outlined and what I needed:

14 meals: (without breakfast. 7 lunches 7 dinners)
4 times hippie loaf (dinner lunch dinner lunch)
2 times nachos (dinner dinner)
2 times hummus wraps (lunch lunch)
2 times chicpea tacos (dinner lunch)
1 times vegetarian delight (dinner)
1 time fajitas (dinner)

need:
nutritional yeast
wraps
bread
peppers (2)
tomatoes (5) for basic side salads
salsa
lettuce
spinach
hummus
black beans
chic peas
carrots (baby)
mushrooms
fruit
cucumber
plastic baggies
soy chorizo

This is EXACTLY the way my grocery shopping/consumption goes. Same kinds of dishes made, same style of eating all the good things first and just having boring food left.
I have a food budget of 50 dollars a week, but I have been going way over and cutting into my savings ever since I started at the college I'm at. My savings are practically non-existent now, so I am attempting to reign in my food needs.
The biggest expense of mine is fresh fruit. I love fruit and always get it when the prices seem good, but it adds up fast. Nectarines, grapes, plums, and berries are my favorites. And honeydew and pineapple. These cost me the most.
I always buy carrots, onions, broccoli, and several kinds of potatoes at the store.
For canned stuff, I get giant cans of V8 to use as soup broth, and tons of beans (mainly red kidney beans for soup and chickpeas).

My food habits are weird, in that once I find something easy to make and tasty, I make that until I never want to eat it again.
All winter long, I made the same soup. I never got sick of it. Now that it's summer, I've been roasting chickpeas with broccoli and eating that with pasta, which is cheap and awesome and not that time consuming.

I always get a loaf of sliced bread, and a loaf of ciabatta for soup and garlic bread, and I enjoy buying big tubs of soy yogurt for breakfast and snacks. Those are the things I buy every time, and then I get distracted and buy all kinds of vegan convenience food, like egg rolls and burritos from Trader Joe's.

I really find that I can eat really yummy food on a small budget. just make a really delicious soup or stew or something for dinner. I don't know those are my favorite and they are cheap so it works out well haha. and i love sandwiches. and cereal with fruit for breakfast.

Oh yeah, last month I figured out how to make my own tortillas and it was so easy and cheap I hate myself now for spending four bucks for six tortillas every week.

Which recipe did you use? They are soo cheap to make and super expensive in store but so far I'm not 100% happy with the ones I've been making.

I am trying to cut down going to the grocery store to 2 times a week (instead of 4). I think my big issue is buying random crepe - like fruit snacks or yummy smelling body soap...This week is good so far. We are also learning to eat leftovers more.

This one: http://www.grouprecipes.com/1603/whole- ... illas.html

Ok so I spent about $65 on veggies and fruit at the market for the week (It was a backpack and two large grocery bags full, fairly standard - most of which I will eat as the boyfriend only eats produce when it is served to him). Spent about $30 on the bf's lunch meat and cheese. from my estimate of 170/week off my credit and debit cards that leaves about $75 that is unaccounted for. Bread will be an obvious $5-10, and almond milk/orange juice another probably $10, but that still leaves $55 that is unaccounted for! I mean, I could see myself eating $55 worth of potato chips, french fries, and coffee in a week but I really don't want to believe that's where my money is going.

I'm really considering walking around with a little notebook and jotting down my purchases.

Ugh, as I try to get better, I'm actually getting worse! I don't stockpile bulk grains or beans, because between my roommate and I, there just isn't enough space in the teensy pantry. (The bf lives here too, but he only eats what's served to him, cereal, and fruit!) Last week I spent $100 at the farmer's market, and we've eaten nearly all of it 5 days later... I mean breakfast around here is like a banana, a peach, a handful of strawberries, and some non-dairy yogurt with granola and hemp seeds and we've both been sick and thus eating fruit like crazy all day long! I think for 2 people we spend between $75- 100 at the farmer's market and $20- $100 at whole foods every week! (But, that includes all body care and cleaning stuff...) Obviously when we run out of soy sauce, almond butter, etc. those weeks are big spenders... But, I don't know if I could live on a diet that didn't cost me this much in produce. And, I live in CA where it's cheap, organic and always in season :/ We're really not buying convenience food or snacks either, the occasional bag of chips and jar of 365 salsa aside... I feel like this is a total first world problem, but I could definitely stand to spend less. Maybe we just eat a lot? When we spend this much we definitely do eat ALL of our meals at home that week, so at least there's that.

Chances are, you can't really get your grocery prices down that much if you are eating a ton of produce. Fresh produce is relatively expensive, even if you are eating seasonally and getting good prices. It is a lot cheaper, but not necessarily healthier, to eat lots of grains and beans.