So when I was in JVC, we had a community food budget which worked out to be about $12 a week per person. So for my house of 8, we had $100 a week to spend. When I lived with four other people, we had $60 to spend. Budgeting was essential and lead to many debates about what was the cheapest grocery store in town – Safeway, Albertons, The Orange Street Food Farm (immortalized in the Decemberist’s Apology Song), or the Good Food Store, a Whole Foods type store that sold lots of organic-y foods and spices in bulk, plus a lot of fancy-shmancy crackers, cheeses and wines.
Personally, I was a big proponent of getting all of our dry goods at the Good Food Store, but I couldn’t manage to convince all of my household that it really was cheaper to buy some things there. I argued that as long as you avoid the fancy pants aisles, you’ll come out ahead.
So today, since my grocery shopping was taking me to both the Good Food Store and Safeway, I decided to do a price comparison of some of the bulk goods that I was buying price per pound.
Sugar – Safeway price: $.92 per lb, Good Food Store: $1.49 per lb. (I was wrong on that one!)
Blackstrap Molasses (organic): Safeway didn’t actually have blackstrap molasses, and the comparing pounds to fluid ounces hurts my head, so I will just tell you that my jar of blackstrap cost $2.35 at the GFS, while a similarly sized jar of regular unsulphured molasses (usually cheaper) cost $3.45 at Safeway.
Popocorn (organic): For plain kernels not in a microwave bag, Safeway: $2.86 per lb (not organic), GFS: $.99 per lb. To compare, those microwave bags were about $5 per lb for organic popcorn.
Quinoa (organic): Safeway only had one of those pre-maid mixes of quinoa and that was $5 per lb, where as the plain stuff was $2.99 per lb.
Here’s the big one though -
Yeast (active-dry): Safeway: $31.96 per lb, GFS: $4.69. I refilled my jar of Fleischman’s yeast for only 70 cents!
I compared a few other items as well:
Milk (Half gallon of organic milk) at Safeway: on sale for $3.79, normally $3.99, (Half gallon of local milk) at GFS: on sale for $3.29, normally $3.79 (they didn’t sell the same brand of local milk, though I know other grocery chains do, usually for somewhere around $3.99 I believe).
Eggs: Organic eggs at Safeway – $4.00; Cage free fertile eggs (yes you can eat those!) $2.99 at GFS.
Butter: (Tillamook, aka the good stuff) On sale for $3.50 at Safeway, normally $4.29. At GFS: $3.75. I ended up buying it at GFS, then when I saw it was on sale at Safeway I got some more!
So in conclusion, I think that fancy-shmancy buy in bulk organic-y stores can really help you save money, if you know what you are shopping for. (Definitely not buying sugar there again!) I do know that their spices are also a killer deal, but I didn’t need to buy any this week so I didn’t compare prices.
As I mentioned last week, we got a CSA share that we are splitting. It’ll cost us about $12.50 a week for 18 weeks, and I wanted to see if we were saving any money by doing it. The farm that we are getting it through is all organic, which is a definitely a bonus! Last week our haul consisted of: kale, spinach, salad mix, radishes, beets, green onions, bok choy, and salad turnips.
When I calculated how much that would cost if I bought it at Safeway, I came up with: $19.94. Since we are splitting it, that would be $9.97 to have bought our CSA at Safeway, $2.50 cheaper.
but…
Safeway didn’t have organic versions of any of those items except kale. Organics (according to Wikipedia) normally run about 10-40% higher than conventional food items. Additionally, Safeway didn’t even have salad turnips (I just compared the regular turnip price), and their beets were sold without the greens. Beet greens, in my opinion, are even better than spinach so you are really just missing out on a whole ‘nother dish without them. So maybe for a dollar-for-dollar comparison we aren’t saving anything by doing the CSA, but I still think we are getting a good deal. Plus all the food last week was delicious. We ate it all within a few days, a pretty decent accomplishment for our not-normally-radish-and-turnip-eating-types selves.
So what do you think is the cheapest way to grocery shop?
Multiple grocery stores for the win! I guess it would be different if one were constantly driving all over town to go to multiple grocery stores, but without going out of my way I can easily go to three stores, so I get different items from each. Aldi is amazing for cheap basics, and whatever fresh fruits and vegetables they have on sale. But the organic market/Whole Foods is perfect for items like flax and millet that are not only inexpensive, they are only sold elsewhere as specialty item$!
I wish we had an Aldi! Or a Trader Joe’s – they seem like such a happy medium. The Good Food store here is kind of a trip. Okay, it’s like 2 miles/15 minutes away which I know is nothing by D.C./East Coast standards, but I’ve gotten spoiled. I try to rotate going to different grocery stores so that I don’t have to make multiple trips at once which helps!
dumpstering:
6 pounds of blueberries (yes, POUNDS)
2 doz eggs
lots and lots of bagels, other bread
4 #s apples
always too many red peppers
pistachios, dried apricots, candied walnuts
bleu cheese walnut spread
chocolate cake, apple pie, lemon pie
butter
cost: free
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0605&article=060524
Yeah…after living off rescued/expired food for two years though, the novelty has worn off. I’m enjoying the luxury of eating food that’s not well past it’s prime!
Ah, well, you’d be surprised at how fresh/not expired food this can be. And candied walnuts and chocolate gateau are pretty luxurious!
All of our stores are quite far from us- approximately 25 to 30 minute drive each way, and with at least 2 kids in tow at all times, I don’t have the opportunity to go to multiple stores each week. Especially with gas prices the way they are, the couple dollars I might save by store hopping would be quickly eaten up by the gas guzzling!
That being said, I don’t shop based on what we feel like eating but rather based on what is on sale and in season right now. Yes, sometimes we go for weeks with only the same two vegetables being served with dinner, but that’s okay. Learning to prepare the same foods in different ways is just another good challenge
Hopefully when our garden starts producing, we can cut down on the money spent at stores because the produce will come from our yard. Or at least I hope!
Thanks for your post – I think this an important discussion! I think there is an idea floating out there that eating from whole foods markets is a lot more expensive than normal supermarkets, but I tend to agree with your insights, it doesn’t have to be if you’re avoiding highly processed stuff and eating mostly whole grains, vegetables, fruits.
I have found too that it can be tough to find equivalent prices at normal stores for certain staples, since they often don’t carry them in bulk or at all (like quinoa, dry beans, nutritional yeast, flax seed, whole-grain oats, pastas). Plus buying bulk you can usually bring your own re-usable bags or containers and eliminate some trash!
As for fresh produce, a CSA has got to be one of the cheapest ways to eat a lot of fresh produce and get exposed to new stuff! My parents were way overwhelmed by theirs a summer ago and it probably was a waste of money, but for folks who love their veggies I think it’s a great way to go.
Buying in bulk saves so much money- I don’t mean Costco bulk, but rather bulk bins in the grocery store. I can get organic peas/beans of any variety at Whole Foods for around .89 cents to .99 cents a pound- and a pound dry beans makes about 3 times that much cooked. Compare that to about $3 for a can of organic beans (plus you have to recycle the can). I took the time to price match 100 bulk items between Whole Foods, our local food co-op store, Sprouts, and our version of Kroger and Tom Thumb. Whole Foods was cheaper by almost a dollar per unit per item. In addition, Whole Foods is by far the most friendly towards those who bring their own container. It drives me up the wall to see people so carefully remembering their re-usable bags, and then so carefully wrapping an onion, a cucumber, and garlic each in their own. little. plastic. produce bag. Don’t even get me started
In the same store, 16 oz of raw almond butter is $13, but two aisles over, I can grind my own, into my own glass container, for a mere $4.99 a pound with no plastic container to recycle/waste. Incredible. Same thing with chia seeds- in the spice section, in plastic packaging, they were $10 per half pound. Two aisles over? Oh, hello $7.99 a pound, plus no plastic waste.
For organic/local fruits and veggies, I have yet to find anything that beats the deal of a CSA. Ours works out to about $25 a week, for fresh picked, organic, locally grown seasonal fruits and veggies. Sure, sometimes I’ll find a sale on a random organic veggie or fruit in a regular grocery store. But in general, I’ve found that CSA’s are the cheapest. I’ve compared prices for friends on meat CSA’s as well, and they are sometimes as much as half off compared to buying the same kind of grass fed beef in the stores. I think many people are turned off by the up front cost. In Dallas, the deals on CSA’s are even better than here in Colorado, because Texas has such a long and forgiving growing season.
Odds and ends- I get spices in bulk, we drink water, and we don’t buy any dairy products save the occasional specialty cheese every few months when I get a hankering for it. Almond milk on sale and frozen is used for cooking. Crackers, chips, and any other random snacky foods- all out. Raw nuts and dried fruit (from the bulk bins, again) are mixed for trail mix for a snack. Even though we’re vegetarian, mock meats are very, very rare treats. Usually I make my own.
I know a lot of people talk about the annoyance of prepping such foods, but I lived and ate this way while I was working full time, going to grad school full time, and volunteering as the Democratic Precinct chair for almost two years during the last Presidential election. If it’s important, most people (of course barring socio-economic constraints like food deserts and poverty) can make it a priority. In the end, soaking some beans in a pot overnight doesn’t take hands on work, just some planning.