Surviving the Cost of Living: Eating Well

     

Photo by cottonbro studio:

     Keeping in this sort of theme of Surviving the Cost of Living, after the fun for me travel post, I'm turning to the boring but necessary topic of food. No need to harp on grocery prices as you all know the deal.In my life, after housing expenses (even with my mortgage paid off, taxes and insurance are high) and utilities, household and grocery costs are the next biggest budget bite. Currently, my son shares this cost, but even if just myself, it still would be next in terms of needs. 

     For this post, I'm thinking just on the food category, not household supplies. I like the social aspect of joining others for meals so including meals eaten out of the house or with guests need to be considered. Prices there are on the rise as restaurants are facing the same hardships with their supplies. 

     I'm trying to embrace the mindset that simple and low cost meals are enjoyable, not a sacrifice. I'm scouring web sites and YouTube channels, and online resources to increase my knowledge and food preparation repertoire. I'm trying to avoid the "make it to payday" or $5 dinner ideas. While you all know I like a good kitchen challenge, I want to focus more on buying varied and healthy groceries that can be pulled in for a variety of dishes and having a pantry and freezer stocked with better priced options. So many of the budget single meal videos are buying cheap ingredients to fill a belly, so to say, and not looking at nutrition. I'm fortunately in a position that I don't have bare cupboards and just $5 to get to the next pay day, so more going for overall average lower cost meals. Those videos probably are a help to someone, so not criticizing, just stating that's not my direction. I'd like to more aim for the USDA thrifty to low budget plan for a given week. Thrifty for two adults in our age is $124.60 per week. Interesting that this was January 2025 and up $12.10 from December- just shy of a 10% increase. By June, I suspect it'll climb to $150 or even more. I have meals out/take out in my entertainment budget so not included in my grocery target, but this post touches on both grocery and meals out of the house/socializing. 

     For meals out, cutting all fast food, and that includes our go to Chipotle, is a low hanging option to save and redirect funds to better use. The quality is generally poor and likely to get worse as corporate safeguards to protect consumers go by the wayside. Chain restaurant meals, the Chili's, Applebee's, and the like, while already rarely used, need to be nixed too. As an example of a less than good take out experience, I had a lot of errands one Friday and got caught out longer than I thought and was so hungry so used the McD's app between stops. I got the daily deal of the any size fry and two chicken sandwiches, BOGO for $1 (brought second home and son ate later) for $5.01. I felt lousy after, both physically and mentally knowing I could have done so much better for that $5.01. Locally owned restaurants will be my choice for when I don't want to cook. They rely on consistent customers, so I don't want to cut eating out completely. Plus, I like a good happy hour and brunch. Will this be perfect? No, as sometimes meetups at centralized locations have limited options, and others may have different preferences but it's a goal. 

     For socializing over food, I'm exploring ideas and may have dabbled in a bit before to stretch budget, reduce boredom, and continue social connections. If you've done any of these, let me know your tips.

Soup swaps. My mom friends sort of jump started our friendship by doing a soup swap, initiated by our ring leader about 12 years ago. We each brought a huge batch of our favorite with four containers to share with each other after we had a soup pot luck. Of course we added breads and desserts and beverages. It's our joke that we're the Soup Sister's. We did a meal prep class together as well, but the soup swap was more fun. 

Salad bar get together. Divide up the salad topping options, and have a fun and affordable gathering. 

Pizza bar. Hosts provides beverages, plates, maybe a salad, guests bring pizza of their choice to share, homemade, frozen, take and bake- whatever works. 

Supper club. There are multiple variations of this, from picking a theme, a country, a culture and all contribute to the meal or just rotate who hosts and cooks/ caters to host/Chef's choice. 

Tapas dinners- or "happy appy's" for us common folks. Each person brings shareable small plates or appetizers to make a picky bits kind of dinner. I'm looking forward to creating a backyard oasis for hosting something like this in particular. 

Brunch. I used to think brunch could be so  inexpensive and then, eggs. But, even at $7 (that's what they're still around here) a dozen, an egg bake can feed a crew for about $14. Throw in home baked breads, seasonal fruit, lots of coffee and voila. Also, it seems to still be less expensive to go out for a late breakfast than other times of the day. 

Cheap ingredients for a vegan muffin/quick bread. These were a mix of cherry ( last of a jam jar and strawberry, from the bottom of a frozen bag)

     Those are ones I've read about or participated in. I'd love to get a monthly session started, maybe rotate ideas depending on season. Your thoughts?

     I need to go back to watching ads for loss leaders and do more stock up. After kids were gone, we just sort of shopped as needed. When it was just me, 75% of my shopping was at Kwik Trip, a bit of produce, eggs, bread, milk. That's not a very nutritionally balanced way to manage a grocery budget. I'll be trying harder. The thrifty plan might be a pipe dream, but it's a target. Here's a few of my go to frugal meals that I most always have ingredients on hand to make. I like that all these are highly adaptable to what's on hand for protein and produce, and usually yield leftovers for future lunches unless all three of my kids are here or we are joined by others. 

• Chickpea and vegetable curry with basmati rice
• Cottage pie (with any leftover protein) but often this is hamburger 
• Tuna hot dish, which is the recipe for seafood casserole from the Tightwad Gazette books. Adding mayo and cheese and making my own "cream of" soup and topping with bread crumbs really makes this taste better than the old tuna hotdish I grew up eating (dry and bland)
• Spaghetti with a ground beef and vegetable bolognaise*
• lo mein, again with whatever leftover protein I might have and a bag of stir fry vegetables
• Homemade pizza, white or red sauce with whatever toppings and cheese that's on hand, need to be used up
• Burritos/ bowls-any protein seasoned, with black or refired beans, and flavored rice, with whatever additional toppings we might have like corn, salsa, sour cream, and cheese
• Chili with rice 
• Rice Bowls, (or couscous, quinoa bowls) topped with any protein and vegetables with a dressing of whatever flavors preferring that night. 

*Cooking extra noodles for the lo mein and reserving a bit of bolognaise for homemade pizza helps me whip up a second or third meal very easily. I know nothing is authentic, but still really tasty.