Why You Should at Least Learn to Bake:

My quest for an amazing blueberry muffin recipe has been a thorn in my side for a year or two now. I try (emphasis on try) to bake something for my breakfasts every week. I don't really like cereal in the morning. I do like oatmeal and other hot cereals, but I prefer for my breakfast to be a grab and go affair.  Buying pre-made breakfasts (bagels and the like) is a good plan, and when the price is right, totally affordable. But every time I buy bagels or muffins or another pre made breakfast food, I stare at the big jars of flour and sugar on my counter and sigh.

This week, I finally found an amazing blueberry muffin recipe. These are coffee shop caliber muffins. The only changes I made were to reduce the amount of sugar and flour in the topping (to 1/4 cup sugar and 1/3 cup flour) and to make 12 muffins instead of 8. If you follow this recipe, be sure to cube up the butter for the topping fairly small.

If you live in California and you step into your local Albertson's this week to purchase ingredients for blueberry muffins, here's how much this recipe would run you, per muffin. Except for the Barbie muffin wrappers part. I found those on manager's special at Food 4 Less. You could also jam aluminium foil or wax paper into the muffin pan cups. Or just forgo the wrappers completely.

40 cents a muffin! And that's assuming you haven't shopped around a little for the best ingredient prices. I did, and the batch I made last night probably came in at closer to 25 cents per muffin, meaning that a muffin and a cup of Starbucks coffee made at home runs me about 28 cents total. (We've got a friend who works at Starbucks, he sells/gives us his weekly pound of coffee.)

If I had homemade coffee and a muffin everyday for a year, I'd be paying $102.20 a year to do so. By contrast, spending $3.25 on drip coffee and a muffin at a coffee shop once a week would cost about $169 a year. Homemade coffee and muffin just once a week for a year? $14.56, for me.  Which, if you're still with me, saves $154.44 a year on muffins and coffee.

And the kicker? Once again: homemade coffee and a muffin, every day, for one year, would cost me $102.20. Buying it at a shop, everyday, for a year? $1186.25. That's assuming you're buying a cup of brewed coffee, as opposed to a latte which would bring your yearly coffee and muffins total to about $1825.

And no, I didn't forget a decimal point.

Save a Ton on Food with a Price Book!

In April, I started putting together the beginnings of a price book for grocery shopping. I recorded the lowest price per unit for every item I might need to buy in May at three different stores, two near my house and one near my work. Buy researching prices before I shopped, saved anywhere from 5 cents to over a dollar per unit on nearly every item. My May shopping haul should keep my basics stocked for a month or more.

To make your own, make a list of the items you buy the most often (save your grocery receipts to help figure this out). Make a seperate list for each store you plan to shop at. Record the price of the item, the weight, and the price per unit of weight. For items like bagels, use 'bagel' as the unit of measure. Sometime packaging can be tricky, a 10 pound bag of flour might cost more per pound than buying two 5 pound bags. Buying items based on unit cost rather than total price gets you far more for your money. By the same token, buying TOO much of something because it's cheaper per unit can be a bad idea if you won't use up the item before it expires. Once I gather the data, I use Excel to sort it; first by item, then by unit price.

I did my shopping last week using my price book. I was able to reference it when confronted with a sale price - even though cheese might be 25% off at one store, its everyday price might be still lower than that at another store. If a price went up between my price survey and my actual shopping day, I could use my list to determine whether to go ahead and buy the item or if I should wait and buy it for less at the next store.

The cost in gas was probably negligible, Fresh & Easy and Stater Brothers are less than five miles from my house and Food 4 Less is less than a mile from work. Eventually I'm going to see if the money I save comparison shopping is negated by the gas mileage I use by shopping at three different stores. I've got a sneaking feeling that I'm still saving money.

My impulse buy was three 10 packs of Jalapeno & Cilantro Tortillas at Fresh & Easy. They were marked down and 50% off, making them not too much more than a 30 pack of plain flour tortillas at Food 4 Less. This came out to about a $1 splurge. Even though I bought a slightly more expensive item, my price book told me just exactly how much more I was spending.

The initial gathering of price data for a price book can be a pain in the butt, but once you've gotten it once, you can keep it updated using your grocery receipts. It may seem like a lot of work, but when you make $1400 a month, every little bit counts!

The Spice Must Flow

Once you've acquired some cooking equipment, a cookbook you like, and you've gotten used to the idea that sometimes you're going to have to clean up after other people, you'll want to start stocking up on some essential ingredients, specifically- spices. The 'spice rack' in my first apartment was salt, pepper, lawry's seasoning salt, jambalaya mix, and unused ramen flavor packets. Yikes.

A spice rack doesn't need to be gorgeous or full of Every Spice Ever. I keep mine stocked with the spices I use most often, and I buy spices I might need only once or twice in very small quantities. Here's the list of essential spices for my kitchen, yours might be different, and it might evolve as time goes on. More seasoned cooks might look at might list and say, "OHMIGOD! You skipped _____!" But remember, this isn't about how to be a gourmet cook, it's about how to cook pretty well for a fraction of what you might be spending on eating out.

Salt
Black Pepper
Cumin (a must for me, I put cumin in nearly every soup I make)
Paprika
Cayenne
Basil (I usually use fresh basil from the container garden, but I do have a stash of the dried stuff)
Oregano
Bay Leaves
Thyme
Dill (I usually buy it fresh instead of dried)
Cilantro (I generally use it fresh from my garden, but you can keep dried cilantro [coriander] on hand just in case)
Ginger
Allspice
Cinnamon
Ground Cloves
Ground Nutmeg
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder

I don't recommend buying spice mixtures (chili powder, taco seasoning, pumpkin pie spice), as most of these are simply combinations of other spices (which is another post). I can make just about anything I want with the spices on this list, though I'm sure that the more I cook- the bigger my spice rack will get.

Buy a spice rack with empty jars and then fill the jars with spices. Buying pre-jarred spices is insanely expensive (not to mention really cluttery after a while), try buying them in bulk or in bags. If you live in California, Stater Brothers has bagged spices (brand: Sunripe) that are generally $2 or less, and much cheaper per ounce than the stuff in jars. Try the ethnic foods aisle, or an ethnic grocery store. If you can't find anything but over-priced pre jarred spices, try googling "mail order spices."

I sometimes see unopened, well stocked spice racks at Goodwill, obvious wedding gift cast offs. Obviously if you score one of these, double check the jars to be sure all safety seals are intact before you eat any of it.

The No Groceries Experiment Wrap Up

At the beginning of April, I decided that I didn't want to be working until 2 am two to three nights a week this month. (I have to work pretty late if I want to make $1400 a month, other wise I make about $1100-1200.) When I reviewed my March spending, I realized that I'd spent upwards of $200 on groceries. Yikes! I feed myself and my boyfriend when he comes over, and I try to keep the household items in stock (we share buying duty on eggs, cheese, sour cream, other baking needs - the stuff we all use), but spending $200 in one month was just to much for me. So I decided that I wouldn't grocery shop in April. I cooked all of my at-home meals from food I'd already bought. I ate very well, and I've STILL got stuff left over.

As the month went on, I began to gain a solid picture of just how often I need to cook up a batch of soup (about 5 times a month), or how often I need to make a batch of cookies that will keep my sweet tooth from spending money on candy bars (about once a week). I drank coffee, tea, lemonade, and beer. I don't drink soda outside of work anyway, but if you're a soda addict perhaps you could switch to at least a cheaper, if still sugary, alternative.

Along the way I've gotten a better idea of what ingredients I need to actually buy. Too often I'd just head into the store with a vague idea of what I might be out of and I'd shop without a real plan. By the middle of April, I was able to put together a fairly comprehensive list of what I need to buy to eat happily. I'm sure there are still items missing, but for now- it works. I took the time that I might normally have gone to the store to shop and, using my list, I've begun to put together a pricebook, noting what items sells for the cheapest (per unit) and where, an activity that should save me at least $100 over the course of a year, if not more.

Once I've finished the shopping necessary to re-stock my supplies, I'll write a detailed post of how the pricebook project works out. And in May I'll be posting basic recipe templates that you can adapt for whatever ingredients you have on hand, as well as a guide to figuring out what YOU need to shop for to eat well, and how to save money doing it.

The No-Groceries Experiment Update #2

I've still yet to buy proper groceries this month, though I have purchased these items from the grocery store: a pint of ice cream (bought instead of buying cones at a store), a muffin and a cheese stick ($1.32 breakfast instead of eating out), and some burgers/hot dogs + buns and beer for a barbeque. My day to day meals continue to be made from my pantry. Since my last update I've eaten:

Vegetarian Chili
Lentil Soup
Ginger Snaps
Burritos (with Pinto Beans and Rice w/ Cilantro)
Farina (Cream of Wheat)
Ginger Snaps
Coffee
Iced Tea
Lemonade (made from real lemons! In California, the law is that if a tree's fruit is hanging over public space, you can pick some. I wouldn't make a habit of harvesting sidewalk lemons, but homemade lemonade is tasty!)
+burgers at work.

Today I've got garbanzo bean stew cooking in the crockpot (a tasty stew whose leftovers can be turned into almost-falafel), I'll be baking a batch of pumpkin muffins using pumpkin pulp leftover from Thanksgiving (yay for freezers), and dinner will probably be pasta with lentil-tomato sauce.

I'm beginning to put together a Master List of just what I need to buy in order to eat well. Obviously, not everyone will be content with legume soup/stew in the quantities I eat it in, but having been raised quasi-vegetarian it doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I much prefer tons of homemade stews and soups to anything made from a package. I definitely feel as if I'm eating healthier this month, my "meals" at work notwithstanding.

More and more I'm looking forward to writing my analysis of this whole experiment in a week or two. Before the massive shopping trip I'll need to do at the beginning of May, I'll be putting together a price book in order to be certain I'm getting the best deals possible, but more on that in another post.

The No-Groceries Experiment Update

This month's experiment to spend no money on groceries is going swimmingly so far. (Well, it is only the 9th. But still!). The closest I've come to grocery shopping is paying one roommate back for 6 or 7 bottles of beer and asking the other to please pick up a lime. I've eaten/drank:

Leftover Pesto Pasta
Bow Tie Noodles with Tomato Sauce
Pea Soup (vegetarian)
Biscuits
Pancakes (make a Big Batch on a weekend morning, and then freeze enough for quick breakfasts during the week)
Irish Soda Bread
Peanut Butter Cookies
Black Bean Soup (with cilantro from my container garden!)
Corn Bread
Chocolate Truffle Cookies
A Bagel or Two
Sweet Iced Tea
Apple Juice
Coffee
+Burgers from Work (about 5 a week)

The soup + bread combo works wonders for me. I can make a big batch of soup and I'll get about two dinners (me + Boyfriend), one or two lunches for me, and I can send some with him to work. If I make a batch of a quick bread to pair with it, I've got quite a filling meal indeed.

Because even Pea Soup haters love my Pea Soup, though it might more accurately be called Vegetarian Pea Stew, here's my recipe (in all of it's guesstimating glory):

1 lb Split Peas
7 c water
2 vegetable boullion cubes
2 large carrots
2 small potatoes
1 brown onion
1 1/2 Tbs Cumin
Pepper
Salt
2 or 3 Bay Leaves
Tabasco Sauce

Place the split peas in a bowl with 3 cups water to soak. Put the other 4 cups of water in a stock pot to boil. Chop the carrots and potatoes into your version of bitesize. Peel the onion and chop it in half. When the water in the pot boils, toss in the boullion cubes. Once the cubes dissolve, dump the split peas (do not drain), the half onion, carrots, and potatoes into the pot. Add the cumin, bay leaves, and salt & pepper to taste. Add Tabasco if desired. Keep in stock pot over medium-low heat for about 30 mins, or until peas have become mushy and potatoes are tender. Remove onion and bay leaves before serving.

You can replace the boullion cubes + water with vegetable broth if you like.

I make a batch of this soup about once a month. I eat at least one meal a day for about week with it, and that includes feeding my significant other when he comes over. I serve it with Irish Soda Bread or plain old biscuits.

And the very best part is that this soup costs me less than $5 to make. Much, much less. More often than not, I'll offer this one up to the roommates for dinner, because they love it. Even my roommate's 5 year old daughter will attest that the mushy green stew "... looks yucky but it tastes really good!"

Lost in the Supermarket

While I tend to shop for groceries at the stores with the lowest prices and to prepare my food at home rather than eating out, I've yet to develop a system for grocery shopping. Some months I spend as little as $25, and others I'll spend upwards of $200. Over the past few months, I've managed to put away a hibernation-worthy stash of ingredients, all of which could be used to feed me over the next month. I've got lentils, chick peas, pasta, a billion cans of tomato in various forms, vegetable boullion cubes, carrots galore, a full spice rack, pretty much everything I need for baking, even a box of soy milk and a box of chai concentrate, plus much more.

After reconciling my accounts for the month (I LOVE the last day of the month, but more on that tomorrow), I began to despair at just how much I've spent on groceries in the last month. ($203.64, including dinners out). I was able to bring in a lot of extra income last month, but this month between going back to school and choosing to see my significant other rather than working until 2am three or four nights a week, my income is going to be significantly lower. So rather than bust my ass trying to sell EVERYTHING I own on ebay I'm going to try to hang onto as much of my money as possible. More on exactly how I'm going to do that tomorrow, but the main avenue for savings in April is going to be Not Spending on Groceries.

Luckily, I get one small meal a day at my job when I'm working. It's not the healthiest meal (I work at a much-beloved by the natives California drive-thru burger place), but it is pretty much the only meat I ever eat. I'm a quasi vegetarian. My boyfriend is vegetarian, by the time I'm home from work I do not want to look at meat no matter what it is, and eating semi-vegetarian is cheaper for me.

On Thursday I'm heading to the Farmer's Market to pick up some fresh veggies, but other than that I'll be eating from my current food supply. I'll be keeping track of my meals and the ingredients I'm using (and of course I'll post my recipes, or link to the equivalent online if I've used one from a book). At the end of the month I'll take stock of how well I ate- hopefully it will give me a framework to develop a streamlined mealplan upon.

Not to mention, I'll know what to keep in stock at home in case zombies ever attack and I can't leave the house for several months.

Gardening Without a Yard

The lakeside house I rent with my roommates is amazing. Tons of storage space, great view, huge kitchen, lots of light in the family room. Unfortunately, the owners decided that the entire backyard should be deck & dock. There's pretty much no green, and very little shade unless we sit directly under the balcony. So today, (non live-in) Boyfriend and I ventured out to the garden center to buy some plants and proper pots. I chose the two herbs I cook with most often (cilantro and basil), a tomato plant (plus some marigolds to share the planter), a jalapeno plant, and some chamomile. My hope is that over time, I'll manage not to kill them all and my investment of $66.81 will pay off over and over again. (I'd budgeted $100 for the project).

If these plants thrive, I'm hoping to save enough for a gigantic planter, big enough for a small lemon tree. Over time I'd like to have almost a full vegetable garden. Maybe one day I'll be able to transplant everything into an actual yard. But for now I'm 23 and my plants need to be mobile so they can move where I move and the investment isn't left behind.

Now I've just got to find a way to protect it from the geese, ducks, and neighborhood cats.

The British Invasion

About six months back, British ubermarket Tesco (think Target or Wal Mart on steroids) began a venture into the American market with a chain of small grocery stores called Fresh & Easy. They began by rolling out about one hundred stores in the Southwestern US. I read a review of the flagship Glendale store on LAist in November-ish, but I didn't actually shop at a Fresh & Easy until February.

I was up in Boyfriend's neck of the woods (in LA) and we drove by a Fresh & Easy just as we were both complaining about being hungry. It was almost ten on a Sunday night and Fresh & Easy seemed like one of the few places that might feed us both- he's a vegetarian and I'm just an indecisive eater. Not picky. Indecisive.

Perhaps the most striking feature of a Fresh & Easy is the lack of cashiers. Or the plethora of robot cashiers, depending on how you look at it. What hit us next was how very like the grocery section of a Tesco it looked. My Mother, Stepdad, and Half-Brother live almost across the street from a Tesco in Britain. Boyfriend and I visited them in January, and when your mother's got a 6 month old to care for and you're flat broke in a foreign country visiting your folks...well, let's just say we spent a lot of time at the Tesco.

Boyfriend got excited when he realized there was vegetarian-friendly food that might actually fill him up and taste good. I started to get really excited when I looked at the prices. Oh my sweet lord are they low! I didn't actually go to Fresh & Easy for proper groceries until this last Sunday, and I don't know that I've ever before walked out of a grocery store feeling like I robbed them.

I bought:
A huge tub of Sour Cream
12 bagels
A jar of ground cinnamon
A package of tri-color noodles
A can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
A jar of sauerkraut
A huge can of coffee
and A bottle of pure vanilla extract (not imitation crap)

For $15.23(!!) after a $5 off coupon (most stores are giving away $5 coupons like candy right now. The new chain is apparently under-performing so far this year, which is a shame.)

I'm a huge proponent of shopping at cheaper grocery stores. In Orange County, Stater Bros, Food 4 Less, and now Fresh & Easy are generally the best bets. I've got an Albertson's conveniently around the corner from my house, but I avoid it because other stores are almost always cheaper. When I'm in a hurry and end up buying ingredients at Albertson's (or worse, Ralph's!), I always wince a little when I pull out my debit card.

Fresh & Easy Markets are popping up everywhere, and I can't recommend them enough. If you're in the Southwest, and you've got groceries to buy this week, try Fresh & Easy and let me know what you think of them!

And no, they're not paying me for this. :-)