FAQs

Who are you and what do you know?

Just an average couple that likes to cook and loves to eat. We have no special training or education. Everything we know came from family, books and TV shows, sadly.

Is there a philosophy to this?

Not really. This isn’t a statement, simply how my wife and I usually eat. Restricting the budget to $40 does make it a bit of a challenge; but it’s something that we did for a while and now we want to try it again. We realize that you can get by on even less, but we’re simply not that committed. We also don’t have any dietary restrictions (except a certain someone’s aversion to tomatoes and mushrooms) or allergies, so the entire diet won’t work for everyone. If there is any sort of goal, it’s to spend less and eat somewhat closely to Michael Pollan’s admonition: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” As you may notice, we can’t always do that on the $40, but we do try. It just so happens that this is pretty similar to the average amount granted for foodstamps.

I don’t see 21 meals here? Why not?

Well, though we like to be cheap with our groceries, we also like to dine out. As a result, the budget covers most meals, but a couple of lunches and dinners out will be pretty normal. However, we usually end up throwing out some leftovers, so I think the budget could still work. If you want to copy it and use it for all meals, you may need to bump it up to $50, though. We also don’t spend too much on breakfast. The ingredients will pop up on the grocery list, but I won’t really list all of those meals as they are always one of 3 things, unless otherwise stated: fruit with granola and yogurt, oatmeal or a PB&J.

Where do you shop? I’m not getting the same prices.

We’ll try to talk a little about shopping thru the blog, but basically, we shop the sales. Each week, we pick up the circulars and then plan our meals based on the ingredients that are on sale. Sometimes this isn’t a good thing, but it can be fun and healthy. Veggies that are cheapest are usually those in season that have a surplus. It also makes us more aware of the holidays. Every holiday, the traditional foods that are associated go on sale. There are more holidays associated with food than you may think. If you become a regular circular reader, you may find out more about some new foods because of it. We always have a big holiday meal that costs very little because of this.

Do you have any special equipment or tools that you use?

I doubt it. Basic utensils and a freezer. Just very careful with storage. To freeze food we chill it in the fridge and then put it in freezer bags. Liquids are flattened out to speed up the freezing process so the food comes out like it went in.

How do you keep the costs this low?

Though groceries in New York are often expensive, we benefit from having a densely populated area with lots of stores, so we can easily shop around without driving and spending so much time on the road. There are a few simple and seemingly universal things that we’ve noticed...

Shopping: circulars are the first step, but also shopping appropriately. We live in NYC. In our neighborhood, we get better & cheaper produce from a green grocer, better & cheaper fish from a fish monger and better, but not always cheaper meat at a butcher. It may be different where you are, but shopping around will likely cut the costs somewhat.

Planning: I doubt you can trim your budget healthily without knowing the menu before hitting the grocer. On this budget, I almost have to have a list and stick to it exactly. It means you’re spending a little more time planning, but it saves time shopping and cooking thru the week. I try to get a rough idea of what each meal will be for the week before I even start.

Portions: As the Pollan saying mentions, one thing to do when eating is not eat too much. We try to eat somewhat small portions. Nothing dainty, but our meals would look pretty sparse on a big ol’ platter.

Storage: Food money is wasted every time something goes bad before you eat it. We freeze lots of leftovers for later. You may see the beans from December pop up as a meal in April. This also goes for fridge storage. A good veggie crisper and salad keeper will pay for itself in time. We also save a bit by throwing away as little as possible. We save our bones and bits from roasts for stocks and try to use as much of any given vegetable as possible. We’ll try to avoid using the freezer too much for leftovers, but they’ll be there. If you follow this, you may find you have a pretty well stocked freezer before long.