save money on food?

Agree with you cooking bison. It looks the same and leads many to cook the same way, which ends badly. Bison at Costco - that's something I've never seen. It would drive down the price around here, which is sorely lacking competition.


Our Costco is about 45 minutes away. I believe it costs about $55.00 to join. Does anyone know how much one saves at Costco - percentage wise. I am thinking of stocking up on necessities, and am looking at my options. For example, we would use a case of pasta sauce - or, coffee, etc.

Right now, i shop at the local food co-op, a discount grocery store, and a regular super-market (most expensive). We do have a garden and orchard during summer months. Thanks for any feedback:angel:
 
Our Costco is about 45 minutes away. I believe it costs about $55.00 to join. Does anyone know how much one saves at Costco - percentage wise.

No idea of any percentage amount but you should be able to pay a visit to your local Costco with a guest pass (ask at the door - they'll send to to the service desk). Walk around and compare prices for yourself to see what you think about the available product selection and price saving.
 
don't you think this is sad? work all those years to retire and have to skrimp on groceries instead of eating what we like? If you can't eat what you enjoy whats the point?

I couldn't agree more. Some people enjoy spending time looking for bargain groceries that are still what they want to eat. If they are able to save money without depriving themselves of healthy, enjoyable food, then more power to them. They may prefer to use their savings to permit additional travel, for example. But all in all, it's kind of sad when others just can't afford to eat what they want to eat in retirement.

Luckily most of us have the financial resources to spend as much, or as little, as we might like for the food category in our retirement budget, and don't have to eat catfood. As we grow older, many of us (including me) eat less than we did when we were in our 30's so it costs less.
 
I think it's fun to shop at the local bargain grocery. They play music from the 60's as we groove down the isles:dance: There is a wide assortment of organic fare, including (Alvarado Street organic bread). I am a slow cooking fan, so I do get bulk oatmeal, nuts, etc. at the co-op. It would be nice, though to be able to find toilet paper, tissues, toothpaste, foil, (mainstays) for a lower price.

We donate to the local food bank, especially in the summertime when the fruit and tomatoes ripen. I feel for those who can't afford to buy the food they want.
 
Here's why my food budget is so low. There is a good buffet style restaurant close to where I live. If you dine in, I believe it's $7 plus the cost of a drink. Takeout trays they weigh and charge a price per pound. Yesterday I piled up one to go tray(serve yourself) and it cost close to $9, no drink. That fed my mom and myself a nice Sunday lunch with leftovers for both of us today. So roughly $2.25 per meal. And this is healthy food. I don't ask what they season it all with.;)

No way I can go buy stuff to prepare that will taste this good, not to mention the convenience and price. I go there 3 times a week which will pretty much take care of one meal per day for the week. Breakfast foods are cheap, serve up a salad or sandwich at night and you have a very reasonable daily food budget. Of course I do go out to eat with friends here and there, but it's usually to places like Outback. Not many high price fine dining establishments where I live.
 
antmary said:
Our Costco is about 45 minutes away. I believe it costs about $55.00 to join. Does anyone know how much one saves at Costco - percentage wise. I am thinking of stocking up on necessities, and am looking at my options. For example, we would use a case of pasta sauce - or, coffee, etc.

Right now, i shop at the local food co-op, a discount grocery store, and a regular super-market (most expensive). We do have a garden and orchard during summer months. Thanks for any feedback:angel:

Do you go to the one on Wabash street?

I've analyzed this, and we save money even with the annual fee. It's not a slam dunk, but we have definitely come out ahead each year. Things we buy: butter eggs bacon macadamias sour cream cheese pecans almonds toilet paper paper towel hearing aids.
 
I had bison when stopping by Cheyenne, WY, on my RV trip. It's lean, and too dry. Healthy, for sure, but expensive and not good tasting compared to my [-]everyday[/-] every-weekend beefsteak. :)

I never spent the time to study grass-fed beef vs. regular beef. It may be something to check into.
Try grilling a bison rib-eye one of these days. Truly awesome. Not cheap though!!!!!
 
I do not skimp on groceries. I love to cook and I love to eat well. And I get the best results from my time and effort when I use the better ingredients.

But I have to admit I was pretty shocked when the (US raised) rack of lamb I usually buy went from $16 a pound to $22 a pound last year!!!!! Decided I could live with leg of lamb. That went up too, but not nearly as much.

And my frozen Dungeness crab (you would not believe how good the quality is) has gone from $8.98 to $10.98 a pound. :(

I am looking forward to the local Costco opening. I haven't had a membership before, but I am hoping the lamb is less expensive (as I have heard). Fine with me if the lamb is imported from NZ or AUS.

Audrey

P.S. I am already retired and food is a priority. I think folks who are still saving for retirement are a bit more careful with their grocery budgets.
 
Once you get used to grassfed beef, regular beef feels very filmy/greasy. Not all grassfed beef are created equal either. Some taste quite gamy to me. They all tend to have more intense beef flavor compared to some of the feedlot flavorless cousins. I personally like feedlot filet (choice) better than the grassfed filet though.
I once grilled a ribeye then wondered where all the flavor had gone. Was somethign wrong with my rub? It was tasteless. Next time I went to the store I realized that I had accidently bought the higher-priced "prime" instead of the store brand "natural angus" which is much less marbled. What a difference in flavor!
 
For a family of 4 plus a cat, we spend around $500/month on total groceries and household items, so probably $300-400/month just on food alone. I don't track household items separate from grocery (since most comes from walmart), but that is a rough approximation looking at recent receipts.

We eat well at home (a wide variety of good stuff), since it is typically way cheaper to cook well at home than go to a restaurant, and you know what is going into your food health wise.

Like you, OP, we mostly shop at walmart and buy mostly store brands there (as long as the quality is not compromised which it rarely is). But we also shop at the local grocery store a couple times a month to take advantage of sales prices (if we can save enough to justify a trip). And we shop at Aldi's, a deep discount grocer. Lately I bought a bunch of high quality low price fresh fruits, veggies, plus dairy items there. The ethnic stores make an infrequent appearance, and provide higher quality ethnic ingredients than walmart, but at lower prices than walmart, plus fresh veggies and fruits at cheaper prices typically.

Fresh fish is about the only thing we have a hard time getting at these combos of stores, and usually settle for whatever the local supermarket has (which occasionally means paying full price around $8-10/lb - typically for sushi which is still way cheaper than eating sushi at a restaurant).

Right now we don't shop at Sams/Costco/BJs because we don't want large quantities of a lot of things (not a ton of pantry space, no deep freeze, smallish fridge, etc). The warehouse club may be an option as the kids get older and we need larger quantities of 1 item.

We buy a bunch of fresh fruits and vegetables weekly or more often. Some are more expensive than others, so we focus on buying the most quantity of the cheapest items (apples, oranges, bananas typically for fruit, and carrots, celery, green peppers, onions, frozen peas, frozen broccoli, zucchini, and squash). We don't have a real hard time getting these for $0.50 to $1 per pound, but will pay more if we really want them or for convenience (to save a trip to another store for example).

For meat, we usually buy when on sale and freeze for later. Luckily for our budget, we like cheap meat. I like london broil, top round roast, and the like (lean meats), chicken breast, pork loins, etc. These are typically available around $2-2.50 per pound. Ground beef or ground turkey is also around $2/lb when on sale or close to sell by date.

DW likes some of the fattier cuts of meat, which in her case means cheaper meat. Chicken thighs/legs are $0.40-$0.50 on sale, and pork shoulders are under $2 all the time.

If we are cooking fish, frozen fish is ok. Salmon, flounder, tilapia, etc are usually $2-4 lb on sale and taste just fine to us.

Bottom line is that most fruits and veggies are $1/lb or less, and meats are around $2/lb on average.

Edit: about to go throw some carrots, celery, squash, zucchini, onions, green peppers, green peas and fresh sliced up steak into a stir fry and serve with rice and lo mein (made from $0.18 ramen and $5 sesame oil imported from japan! - the good $hit :) ). Mmmm good eatin!


You say chicken thighs/legs are $.40 to $.50 on sale:confused:!!! Around here they are $1.29 on sale. I should move to your neck of the woods, wherever that is.
 
Here's why my food budget is so low. There is a good buffet style restaurant close to where I live. If you dine in, I believe it's $7 plus the cost of a drink. Takeout trays they weigh and charge a price per pound. Yesterday I piled up one to go tray(serve yourself) and it cost close to $9, no drink. That fed my mom and myself a nice Sunday lunch with leftovers for both of us today. So roughly $2.25 per meal. And this is healthy food. I don't ask what they season it all with.;)

No way I can go buy stuff to prepare that will taste this good, not to mention the convenience and price. [...]

Same here! We usually spend about the same as you, eating lunch out at any of several different local restaurants. The food is delicious and feeds the soul. The restaurant business in New Orleans is so competitive, and that keeps the prices down in most small neighborhood restaurants.
 
Have to scrimp?:LOL: Um, we always eat what we enjoy (and enjoy what we eat). We spend about $50/week for the two of us on food, but not because we're shopping by price.

We buy almost everything at Aldi because imho the quality is equal to any other grocery store.......
+1
We don't scrimp either. We buy whatever we want, though we do go to different stores for various things. Aldi's is ALWAYS our #1 favorite to shop at! The food products that we buy there are at least as good, and usually better than, 'name-brand'. We spend an average of $50 to $60 a week there for the two of us, and that includes some non-food items like paper towels, etc. All of our dairy, and a majority of our meats and veggies come from Aldi as well. There are a few items that we get at either Kroger or our local IGA. And there's a family owned general store/gas station/restaurant in a little village about 16 miles from here where we by all of our wild game and some of our fish....and we have lunch there at the same time! :D

You say chicken thighs/legs are $.40 to $.50 on sale:confused:!!! Around here they are $1.29 on sale. I should move to your neck of the woods, wherever that is.

Our local IGA has legs and thighs on sale about every 6 weeks or so for anywhere between 79¢ and 89¢ per pound. I stock up on them, put 4 or 6 in individual ziplocs, and toss 'em in the freezer. Use 'em for frying, grilling, soup, chicken parmagiana, or whatever. We both prefer the dark meat over the light.
 
+2
Aldi's is the place to go to save, no doubt about it. Their fresh fruits and vegetables cost about half of what they cost at the major supermarkets. I don't know how they are able to sell them for so cheap.
 
+2
Aldi's is the place to go to save, no doubt about it. Their fresh fruits and vegetables cost about half of what they cost at the major supermarkets. I don't know how they are able to sell them for so cheap.

One thing I have noticed about some fruits at Aldi's is that the appearance isn't as good as what I normally see at regular grocery stores or walmart. I'm thinking of grapefruits as an example. The last time I bought some at aldi's ($0.30 per pound for a 5 lb bag IIRC), they were downright ugly to the point I thought there might be something wrong with them, but I took the risk since if I got 2 decent grapefruits out of the lot it would be the same as the grocery store prices. Turns out they were delicious and juicy, just ugly on the outside. I have had similar results with oranges at aldi's.

Just in general, lots of fruits aren't pretty on the outside and they are usually graded as such and used in other products besides fresh produce sales (such squeezed for juice/concentrate, or peeled and packaged or sold through institutional channels).

Avocados - I recently bought a bunch of avocados from Aldis to make a big batch of guacamole. $.50 each and they were the best quality avocados we have ever purchased in the USA. This is half the price at cheap groceries and walmart, and 1/5 the price at the high end grocery stores here.
 
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You say chicken thighs/legs are $.40 to $.50 on sale:confused:!!! Around here they are $1.29 on sale. I should move to your neck of the woods, wherever that is.

Yep - $0.49 on sale this week at the local grocery store Food Lion (east coast USA). Same exact product as they have at walmart all the time, but walmart has them at the regular price of $0.59 or $0.65 per lb I believe all the time. It is actually chicken leg quarters so each piece is typically about 1 lb.
 
Yep - $0.49 on sale this week at the local grocery store Food Lion (east coast USA). Same exact product as they have at walmart all the time, but walmart has them at the regular price of $0.59 or $0.65 per lb I believe all the time. It is actually chicken leg quarters so each piece is typically about 1 lb.


You are right about the grapefruits and oranges at Aldi.

I buy chicken legs and thighs at Giant Food on sale for $1.29 per pound. They are billed as "all natural", whatever that means.
 
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And my frozen Dungeness crab (you would not believe how good the quality is) has gone from $8.98 to $10.98 a pound. :(

I am looking forward to the local Costco opening. I haven't had a membership before, but I am hoping the lamb is less expensive (as I have heard). Fine with me if the lamb is imported from NZ or AUS.

I recently paid $6.60 a lb for whole frozen Dungeness crabs at Costco. Man were they good!
 
When I RE'd, DW and I agreed that the one thing we would never scrimp on was food or food quality.

For us, the greatest food-price saver has been me learning to cook at 'restaurant quality' level. As a result, you find that you can get 2nd, 3rd and 4th uses of certain items (entirely different meals using leftovers).

Costco is also a big saving opportunity.

We figure that we average about $3-4 per meal each (wine not included) on a plate that would cost about $22 in a restaurant. (If DW liked shellfish more, we'd be in even better shape!)
 
+2
Aldi's is the place to go to save, no doubt about it. Their fresh fruits and vegetables cost about half of what they cost at the major supermarkets. I don't know how they are able to sell them for so cheap.


I also love Aldi's . Their produce is great . Much fresher and cheaper than the local supermarkets .
 
You are right about the grapefruits and oranges at Aldi.

I buy chicken legs and thighs at Giant Food on sale for $1.29 per pound. They are billed as "all natural", whatever that means.

I haven't seen the all natural label on the chicken leg quarters I buy, but I am assuming they were not synthetically created! ;) All I know is, when you cover them in honey, peach preserves, cracked black pepper, soy sauce, and a few other secret ingredients, and bake it for a while, you have some darn good fall off the bone tender chicken bbq. And you can make 10 pounds of it for the price of a bbq chicken sandwich at a restaurant and it is a really easy dish to make. :D
 
Food

I count myself lucky, frugally speaking, that I really enjoy simple, healthy food. Some people view red beans and rice as pauper's fare, but man I love it! I'm also a creature of habit: I have virtually the same breakfast (egg, low carb wrap, turkey bacon or canadian bacon); lunch (big mixed green salad with some type of protein and olive oil/balsamic); and snacks (Greek yogurt, nuts, string cheese, fruit) every day. Dinner varies but is often crock pot chili or soup, or a stir fry, heavy on the veggies. Besides using very little processed or "white carb" food, my cooking criteria is quick and simple. I don't eat much meat at home but when I go out I often compensate by eating a nice juicy burger. I don't feel deprived on this diet. In fact, it keeps my cravings for sugar at bay and thus is all around good for me.
 
We figure that we average about $3-4 per meal each (wine not included) on a plate that would cost about $22 in a restaurant. (If DW liked shellfish more, we'd be in even better shape!)
That's interesting-- I always thought that a home-cooked meal was cheaper than a frozen dinner. At that price you'd have to be cooking for love, not for saving money.
 
That's interesting-- I always thought that a home-cooked meal was cheaper than a frozen dinner. At that price you'd have to be cooking for love, not for saving money.

I guess is depends what you're cooking. Hard to buy swordfish, prime rib, chateaubriand, salmon, filet mignon and lobster at frozen dinner prices.

You certainly can eat cheaper (with/without frozen dinners) but as noted on my post, we decided early on that we would not compromise on our food quality.

Also noted was my point that you can get 3 or 4 other meals from them...bringing the price down to about a buck a meal (wine not included).

Or....set the oven to 350 and make yourself a frozen dinner. Hamburg, mashed potatoes and corn is good.
 
Because of all the positive comments about Aldi I tried an Aldi store this afternoon. I checked the website so I knew to bring a quarter for the cart, my own bags and I dug out my rarely used debit card. I wasn't sure if I remembered the correct PIN for the debit card so I also had cash if needed.

I took my time and really browsed as I didn't need a lot. I bought coffee, a few cans of soup, fig newton type cookies, orange juice, mushrooms, asparagus, American cheese singles, pasta sauce, semisweet chocolate chips, bananas, napkins, cat litter and a couple cans of cat food.

The prices were definitely lower for most items but for toilet paper and paper towels the price was comparable to what I see at regular grocery stores if I find a sale or have a good coupon. I'm well stocked on these so I didn't need more today. Maybe next time. I wanted apples but they were only sold in 3 lb bags so I didn't get those either. Three pounds of one type of apple is a bit much for us.

The meat looked fine and there were plenty of frozen foods available. The store was small and very simple but had enough of the essentials.

I did have the correct PIN code for the debit card so that went well. Checkout was fine and I can pack bags as well as anyone else. I thought the quarter in the cart lock was clever!

I told DH and our son to try the stuff and let me know if it's awful, or great, or no difference. I'd like to try other things next time, meats and more produce. The store is not as close as other grocery stores but it's not too much out of the way. Now that I know what's available I can plan for the next time.
 
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