My Favorite Time of the Week Again...

...Not just the weekend, but specifically grocery shopping. Don't ask me why I get such a big kick out of this; on some level, I always have, and used to beg my parents to accompany them (and, later, them plus my grandma) on those massive weekly outings. Partly I think it's because I enjoy food; partly I think it's because early on I got the idea (from whom? Not you, Mother...) that controlling what you eat gives you some measure of control over your life. And actually, I've found that to be even more true than I initially thought.

At this point, there's not a whole lot in our budget that we can really control; rent is woefully beyond our means to affect, student loans demand what they will, but by simply changing where we shop and a few other small things, we've essentially cut our grocery bills in half since we first moved out here. Now, there are sites out there that will instruct you painstakingly in the ins and outs of how to maximize your every dollar--I love them, I read them, and I direct you to them, but here are a few of the simplest things that have worked for us.

1. Cook almost everything from scratch. Yes, a can of soup makes a pretty cheap dinner, but for the same cost and a little more effort, you can make a pot from scratch, know exactly what's in it, and have at least enough left over for lunch tomorrow. The same goes for restaurant meals

2. Buy the basics in bulk.
Knowing that we always have basic things like flour, butter, sugar, onions, potatoes, etc on hand means I don't have to do a pricey stock-up when there's something we want to make.

3. Get to know your own eating habits.
Otherwise, you end up being pennywise and pound-foolish. For us, that means that if we skimp on buying foods for snacks (fruit, nuts, granola bars, whatever), one or both of us ends up just "picking something up" while we're out. For the price of one or two of these little jaunts (which don't tend to be foods we enjoy all that much anyway), we could have bought snacks for most of the week.

4. Plan ahead.
It sounds obvious, but I'm amazed at how many people just don't do it. Our current biweekly shopping trip first involves planning out two weeks' worth of menus. Not only do we save money because we aren't picking up things that we won't need in the next rotation, but it's a relief to come home in the evening and know what to expect, instead of having to a) figure out what to have, b) figure out what we need, c) go out and buy that, and d) finally get around to cooking dinner.

5. Eat mainly unprocessed foods; when you do go processed, buy generic. I find that this cuts down on a lot of unnecessary buying if I ask myself "Could I make this myself? Would it be cheaper? Am I willing to do it?" If the answer to the first two questions is yes, but the last is no, than it probably isn't something we needed anyway. It also pretty much eliminates the impulse buying of newly introduced products just because of their novelty value.

Here's what we bought at Aldi's today.

I was really excited because we've been trying to eat more produce lately, and we were able to get two cartons of OJ, ten pounds of potatoes, a bag of onions, a pound of carrots, a bag of celery, frozen peas, frozen corn, a bunch of bananas, two pints of cherry tomatoes (organic, the same brand we'd get at Safeway but $1.69 a pint instead of $4.99!), two bags of prewashed lettuce for salads, and three huge cans of crushed tomatoes...plus several pounds of shredded cheese, a tub of ricotta, half and half, and some of the snack foods to fill the aforementioned gap (two boxes of faux Triscuits, knockoff Health Valley granola bars, and the totally irresistible box of White Cheddar "Binge Cracker" Cheez-Its)...all for $60! That seems to be a pretty typical two-week shop at Aldi, which leaves us a good amount of leeway to go to the Eastern Market, pick up staples at Costco, or just pick something up in the middle of the week without going over budget. Once again, I know there are others who could do it for much much less, but at this point in our lives, this works pretty well for us.

In case you're interested, here's the menu for the next two weeks:

Puerco Pibil

Tamales

Corn chowder & bread

Vegetable soup & salad
Chili & Corn bread?

Pasta & veggies

Red lentil Indian & flatbread

Pizza & salad

Spaetzle or Mac & cheese

Curried pumpkin soup (we're still hoping to pick up a post-Halloween pumpkin, but I did score a can at Aldi's for $0.69 in case it doesn't work out)

Twice baked potatoes & salad

Pancakes or waffles

Egg and cheese biscuits

What fun things are you planning to eat in the upcoming days?