It has come to my attention that I've become embarrassingly thrifty when it comes to buying groceries.
With interest rates low, I'm paying off debt as fast as fiscally possible, leaving little in the way for culinary extravagance. About $10.71/day for food to be exact, according to my trusty little Excel spreadsheet. And with the ever-present caloric demands of marathon training, this has led to some interesting trips to the grocery store. Basically I need to eat a lot of good food, for cheap - a fine balance that's necessitated some creative thinking.
Earlier tonight, I purchased chocolate milk over my regular two percent - not a shocking revelation, given how delicious chocolate milk is - but, sadly, taste wasn't the main reason for doing so.
One litre of chocolate milk was 99 cents and two percent was $2.99. The idea of a grown man using chocolate milk in all of his normal milk functions seemed juvenile at best. But what am I going to be using the milk for anyway? To put in cereal and coffee. Huh. Chocolate with granola. Mocha lattes. Mmm.
So, not unlike a 10-year-old, I purchased two cartons of the chocolate - one for the above-mentioned normal milk functions and the other so I wouldn't just guzzle the carton reserved for normal milk functions.
On this same trip to Valu-Mart, I also purchased $3.99/pound portobello mushrooms, promptly ripping off their heavy stems in the produce aisle so as to not pay for a part of fungi I wasn't going to eat (I also employ this technique with vine-ripened tomatoes. Seriously, who pays for the vine?!).
But it's not all about short-term savings - there are also investments. If I come across an exceptionally good deal on an in-demand item, I will buy an enormous quantity of it. While financially prudent, I often end up with a glut of food that can be difficult to get rid of.
Last week, an innocent-seeming trip to Sobey's went awry when I discovered they had a firesale on oranges - five kilos for $5.00. Since they're my favourite fruit and usually at least twice as much per pound, it was a no-brainer. The fact that it could be difficult to eat 11 pounds oranges before they go bad didn't really occur to me. I estimate I'll have to eat four a day to stay ahead of their decomposition.
Same goes for a pile of almonds I bought, which are trendy in healthy food circles right now. Two pounds of plain, unblanched almonds for $5?! A steal - until I realized that unsalted and unroasted, almonds are like bits of protein-laden cardboard. Woops. The knowledge that they're full of 'good fats' doesn't make them taste any better.
Then there were the legendary blocks of parmigiana reggiano, an amazing but heinously expensive cheese that usually I can't afford. Last month, some poor fool at Valu-Mart had clearly input the wrong unit price, as the normally $40/kg product was marked down to $4/pound. Not one to alert the authorities, I swindled two pounds of the stuff in a coup for dozens of future Italian dishes.
So tonight I had discount whole-grain penne with weeks-old leftover pasta sauce (no visible mould is evidence enough for consumption), sauteed stemless portobellos, always-cheap bulk onions and on-sale green peppers. Garnished with practically-stolen parmigiana, washed down with replacement chocolate milk and finished with a dirt-cheap orange.
Embarrassing, perhaps, but also fairly delicious.
Note: Post title inspiration can be found here - particularly the last verse
March 11, 2009
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6 comments:
the solution to the almonds - roast them yourself in the oven. when they're nice and hot, sprinkle tamari or soy sauce over them; stir so they are all coated. When they cool in a few hours, you have crunchy, tasty almond treats :)
my husband says you never outgrow chocolate milk. He is 43 and a confirmed chocolate milk drinker although recent years has seen him switch to chocolate soy milk ..... maybe to match his reduced metabolism
Thanks for tips, Juanita... and let Trent know he's an inspiration!
I've gotta say, the most interesting thing I ever read during university was the Sobey's flyer. The front page was always covered with $1, $2 and $5 specials (or 2 for $5, etc).
Sounds like Sobey's is treating you well ... hey, didn't you recently move quite close to it? Ooh, that's a dangerous move there, my friend.
If you get enough bulk food and have saved enough for a $5 splurge, I recommend the St. Ives veggie ground round - high protein, low fat, and you can eat it right out of the package without cooking it. My fave was that with cold pasta sauce on toast - healthy, filling and overall pretty cheap!
Arla,
You better believe I'm all over that Sobey's flyer to take advantage of the legal savings (as opposed to some of my other tactics) it offers.
What I don't understand is that, with the amount of crap I funnel from my mailbox straight to the recycling, why it doesn't get delivered straight to my house? I indeed life about 3 minutes away.
But yeah, I usually pick up the flyer on Friday when it's hot of the presses, formulate a game plan and go back later in the weekend ready to save!
Living alone, I also find food to be a tremendous pain in the ass...that said, I can't help but admire your budget and your tenacity!
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