Life on a Budget # 1: The Grocery Store

I will be the first one to admit, I took a couple of days off over the Christmas break. ...okay, so I took almost three weeks off. But to be honest, I think I deserved it: it was my first Xmas break lasting longer than 5 days since pre-provincial team basketball circa 2000. Competitive basketball has been great, but it has also been very hard on me: I wish I could say it was a rare occurrence to fly home to Alberta on the 22nd and back to BC on Boxing Day morning, but it wasn't -- in fact, it was commonplace. And so, this year, I decided to spend as much time at home as I could -- 15 days, in fact -- and to spend the majority of it relaxing at home, helping my mom cook her amazing holiday dinners, and generally helping her out while also adding in a healthy dash of free time for myself.

Reindeer love carrots, and will wait patiently for them under the kitchen island for the entirety of the cooking process.

We gave Santa the option of cookies or a rawhide chew stick. Santa chose both.

But now, finally, blissfully, (painfully) things are getting back to normal. Gone is the hip-high prairie snow, the heated tile floor, the copious amounts of space, the tail-wagging, toe-licking foot warmer snuffling affectionately at my ankles; replacing them are hardwood, an unmade bed, pre-semester reading assignments, and (most importantly, and also most devastatingly) cooking for myself. On top of that, not only do I have to reacquaint myself with the process, but I have to purchase the necessary component parts -- and, try though he might to convince me, boyfriend's claim that frozen pizza and smoothie ingredients do a full refrigerator make is neither realistic nor palatable. Thus, a-shopping I must go.

And here, I stumble into yet another problem (oh joy! ...the sarcastic kind, not the awesome Christmas kind). After blowing a considerable amount of dough buying (albeit really super awesome!) Xmas gifts for my friends and family, I'm a little strapped for cash all of a sudden. I need money for edible, not gift-able, things, and it's sadly reawakened me to the fact that a grocery store (of all things!) can be a treacherous place for a spendthrift. 

My biggest problem? I like food -- the good kind. I'm not a glutton (I think...) but given the choice between fresh olives and canned, herbed goat cheese and Kraft powdered parmesan, and extra lean ground beef and the pink-and-grey marbled kind, I will choose the former 99% of the time (and the other 1% is usually if I know I'm just giving the finished dish away. But even then, pride usually wins out and I buy the good stuff anyways). Tack onto that the fact that boyfriend and I (boyfriend more by association) are pointedly healthy eaters, and navigating the enormous yellow aisles becomes even more terrifying than before (why is everybody pushing me?!). I have, however, over time -- and a great deal of coaching from dear mother -- managed to eke out a few standard rules that make life behind the squeaking grocery cart just that little bit easier (and cheaper!) to handle. And so, without further ado:

How to Shop at the Grocery Store with a Budget (and not Leave with 300 packages of Ramen Noodles)

1) Avoid processed foods. 

At first glance, those boxes of frozen gush look both simple and cheap ($3.00 apiece! Oh, boy!) but there are a few important things people rarely take into account: namely, size, quality, and packaging. Quality pretty much goes without question -- there's a reason those pictures on the front look so bloody appetizing, because these people know perfectly well you would never buy their product if they showed what it actually looked like inside.

This is the box.

This is why I'm no longer hungry.

And then there's the portion size. Yes, it says it's only 300 calories for creamy pasta, but there's a reason: the box is only about 2/3 full of food, and another 1/4 of that is made up of black plastic packaging. And even though it seems cheap, it's actually less so than you think: nearly 40% of that cost is based on the pretty picture and the square package, so you're really just paying for cardboard (and I don't just mean the guck they expect you to eat).

2) Not all meat is created equal. 

Yes, I will admit it: I prefer chicken breast to thigh, I like my ground beef extra lean, and I never buy meat pre-seasoned. But beyond that, there's something I do that few people seem to think about: I buy the cheapest package (but only of the best stuff).

Let me explain. A single package of chicken breasts is usually in the range of $14 per kilogram, and that's about six chicken breasts worth (which I usually buy in one go, then freeze individually). But within these packages, the individual prices can range from as low as $11 to as high as $17 -- but each box only contains six breasts. So which one do I buy? Why, the cheap one of course. Think of it like free portion control: chicken breasts are hefty pieces of meat. You only ever eat one chicken breast in one go, so why not buy one that's a measly 50g smaller in weight than the other? Not only are you saving calories, you're saving cost (and meat tends to add up fast).

Next, don't fall for the "I'll carve it myself and it'll be cheaper" crock. I did once, accidentally: I found a box of chicken breasts for nearly 2/3 of the price of the others, didn't look carefully enough at it, and took it home -- only to discover that it was bone-in. Oh, no matter, I thought: it's still cheaper, I'll just cut the bones out. And so I tried that. And I failed miserably. In fact, I failed so badly, that by the end of the process I had to pan-fry chicken pieces instead of baking the breasts like I wanted because I'd hacked them up so badly. And, on top of that (duh) when the bones were cleared out, they made up about 20% of my chicken -- weight that was still included in my price. Two lessons learned that day: 1), there is a reason butchers are certified professionals; and 2), there's a reason bone-in skin-on meat is cheaper: because you're paying for the weight of all the crap you won't eat, which means that all the different kinds of chicken breast are essentially the same price-per-weight.

3) Know your seasons.

My mom and I went grocery shopping while I was home for Christmas, and decided to pick up some fruit for dessert. Pineapples were on special (one of my favourites) and were also very good quality, because winter time is pineapple season. When we went to look at strawberries, however, we were shocked: where the average box of red, juicy berries averages $3 or so, these were priced at $8.99. Why? Strawberries are not in season, and so the cost of growing them is much higher (not to mention the quality goes way down). Google fruit and vegetable seasons to know when foods are both tastiest and cheapest, and make a point of having a wide variety of recipes so you can easily use whatever is most readily available (and affordable).

4) Finally, never shop unprepared (or hungry).

Studies have shown that the hungrier a grocery shopper is, the less likely he or she will be able to resist temptations for sweets, processed foods, and extra items. As well, bringing a list (and a snack) means that you rarely make impulse purchases, and less food gets wasted.

Even if you aren't 100% sure of what you are cooking for the whole week, try to plan at least 3 days' worth of meals and just shop more frequently. The fresher you buy your food, the better it will taste, and the less time it spends in your fridge or on your counter then the less likely you'll be to forget about it, let it go bad, and essentially throw (stinky) money down the drain.