Being cheap when it comes to buying food

[misskitty100]

I was just wondering if anyone else suffers from being cheap when it comes to buying food? I have been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and B.K. address this issue. I know I tend to suffer from it from time to time myself yet I am not sure why. When I shop at the grocery store I am not limited to a real small budget (don't want to spend $500 each week either ...). Yesterday I was at Costco and bought some of their already made Greek pasta salad with rotisserie chicken for about $8.00. To me that seems expensive but I got it anyway and it is very, very good! So far 4 of has have had it for lunch and the kids had some for dinner last night. DH took some today for lunch too and we still have some left. Now if I had gone to McDonalds it would have easily cost more than $8.00 to feed our family just one meal and yet I would have felt the cost was resonable.:rolleyes: But not sure why.....

[KristiB]

I'll only buy Asian ingredients at the Asian grocery store because they're much cheaper and they have a wider variety than the Kikoman and House of Thai at the supermarket.

I usually don't buy out of season produce because of the cost(and taste)

I'll pay premium prices for meat, fish, and dairy, but occasionally my butcher has a freezer sale and I will hit that up.

There are some canned goods I'm picky about too. La Bella San Marzano tomatoes or Muir Glenn.

Cheese is from the cheese counter never Kraft.

[blazedog]

I think everyone has their foibles regarding spending -- I understand your "irrational" thoughts about the pasta salad as I generally eschew this stuff because I know how easy and cheap they are to make -- but the Costco stuff seems not that expensive when amortized over the meals gotten from it - seems more like Trader Joe prices which generally compare more or less favorably with what the cost of a meal would be.

I am more familiar with the fancy salads from Whole Foods and other gourmet stuff since my best friend buys them a lot. They are tasty but boy are the obscenely overpriced.

I often justify stuff by comparing it to the c*rap I wouldn't eat at McDonalds or when I compare fancy fruit to the cost of a frozen yogurt or cookie from a bakery.

I don't stint on the quality of the actual ingredients -- luckily I am in Los Angeles so produce is good and comparatively reasonable -- I don't buy it at the local grocery store thought as it is better and cheaper at the Farmers Market -- in a pinch Gelsons or Bristol Farm.

I would rather eat an ingredient that is high quality than a poor quality like cheap beef or frozen fish. That said, I must confess I am reasonably happy with the fresh salmon from Trader Joes rather than plunking down the $20 per pound wild salmon from Whole Foods.

[zackaboo]

This thread screams out to my parents! Being raised by them, I am not sure how I came into my own beliefs but I strongly believe that your end results are only as good as your ingredients. That doesn't mean I like to spend a lot on groceries, but it does mean that I will often opt to spend a little more for better quality. I am also very choosy as to whose generic products I will use. Fortunately, I primarily shop at Wegmans, which for the most part has a good store brand. That saves me some money. But buying something from their prepared area is something I rarely do because I think it is sooo expensive.

The way that I shop is very similiar to what KristiB described. And if I am making something with pricey ingredients one night, then the next night I might opt for something like homemade pizza - which is very inexpensive to make.

[KristiB]

I should probrably clarify I'm single so I buy small quantities.

And if I buy something at Costco I use my food saver and it lasts a lot longer.

I might be more thrifty if I had to feed a family depending on income.

[Mpenny1001]

I learned from my mom and grandma that I should never buy something premade that I can make myself and that is a hard lesson to unlearn. I am trying to give myself permission to factor convenience into my cost equation when it comes to food buying. For example, I could roast a chicken for pretty darn cheap. They were on sale for 89 cents a pound this weekend. But I don't want to heat up the oven all afternoon in the summer for a chicken (plus, I don't feel comfortable leaving the house to run errands while the oven is on) so I will, every so often, buy a roast chicken from the deli and we'll get several meals out of it. It's not as cheap (or as tasty or healthy) as if I had done it myself, but it serves it purpose.

[honeygirl1971]

Like others, I buy mostly in-season produce, from the farmer's market, because it is cheaper AND better. I spend more on meat, fish, poultry, etc. when I buy it (we are semi-vegetarians) because I care about the quality. I also will spend money on pricier ingredients if there's a special recipe I want to make--again, I will spend more for the quality, especially if it's something I don't need to buy a whole lot of. For me, cooking is a major hobby and DH and I both love to eat, so the money spent is well-worth it to me for a fun cooking experience and a great end result. I buy organic baby food when I buy it at all, or otherwise make my own from organic ingredients, because again, I care about the quality more than the price. But, we eat out extremely rarely and I buy very, very, few prepared items (I do buy ravioli from time to time, but that's really about it), so we save a fair amount of money that way.

[Canice]

I would say that generally speaking, I'm not terribly cost-sensitive when it comes to buying groceries -- it's my one consumer indulgence, and I like to buy quality igredients, which can equate to higher prices. I also like to support smaller producers and stores that take care of their employees, so that sometimes means higher prices. That said, yes of course I shop at the Asian markets and take advantage of buying staples when they're on sale. Or, for example, I do a lot of shopping at Whole Foods, but buy mostly their store label, which is generally cheaper than the national brands at Safeway. I buy most of my fish there, and though it's pricey, the quality is excellent and the counter help very knowledgable.
I don't cook beef, which a good thing because I find the mass-production process disturbing, but some people eat beef several times a week, and the cost of buying local, natural product that often would be cost prohibitive. I do cook pork chops a couple of times a year, and pig farming is even scarier than beef. Because it's not a frequent thing, I pay a lot more for it to get a product I feel more comfortable with from a health, ecological, and economic perspective.

[donleyk]

I would agree with what Canice wrote, it is basically how we shop as well. I buy my fish at a fish market and meat at organic shops. I want to know my food is treated humanely so I don't have a problem with paying a little more for food.