Comments on: Frugal food: 10 DIY tips to save money while eating better and healthier

By: James Mitchell

James Mitchell — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 21:20:00 +0000

Like hell – cats are fairly expensive as meat goes – a 10lbs cat would probably be $75 or $100, and that weight is before you dress the carcass. And think about what a cat eats – do you want to eat something that eats rats and mice? For that matter do you want to eat something that eats Friskies? That stuff is pretty foul.

By: Julie Dole

Julie Dole — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 05:56:00 +0000

Ps – don’t feed kitty those tomatoes – they’re poisonous to kittehs!

By: Julie Dole

Julie Dole — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 05:46:00 +0000

Agreed re oil changes, but for a different reason. I can do it, but I don’t want to. And the last time hubby tried it, he made a huge oil spill in the garage. I’d just rather work an hour or so at something & get paid for that, and then pay a pro to change my oil.

It’s not that expensive, there are always oil change coupons flying around, and specials at the corner garage.

By: Julie Dole

Julie Dole — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 05:35:00 +0000

You can even shop frugally at Whole Foods, especially when you check out their private label “365″ brand items. Best buy: a full case of their beef & liver cat food - 20% off the already low price of 59 cents/ can, and it’s the best cat food I’ve found for my crystal-prone feline fuzzball – all meat/ no fillers!

Likewise their mussels at @2.99/lb – that’s around 2 dozen, and a few cups of fresh clam broth to add to your clam chowder from Trader Joe’s – yum!

By: suburbanhick

suburbanhick — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 23:46:00 +0000

You do that, and I’ll see if I can find my old copy of this hilarious crockpot cookbook put together years ago by my mother’s church group – it’s called “What a Crock!” Yeah, they all had a pretty warped sense of humor!

By: travtastic

travtastic — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 21:15:00 +0000

Learn to love hummus. If you have a little food processor you can make a full load of it in 5-10 minutes. You’ll realize really quickly how insane the mark-up is in stores.

By: travtastic

travtastic — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 21:11:00 +0000

If you have a decent amount of veggies going bad near the same time (and they’re not covered in mold or liquefying) it’s dead simple to make vegetable broth out of them.

By: travtastic

travtastic — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 21:07:00 +0000

Seitan is a lot easier to make, but I never really priced it out in comparison to meat.

By: enuma

enuma — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 20:20:00 +0000

Crock pots are great for people who don’t like to cook. Not only do you not have to really cook, but you don’t need to much in the way of prep. You can usually start with completely frozen meat. If you’re feeling really lazy, you can skip most of your chopping because 8 hours on low will make everything tender enough to break apart with a spoon. The only veggies that I ever chop before cooking in a crock pot are potatoes and onions (and even then I only cut the onions into quarters). Everything else gets “chopped” by some vigorous stirring right before serving.

By: alfanovember

alfanovember — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:21:00 +0000

5 & 3: Pressure Cooker! All your favorite grains, legumes, or pulses go from dried to delicious in under one hour.

By: Xeni Jardin

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:30:00 +0000

Some really great suggestions in this thread. I should do a follow-up post about crock-pot cooking!

By: Xeni Jardin

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:29:00 +0000

CSA box, the deliveries of grass-fed beef, the free range eggs, the organic whatever-else-is-useful-and-tasty

I never said you have to do these things, or that you’ll save money by doing so. Where in the article do I specify this? There are expensive yuppie ways to obtain good quality, fresh, wholesome ingredients, and there are cheaper ways to do so.

By: suburbanhick

suburbanhick — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:15:00 +0000

Yeah, the supermarkets-tossing-food thing IS a real problem, for sure. They only toss it because people won’t buy it, however. We’ve been so trained to think that everything we eat has to look absolutely perfect that we will bypass even slightly pockmarked or blemished produce. I worked in a supermarket for a few years in high school, and our produce manager used to despair at the amount of food she had to pitch every day. And the even-stupider thing is that she wasn’t even allowed to GIVE any of it away, thanks to idiotic health regulations – we just had to throw it out, and then the store dumpsters were thoroughly picked through by street folk.

By: Mari Harju

Mari Harju — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:52:00 +0000

For the record, I love cooking and I am very good at it. It is because I love it I know how damn hard it can actually get; how things are not just about not wanting to invest the time and being too lazy to do it – quite often, a lot of things are simply not possible.

Edited for flagrant dash abuse.

By: Mari Harju

Mari Harju — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:45:00 +0000

I was raised on pure spring water out of the tap. end result is I am a horrible water snob who thinks 90% of water tastes utterly foul. I think evian tastes like pants, and most tap water is almost impossible for me to drink because it tastes so bad. End result: I consume a lot of specirfic kinds of bottled water because it’s better than no water consumption at all.

By: Mari Harju

Mari Harju — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:43:00 +0000

@penguinchris:disqus Is that true for all parts of the area you live in, or just the good parts? Because yeah, there are palces with ready access to food is easy but then others where the only place anywhere near, with near being a very relative value, would be the big box store.

By: Mari Harju

Mari Harju — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:41:00 +0000

@Antinous_Moderator:disqus I don’t know how it is over there, but if we assume someone can access a butcher counter at a supermarket they can also access the supermarket – the concept of food deserts coming up again.

By: Mari Harju

Mari Harju — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:37:00 +0000

It’s less about size than it is about reliability.

By: GyroMagician

GyroMagician — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:45:00 +0000

It’s just boring – in flavour and texture. There are more interesting things to marinate. I have not yet eaten tofu and been excited by it. Pulses I love, in so many different forms, but for me, tofu has always seemed more like packing material.

By: olrac57

olrac57 — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:38:00 +0000

Sorry, but soda is delicious. Substitute with water? I think not. If you can find a way for tap water to taste like the sublime nectar that is ginger ale, Cherry Coke, root beer, Mr. Pibb or Jarritos, then I’m all ears. Until then, I’ll avoid the clear stuff that burns my throat when I drink it and absolutely destroys the flavor of meals, rather than bringing out the flavors.

By: Sarah Jones

Sarah Jones — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:19:00 +0000

oh I forgot! The best place in the world to pick up meals for one person is Trader Joe’s. I’m not a fan of their labor practices but their food rocks. Hopefully you have one near you.

By: Sarah Jones

Sarah Jones — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:12:00 +0000

I can understand your struggle to find the motivation. I think an additional challenge is a reassignment of priorities. In a culture that praises and often demands instant results slowing down to cook dinner or pack a lunch can be daunting. I’ve been using strategies like this for a year now, and fortunately it works with my lifestyle but I know I’m in the minority. The motivation comes from the costs of not making these daily choices, if that doesn’t apply to you then sure it’s not a priority.

By: alxr

alxr — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:04:00 +0000

Leftovers are definitely the best bit of cooking, didn’t know that was a UK thing. All the effort is already made, and things like curries and pasta sauces taste so much better after a night in the fridge. Anything that doesn’t capture the imagination can usually be chucked into a pot with some stock and boiled up into delicious soup.

By: Jenn Chlebus

Jenn Chlebus — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:44:00 +0000

Despite the fact that there is often no dedicated food retailer within walking distance in any urban area in America, there is usually a gas station or liquor store within a mile or so. They have things that resemble food.

By: Cefeida

Cefeida — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:43:00 +0000

Sorry, I assumed children was where you were getting the lower taxes thing from? or is that about being married? I have no idea what you meant, actually, wouldn’t mind a clarification.

But still, okay, forget the children-it doesn’t change all that much. Yes, living with someone can be cheaper, which is why I used to have six people in my one-person apartment, and why I rent out a room as a workshop to someone. However, having roommates is not the same as having a partner. Roommates either share in my expenses or pay me for the room they rent. A partner may also do that, but they will add their own expenses which I will have to share in, and they will take up time.
So, like I said, being single, the only person I have to spend time and money on is myself.

By: Jenn Chlebus

Jenn Chlebus — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:37:00 +0000

Indian food? Less fattening, make a week’s worth on Sunday, I can still taste it with a cold, reusable tupperware.

That said, yay coffee. I can’t pretend to be human without it.

By: Jenn Chlebus

Jenn Chlebus — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:34:00 +0000

I’ll just leave this here…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once-a-month_cooking

By: Carl Berglund

Carl Berglund — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:53:00 +0000

My understanding is that one can use a rice cooker as a “fast crockpot”, though I haven’t tried mine for anything other than grains… Ebert put out a cookbook of sorts a couple years ago, and I’m sure the web boasts all kinds of resources.

By: awjt

awjt — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 11:45:00 +0000

I like the fact that you walk home and MAKE LUNCH on the spot, probably without a menu or meal plan in advance… just go home, do it, eat, come back. That’s awesome. A guy can dream…

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 09:40:00 +0000

How has the choice become single or not single with children? It's cheaper to live with other people, whether you're fucking them or not. Unless you're renting it out for ads, a child is a drain on expenses.