Photographer: Jon Sullivan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
You’ve all seen me overanalyze the family grocery bill, now I’ll take it a little further and show you tricks to making your meals cheaper.
If you haven’t read the numbers behind the average family grocery bill, I encourage you to do so. This post is all about expanding on the idea of managing your food spending by the cost per serving of the recipes that you cook. In the post I took a favorite American meal, hamburgers and fries, and proved that while the total cost of $5.75 for all ingredients looks cheap, but per serving, the cost was nearly double the average.
Here are the numbers behind the menu we’ll work with:
- Hamburger – 1lb – $2.00
- Buns – 4- $1.00
- French Fries – $1.00
- Beans $1.00
- Carrots – $.50
- Condiments – $.25
Total Cost: $5.75
Servings: 3
Cost per Serving: $1.83
It looks cheap, but isn’t. I’m going to show you how to make this meal for far cheaper using a few basic, frugal cooking principles.
Use Less of the Most Expensive Ingredients
By far, the largest cost to a hamburger cookout is the hamburger meat. You’ll notice that I was cooking up 1/3 pound hamburgers and thus, the hamburger cost $.66 per person. One of the easiest ways to lower a meal’s cost is to cut back on your largest food expenses. You can do this two ways: literally use less or add in more of something else that is cheaper.
I’m a big advocate of adding more of something else cheaper and healthier. If a stew recipes calls for 2 lbs of beef, I’ll use 1 lb and put in more vegetables. For hamburgers, I’ll use ¼ lb of meat and add onion to the meat mixture.
Savings: $.30
Substitute: But Don’t Sacrifice Quality or Health
You already know this, but a hamburger bun is just bread. In fact, it’s not that different than the ends of the loaf; you know the two pieces of bread that no one wants to eat. However, throw it in a hamburger bun package and suddenly the untouchable bread is coveted. The desire for a hamburger bun is all about marketing and that means paying extra.
Eight slices of white bread costs about 1/3 of the price of hamburger buns. You won’t be worse off health wise. If cold bread sounds too plain for your family, you should try some of your own marketing. Toast the bread or grill it before serving. For some reason, the extra effort makes the grain part of the burger more appealing.
You could also substitute some whole grain bread. You might not get as much savings, but this one area where you can opt for being healthy without adding cost.
Savings with 8slices of white bread: $.66
Switch Out Processed Food for Home Cooking
Yes, fries are next on the list. No, I’m not going down the food list intentionally.
Let me preface by saying that frozen french fries are not very expensive. However, in most cases, even the cheapest prepackaged foods come with added costs. There is packaging, preservatives and even food preparation to cover in the cost you pay at the register. If you want healthier, more frugal potatoes to eat for dinner, then go for a couple of bulk potatoes.
Potatoes are one of the cheapest starchy vegetables in the grocery store. As an added benefit, there are plenty of tasty ways to cook them that don’t involve all the added grease of the deep fryer. Cube three potatoes and add one tablespoon of oil, one minced garlic clove and some rosemary. Then roast the potatoes for a crispy alternative to french fries.
It’s going to mean more time and more effort, but it is also very delicious, far healthier and much cheaper.
Savings: $.50
Add a Low Cost Dish and Add a Serving
The original menu served 4 and cost only $5.75. It sounds pretty impressive, except when you realize that eating at that cost every meal for a month would add up to a grocery bill of $517 per month for a family of three. You need meals that cost about $1.10 per serving for a family of three to maintain a grocery bill of a mere $300.
This means that if we can add additional servings for a cost less than $1, we can bring the cost per serving of the whole meal down. The good news is that the human stomach does not fill up by type of food. It fills up by sheer volume you eat. Sometimes adding an additional serving is just a matter of adding another dish to the meal. I noticed that our dinner is missing some fruit, so let’s make 1 pound of fruit salad out of two parts banana, one part apple and one part cantaloupe. Our homemade salad would cost only about $.67 to make.
Adding It All Up
You might have noticed already, but I’d been preparing to add an extra serving throughout the post. My first tip split our hamburger meat from three patties to four. I also calculated 8 pieces of bread instead of 6. Subtract the savings and add in the cost of our fruit salad and our meal now costs $4.96 total. However, our cost per serving went from $1.91 down to $1.24. At this cost per meal for a month, your grocery bill would be $335 instead of $517. You’d save thousands each year!
It’s not hard to have a major impact on your grocery budget. However, it does take a big understanding of how to manipulate the small things that go into a meal so that you can have a big impact on your budget.
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I’m a big fan of making things myself vs. buying them in the store. I actually made hummus and almond butter today for a fraction of what it would cost to buy it prepackaged (of course I got lucky with bogo plus coupons on the almonds since they are normally quite expensive). Plus, I can control what goes into it, which I really like.
I would have to differ a bit on the theory that the stomach fills up on volume rather than food type. Eating quality, calorie-dense foods deliver the full feeling much quicker than low-calorie alternatives. For example, iceberg lettuce, which most salads are composed of, contains no true nutritional value compared to peanut butter. If you attempted to eat up to the same volume of each, the lettuce would be finished first due to the fact that it’s mostly water, whereas the peanut butter is calorie-dense. I wish I could remember the exact source for reference (I believe it was in a Muscle and Fitness or Men’s Fitness article).
I believe you are right on volume. I suppose that you aren’t going to fill up on water alone.
I do a lot of cooking at home. But unfortunetley I choose to eat grass fed beef and it runs about 5.99-6.99 a pound so I end up spending quite a bit for quality food but I think it’s worth it.
Chase
Nothing wrong with pricey meat or else I’d never eat fish. I try to work a number of low cost meals in the same week to bring down the grocery bill.
And I thought I was the only one who used the loaf ends as a bun. As usual, you’re way ahead of me. 🙂
The ends are the best part! 50% crust; where else do you get that kind of proportion.
Great ideas.. we typically run things very similar.
We actually usually just take a normal piece of bread and slice it in half, to make the two sides of the bun. Some of the gourmet buns out there really have a ridiculous amount of carbs in them. Nobody needs that much bread with dinner.
We are also huge proponents of homemade french fries, especially with sweet potatoes.. Double yummy.
I couldn’t agree more on the bread. I’ll have to give the half slice of bread a shot. I’m also a proponent of homemade fries, although I tend to just make different style potatoes. Onion rings are also very easy to make and reasonably priced.
This is an interesting analysis. The tough part for me is that I am a single guy. Cooking for one, it is hard to go all fresh and not let things spoil. I end up spending more per serving, but my total cost is not horrible as I am only buying for one.
Great point Eric. This is definitely a post about cooking for 3 or 4. You’d definitely need to switch tactics if you are single or likely, couple.
Great point Eric.
Like you, I’m a single guy, and cooking for one is definitely hard, however like yourself, my total cost of food is not a lot.
How about your grocery bill compared to your overall budget?
I much prefer homemade french fries over the ones from the store; they are baked and way better for you! A tip with the meat – if you are putting in veggies anyway, quinoa mixed in with the beef is frugal and super healthy; it has a ton of protein so you won’t have to sacrifice.
Great suggestion. I thought about mentioning bread crumbs, but I think your idea of quinoa is way better.
“I don’t know why they call it hamburger helper, Clark. It holds up great on it’s own.”
Come on, somebody had to quote Vacation on this post!
Great analysis. I actually like the burger better with more onion in it AND I prefer bread to a bun. Better meal AND less costly. Double bonus….
I just got back from Croatia and can really taste the difference between processed foods and not. We are going to be working in more natural, local foods. I usually take manufacturer’s suggested portions/servings etc as the max and try to shoot for something smaller.
That’s great. We too have been trying for more natural foods. You’ll have to report back on how that goes for you.
I love the tips – especially replacing 1 lb of beef with veggies or beans.
This is how people can extend their grocery budget.
It’s a trick that works every time.