Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half

[Sea Dreaming]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

If I was living on land I would buy one of those whopping great freezers and stock it up when prices are low.

We do that now. The saving is pretty good. But I realize much more savings by using what I have. Waste not want not. Between buying in bulk or limiting waste, limiting waste is a much bigger savings over all.

The big freezer can actually encourage waste as food gets lost in the depths. A few years later you realize that some steak you bough is now too frost burnt to use. Because of this, and the cost of running the freezer, I just get rid of ours.

Meal planning, and using everything you buy still saves the most!

[2hullvenus]

Wow. I guess food budgets are like cruising budgets. Vary a lot.

I spend around $400 every 2-3 weeks on groceries for one.

[zboss]

Here is a guy that played with living on $21 for a week. He did a pretty impressive job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiSg6lwIItU

Originally Posted by 2hullvenus

Wow. I guess food budgets are like cruising budgets. Vary a lot.

I spend around $400 every 2-3 weeks on groceries for one.

It is a huge expense for us. Which is why we have started making a concerted effort to reduce our costs in this area. If we can control these costs and the costs of maintenance (using all the great Fatty Goodlander advice) we can save a lot more money and get back to cruising.

Being stuck in port because you have to earn cash to pay for cruising then just turning around and spending it unwisely... well that just sucks!

[2hullvenus]

Originally Posted by zboss

Here is a guy that played with living on $21 for a week. He did a pretty impressive job.

It is a huge expense for us. Which is why we have started making a concerted effort to reduce our costs in this area. If we can control these costs and the costs of maintenance (using all the great Fatty Goodlander advice) we can save a lot more money and get back to cruising.

Being stuck in port because you have to earn cash to pay for cruising then just turning around and spending it unwisely... well that just sucks!

True, but mind the balance.

If you're eating unhealthy things (ie tons of sodium, various preservatives), you won't have very long to cruise and enjoy life either.

Personally, I'm a little extreme, in that I view the quality of food along with exercise as health insurance in itself.

[zboss]

Originally Posted by 2hullvenus

True, but mind the balance.

If you're eating unhealthy things (ie tons of sodium, various preservatives), you won't have very long to cruise and enjoy life either.

Personally, I'm a little extreme, in that I view the quality of food along with exercise as health insurance in itself.

Did you watch the video?

He bought mostly good stuff. Maybe the only bad thing he bought was potato. He did buy some Ramen noodles but all told, the overall amount of sodium intake for the week was probably much lower than just eating wings out once at a local bar.

[2hullvenus]

Originally Posted by zboss

Did you watch the video?

He bought mostly good stuff. Maybe the only bad thing he bought was potato. He did buy some Ramen noodles but all told, the overall amount of sodium intake for the week was probably much lower than just eating wings out once at a local bar.

Unfortunately, I'm on the boat, so I don't have the available bandwidth for videos. Costs me a fortune to watch them.

[socaldmax]

I take advantage of sales and stock up on stuff when it's cheap. I bought 6 ribeye steaks when they were $5.99/lb, passed on them yesterday when they were $12.99/lb. I also use gift certs. for dinner. Restaurant.com will sell $25 GCs for $4 occasionally on sale. You have to spend a certain min., like $35 or more, but dinner for 2 that's easy to do. Then you give them the GC and they take $25 off the bill. When they were on sale for $4, I bought $900 worth of GCs and over 5 yrs later, still have quite a few since they never expire. Great way to explore new restaurants without risking too much money.

I'm a member of Costco, and buy my gas and propane ($1.39/gal!) there as well as certain items, like bulk cheese, bulk eggs, dried salami, etc. Other items are often even cheaper at Walmart. I do a lot of shopping online, especially for tech items, but Amazon now sells pantry items online, very good prices!

I frequent a local Mexican market that has $1 carne asada, pollo asado and fish tacos. They also have great prices on fruit and produce, as well as bulk pork, chicken and seasoned carne asada.

For example, I get chicken quarters for 49 cents/lb, put 3 lbs into a casserole dish with 2 cups of rice and 3 cans of cream of whatever soup, and the resulting chicken and rice casserole is delicious and will feed 4 people. That entire meal cost about $4.50 to make, or $1.12 per serving, and it's delicious and filling.

Back in my starving student days, I subsisted on Ramen (10 packs for $1) for 6 months. Ate a banana or apple for breakfast, broke the noodles in half, cooked 1/2 for lunch and 1/2 for dinner with a lot of water. After that period, I didn't eat Ramen for a VERY long time!

[Sea Dreaming]

Careful about shopping at Walmart and Costo! Somethings are not less expensive or the savings maybe small enough that an extra trip in worth it. . If you can do it, it's better to make a round of stores to take advantage of the best deals in each and plan 2nd for when you can't get to the "best" store for an item.

For example, cream is 8.00 per quart King Soopers and 8.00 per half gallon at Costco. Total no brained right? But Costco is way out of my way if I don't need a long list of items. So I go to Target for cream for 4.19 per quart. Only 40 cents more than Costco for a half gallon.

Another tip: Scout the half price meat bin. The meat will still be good but there might only be a day or two left on code. Cook the meat right away and freeze the cooked meat for later use in casseroles, stews, enchiladas, etc.


The Ramen noodles thing....I did that too for a while. And man was I skinny! Not good!

[weavis]

I recently had the task of taking over the food purchasing for a family member for a month. I filled the freezers, kept the fridges topped up and stocked up the tin and dry food cupboard on a budget 50% less than they were using.

Where they live, chain supermarkets abound, but also there are specific meat and vegetable markets and cut price stores like Aldi and Lidl.

Bulk bought the first week. Seemed a lot of money. Mainly cans and preserved goods.
Second week I toured the meat market and achieved a 70% overall saving by purchasing half a beast and butchering into cuts at home and freezing into specific quantities for use. I then toured the veg shops and found the day they sold off produce cheaper. There is a local Tesco near where she lives, and I discovered that at 8pm at night, they sold off their soon to be outdated prepared meal and chilled range for £0.43p down from £2.99. Straight in the freezer.

We did have to clean out their freezers. Stuff had been in there for a looong time.

I dont think that apart from fresh veg,potatoes and bread, that they need to shop for at least 5 months regarding meat and tinned goods AND they have a better variety. They also have a lot of European foods which are of good quality but not known here too well, and consequently cheap. I bought a 20lb bag of good rice cheaply. Placed into a large sealable plastic box.

When I provision a boat, there are a lot of canned goods. All my frozen meat is pre portioned, some is precooked and placed in the aluminum cans (used for chinese food deliveries). I can pull one out and its a complete meal for one. (with rice or veg and potatoes already added.

I use the BBQ a lot with the food cooked in tented aluminum foil. Again, full meals.

I should stress that I dont sail for weeks at a time... a few days maybe but the food is there for when at anchor etc.... I keep a few bottles of wine and some spirits on board. I have spring water in 5 gallon containers with a tap. Fresh veg I dont keep. I get that at anchor. My tinned goods and prepared meals have veg in for cooking.


And vacuum sealed coffee. oh yes.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

If I was living on land I would buy one of those whopping great freezers and stock it up when prices are low.

I had a whopping great freezer once..... used to get a beast killed and butchered and would freeze it down..... would be a year or so before we had to do it again. Unfortunately that was in the 70s and interest rates were high...worked out that it was better to sell animal... put money in bank ... and buy animal back as needed in 1 kg bits....

So the day came - after a few years- when we sold the freezer and had to empty it out.

The lower half...down in the permafrost .. was an almost solid mass of arsebone of ox and other 'parts of the cow that have no name'.....

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by weavis

Second week I toured the meat market and achieved a 70% overall saving by purchasing half a beast and butchering into cuts at home and freezing into specific quantities for use. .......

I can't really see myself butchering a beast on the foredeck... even though I do have the ' sailor's guide to the parts of the cow '.

I work on 200/250g of meat per head....

Curry is king... as is the pressure cooker.... cheap cuts... gravy beef etc.. on special.

Thats when coastal.... putting together an offshore order just now with a butcher... 700g vacuum packs which he is going to hard freeze for me.

Cabbage is cheap and lasts and lasts... if you peel it rather than cut it.

[weavis]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

I can't really see myself butchering a beast on the foredeck...

Therein lies the problem.
You need a Catamaran..................

[conachair]

Recipes & Food | JACK MONROE

[socaldmax]

Originally Posted by Sea Dreaming

Careful about shopping at Walmart and Costo! Somethings are not less expensive or the savings maybe small enough that an extra trip in worth it. . If you can do it, it's better to make a round of stores to take advantage of the best deals in each and plan 2nd for when you can't get to the "best" store for an item.

For example, cream is 8.00 per quart King Soopers and 8.00 per half gallon at Costco. Total no brained right? But Costco is way out of my way if I don't need a long list of items. So I go to Target for cream for 4.19 per quart. Only 40 cents more than Costco for a half gallon.

Another tip: Scout the half price meat bin. The meat will still be good but there might only be a day or two left on code. Cook the meat right away and freeze the cooked meat for later use in casseroles, stews, enchiladas, etc.


The Ramen noodles thing....I did that too for a while. And man was I skinny! Not good!

Excellent advice! My Costco and Walmart are directly across the street from each other, and my other main grocery store is on the direct route there, so I just do one loop and everything is right there. I can usually get away with 2 trips to the grocery store per month, the one mercado I like is near the movie theater, so I usually swing by on the way home from a movie.

Yes, on the Ramen diet I dropped from 155 lbs down to probably 135 lbs. Maybe I should go back on it!

[socaldmax]

Originally Posted by weavis

Therein lies the problem.
You need a Catamaran..................

Hang it from the dinghy davits...