- waste nothing. You know that I try hard not to waste anything, but now more than ever I need to stay on to of all of our supplies to ensure nothing is going bad. This extends to what's in the garden. I have some Swiss chard going to seed. I've been using the leaves off of the plants despite their increasing toughness. The flavor is fine. I just find that I need to shred the leaves even finer to reduce the toughness. I'm doing what I can to use most of the abundant rhubarb, dehydrating sweetened chunks and making preserves to use in fall and winter.
- when buying root vegetables that have the greens still attached, pay attention to the condition of the greens as well as the roots. The greens can also be used in cooking. An example, last month I bought a bunch of radishes. We cooked the greens in soup and egg dishes. I have some beets growing in my garden. I plan on using the leaves as well as the roots when I harvest them.
- minimize the purchase of prepared foods and focus all or almost all of the budget on basic ingredients.
- stick to the super cheap produce items or cuts of meat. I'd like to eat some of the pricier cuts of beef or parts of chicken, but for this summer at least, we'll be sticking to chicken leg quarters and ground beef. Ditto with produce. We will enjoy the produce that is on the less expensive side, with an occasional treat of the more expensive items, such as the peaches that I bought this week for 77 cents per pound.
- shop at the budget grocery stores, even if they're not my favorite in terms of shopping experience. The local Walmart near us is lacking in ambiance. But they do have good prices on many of the items that I might buy. I can suck it up for 20 minutes to get the things I need there and save money.
- shop at ethnic markets. Some of the larger ethnic markets have online ads or price searches on their websites, but many of the smaller ones do not. I try to stop in at one of our local Hispanic markets when I go to Home Depot, as it's just a half of a block down the road from HD. I sometimes find the best produce prices in that market, and I'd never know it if I didn't make a stop there. (No website or ads.)
- use coupons and rewards judiciously. I received a coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase at Fred Meyer to use before the end of July. I considered buying a splurge item for myself, like good coffee. Instead, I decided to buy 2 extra pounds of butter, as Fred Meyer carries a house brand of butter that is my go-to bargain butter, at $2.51 per pound when buying on Senior Discount day. This will put us "ahead" on the butter by 1 month, freeing up funds in a future month to go toward other foods.
- make substitutions in recipes whenever possible, finding a less expensive alternative for the pricier ingredients. The pretzels worked just fine in cookies in place of nuts. I don't have heavy cream for making ice cream, but I have found that homemade yogurt, once sweetened and flavored, makes a good base for a homemade frozen dessert.
- stock up now on non-perishable basic foods when I see a good price, such as dried beans or rice.
- grow more produce in the off-season. I just started another batch of kale seeds for our fall, early winter, and mid-spring kale. This year, I started twice as many seeds as usual for this supply of kale. I will also be growing lentil sprouts indoors throughout the fall, winter, and spring. I have some plastic tunnels that fit over our garden beds. I'll be using those to add 2 to 3 weeks onto the harvest period of the lower growing, tender vegetables (like lettuce) this fall.
- forage for the wild foods in your area. In the PNW, we have blackberries that grow everywhere. They ripen over several weeks, giving us lots of opportunities to pick and freeze or preserve many quarts.
- compare, compare, compare. Check prices for as many shopping venues in my area as possible, online through individual store websites, with ads from each store, or with tools such as flipp which compare various store ads in your area for items. (Thanks Lona!)
- it doesn't hurt to check in person, too. When you happen to be in a store to pick up specific items, check the other items on your list, too. As an example, I found milk on sale when shopping for something else and saved myself about $1 over what I was prepared to spend.
- make a shopping list in advance, sticking to a budget if that fits your circumstances. As you shop throughout the month, revise your shopping list. If you've found better deals than you anticipated, use the "extra" money to buy more of the essentials or sock it away for a future month. You all know that I make my shopping list for an entire month at a time. That doesn't mean that I do all of the shopping in one go. My shopping is spread out over the month. As I have found deals on my items or rethought plans for meals, I've revised my shopping list to make the most of all of my budget. My lists typically go through 4 revisions in a month. I use the list to update and track my spending as well as plan for what to buy. I can see in just a minute or two how much money I have left and could allocate for additional food. My style of planning is very methodical, but also very effective for staying within a tight budget. While I have vague ideas of what I'll prepare for meals, I don't have a specific monthly menu plan. That level of organization is more than I can manage. However, we seem to do well just planning a day or two in advance, using what I have bought or we have on hand as inspiration. It's not perfect, but it is working -- and that's what matters. Decide on the level of organization that works best for you and work to stick with it.
- create your splurges at home with what you have on hand instead of shopping for your splurges. Make your own coffee drinks. Put together a nice cheese plate with crackers or bread and some cut up fruit. Have meals outdoors.
Remember, there are lots of ways to manage the rising cost of food. You don't have to do all of them. But do try something new to you and that feels a bit outside of your comfort zone. This is do-able!
