Fourteen Tips for Curbing the Rising Food Dollar

Twelve Grain & Basic White Breads

If you have read my cooking blog, you will recognize this picture from my last entry. However, the picture goes nicely with today's entry on this blog. There has been a lot of talk about the cost of bread rising and sadly that is true. According to one Canadian source, the price of bread will be increasing by 25 to 30 percent. The price of wheat has increased along with the costs of transportation, farming and labour. That means anything made with wheat will also increase in price. At the same time, the cost of fuel has toppled over the $4 per gallon mark that will be sure to drive the prices of other foods up. Other sources are predicting a recession because of the rising food, gas and energy prices. Some of the groups I'm on are already reporting increases in the price of cooking oils, corn based products, coffee, dairy, produce and meats. So how are you going to deal with the rising food costs? Here are some of the things I've done consistently for years.

1. garden - Remember the Victory Gardens? They were meant to take the demand off the public food supply during WWI and WWII by growing your own. Well the ideal is still sound practice but where it has improved is using the square foot gardening method and container gardening to maximize the yield for your space. Gardening tips can be found on my garden blog. With gardening comes excess produce so you need a way of preserving this excess for later used.
2. food preserving - Preserving excess produce from the garden is a must. By far the easiest method is freezing but consider that once frozen you continue to pay for keeping that food frozen until you use it. Our freezer costs work out to about $200 per year and that is just to keep the food frozen. You are subject to any fluctuations in power. A long power outage will put your carefully preserved foods at risk to the point you could easily lose everything. Canning solves this problem and it works amazingly well for so many food. I can everything from dried beans to soups and stews to vegetables to sauces, jams, jellies, pickles, condiments and so much more. In most cases the cost per ml is a fraction of store bought. Next to canning is drying. This is cheap and easy to do with little equipment needed. Be sure to vacuum seal your dried goods to prevent any problems from humidity or insects. Once vacuum sealed the food should be stored in rodent proof containers.
3. consider the cost of acquisition - Cost of acquiring food needs to be taken into consideration especially with the rising fuel costs. This adds to the cost per meal. Sorry guys, but I simply cannot handle the "weekly" grocery shopping trip and when you factor in the cost of gas shopping more than one store can easily eliminate any savings on actual groceries. I shop one basic grocery store and a farmer's market usually once per month unless something is on sale for a really good price but even then I will not make a special trip. I shop at a club warehouse store about once every three months. My husband will occasionally pick up milk or salad ingredients because he is within walking distance to the grocery store while at the office. Reduce the trip to the grocery store to the bare minimum if you want to save on the cost of food.
   
4. buy in bulk - The best savings on meats, poultry, eggs, flours and so much more are realized when bough in bulk. On a larger scale buy meats as we do directly from the farmer. On a larger scale buy family sized packages of meat and break them down into desirable amounts. Shop the warehouse stores. This can save you a lot of money, well more than the cost of membership.
   
5. buy locally - Buying locally gives you the freshest produce, meats, eggs and poultry without the high transportation costs. It keeps your neighbours working as well so buying locally not only saves you money but it is good for the community and environment.
6. buy in season - Fruits and vegetables are cheaper when in season. A 50 lb bag of potatoes goes for $7.99 in season yet a 10 lb bag will cost as high as $2.99 out of season. It makes good sense to stock up in season for things like apples, potatoes, squashes, carrots and rutabagas as they will keep for a long time when stored in a cool, dark location. This is also the best time to buy extra for canning or freezing.
7. shop the sales - This goes without saying but if you stock up during the sales you can save a lot of money. What you really need to do this is a well stocked pantry (see 12) so when the sales come along you are focusing on one thing only. The grocery stores here have been running dollar sales with items being sold for a dollar. While a good portion of these items are processed, snacky type foods (something to be avoided) there are still some good deals. One store now has regular ground beef ($1 per lb), hot house tomatoes ($1 per lb) seedless cucumbers ($1 each), celery ($1 each), green onions ($1 per bunch), leaf lettuce ($1), pork hocks ($1 per lb), pork riblets ($1 per lb) and Red Rose tea (36 for $1) along with all the other highly processed food items on sale for $1. This will warrant a stop when I'm in the area sometime before the end of the sale, yet I will not make a special trip. When I stop I will stock up on all of the above whether I need it or not with a budget of $60. I'll can up the ground beef, dry the celery, make soups and make a lot of salads. Aside of milk and a couple of things needed for entertaining, this will be my only grocery shopping this month yet my pantry will be replenished.
8. shop factory outlets - Many food processing plants have factory outlets. While some of these outlets are restricted to employees others are open to the public. So if you live in an area where there is one or more food processing plants, consider buying your foods there. I can buy cra
   
9. cook from scratch - This has to be one of the biggest food dollar savings. By cooking from scratch not only do you get healthier foods but you reduce packaging (environmentally friendly). Make your own quick meal starts and convenience foods. For ideas, check out my cooking blog. My favourite quick starts that I keep on hand either as home canned or frozen or both are: plain browned ground beef, seasoned ground beef, taco meat, sliced grilled chicken breasts, sloppy joe mix, home made meat balls and a large variety of home canned tomato sauces. There are several websites with recipes for making your own mixes. You can have the convenience of pre-made mixes by setting aside a couple of hours a month to make mixes that will cost a fraction of the price of pre-made mixes in the grocery stores. Think too of your wheat products. Cakes, cookies and breads are all considerably cheaper to make at home. A 10 kg (22 lb) of unbleached flour is currently costing me $7.99 with multi-grain, whole wheat and rye flours costing a bit more. At current prices of $2.49 for some breads (Italiano, Dempsters) that is only 3.2 loaves of bread yet one 10 kg bag will yield a lot more than 3 loaves of bread. I bake bread as needed that averages out to twice a week. Seriously, invest in the necessary tools and cook from scratch for ultimate savings.
   
10. consider the cost of cooking - The cost of cooking is often overlooked as part of your food dollar but with rising costs in electricity and natural gas it really needs to be considered. Use a lid when ever possible as food does cook faster. My large burner is 2000 W which works out to an operating cost of 24¢ per hour. Even paring off 5 minutes from the cook time saves money. When cooking always cook extra especially when using the oven. It takes as much energy to cook one roast as it does two. Better yet toss in potatoes too. Whenever I use either the oven or grill there is the main meal being cooked along with the makings for another meal or sandwich meat or quick starts. My oven element is 2600 W which works out to an operating cost of 31¢ per hour. Using the oven (electric) and grill (natural gas) in this manner saves money. A counter top roaster (750 W, 9¢ per hour) and pressure cooker are two useful, money saving appliances when bulk cooking. Surprisingly, because of the length of time a slow cooker (215 - 325 W, 3 - 4¢ per hour) is on, it does not always save money. For example a roast in the counter top roaster will cost about 18¢ in electricity but using a slow cooker it will cost 24¢ and only 16¢ using a pressure cooker. I usually serve some type of salad with every dinner meal because not only is raw good for you, it doesn't cost anything to prepare besides refrigeration costs.
    
11. reduce meat portions - North Americans really love their meat and in general eat larger portions than they should. A portion size should be about the size of your palm so even gradually cutting back the portion size will save money. Think soups, stews, casseroles and salads to reduce the amount of meat. Make your own stocks then use for cooking rice or flavouring mashed potatoes. Home made stocks are considerably cheaper than store bought and can be frozen or canned in smaller portions to use as required. Substitute beans for meat. For extra savings cook beans from dried. These taste so much better than store bought canned beans. Dried beans can be home canned for convenience at a cost considerably less expensive than store bought. Each 500 ml (pint) jar of home canned kidney beans cost me 6 cents and they are one of the easiest things to can with almost no prep. Replace expensive lunch meats with actual meats like turkey breast, meatloaf, chicken and roast beef. I often cook extra then slice the meat thin and vacuum seal into quart bags for sandwiches and wraps.
    
12. a question of brand loyalty - This tends to be a personal choice but what many fail to realize is one food processing plant often puts out the same product under different labels. I know for a fact that one processing plant for tomatoes does a run of brand name whole tomatoes followed by three or four store brand names. They are the same tomatoes yet the brand name is more expensive! Now with this being said, I have to admit to being brand loyal for some things like cream cheese. In most cases there is little to no difference in brand name verses store brands other than brand names being more expensive. So do try the store brands for saving on food costs.
    
13. shop unit prices - Every larger store has a cost per unit (eg. cost per ml, cost per ounce) on the shelf tag of the item. These are the prices to shop even if the item is on sale. Take a calculator with you and figure out the cost per unit for sale prices and for instances where the store does not give you the unit price. It does work out that sometimes the smaller package is cheaper per unit than the jumbo package.
    
14. buy from the source - Buying meats, poultry, eggs and produce directly from the source can save you a lot of money especially when combined with buying in bulk. In most cases this means buying directly from the farmer or orchard but for those in urban areas may include farmers' markets. These tend to be the places to get the best prices and you can always do a little dickering. At the same time you end up with a fresher product for your money and in many cases you can buy organic and/or free rand so you are also ending up with a superior product for your dollar.

I'm sure there are a lot of other ways to save on the rising food costs. Incorporating one or more of the above tips will be sure to save you money and stretch your food dollars.


Garden Gnome
© 2007