Food hacks to deal with rising food prices/inflation

[Anonymous]

Tonight we had Trader Joe’s lentil soup over rice. It’s thick, not all broth. 2 cans were $3.98, can’t remember how much the rice was but it’s not expensive. We had carrots and tomatoes on the side as our veg so I’m pretty sure the whole meal is less than $10 for 4 of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plant a garden! Yummiest fresh produce and virtually free.

“Practically free?” That has not been my experience. Unless you grow from seed, which, in the DC area, requires enough room and a proper set up to do, the amount of produce you get from a garden rarely offsets the cost of buying plants, etc. If you didn’t start a compost pile years before you need to buy hummus and fertilizer. That assumes you have a garden with sufficient space and enough sunlight, which I currently do not.

[Anonymous]

- Make a menu.
- Shop with friends so that you can divvy up bulk items to keep the cost low and reduce wastage.
- Learn to cook from scratch
- Learn to eat healthy, incorporate different grains and seeds, new vegetables and fruits, more pre and probiotics - so that you can be healthy and save money.
- Shop at Asian stores for veggies
- Don't do impulse shopping
- Share food with neighbors.

[Anonymous]

Dried beans especially small lima beans and chickpeas
Almost zero waste on veggies, no longer buy aspirational vegetables (like artichokes) that I don’t really know how to use, all tired veggies get converted to weekly soup or quiche (freeze half)
Now shop almost exclusively at Lidl (Wegmans/Costco once a month)
Reduce fresh fruit to things that don’t go bad quickly or can be baked in a dessert or cooked down as fruit topping
Buy more unsweetened dried fruit for kids as snacks
Buy plain yogurt
Buy whole carrots for carrot sticks, not baby carrots
Buy more anchovies, sardines, good tuna, olives
Reduce fresh/frozen fish to twice a week (we don’t eat meat)
In general, cool in large quantities, freeze half, and eat leftovers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t been so affected by the price increases, maybe $10-15/week because I’m a nanny and one of the DCUM poors. I just refuse to pay $4.50 for bagels when they used to be $2.50, so I don’t buy bagels. Same with bread. I’ve cut out a lot of things I used to eat, just because I won’t pay the price increases and now make food from scratch. I feel like the poors will fare better, only because we know how to tighten our belts more than DCUM with their designer goat cheese.

I'm. a long time budget shopper and I tend to agree, however, my big challenge has been that I've used the sale/buy ahead strategies for years and the sales are no longer there. Most staples were on a 6 week sale cycle (or sales around certain holidays). So I would always buy butter when it was on sale for the lowest price and get enough to last until the next sale or buy enough baking supplies during the pre-christmas sales to last for 6 months and that strategy is just not working anymore.

This is what I do in a world without sales with inflation/corporate greed driving up food prices: I just buy the good stuff. The organic berries cost the same as conventional, filet mignon is the same price per pound as ground beef. Why pay 6 bucks a pound for pink slime when you can dine on steak? When you start comparing prices, you'll be surprised at how "cheap" the expensive stuff has gotten.

?? Where are you shopping where the organic berries cost the same as conventional?

safeway. but that's only because regular berries are 4.99, too.

Berries aren’t in season so I don’t buy them now, but I’d never pay 4.99 for them anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:- Make a menu.
- Shop with friends so that you can divvy up bulk items to keep the cost low and reduce wastage.
- Learn to cook from scratch
- Learn to eat healthy, incorporate different grains and seeds, new vegetables and fruits, more pre and probiotics - so that you can be healthy and save money.
- Shop at Asian stores for veggies
- Don't do impulse shopping
- Share food with neighbors.

Nice- I was waiting for someone to mention sharing with neighbors + friends

[Anonymous]

P.S. Billionaire Mark Cuban was just on Kelly & Ryan saying he saves $ buy buying in bulk & tries to teach his kids not to just waste $.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I +1 the previous PP!


Cabbage is awesome as a filler and really healthy for you. If you are in a rush, you can get a little bag of coleslaw cabbage and use that. Yes, it's more expensive than a head of cabbage, but it's still cheap.

Cabbage also lasts FOREVER. Like I think it is impossible for it to go to waste. At worst you strip off the outer leaves.

My biggest Cabbage Hack: shred a bit for a salad and massage it with kosher salt to make the texture a little more tender and flavorful.

We get ground beef on sale and freeze it in portions for recipes. Small or medium head of cabbage for stuffed cabbage uses 1/3 pound of beef. Stuffing mixture is cook beef with onion/garlic, then mix in with cooked rice or farro. Tomatoes and red or green pepper- buy on sale-chop and freeze if for use in recipe like chili.

Recently amazon has had some really low pricpoints on specific items- coffee 32 ounce for about $9 and bulk buy sugar free muesli.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:- Make a menu.
- Shop with friends so that you can divvy up bulk items to keep the cost low and reduce wastage.
- Learn to cook from scratch
- Learn to eat healthy, incorporate different grains and seeds, new vegetables and fruits, more pre and probiotics - so that you can be healthy and save money.
- Shop at Asian stores for veggies
- Don't do impulse shopping
- Share food with neighbors.

Nice- I was waiting for someone to mention sharing with neighbors + friends

Sharing what? Your leftovers? Am I missing something?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) Omaha Steaks are really gross, terrible quality meat, and 2) they're still more expensive than decent steak at Costco.

Buy some ground beef or beans if you want money saving hacks. "Shop sales for terrible meat shipped next-day air" is some Boomer Susceptibility to Targeted Advertising nonsense.

What? My anecdote says that the meat is very good at Omaha Steaks. But I am buying filets, T-bones, etc. Kind of hard to have one person provide "authoritative opinions" on the quality of a business.

https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/omahasteaks.com

1.8 stars on Sitejabber, 1.9 on Trustpilot, 2.0 on Better Business Bureau. If you like it go ahead and buy it. But if, like OP, you think it's a money-saving hack, you're simply wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Use the self checkout and give yourself a discount on small expensive things like good cheese, salami, cherries, etc.

The hack of not scanning the expensive items at self-checkout is one of the most-used hacks out there.

How does this hack work? You don't pay for it?

[Anonymous]

Fruit is expensive. I buy whatever is organic on sale. Grapes are expensive so I tend not to buy them except as a treat for my kindergartener. I also buy frozen organic vegetables and fruits, and stock up during sales of random frozen mixes.

Meat is expensive so I use it more as a seasoning. So one strip of bacon chopped into a vegetable scramble for the whole family instead of a big mass of fried eggs and bacon strips.

Soups are great. I’m making them for health reasons, but they are money savers too. For lunch today I think I used about a cup of lentils (a whole bag is like $2 at TJ’s), an onion, couple carrots, rainbow chard, a sweet potato, bay leaves, and garlic, along with a little kielbasa I presliced and froze (again, meat as seasoning). I was almost shocked at how good it is! And I got a big pot of it to eat with the family for dinner. Will serve with a little rye bread and butter.

I think making and freezing is a good money saver and a way to stretch meat. I have ground beef and pork in the fridge which I plan to mix and make meatballs and freeze. I can pull out a few to add bulk and flavor to asian noodle soups, or add a few to pasta. So 2 pounds of meat will go a long way vs just making one meatloaf or taco night.

[Anonymous]

I buy the big size can of taco seasoning mix. Saving a bundle!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of us who enjoy meat, one of my “hacks” is to use half ground beef/half ground turkey for any ground meat recipe like chili, bolognese, meatloaf, etc. You get that savory meaty taste, since the beefy flavor still dominates, but you save money since ground turkey is cheaper.

I do this. Half a pound of ground beef for chili (6 servings), then use the other half for spaghetti sauce (4 servings), or tacos mixed with black beans (4 servings).

We used to make burgers but when I do that, the pound of beef only lasts 4 servings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I now do most of my shopping at Lidl. Some things are so much cheaper, especially milk, eggs, and some meats. They have a bakery and often have day old breads at half price. I also buy dried beans now instead of canned, and make a lot of vegetarian soups with beans.

This is me too. LIDL produce is mostly excellent and much less expensive.