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Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldjensens
A lot depends on how much time you have. ... raise your own foods. ...
Our edible landscape includes some monster sized blueberry plants over 100 yrs old.
They are very easy to care for in our climate (lots of drizzle). Prune in Feb, fertilize at bloom, pick before the birds find them! ~300# / yr off our (8) blueberry bushes. - Bonus... blueberries are good for you!
We have many wild berries too, + Salmon, Steelhead, and Sturgeon fishing 10 minutes away.
My favorite is rhubarb (but it does not taste great 'natural'...
Seelcut oatmeal is still a staple. <$.25 / serving including raisins and cinnamon. We buy 25# for ~$16-$19 / bag
BTW: At the moment enjoying (1) of my (9) servings of soup I get from each of my Costco chickens.
+ 5 Burritoes
+ 5 Salads
+ 2 breast meals
+ 2 leg / wing meals
=23 servings from one chicken - that's average ($0.216957 for the chicken (only) content of each meal) I don't use tortillas for burritoes, just a leaf of Romaine lettuce (37 leaves on my current head = plenty for above meals) $1.39 = $0.081765 for lettuce content of above 14 servings.
Cheese (yikes) I use 1/2 packet / week, = current price $2.39, so another $0.07
Beans = $0.99 for the 5 burritoes, so those babies were expensive ~$0.568722 each Pretty typical, since I get (2) servings from the Tina Big Green burritoes (10oz) I occasionally buy frozen for $0.99. I don't need or desire the flour products in the tortilla, so I only have very rarely.
I eat 2x / day, so econo meals (oatmeal and soup) will add up to <$0.80 / day + a helping of fruit (free in season, as I have lots of apple, pear, plum trees). Otherwise canned, or frozen. Purchased apples can cost $0.50 + (I only buy fruit under $1/#, often at $0.30 / # at closeout produce store that buys culls from grocery warehouses.)
Since I fast 2 days / week, looks like I could squeak by comfortably on <$30 / month (food for a single person). No need to do that, but I could. + volunteering 2x / week at a homeless shelter would cut that monthly $$ need in half.
Tomorrow I have (2) potlucks to choose from, so there will be enough leftovers for a few days.
We're very lucky in the USA. plentiful food for CHEAP.
Last edited by StealthRabbit; 01-28-2023 at 03:41 PM..
One of my co-workers has the habit of everyday throwing food away that his wife packs for him. She prepares a bowl of white rice,and adds Quinoa in a separate part of the bowl...He ends up throwing away the Quinoa because he says he doen't really like it.
I ask him why he just doesn't tell his wife that he doesn't like Quinoa...he replies that his wife will get upset and not talk to him if she tells her he doesn't like something she thinks will be good to him. I bite my tongue and say inside my head.."What a wimp!"
and I shudder after I remember how expensive Quinoa can be.
Another will not eat leftovers no matter what.. These people make about $39K each a year...they are not in a position to be throwing away anything.
Then there are the ones that literally have fast food/prepared food brought in everyday...at $10-$12 a day...or like my Boss who almost literally eats every meal in restaurants...I see his personal Amex bills with 3 different restaurants on the same day.
I'm considered the office cheapskate;because I very rarely order food in and usually cook my own food and I don't mind eating my lentils for 5 days straight.
It's harder for people working 2 jobs to get their food bill lower because lower cost food takes more time.
We are retired so I have time to go to the library and get recipe books for interesting meals that are not expensive.
I have time to shop at 2 stores weekly for sale prices, one store gives 5% off to people over 60 one day a week.
Using the freezer helps a lot when I make a good soup, so I can freeze it for next weeks dinner.
When I find a good sale on meat of course freeze it after cutting up into smaller portions.
It's healthy to eat less meat and more vegetables.
I've been reading about people who live to 100 and most eat very little meat while staying active.
I've been adding more beans to our meals, healthy and inexpensive.
Buying a turkey on sale gives so many meals for sandwiches, casseroles, wraps and the boil the bones for fantastic broth.
I also bake desserts, not just for cost reasons but because I know what's going into our food.
If you ever take the time to read the ingredient list for Costco desserts it's clear they have way too many chemicals when it should read: flour, sugar, an egg and some oil. That's the reason they are cheap, cheap ingredients.
We quit buying deli meat because of the chemicals in them too. Better to buy a whole turkey/chicken breast and cook that for sandwiches, healthier and much less expensive. You'll live longer too not eating processed food.
Eating more beans is my goal this year, both from cans and dried beans soaked and boiled. Have to add them in gradually because they have a LOT of fiber and my gut is a little finicky about that. So far so good haha.
Cleaning supplies are expensive (one of my husbands famous sayings) so use vinegar in spray bottle on greasy spots.
Use cut up old T-shirts as rags instead of paper towels then wash them and use again. Save the planet and save money.
Once a week treat yourself to something as reward for all your hard work. After a while it doesn't seem like work.
Food is actually not that expensive if you shop mindfully. I spend <$50 per week on groceries (U.S.) while still being able to eat a healthy diet.
Look at foods from a macronutritional standpoint. Look at the back of the label and see what you're getting for your money.
Examples of foods that offer a lot of macros per dollar:
* Protein: Eggs are dirt-cheap. Protein powder, if bought in bulk. Tofu, dairy and nuts too.
* Fats: This is the most calorically dense macro. Protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram while fat has 9. This means that many fats, even if it doesn't seem like you're getting high volume per dollar, are still affordable from a calorie per dollar standpoint.
* Carbs Breads, pasta, rice, oatmeal, etc. are all dirt cheap.
Good points. Fat doesn't make people fat. Excess carbs and a total lack of exercise is what causes weight gain.
One simple thing is to avoid processed foods and detailed foods.
Stupid people pay $8.99/lb for boneless chicken breasts and then whine incessantly about the cost.
I buy 4 whole fryers at $0.89/lb to $1.09/lb, take them home, get out my butcher knife, boning knife, and cutting board and 4 minutes later I got:
This is not true. There are plenty of athletes, bodybuilders and other people in decent shape that eat bread.
It's important to look at the context of everything you eat in a day as a whole rather than vilifying specific foods as inherently bad.
Bread shouldn't be most of your diet, but it can be a part of balanced diet assuming you're eating fruits, veggies, and protein sources too.
Well, yeah, if you are working out heavily you can eat carbs early in the day and you'll be fine. But the heavy workout schedule *allows* the carbs, the carbs don't really support it and could be reduced or eliminated, particularly if one wants to lose fat.
I like saving money on food, especially now. I find it annoying when something as simple as a can of tuna can anger me. Chicken of the Sea, for example. The can states it contains 5 oz nt wt and 4 oz dry wt. Recently, I opened two cans, drained and weighed them each separately. Just to see how much actual tuna is in each can.
One weighed 2.5 oz and the other 3.1 oz. Neither being close to the 4 oz claimed on the label.
This makes me mad. Not because they're cheating me as I know know all food manufacturers do that but rather that this was brought to the attention of the public in 1998 in news article. The article was updated again in 2005 but still, even today, they continue their deceptive practices. Nothing has changed.
I decided enough was enough so I used the power of the pen and wrote to them about it. Well, not exactly to them but rather, I posted a tweet on their Twitter page. Will anything come of it? Probably not but at least I got my say and that's all any of us can do, right?. Anyone interested in reading the article, the link is posted below.
I like saving money on food, especially now. I find it annoying when something as simple as a can of tuna can anger me. Chicken of the Sea, for example.
Another way to save money is not buy name brands, like Chicken of the Sea.
There's little reason to buy name brand anything.
Why would I pay $2.48 for an 8.0 oz package of frozen vegetables when I can get the same frozen generic brand vegetables at either Krogers or Walmart for $1.00 and I get 12 oz instead of 8 oz?
12 oz is perfect for portion control which saves money and helps reduce weight gain because you can do 6 oz of veggies per person.
I get the 3-pepper onion blend for fajitas that Krogers and Walmart have but Birdseye and the other name brands don't make.
Same with French mirepoix (onions, carrots and celery) and Cajun mirepoix (onions, celery and green peppers). Unfortunately, no one makes Eastern European mirepoix (onions, carrots and parsnips).
There is no good reason to buy name brand condiments.
You couldn't possibly tell the difference between Plochman's mustard, generic mustard or even my mustard.
There are subjective differences. I like a more vinegary/tart ketchup, and fortunately either generic Kroger or Walmart brands work. Same for pickles whether dill, sweet, bread-n-butter.
When I was in college, I worked at the Kroger bottling plant at 8th and State. We'd mix up a batch of Kraft ranch dressing, run 10,000 bottles and then switch labels to Krogers and run 10,000 bottles.
Why would I pay more for Kraft when I can pay less for the exact same thing?
We didn't do jams or preserves, but we did do jellies and we'd mix up Smucker's formula and run 10,000 jars and then run 10,000 jars with the Kroger label slapped on them.
Why would I pay more for Smuckers?
Why were we bottling for Kraft and Smuckers? Costs.
It's way cheaper for us to bottle those products and then distribute them to all Krogers stores in the region than it would be for either Kraft or Smuckers to operate their own facilities and distribute them.
Same with cheeses. And chips and damn near everything.
If you're gonna get hung up on names, it's gonna cost you a lot of money.
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