Eating Well on a Budget

[digitS']

Want to eat like an Explorer ?

Portable Soup - AtlasObscura

 

[Artichoke Lover]

fast food prices aren't all that great any more. for the same price we paid a few weeks ago for a Whopper, Fish sandwich and a coke we could have bought 3-4 lbs of ground chuck.

I work in a fast food place right now and I agree. The prices are insane. You could buy two days worth of food for the price of most of the combos on our menu. And the ones that are remotely close healthy are by far the most expensive.

 

[Phaedra]

We shared a budget with cats/dogs/(chickens sometimes). For example, I bought a Boston butt (about 2kg), and it cost close to 12 Euros.

I also bought some fresh organs like livers and hearts as they offer necessary nutrients (like Taurine) for raw-fed cats/dogs.

I will keep the best part of the meat for ourselves, in this case, that means the part with balanced lean meat and fat. The too-lean parts or the meat with tendon/membrane will become food for cats/dogs. So they get their portion of pork for four meals in total.

For us, the rest of the pork became 60 pretty big dumplings, and the filling includes ground meat, cabbage, chive, and carrots. 60 dumplings are two meals for we three.

The rest ingredients are from our garden, so the total cost (energy, dumpling wrapper, oil, etc) is about 6~7 Euros for three persons (one meal).

It takes time, but much much better than what I can get from the restaurants in the surrounding, no matter the food quality or expense.

Freezers are my best helpers. Besides the treasure hunt for 50% discounted items, whatever (we need) in a promotion from 25% discount - I will buy bulk (at least 10).

I also learned to extend the growing seasons as I can, greenhouse, hoop tunnel, succession planting, interplanting, etc. Mixing the homegrown and discounted ingredients saves nicely for us from this spring, so we will keep doing it.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

eta: also ethnic grocery stores can be a good source for low cost legumes & spices.

one BIG caveat about that. While the bulk legumes, grains and spices in ethnic stores ARE often a lot cheaper (as are the vegetables), it is VITALLY important that, before using any of them, you spread them out and pick through them for any extraneous matter or insect damages material (rodent turds, as well), as a lot of countries STILL aren't up to the same levels of quality control we are used to in the US, and there CAN be stuff in there that can hurt, or even kill you, if you aren't careful (as someone who built his garden and career on the stuff that gets into those bags, trust me on this)

It also helps to bone up on alternate uses for vegetables if they wind up being past their prime. There are ways to using things like overripe cucumbers (worst case scenario, if they've gotten to the tough stage, slice them in half, scoop out the seeds (and put them away for next year) and puree the rest into cucumber buttermilk soup.

And (this applies mostly to @Zeedman) if you miss a picking of a bitter melon and you find the insides have turned red and slimy. don't toss that stuff, make it into a fruit smoothie or salad (it actually tastes pretty good, and is LOADED with Vitamin A.)

Get sick of your sweetcorn and some of the ears go all the way to fully wrinkly (or you find you have more dried seed than you need) use them in soup, or make pinole.

On the more extreme side, I wonder if another factor is figuring out exactly what you mean by "eating well" Is it enough for you that your food be nutritious enough to keep you healthy, or do you insist it also be as pleasing to your palate as possible. You probably won't have to choose one or the other most of the time, but you could at some point. You can save a great deal of money by deciding that, once you make a dish, that is ALL you are going to eat for each meal until it is totally used up (while still strictly rationing it so you eat no more than you absolutely need at any given time), but you probably won't enjoy it much.

 

[heirloomgal]

...more
5.) Drink up the extra juice that comes with the can. I LOVE pineapple juice, so when we open the can, I drink the juice. I also drink up an extra tomatoes/juice when I am canning, if it won't even fit in a half pint. Good vitamin C, there.
6.) Refridgerate cooled bacon grease. I keep it in my fridge in a sturdy plastic storage container, and use it to make cook pancakes and fry okra.
7.) Recycle used freezer bags. I already gave you an example, but turn them inside out and use a kitchen sponge and dishsoap to clean, rinse and hang inside out on your faucet and let dry out for a day. I use mine to bag up glass/plastic containers where I keep my seeds, as an extra seal. You can label them "Used" and you Will find uses for them. You will discover that are buying storage bags less often.
8.) If you use loose plastic shower curtains, save the old ones for gardening when you have to change it out. They make a great cover for early frosts, and when you have prepped an area and don't want any weed seeds to land and sprout on it. If you want to prune, like a rosebush, something small, you can lay this out to catch what you cut, then dispose of the cuts (as you see fit.)
9.) Buy ANYTHING that you periodically replace when you see a great price. I needed some new ice cube trays. I was at WM and saw 2 packs/$1 and I bought 4 of them, used 2 in my kitchen freezer and stored the other 6 for the future.
10.) Go to store closings and do like in #9. Treat them like an estate sale, looking for bargains.
BUT, recognize when the price isn't great. THAT means that the store is planning on selling their inventory to another vendor. DD's and I discovered that this was what PayLess did with Their inventory when they went under, bc they had their own Brand names of their shoes.
11.) Stores still do their best sales on the last FULL week of every month. I used to take advantage of B1G1 and the other deals, but Now I buy 2x.
12.) Here's something I learned when I was 17yo. Fashion. If some garment is in style and you look so marvelous in it that Everybody comments on it, buy a high quality version of it. You will wear it out.
If you don't look so hot in it, but have to get it Anyway, but it at WM or Meijer or Kohl's and look for a sale and use coupons. You want that thing going threadbare when it goes out of style.
Sweaters rarely go out of style. I am kinda "flat", if you know what That means, and I have bought some very nice Men's sweaters at Jos A. Banks.
13.) EVERYBODY is gonna hate this one. Start on a very long term diet. If you are overweight, like me, it took years to put it on, so take a year to take some of it off.
I am on one and I can tell that my clothes are getting looser. I don't step on a scale, and I have stopped buying treats for myself.
Pretty soon people without resources are gonna be hungry. They will either eat very badly and gain "that COVID 15" all over again, OR, they will be doing without meat every day and probably lose weight.
You DON'T want them to know that you have a freezer full of meat/pantry full of vegetables and pressure canned meals.
16.) Storage for extra food storage containers. I went to WM last week and bought a clear, 3 drawer storage cart. I don't have enough room in my kitchen to store ALL of my food storage containers, and I have bought some very nice ones over the years. So I bought This:

Robot or human?

www.walmart.com

I am keeping mine in an especially nice spot, the closet in my guest bedroom off of the kitchen. My old house has an old laundry door that is below it, I have a nice 3 step stepladder to get Into it, point is, there is No traffic there to break it. I have been filling it with my extras. When I make a turkey I Need big storage. When I make bbq pork, I need freezer storage bc I tried pressure canning it and it turned out yucky, but it makes a nice 4 person meal when defrosted. This one has wheels so I can roll it out to fill, roll it back to store.
You will discover that you won't be running to the store to buy More plastic storage containers right before the holidays bc you'll take care of the ones your have.
17.) When you replace the broken cheapo storage containers that you DO have, buy these, instead:

Arrow Home Products 1.5 pt Stor-Keeper Freezer Storage Containers - 4 pack - 04305 | Blain's Farm & Fleet

Get your Arrow Home Products 1.5 pt Stor-Keeper Freezer Storage Containers - 4 pack - 04305 at Blain's Farm & Fleet. Buy online, choose delivery or in-store pickup. Great prices on Food Storage Containers.

www.farmandfleet.com

These come in quart and pint and I have even found comparables in larger sizes. They are dishwasher safe and they last for YEEEEEAAAAAARRRRRRSSSSS, long after the others went to the trash.


I am doing pretty well bc DD's and I stocked up on a great deal of non perishables, and long lasting perishables.

If calamity arrives @ducks4you, I wanna be roommates with you! I'll survive much longer!

 

[heirloomgal]

there CAN be stuff in there that can hurt, or even kill you, if you aren't careful

At an Ayurvedic health clinic, we found Indian bidi (cigarette) butts in the bags of rice. Regularly.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

At an Ayurvedic health clinic, we found Indian bidi (cigarette) butts in the bags of rice. Regularly.

Well, I would still say that finding that rosary pea (chirmi) in the bag of senna seeds still trumps that. Cigarette butts are disgusting, but you won't kill the entire group of people who use the rice if you miss one. I don't think even the rat turds can do that (by the time the beans have gotten over here, I imagine any rodent turds that got in are quite dry and the vast majority of disease germs they might have carried have long since died. And whatever didn't die in transit would likely perish in the cooking.
There is, of course, also the matter of the hemp seeds I found in there. those are not poisonous, of course (people eat hemp seed on purpose, after all.). But perhaps, in a year or two when it becomes OK in NY for private growing (they say about mid 2024) I may plant them. Not to use, but just to find out if what I found was smoking hemp or industrial hemp seed (with Thailand, it could be either).

 

[flowerbug]

...You can save a great deal of money by deciding that, once you make a dish, that is ALL you are going to eat for each meal until it is totally used up (while still strictly rationing it so you eat no more than you absolutely need at any given time), but you probably won't enjoy it much.

freezing portions of large batches makes it more palatable in that you can have more variety to choose from.

 

[seedcorn]

USA canned foods are allowed a certain amount of mice, excrement, etc. why I hate canned goods in stores. Can’t convince wife of it. Grew up by 2 major label canners.

 

[digitS']

DW has a fresh food addiction. That is certainly a reason for us to be gardening.

Yesterday, her idea was hash browns for breakfast. Certainly, with an egg on top. We will dig some more Yukon Golds, this morning .

This morning, it is oatmeal - she is on an oatmeal kick. ?? I mean there other boxes of cereal on the shelf. Anyway, what about the 5 other patties of hashbrowns? That's why I was thinking about @Dahlia 's Duck Sauce for appropriate dinner use .

I said "fresh," didn't I? Well, that is reflected by the cantaloupe that I'm having with the oatmeal right now. Meanwhile, we have all the melons ripening in the garden with this store-bought cantaloupe on the table. Ha !

She actually bought lettuce yesterday. Okay, I'm sympathetic but it just points to the need to cover our entire 3 backyard beds with, first the hoophouse film and then the bird netting. We are just in too much competition from the House Sparrows here at home.

The late setting out of lettuce in the distant garden may have failed completely. Benjamin Bunny is the likely culprit. Darn that Rabbit! Anyway, it's tough catering to a fresh food addiction but it's likely that we are all trying .

Steve