Making a Master List of the Least Expensive Foods Available in Winter Months

The other day, I was brainstorming ways that I could save money on groceries in this new year. This is what I came up with. 

• shop more at discount stores, such as Grocery Outlet, check all clearance sections of other stores I frequent
• cook meals from scratch
• prepare snack foods at home in place of commercial snack foods (this is a critical downfall for me)
• concentrate on creating menus from the least expensive foods available in winter

The last item on this list side-tracked me and prompted a look into the least expensive foods in winter, based on basic food group or nutritional need. 

So, just what are the least expensive foods? Obviously, marked down foods in any category can beat the price on foods that fill a similar nutritional need. For now, I'm looking for foods that would be available to most folks during the winter.

Here's the start of my list. As I was brainstorming, I added some ideas for how I could use some of my least expensive foods for our family meals. I've included those notes as well.

What else can we add to the list?

least expensive sources of protein

• milk -- use milk to scratch-prepare yogurt, pudding, cottage cheese, white sauce
• eggs -- frittatas, baked, scrambled, fried (as is or to top other dishes, like beans and rice or ramen soup), boiled (egg salad, deviled, or chopped and sprinkled over other foods to boost protein)
• peanut butter
• canned tuna
• dried beans
• chicken legs/leg quarters

least expensive winter vegetables

• fresh cabbage
• fresh carrots
• fresh onions
• fresh winter squash
• fresh celery
• canned pumpkin
• canned tomatoes
• canned green beans
• homegrown sprouts

least expensive winter fruits

• fresh oranges
• fresh grapefruit
• fresh apples
• fresh bananas
• canned applesauce
• frozen concentrate 100% fruit juice, such as orange juice

least expensive starchy foods

• fresh potatoes -- baked, mashed, oven fries, hashed, cubed/sliced in casseroles
• rice -- pilafs, desserts, plain as hot side dish or hot breakfast cereal
• oats -- hot cereal, granola, baked oatmeal, breakfast cookies, desserts
• wheat flour -- white and whole wheat to bake quick or yeast breads, blend half white/half wheat when making muffins, biscuits, pancakes, quick breads, or for making yeast breads and rolls
• popcorn kernels -- pop in a pan on stove or in an air popper
• cornmeal -- cornbread, polenta/cornmeal mush
• simple pasta shapes, such as spaghetti and macaroni. (I buy both at Dollar Tree in 24 oz packages -- so 67 cents/lb. In contrast, I find ramen in 3 oz packages for 20 cents, or $1.07/lb. It's less expensive to make a noodle soup using spaghetti noodles, homemade chicken, turkey, or ham stock, salt, and a bit of onion powder, garlic powder, and soy sauce.)
• canned corn

least expensive cooking fats

• leftover fat from cooking meat, such as ham, turkey, bacon, chicken, pork, or beef fat
• vegetable oils, such as soybean, corn, safflower (We do buy and use olive oil, but mostly reserve it for dressing salads or for finishing soup or pasta.)
• vegetable shortening and/or margarine (My family has chosen to limit consumption of hydrogenated vegetable fats, but I do buy Crisco-style vegetable shortening to use for pie pastry and greasing baking pans.)

inexpensive flavor and color enhancers

• fresh radishes, green onions
• bulk herbs, spices
• lemons, limes, bottled lemon or lime juice
• bulk onion powder
• Worcestershire sauce

I originally made this list for my own purpose. I then thought this list might be helpful to someone else or someone else here could share their expertise with us and offer suggestions. As you share your thoughts on other least expensive foods, I'll add them to the above list.

How Does Your State Stack Up?

image from money.yahoo.com

An article on Yahoo Finance caught my eye yesterday. The topic was which state offered the best financial outlook for retirees. Yahoo Finance cited a study by GOBankingRates as the source of information to rate each of the 50 states. GOBankingRates based their ranking on how long $100,000 would last for a typical retiree, given the expected expenses for a person 65 or over and the cost of living in each state. The study took into account that each retiree would also be receiving Social Security income in addition to using their savings.

Just above the map are blue and green boxes with ascending number of months and years, from left to right, just below. These time spans provide rough estimates for how long that $100,000 of savings would last in their color-coordinating states. Upon finding your state on the map, look at the number. The higher the number, the lower the amount of time $100,000 of retirement savings will last. The lower the number, the greater the desirability.

I live in Washington state, with a teal blue fill and a ranking of 36. This means that out of 50 states, my state is 14 from the bottom on the list of best states in which to retire. The teal fill indicates that $100,000 would last a 65 year old in Washington state, on average, between 1 year 9 months and 2 years.

This study didn't address situations such as one part of a state having a significantly higher cost of living than another part of the same state. In addition, it's not clear what kind of spending habits this study forecasted for typical retirees for a $100,000 draw down of their savings. It's very possible that some folks in my state could go through $100,000 in much less time than 1 year 9 months, if they live in the Seattle metropolitan area and tend to live more extravagantly than others. Meanwhile, it's also very possible that other folks may take much longer than 2 years to draw down $100,000, if they live away from the urban center and have always made frugal choices for their life.

They say that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. I know several people who earn over $100,000 per year, yet they say they're living month to month with nothing left over to put into savings. And I also know some people who earn half that amount and still have enough left over to add a substantial amount to their savings each month. This knowledge gives me hope that we'll be able to make that $100,000 last much longer than the experts forecast. 

Part of that achievement will be in the provisions that we make now that will enable us to spend less in years to come, such as making our home more energy efficient, setting up easy-to-work raised vegetable garden areas in our yard, planting fruit trees now for harvest in the next decade, making sensible health choices today in order to use less medical care later, and creating streams of income to sustain us in post-retirement years. Or, we may just move to Mississippi.

How did your state stack up in this ranking? What kinds of provisions are you making now that will help you live frugally later?