I did some initial shopping yesterday and made some notes about prices.
More to come!
I was able to find a few sales - like getting a bag of free rice if I bought a bag of beans for bean soup. Then I realized I probably would have been better off buying the beans separately. Bean soup is basically just a bag of mixed beans with some spices. Since mixed dried beans are all about $0.05/oz, I paid more than double for the soup mix. The benefit is that I don't have to buy 16 different bags of beans to get the mix. But variety is one of the sacrifices I suspect I will be making. I also got 2-for-1 on a brand of pasta, getting the price down even below store brand cost. I don't know about that wheat pasta thing, Kerryn. I do not like wheat pasta. My wife has tried to get me to eat it and it tastes like ground up particle board. I could potentially make my own pasta, but I doubt it will be cheaper than store bought. It does taste a little better, but it's much more time consuming. I may make some gnocchi though. I'll have to see how the ingredients add up.
Dried beans are clearly a bargain. Once they are soaked, they will increase in weight dramatically. Maybe I'll try weighing them soaked in order to do a comparison to some of the other potential ingredients. Canned vegetables are pretty reasonably in priced, but compared to beans they will be much more expensive.
I'm interested in seeing what a serving of each othese weighs, so I can get a sense of how much my diet will cost. And by serving, I mean what I would actually eat, not the non-sensically small amount the food lables usually indicate is a serving.
I'm thinking I'll bake my own bread. It tastes better than store-bought, and it might be cheaper.
The canned yams were a good deal. I like them and I think they have a lot of nutritional value. And $0.78 for a 29 oz can - that's got to be cheaper than fresh. I'll check and compare.
Eggs are an obvious choice for protein, especially in the morning. Meat is pricey, but I was surprised I could get frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts for about half the price of fresh ground turkey. That made me happy because Kandie and I eat a lot of chicken now.
More to come!
| $ | unit | commodity | ||
| 0.109 | per oz | peanut butter (HEB) | ||
| 0.0538 | per oz | grape jelly (HEB) | ||
| 0.049 | per oz | Spaghetti (Skinner brand) | was able to get it 2 for 1 | |
| 0.0605 | per oz | Pinto beans dry | ||
| 0.0386 | per oz | Diced tomatoes (can, HEB) | ||
| 0.037 | per oz | tomato sauce (can, HEB) | ||
| 0.0387 | per oz | corn (can, HEB) | ||
| 0.0461 | per oz | cream corn | ||
| 0.0593 | per oz | can peas & carrots | ? | |
| 0.213 | per oz | ground turkey | ||
| 0.032 | per oz | sugar | ||
| 0.0237 | per oz | all purpose flour | ||
| 0.273 | per oz | red star yeast | ||
| 0.0295 | per oz | corn meal (HEB) | ||
| 0.0515 | per oz | canola oil | ||
| 0.266 | per oz | olive oil (HEB) | ||
| 0.211 | per oz | coffee (HEB) | ||
| 0.188 | per bag | cinnamon tea (HEB) | ||
| 0.0328 | per bag | Lipton tea | ||
| 0.155 | each | eggs | ||
| 0.1248 | per oz | boneless skinless chicken breasts (frozen) | ||
| 0 | per oz | white rice (Riceland brand) | I got it free by buying the Hambeen soup mix. Normally 0.0467 per oz | |
| 0.116 | per oz | Hambeen soup mix | ||
| 0.026897 | per oz | canned cut yams | was on sale from 1.78/can to 0.78/can - 29 oz | |
| 0.034688 | per oz | brown rice (Riceland brand) | was on sale from 1.48/32 oz bag to 1.11/32 oz bag |
You can save on yeast by making a starter. A cup each of flour and water, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 pack of yeast. Let it ferment and it's ready to use. Every time you bake, just leave a little starter in the jar, replace the flour, water and a bit of salt. It likes to be fed flour and water every day. If you're not baking for a few days, stick it in the fridge; then it only needs to be fed every week. Wild, naturally occurring yeasts can make a good sourdough starter, depending on where you are and what kind of yeasts happen by. It's free, but getting it to the point where it can leaven may take a few weeks.
ReplyDeleteA starter is a great idea. I could get one started now and have it active.
ReplyDeleteNicely done, Mark. And, I'm glad to see dried beans made it twice on your list! I'm impressed as well to see brown rice even though you got the white rice free with your Hambeen soup mix. Your diet will not be lacking in fiber! Now....let's talk about the canned vegetables! I know the initial investment may seem cheap, but in the long run, living on canned food significantly raises your sodium intake as compared to eating fresh, in-season veggies. Over time, this negatively impacts your cardiovascular health. While it may seem this keeps your foods costs lower, the return on this investment is compromised in the long-term as your future health care costs could potentially be increased because of your poor food choices. Now I'm breaching over into economics, so I'll stop here.
ReplyDelete