As a vegetarian, are you feeling the pinch at the grocery store?

[cheles2kids]

This is a spin-off from another thread and it got me to thinking about vegetarian grocery budgets vs. meat eater/ocasional veg. meal grocery budgets and I was wondering if you are feeling the pinch as well?

I know there are alot of vegetarians who buy only what's on sale that week and make their menu as they go.
But so do meat eaters, whatever is on sale is what they center their menu around.

So do you think overall are you doing better, worse or about the same at the grocery store?

I made a comment in the other thread here:
[ame="http://www.frugalvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?p=999894#post999894"]Groceries cost TOO MUCH! - Frugal Village Forums[/ame]
about buying 1 lb. bags of beans for $1.25, seriously I can remember paying .99 cents not too long ago.
So obviously as a vegetarian I'm also feeling the "pinch" at the grocery store.

Although I did find an excellent deal on sweet red bell peppers for .77 a piece, so I bought several.
But I did have to pay over $6.00 for a bag of Vital Wheat Gluten, I really want to try my hand at making homemade seiten and I also plan on using this as a binder in some veggie patties.

How's everybody else doing?

[Lady_V]

The prices of produce are going up... but the amounts and/or quality is going down. Of course, I could shop at only Whole Foods... but I like having silly extras like electricity

It's gotten to the point that I grab whatever is on sale and hope for the best. If there is absolute junk at the local store, I will plan a trip to Whole Foods.

We don't have a freezer so it's fresh, or it's nothing... and I won't accept the latter.

[The Muse]

I'm doing slightly worse. The cost of pretty much everything has gone up, but unlike the increases in meat and processed food prices, the increase is pretty nominal. A bag of dried chickpeas was $.89 earlier this year, now it's $1.09. It's definitely getting more expensive, but it's pretty much a dime here and there.

I shop mostly at Price-Rite, Trader Joe's, and the asian and fruits & veggies markets, those places tend to be less expensive than regular grocery stores.

I pay between $35 & $40 every 2 weeks for DH and me.

[Palooka]

I pay between $35 & $40 every 2 weeks for DH and me.

Wow that is so great! Hints please. What is mostly on your shopping list?

I have felt the pinch but I am the only Veggie in the house so it is hard for me to narrow it down.

I have to say it would be totally cool to have a Vegetarian husband. Life would be so sweet!

My problem is a lack of time to cook like I used too. Having a toddler is hard to find the time for myself at the age he is. I find I am spending more on Amy's food.(oh come on...It's so good. I can't help it. lol) But really crazy because it's like almost 5 bucks a pop here.

I can't believe how much fruit and veggies cost. Peppers and avacados are always so high. If I am in the stir fry mood I find it cheaper to buy the frozen peppers in the bag than the fresh. I hear that their quality is close but I like to chop my fresh veggies. lol

I love the frozen bags of squash or even the squash/zucchini mix. I just roast em' with olive oil and whatever spice I like.

Or I throw them in the rice cooker with the mixed veggies. Soy sauce.

Blah, I'm in a rut and broke.

[britbunny]

It's quite weird for us tbh. Things are far more expensive than this time last year so instead of trying to be superfrugal we have gone the other way.

For example, we used to be able to get a 3kg bag of shop brand pasta for £1, it now costs £3. But the fancier pasta we like but could never afford is still about £1.25 a kilo. Considering it is so much nicer, we go for the more expensive stuff as the price gap has narrowed, it's value for money. If that makes sense. We've done this across the board. "luxury" stuff doesn't seem to have risen in price as much as basic stuff so we're feeling the benefit.

I'm happy that we "made hay while the sun shone" but now things are more expensive I am far more choosy, it's not just a matter of picking the basics brand. Alot more things seem to be hitting the reduced section in the evening so we benefit from lots of reduced price bread products and things like fresh soup and more exotic produce. We have a freezer so that helps. We shop at a store which sells lots of local produce too, so when its plentiful it's cheap - we buy it!

I think if I wasn't very good at cooking I would be feeling the pain though *eeep*

[cheles2kids]

The prices of produce are going up... but the amounts and/or quality is going down. Of course, I could shop at only Whole Foods... but I like having silly extras like electricity

It's gotten to the point that I grab whatever is on sale and hope for the best. If there is absolute junk at the local store, I will plan a trip to Whole Foods.

We don't have a freezer so it's fresh, or it's nothing... and I won't accept the latter.

Lady_V, thankfully for my wallet, I don't have access to any kind of health/natural foods type store.
I have no Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, etc.
I know there is a Whole Foods in Nashville, but I'm not planning on driving 1.5 hours to get there, kwim?
So my closest "luxury" is to shop at my larger Kroger store and even still that's a 45 minute drive.
I sooo know what you mean when it comes to paying the other bills.
I personally think buying organic is wonderful, but seriously, who can afford that if you have alot to buy each week, and as you said, pay the other bills as well?


As for having to shop at a higher priced store, again I completely agree. That was really why I made the trip over to the larger Kroger yesterday.
Locally I have a Food Lion & a SAL, yep, that's it.
SAL does NOT have a good produce department, so basically that only leaves me with Food Lion and they are hit or miss when it comes to fresh veggies.

Regarding a freezer, I think that's one place that I've found that I *can* save a few extra bucks, is buying frozen fruits & veggies.
Do you have room for a freezer?
If so, I think that would be a worthwhile investment for you, even if it's a small model, when your able to purchase one.
Especially in the winter months, because other than leafy greens, different types of squash and sweet potatoes, there's not alot in the way of fresh fruits & veggies, unless I want to pay even higher prices for them, unfortunately.

[cheles2kids]

I'm doing slightly worse. The cost of pretty much everything has gone up, but unlike the increases in meat and processed food prices, the increase is pretty nominal. A bag of dried chickpeas was $.89 earlier this year, now it's $1.09. It's definitely getting more expensive, but it's pretty much a dime here and there.

I shop mostly at Price-Rite, Trader Joe's, and the asian and fruits & veggies markets, those places tend to be less expensive than regular grocery stores.

I pay between $35 & $40 every 2 weeks for DH and me.

The Muse, me too. Slightly worse, overall.
I was paying around .99 just about 4 or 5 months ago for a 1 lb. bag of beans, now, 1.25 a lb.
A dime here or a dime there, equals about a $20.00-$30.00 increase at the check-out, unfortunately.

I've only heard good things about those asian grocers, but there's nothing like that here, so it's Kroger for me.

You're budget is awesome.
But no matter how hard I tried, there is no way that I could even come close to that.
I spend about that much, just in fresh fruits & veggies for my family of 4 and I'm the only vegetarian.
Although I make sure everyone gets in there fair share of both fruits AND veggies, each day.

[The Muse]

Wow that is so great! Hints please. What is mostly on your shopping list?

I mostly cook from scratch and try to keep the per meal cost down as low as possible. Here's a sample of what we eat...

Breakfast:

Egg on an English Muffin (cheese optional)
Oatmeal with Cinnamon & Sugar or Cinnamon Apples
Yogurt with Homemade Granola
Homemade Muffins
Homemade Pancakes, Waffles on the weekend

Lunch:

Homemade Soup (sometimes this is dinner first)
Salads (homemade caesar, wild rice & cranberry salad, soba noodles, chickpeas & veggies in vinaigrette, tri-color pasta & veggies in vinaigrette)
Hummus & Veggie Wraps/Pitas
Greek Salad Wraps/Pitas
Tofurky Sandwiches
Quiche
Bruschetta
Leftovers

Dinner:

Tofu BLTs (I make my own tofu bacon... $1 worth of tofu makes 4-5 sandwiches)
TVP Meatball Subs
TVP Sloppy Joes
Tempeh Marsala
Tempeh "cheesesteak" Sandwiches
Chickpea Tacos
Penne with Vodka Sauce
Pasta with Veggies and Creamy Lemon Sauce
Veggie Enchiladas
Grilled Veggie Sandwiches
Pizza
Rice & Bean Casserole
General Tso's Tofu
Tofu Veggie Dumplings
Tofu Stirfry

A few of the ways I keep costs down are to skip mixes; flour, sugar, etc. are much cheaper than buying pancake & muffin mix. Oats are much cheaper than buying pre-made granola. I use powdered or soy milk in place of regular milk in my recipes.

I buy beans in bulk and pressure cook them a lb. at a time. I have a friend with a Costco membership, they have giant cans of chickpeas there for $2.39, so sometimes I buy those. One can gives me a tub of chickpea salad, a couple batches of hummus, and a batch or two of chickpea tacos.

Tofu is about $1/pkg. at the asian market, so I save a lot there considering it's over $2 at the regular grocery store and $1.25 at Trader Joes. Tempeh is only $1.49/package at Trader Joes vs. around $3 at the regular grocery store. Tofurky is $2.69/pkg at Trader Joes and I can get 4-5 sandwiches out of a package if I load it up on veggies.

I watch the sales and stock up on canned tomatoes when they go on sale 2/$1, and frozen veggies when they're on sale for $1/package. I buy TVP in bulk at Whole Foods, which believe it or not is far less expensive ($1.99/lb) than the pre-packaged Bob's Red Mill TVP you can get at most grocery stores. I also look for sales on taco shells and pasta, but regular price for both at Price-Rite is $.89- $.99, so it's hard to beat that. Other than that, I pretty much buy what I need every 2 weeks.

You'll see a lot of beans, tofu, tempeh, bread products (English muffins, sub rolls, hamburger buns, whole grain bread, etc.), fresh fruits & veggies and rice on my list. You won't see snacks and convenience foods. The only snacks I buy are pretzels and fig bars, though I do try and have homemade cookies, cake, or pie on hand for DH.

Very little goes to waste in my house, if the bananas are getting funky, you can bet there's going to be banana bread for breakfast.

I'm fortunate that DH is a vegetarian.

Sorry this is so long, I hope it helps.

[MoonMommy]

I am not vegetarian, but I really don't eat a lot of meat each day and there are some days where I don't eat meat at all. I love fresh vegies and it is pricier this year for sure. In our grocery store, they have a spot where they have "older" veggies that are still good, but maybe not perfect that are considerably cheaper. I often can find banannas, green peppers, etc there for quite a bit cheaper than the reg price. When that happens, I buy up as much as they have since I can either freeze or make something out of them. Especially slightly softenend peppers...they are great for stuffed peppers. I also try to shop at BJs for a lot of my frozen veggies since you can get huge bags of BJs brand veggies for fairly cheap.

[madhen]

I tend to buy organic, so I haven't seen a lot of difference. It has ALWAYS been too expensive!! I also love Amy's and have been guilty of stocking up on that. That and Annie's mac/cheese products. SOOOOO GOOOD!!!!

Because I have chickens, I don't buy eggs. Don't even know what they cost anymore, it has been so long. I probably end up paying more per dozen, since my hens are so spoiled, but it is still fun to walk past the eggs at the store, knowing that I am not contributing to any animal cruelty in the poultry industry that day!

I also grow a lot of my own and am expanding my orchard/veggie garden every year.

I buy meat for the dogs, but I always just try to find what is on sale or what is cheapest. Around T-Day, I can often find turkey at .69/pound, so I load up on that, cook it, freeze it, and shred it into their food

[cheles2kids]

Wow that is so great! Hints please. What is mostly on your shopping list?

I have felt the pinch but I am the only Veggie in the house so it is hard for me to narrow it down.

I have to say it would be totally cool to have a Vegetarian husband. Life would be so sweet!

My problem is a lack of time to cook like I used too. Having a toddler is hard to find the time for myself at the age he is. I find I am spending more on Amy's food.(oh come on...It's so good. I can't help it. lol) But really crazy because it's like almost 5 bucks a pop here.

I can't believe how much fruit and veggies cost. Peppers and avacados are always so high. If I am in the stir fry mood I find it cheaper to buy the frozen peppers in the bag than the fresh. I hear that their quality is close but I like to chop my fresh veggies. lol

I love the frozen bags of squash or even the squash/zucchini mix. I just roast em' with olive oil and whatever spice I like.

Or I throw them in the rice cooker with the mixed veggies. Soy sauce.

Blah, I'm in a rut and broke.

Sorry, I had meant to reply to everyone's posts earlier, but we had really early soccer games this morning.

Yeah, I'm also the only veg. in our household as well.
So, I've realized that in order to stay veg., that on some nights there will have to be 2 seperate meals.
I mean, yeah, it would be so nice just to be able to veganise their dishes, but sometimes that just doesn't work.

As for Amy's frozen dinners?
I have had a few of those and they are tasty.
One of my favorite lunches used to be her burritos, my local military commisary had them sometimes for just a little over a $1.00 a piece.
I do know that if you contact them personally they will send you some coupons for their products.
I did that a couple years ago and they sent me several different ones.

I'm thankful to be able to do some frozen fruits and veggies too.
They have saved many of a dinner, when we were getting close to our next shopping trip and I didn't have any good fresh veggies on hand.
But as for preference? I'd prefer fresh over frozen any day, but I try hard to only shop bi-weekly.
I was trying out a monthly shopping thing, but um yeah, with trying to stay veg. it just doesn't work very well.
I have found the less I'm in the store, the less I spend and I'm not a big "shopper" anyhow, so it's a win-win for me.

As for being in a cooking rut, I fall into that from time to time too. The best thing for me to do, is when I do cook a meal, make sure to double it for myself.
Have one portion now and pop another one into the freezer for later.
I'll be making up some of those stuffed peppers tomorrow, so I will do 2 to eat and then 2 for the freezer (uncooked).
Maybe this could be an option for you as well?

I'm not a big mock meat person, so I'm trying to cook without it this time around and I'm finding it's not been too too hard to do.

[cheles2kids]

It's quite weird for us tbh. Things are far more expensive than this time last year so instead of trying to be superfrugal we have gone the other way.

For example, we used to be able to get a 3kg bag of shop brand pasta for £1, it now costs £3. But the fancier pasta we like but could never afford is still about £1.25 a kilo. Considering it is so much nicer, we go for the more expensive stuff as the price gap has narrowed, it's value for money. If that makes sense. We've done this across the board. "luxury" stuff doesn't seem to have risen in price as much as basic stuff so we're feeling the benefit.

I'm happy that we "made hay while the sun shone" but now things are more expensive I am far more choosy, it's not just a matter of picking the basics brand. Alot more things seem to be hitting the reduced section in the evening so we benefit from lots of reduced price bread products and things like fresh soup and more exotic produce. We have a freezer so that helps. We shop at a store which sells lots of local produce too, so when its plentiful it's cheap - we buy it!

I think if I wasn't very good at cooking I would be feeling the pain though *eeep*

Wow, britbunny! I'm so glad to hear that some of your items are able to stay the same, especially more of the luxury stuff.

Hopefully the prices will stay where they are for you and you can enjoy staying within your grocery budget AND eating a bit fancier.

I wished we had a reduced section of our local grocery, I mean SAL has a small one, but usually by the time they put anything out it's already too far gone to even try to get anything to freeze.
But as far as the freezer goes? Yep, it really has saved us a lot, especially during the winter months.

I need to get back into the habit of trying to drive to our next town over and stopping into the farmer's market and seeing what I can find.
Our Saturday mornings are usually filled with the kids' activities, so it's hard to get there befor 1:00pm. and like most farmer's markets, if your going, you had better get there early.

Wishing you continued grocery savings!!!

[cheriede]

Fo me it has been mixed. I have definitely noticed an increase if food prices at the store, but I have been able to get some of my produce fairly inexpensive. I am also the only one in my family that is vegetarian.

My neighbor had raspberries in her yard that has eventually made it's way over to my yard. I picked a ton of them and froze them and all of those are free. I also pick blueberries every year and I went ahead a picked 25 pounds this year. It was 1.89 a pound, which is a way better than 2.50 for a pint. I have a garden plot and my freezer is pretty well stocked with peppers. Now, I have definitely noticed that price increase on those produce items that I have to buy in the store.

Whenever I was consuming meat, I always purchased ground beef with 10% fat. It was fairly expensive to begin with. Since I'm not buying as much meat, I probably am saving quite a bit by not buying all the meat that I was buying.

I also prefer to stay away from processed food and make things on my own. Sometimes, it easier said than done. It does help out when I'm not buying those convenience foods because those can get expensive real quick.

[allenwrench]

I'm 90% veg and YES!

Edible landscaping will be most important to feeding what is left of us when TEOTWAK arrives.

I got a late start as I knew nothing about food production before 2/11/08 and by the time my garden was ready to accept some seeds the summer was about a quarter over. But, as the saying goes...better late than never.

My lot is only 2/3 acre and I have to use the intensive method of planting. My main garden is about 750 SF but it has rock paths. I also have 6 smaller beds that are from 20 SF to 80 SF each. Also have 26 fruit tress.

Here is main garden.



Next year will put in another bed on side about 30 SF and a few more fruit trees.

if things get tougher, l'll put in squash bed about 359 SF

Here are 3 good books for those interested in developing an urban homestead.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Food-Not-Lawns-Neighborhood-Community/dp/193339207X"]Amazon.com: Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community: Heather Coburn Flores: Books[/ame]

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Gardening-When-Counts-Growing-Mother/dp/086571553X"]Amazon.com: Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series): Steve Solomon: Books[/ame]

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Self-Sufficient-Suburban-Gardener-Jeff-Ball/dp/0878574573"]Amazon.com: The Self-Sufficient Suburban Gardener: Jeff Ball: Books[/ame]


I think we have a real food crisis brewing for the world. Not enough young farmers replacing the old, we will run low of fertilizer as the NG dries up and that food which is grown is devoid of nutrition and not healthy. And to make matter worse, fewer people can even afford to buy produce.

With the recent food shortages in the news I have to wonder as Richard Heinberg brought up "Who will be growing our food 20 years from now?"

"The average American farmer is 55 to 60 years old. The proportion of full time farmers younger than 35 years of age has dropped from 15.9% in 1982 to 5.8% in 2002. Who will be growing our food 20 years from now?" from "Peak Everything" by Richard Heinberg

"Amish farmers can't compete in conventual agriculture farming. 40 years ago 90% to 95% of the Amish were farmers. Today less than 10% are farmers." from: "How the Amish Survive" DVD

And even if the farmers keep up with production, many people cannot afford the high prices of produce. At Krogers a butternut squash was $7, a large apple was $1.85, a rutabaga was $3, an artichoke near $5 and a lemon was $1.35, a bag of cherries was $14.75, ONE organic yam was $8.25.

And these high priced produce are being offered when times are still relatively good What will this stuff sell for when gas is $10 or $15 a gallon? Peak oil, peak NG, peak water and food as well as peak uranium will fuel mass starvation as our artificial and unsustainable world decomposes around us.

As people buy less produce due to affordability issues and the produce stops selling and rots on the shelves, the farmers will grow less produce that just rots unsold and less potential farmers will be entering that field.


Book and DVD list. All available from your local library.


Beyond Oil: the view from Hubbert's Peak
by Deffeyes, Kenneth S.
http://www.princeton.edu/hubbert/

The Coming Economic Collapse - how you can thrive when oil costs $200 a barrel
by Leeb, Stephen

A Crude Awakening - the oil crash
Lava Productions AG, Switzerland DVD
http://www.oilcrashmovie.com/

The End of Suburbia - oil depletion and the collapse of the American dream
by Greene, Gregory DVD
http://www.endofsuburbia.com/

Fed Up
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Fed-Up-Angelo-Sacerdote/dp/B000CNGC6G"]Amazon.com: Fed Up !: None, Angelo Sacerdote: Movies & TV[/ame]

High Noon for Natural Gas: the new energy crisis
by Darley, Julian
http://www.highnoon.ws/

The Long Emergency: surviving the converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century
by Kunstler, James Howard

Oil Apocalypse
History channel DVD

Peak Oil Survival: preparation for life after gridcrash
by McBay, Aric

Powerdown: options and actions for a post-carbon world
by Heinberg, Richard

Resource Wars: the new landscape of global conflict
by Klare, Michael T
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Resource-Wars-Landscape-Conflict-Introduction/dp/0805055762"]Amazon.com: Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict With a New Introduction by the Author: Michael T. Klare: Books[/ame]

A Thousand Barrels a Second: the coming oil break point and the challenges facing an energy dependent world
by Tertzakian, Peter

Twilight in the Desert: the coming Saudi oil shock and the world economy
by Simmons, Matthew R.
Well written book examining 12 of the key Saudi oil fields.

Who Killed the Electric Car?
Sony Pictures Classics release
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/

Zoom:the global race to fuel the car of the future
by Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran.

[wichitaamismom]

Yes, to a certain extent. Fresh foods have gone way way up. It's to the point now where the only fresh veggies we buy are potatoes and onions and whatever else is in season. (I did notice squash in 99 cents a pound right now.) We stock up on frozen veggies and fruit when they're on sale. We buy from an online company called Bulk Foods. Their food is awesome and you can get free shipping with $75 or more. We also buy certain items from Sams. Also, we buy really long-term foods in big bulk. Wheat, beans, honey, etc you can get by the bucket. I've also gotten some "green" drinks to add to our veggie list. And I've bought tofu by the case.

For the person with the non-veggie husband, I was in your situation for awhile. I basically told him that he was free to cook whatever meat he wanted, but he had to cook it. I also learned to cook hearty veggie meals that would satisfy him. (TVP became our friend.) While he eats meat when we go out, he says that he doesn't really miss it now. And he loves to make soy milk!

Our main problem is my cooking funk. How do you keep motivated and inspired? Also, if you're cooking all from scratch, it takes time. For those who are time-strapped as well as cash-strapped, how do you cope and keep organized?

wichitaamismom