frugal low-carbing

Well, I do low-carb cheaply, but hubby does not low-carb at all, so the
post is only partially about low-carbing frugally.

I am *extremely* cheap when I shop. I went shopping today as a matter
of fact. I shop about every 10-12 days or so.

Here's where I went...

Store #1 (Karn's). This store is on the other side of Carlisle from
me. So I don't go there every time, only if they have sales that make
it worthwhile as it's about 15 minutes away and there has to be deals
worth the gas for me to go there. They had whole pork loins for
$1.38/lb, so it was a no-brainer to go today.

Store #2 (Weis) and store #3 (Giant). These stores are in Carlisle. I
live about 4 miles from Carlisle, so hit these stores nearly every
time, but sometimes just one or the other.

Store #4 (Shurfine) - This is on my way home, on this side of Carlisle,
so often in the regular rotation too.

I also go to Aldi's about every 2 months or so. It's a good half hour
away, in either Harribsurg or Chambersburg, so I only go when I have an
errand in either place. Aldi's has really, really good prices on a lot
of stuff... I have cases of canned fruit for hubby and get most of his
junk food there and most of my non-food products like aluminum foil,
toilet paper, etc. But I didn't do Aldi's today.

What I bought today...

a whole pork loin - cut into 2 huge roasts and 27 chops
4 quarts heavy cream
pack of Mission low-carb tortillas
4 green bell peppers
1 honeydew melon
5 lbs zucchini
1.5 lbs yellow summer squash
2 Bartlett pears
7 lbs vidalia onions (for canning - I make a great sweet onion relish)
2 cucumbers
3 tomatoes
4 large packs of batteries
1/2 lb catnip (for... the cats, of course!)
2 12-packs of soda (for hubby to take on the road)
2 2-liters of diet sode
2 boxes of saltine crackers
3 lbs red bell peppers
1/2 watermelon
head of Boston lettuce
head of radicchio
3 large cartons of cottage cheese
2 loaves of whole wheat bread (for hubby... was buy one, get one free)
8 boxes Pasta Roni (for my sister-in-law, apparently they can't get the
same flavors in Canada... also on sale buy one, get one free)
lb of baby bella mushrooms
container of sour cream
bulk package of dried parsley
pack of baby carrots (for hubby to take on the road)
marked-down easter cake from the bakery (in the freezer for hubby)
container of Parmesan cheese
2 12-packs of off-brand Pop Tarts (hubby loves them for some
inexplicable reason)

Most of these items were on sale. I stock up at sales. We have a
freezer, huge pantry, root cellar, etc. My overall goal is to buy
everything on sale. I don't always make it, some stuff never goes on
sale, and sometimes in spite of all my planning and organizing, we run
out of something critical.

I spent $111 today. I'll probably wind up spending around $250 total
this month on food, including all the meals my husband eats on the road
(he's a truck driver), eating out and pet food.

I send frozen meals with hubby that he can reheat in an electric
lunchbox thingy (ham and scalloped potatoes, roast and mashed potatoes
with mixed veggies, hamburger/cabbage stiryfry, chicken & rice, etc.).
I also can other meals for him too (chili, split pea soup, baked beans,
etc). He generally only eats one actual meal a day, and otherwise
snacks. I send some junk food, about half store-bought stuff and half
home-baked stuff. But I send a lot of "good" snacks he can eat when
driving - carrots, fruit, nuts, raisins, crackers, trail mix, etc. And
I usually send sandwich fixings too. He probably eats better than 90%
of the drivers out there - both healtheir and yummier.

My daughter doesn't live here, but nearby. She is young and poor...
and therefore sometimes does her "grocery shopping" at my house when
she's broke. She takes piles of stuff out of here semi-regularly.

We've got enough pork for the next 4 months easy. In fact, my freezer
is entirely full of meat after putting the loin in, about a year's
worth overall - I bought a whole beef round a month or so ago, a whole
ham the month before that and 40 lbs of chicken a few months earlier -
plus there's random stuff bought on sale in smaller quantities: italian
sausage, polish sausage, smoked sausage, breakfast sausage, ground
chuck, corned beef, mozzarella, cheddar, colby, monterey jack, about 10
packs of various frozen veggies, couple packs of ravioli, lunch meats,
butter, etc.

My pantry is a bunch of shelves 8 foot high by 8 foot wide by 4 foot
deep. It's always full. Home-canned pickles, relishes, soups, beans,
broths and meats fill probably half of it. There's a good bit of
home-dehydrated foods too, though they don't take up any space to speak
of - lotsa food in little space: carrots, swiss chard,tomatoes, celery,
onions, garlic, etc. The rest is store-bought stuff: cases of
peaches, pears, pineapple, pumpkin, peanut butter, black olives and
spaghetti sauce; dried goods like pasta, dried beans and peas, whole
grains of all sorts, crackers; bottles of various wines, vinegars and
oils; canned meats; condiments (soy sauce, salad dressings, mayo,
aspartame, etc.); and bulk baking supplies of every imaginable sort.

My root cellar is low... we finished the piles of cabbage I got on sale
around St. Patrick's Day had lots of corned beef and cabbage,
hamburger/cabbage stirfry and cole slaw for a while. There's only
maybe 10 lbs each of potatoes and onions in there. I'll replenish from
the garden shortly.

I also have giant containers of dry goods on top of my fridge: nuts,
chocolate and butterscotch chips, oatmeal, soft wheatm hard wheat,
other grains, powdered milk, etc. Most of these are replenished from
giant buckets on my porch cause I buy in bulk.

Since the garden will be producing soon, my costs will be cut in half.
In summer, it only costs me around $100-150/month to feed us rather
than the extravagant $250/month I spend in winter. Sugar snap peas and
lettuces will be ready shortly...

We eat out rarely. Sometimes, hubby will have a break in town, but
have to deliver nearby before coming home, so we'll meet at a truckstop
for dinner, share a shower, and watch a movie in the truck. And I take
my daughter out to lunch or dinner maybe once a month or so.

But... even including the cost of eating out, gardening supplies, food
for the cats (one of which drinks half of the cream I buy!) and chicken
feed, I average under $200/month year round to feed us.

Tonight, I had to wrap the meat to freeze when I got home. I also cut
up a lot of the fruit and veggies ahead of time so I can make salads
fast. I'm lazy, so stuff will go bad unless it's prepped right away.
If it's prepped, I munch on veggies all day...

I plan my meals based on produce because everything else will keep.
Plus, frankly, produce is what I most like, most crave, most think
about when it comes to food. I'll pick the protein based on what goes
with the produce.

My breakfasts for the next 10 days or so will be cottage cheese and
melon. I have a big batch of turkey salad in the fridge, so along with
the garden salad ingredients, that will be my lunches for a while.

Over the next week or so... I'll bake and freeze a couple butterscotch
zucchini cakes for hubby, can up some sugar-free onion relish (I love
the stuff with sausage), fry up a mess of bell peppers with onion and
garlic with some Italian sausage out of the freezer, steam a bunch of
zucchini and yellow squash with herbs with a thick ham slice, probably
do quiche with the mushrooms and some mozzarella cheese (as the hens
are laying like crazy and I've got a lot of eggs here).

I don't cook daily. I keep a lot of foods like ricotta, cottage cheese
and yogurt around. I always have protein powder and fixings for a fast
snack/meal. I keep fresh produce already cut up so salads and such are
easy. For actual cooked meals, I cook when I'm in the mood to cook,
usually cook 2 or 3 meals at once, and then nuke when I'm in the mood
to eat.
So... there's nothing to do for breakfast or lunch, and often dinner,
but open containers, and usually if dinner is more complex, it just
involves nuking.

There's prep work, of course, but I consider that leisure time rather
than work. Tonight, while I was chopping melons and veggies and
wrapping meat, I was watching the latest arrival from Netflix. Usually
when I'm working in the kitchen, I have a DVD or audiobook going - I
don't like just sitting and watching/listening. I cook when I feel
like it, not because I have to. Actual meals take about 2 minutes to
prepare here.

But you do have to *like* cooking and baking to be this frugal.

You also have to like the "game" of doing it on the cheap. I don't
bother with coupons - they're almost always for name-brand prepared
foods that cost too much even on sale. I just browse the ads that come
in the mail and hit several stores and mostly buy loss-leader items.
And I buy a few things in bulk - sometimes at the health food store
downtown and sometimes online. I once figured it out and concluded I
"earn" around $40/hour for the time I spend planning and doing my
shopping this way. But it's not just about saivngs, it's about the
"score" of hauling home a giant pile of food for the elast amount of
money possible. I get real satisfaction from that.

While I raise a good bit of food, it is definetly not work at ALL.
Gardening is *absolutely* leisure time for me. I should count
gardening costs under entertainment... or therapy... rather than as a
food cost.

Looking at the Medifast site due to Caorl Ann's post got me thinking
about all this. They want like $300 to sell one month's worth of food
for a diabetic... for *one* person... and you still have to make a
meat-and-veggie meal every day on your own dime on top of that. So
that $300 didn't even cover one person's food for a month since you
still have to buy groceries! I feed me and my husband full-time, my
daughter part-time, four cats, 6 hens and maintain over a year's worth
of food storage here for significantly less than what they charge for a
*partial* diet for one person!

What a great racket the weight-loss industry is. You get to charge
people *more* money for *less* food. Really, when you think about
it... that's what all these programs do... sell you a safe
"weight-loss" portion of food at an outrageous price. It's sort of the
opposite of an all-you-can-eat-buffet... it's an all-we-can-charge
method of selling food.

Wow....I read that!

One thing is for sure, Jackie, you are NOT lazy!

I'm impressed. Even the thought of doing this make my head spin! My answer
is to eat simple and shop as much as possible at Sams. Of course, I'm only
one person here.


wrote:
:: Well, I do low-carb cheaply, but hubby does not low-carb at all, so
:: the post is only partially about low-carbing frugally.
::

On 22 Apr 2006 00:17:05 -0700, wrote:

I am *extremely* cheap when I shop. I went shopping today as a matter
of fact. I shop about every 10-12 days or so.

Great post, Jackie!

I'm with you on the coupons. The only ones I ever use are for toilet
paper, pet food, soy milk, and occasionally toiletries. But I usually
wait to use them until the item is already on sale.

I did my shopping last night. Like you, I tend to rotate between a
number of stores in the area. I look over the flyers, but tend to base
where I shop on where I'm going that day, so I can combine a trip.

I wish I had all your storage space! I have to shop weekly, or more
often, because at the moment I have a teensy fridge, small amount of
freezer and pantry space. I'm getting ready to move, though, and when
that happens I can get a larger fridge/freezer and set up lots of
pantry space. That really helps in taking advantage of the specials.
And I'll have space for a kitchen garden, too, which not only saves
money, but gives you the best tasting produce available.

Last night I got a big pack of Perdue chicken leg quarters for
$.59/lb. Tomorrow I'll put most of them in my Nesco slow-cooker along
with a little water and herbs, onion, carrot, and celery.Chicken legs
absolutely delicious cooked this way, and the bit of broth is a great
sauce or soup base. I chill it and take the chicken fat layer off the
top - it's wonderful for sauteeing. I don't remove any of the skin
till after cooking, so I get that fat rendered off.

Being flexible and buying what is on special really does cut way, way
down on my spending. I can easily spend twice as much, or even more,
if I don't pay attention to prices.

HG

wrote in message
ups.com...
Well, I do low-carb cheaply, but hubby does not low-carb at all, so the
post is only partially about low-carbing frugally.


My wife does not do Low Carb either. I find this to be a challenge
sometimes, because the food she desires is a temptation to me.

I am *extremely* cheap when I shop. I went shopping today as a matter
of fact. I shop about every 10-12 days or so.


One thing about Low Carb eating that I've notice - feel free to correct me
if I'm wrong - is that vegetables are your best friend. Having said that I
feel a need to shop at least once a week for vegetables because they can go
bad quicker than other foods that can be frozen. Also I HATE old fruit -
gotta be fresh! IMHO

Thanks
-Phil

wrote in message
ups.com...

snip
I spent $111 today. I'll probably wind up spending around $250 total
this month on food, including all the meals my husband eats on the road
(he's a truck driver), eating out and pet food.

snip
What a great racket the weight-loss industry is. You get to charge
people *more* money for *less* food. Really, when you think about
it... that's what all these programs do... sell you a safe
"weight-loss" portion of food at an outrageous price. It's sort of the
opposite of an all-you-can-eat-buffet... it's an all-we-can-charge
method of selling food.



Wow! I'm impressed. I spent that much yesterday and only got a fraction of
what you bought. Everything I bought was fresh food except for a jar of
olives (nothing processed!), and it was all good food that fits within my
diet, but I have found that it has been *more* expensive to eat healthy than
what I spent in my junk food days. I obviously could learn a lot from you.
On the other hand, I live in a very small town, and we have only a few
groceries available unless I want to drive 35 miles (to another small town).
Still, I fail to peruse ads, and I can see that is key to your success.

I like your comment about the weight-loss industry. I do, at least, avoid
all those programs -- originally for the reason you stated and now because I
have found that I can eat better by preparing it for myself (even though I
live alone and definitely am not "a cook" -- everything I prepare has to be
quick and easy).

Thanks for posting!

MaryL

"PhillyDude" wrote in message
...
wrote in message
ups.com...
Well, I do low-carb cheaply, but hubby does not low-carb at all, so the
post is only partially about low-carbing frugally.


My wife does not do Low Carb either. I find this to be a challenge
sometimes, because the food she desires is a temptation to me.

I am *extremely* cheap when I shop. I went shopping today as a matter
of fact. I shop about every 10-12 days or so.


One thing about Low Carb eating that I've notice - feel free to correct me
if I'm wrong - is that vegetables are your best friend. Having said that
I feel a need to shop at least once a week for vegetables because they can
go bad quicker than other foods that can be frozen. Also I HATE old
fruit - gotta be fresh! IMHO

Thanks
-Phil



This is one of the reasons why I have found that low-carb (or, more
correctly, "lower"-carb in my case) has been expensive. I eat a great many
fresh veggies and a considerable amount of fresh fruit -- and that means
frequent shopping. Since I buy for one person, it has also meant a
considerable amount of waste. I bought a vacuum sealer that I like for
meats and leftovers, but I do not spend much time cooking (and there is the
other reason for waste because I don't spend the time and effort that I know
would make use of some of those products that now end up in the trash can).

MaryL

Hannah Gruen wrote:

I wish I had all your storage space! I have to shop weekly, or more
often, because at the moment I have a teensy fridge, small amount of
freezer and pantry space. I'm getting ready to move, though, and when
that happens I can get a larger fridge/freezer and set up lots of
pantry space. That really helps in taking advantage of the specials.
And I'll have space for a kitchen garden, too, which not only saves
money, but gives you the best tasting produce available.

Yeah, storage space is crucial for me being as frugal as I manage to
be. There's lots of stuff I see on sale and buy a year's worth of it
at a time.

Being flexible and buying what is on special really does cut way, way
down on my spending. I can easily spend twice as much, or even more,
if I don't pay attention to prices.

Agreed.

I figure the folks who shop without paying attention are paying a big
chunk of the cost for my groceries.

Roger Zoul wrote:

One thing is for sure, Jackie, you are NOT lazy!

No, I really am. There are people out there who prepare 3 meals a day
for their families. I would go nuts if I had to do that.

The trick is to work within my own desires so it's not work. For me,
shopping is time spent with my daughter. Cooking in big batches or
doing food prep is something to do while I'm watching a movie. And
gardening is a great pleasure in my life.

The only "work" involved is the organizing and planning bits, and as
noted, I make it a "game" or challenge. I get real pleasure out of
buying something for significantly less than it has cost for the past 3
months. I win!

PhillyDude wrote:

My wife does not do Low Carb either. I find this to be a challenge
sometimes, because the food she desires is a temptation to me.

It helps if they don't eat the stuff that is your absolute favorites.
Luckily, hubby doesn't care about Ben and Jerry's coffee heath bar
crunch - I'd be in trouble if that stuff were in my freezer.

I think of hubby's food sort of how I think about cat food or chicken
feed. I buy good stuff for them, healthy and appetizing, but it is not
Jackie-food. I am not gonna eat his whole wheat bread or crackers
anymore than I'm gonna eat cat food.

One thing about Low Carb eating that I've notice - feel free to correct me
if I'm wrong - is that vegetables are your best friend.

ABSOLUTELY!

I never liked veggies all that much years ago, except maybe corn,
onions and tomatoes.

But I get more and more passionate about them as time goes on. Tastes
really do change on low-carb.

Having said that I
feel a need to shop at least once a week for vegetables because they can go
bad quicker than other foods that can be frozen. Also I HATE old fruit -
gotta be fresh! IMHO

I buy a variety of fresh stuff, some of which "keeps" better than
others, so I don't have to go quite that often.

And I have frozen, dehydrated and root-cellared stuff on hand too to
fill in the gaps. I have literally gallons upon gallons of homemade
soups canned up with all sorts of veggies in 'em.

But fresh produce is why I shop as often as I do. I have to have the
stuff. I could cut our costs down even further if I quit buying so
much fresh produce, especially in the winter, but it's worth it to me.

MaryL wrote:

This is one of the reasons why I have found that low-carb (or, more
correctly, "lower"-carb in my case) has been expensive. I eat a great many
fresh veggies and a considerable amount of fresh fruit -- and that means
frequent shopping. Since I buy for one person, it has also meant a
considerable amount of waste. I bought a vacuum sealer that I like for
meats and leftovers, but I do not spend much time cooking (and there is the
other reason for waste because I don't spend the time and effort that I know
would make use of some of those products that now end up in the trash can).

I *have* to chop stuff up before I put it away - salad ingredients and
melon and such. Cause... otherwise it goes bad and winds up an
extravagance rather than a good deal.

If there's a tupperware of cucumbers or watermelon in the fridge and I
want a snack, I'll have some. But... if there's a whole cucumber or a
wrapped melon wedge, I tend to pass it by and have a spoon of peanut
butter instead.

I really *am* lazy, so I don't assume I'm gonna not be, but rather plan
for the fact that when I want something to eat, I want it easy and
fast.

I feed scraps to my chickens, and then compost their waste for the
garden, so nothing *really* gets wasted here since it turns into eggs,
chicken meat, and more veggies.

Knowing that makes it easier to do the chopping too... to know I only
have to shred enough cabbage for the cole slaw recipe and can just
fling the rest to the chickens and it isn't wasted. It means I can
chop the easiest bits of the cabbage, so am less likely to postpone it
and have the whole thing go bad on me.

Another thing I do when there's space in the freezer is save veggie
peelings for making stock out of. I can up the stock, and still feed
the veggies into the chicken - eggs - compost cycle.