Your monthly food budget

Just groceries averages $400 a month for the two of us. It seems a bit high to me but what are you going to do? I really haven't noticed going up much.

We don't eat out much or do take-out so I don't keep track of that. I do eat out far too much for lunch. I'm afraid to know that figure.

Supermarket shopping - probably maybe £20 a week? I don't seem to spend that much.

Breakfast/lunch - I always get this when I'm out, probably about £30-£35 a week. Seems disproportionate when I look at it like that.

I tend to eat out at least once a week though, although I'm not sure that counts as part of a 'food budget'. I have this weird mental block where I don't think of buying food as actually spending money, lol Westerner.

I prefer not to think about it. Esp with two kids: crazy high spendings.

We budget £300 a month for the two of us, which breaks down as £70ish a week. I make us sandwiches or another packed lunch (leftover curry and naan bread / macaroni cheesed / sweet potato for microwaving etc) pretty much every day for lunch, so lunches are included in that. We have breakfast at home every morning. The food budget includes most of my toiletries, but not most of Em's (she, being a gurl, spends way more than I do on that kind of thing). We eat out once a month from this budget too; any other meals out come from our own money (usually mine, as it's usually my insistence, as I do all the cooking).

mine has increased a lot lately, because of rise in oil, from +/- $40/week to +/- $60/week, though that is entirely raw ingredients, largely vegetarian, and includes kitchen-stocking items, strange herbs and pricey spices.

$50 for dairy and eggs
$125 for meat and fish
$50 for veg and fruit, pickles, herbs, and spices
$25 for bread/pasta/beans

So, around $250/month for 2 people. We do eat a lot of meat, and that amount doesn't include eating out or takeaway - which we are doing more often due to living where it's feasible and easy. I shop twice a week on average, at Seattle's Pike Place Market, for everything except meat (although I occasionally pick up some wonderful lamb sausages from the butcher there). I'm fortunate to work at home, and can hop the bus up to the market, load up my old-lady cart and drag it back home. We stock up on meat from a farm in eastern Washington where everything is pasture-raised and finished, every month or two. The same with pasta/flour/sugar and other staples - an occasional big stock-up trip to Safeway or commercial grocer. For veg/fruit/fish, I buy what's local and fresh generally, so that varies. And at the end of a season (like for tomatoes or pears or whatever) I'll buy a huge amount and concentrate or freeze or dry it. There's probably enough in the house to get us through a month or two.

We buy a lot of fresh pizza and pizza bases (only ever what's on offer though), a lot of fish, a lot of pasta / pesto, lots of herbs (quite often fresh), a fuck of a lot of prawns, noodles, lots of tomatoes (although Em hates an "unprepared" or identifiable tomato), gnocchi, baking / sweet potatoes, frozen veggie stuff (sausages, burgers, etc), lots of fresh "slice it yourself" bread, lots of cheese, ham. Last night we had baked potato with beans, cheese and salad. Tonight not sure. I want tomatoes roasted with olive oil, black pepper and sea salt. Yum. Bananas, apples, grapes. Cereal. I have toast for breakfast most days. We go through a lot of fruit juice / smoothies. Em goes through a lot of coke. I'd go through shitloads of Nutella if she'd let me.

We generally shop at Sainsburys, with occasional trips to the local fish mongers / deli etc.

When the 2 of our teenage kids that had been living with us moved out, there was a huge immediate drop in soda consumption. We drink tea mostly, with milk. And limeade in the summer (and gin & tonics). Monthly alcohol budget should get its own thread though!

Scik, reading "goes through a lot of coke" alarmed me at first.

Does alcohol count towards groceries? Unfortunately we go through a lot of that. Oh wait, I see what Jaq just wrote.

We buy a lot of red meat and fresh produce. Which can be high especially when the latter spoils before eating.

I need to start properly budgeting this, but I'm a bit scared to find out. (It might scare me into a slightly healthier and more home-cooked diet, but cooking for one when you don't really know how and don't do it enough to have a well-stocked cupboard can be demoralisingly slow and expensive.)

So far the UK answers are twice+ the US ones; I'll be interested to see if the UK ones break down geographically, after being amazed how much cheaper everything (cooking basics, ready meals, snacks and other junk) was in various city supermarkets to back home in a one-supermarket village.

Wine consumed at home does with us. Which is anything between two and seven bottles a week.

I must say that although I know we spend a decent amount on booze, it's considerably less than we went out all of the time.

There's a huge savings between eating/drinking at home and going out - the markup on a bottle of wine seems to be at least 100% in the restaurants around here.

spacecadet, I think one thing that keeps my food budget low is that I don't buy any premade or convenience foods. But then, I work at home and love to cook. I was baking all our bread for about a year, but haven't started back in on that.

Haven't kept close track. I'd estimate around $400/month on groceries for the two of us. Maybe another $100-200/month on take-out and restaurant dinners. And I eat cheap lunches out a lot at work (sandwiches and such) so that's probably another $200/month. And I'm probably underestimating something, so maybe $900/month total? Alcohol is not a significant part of our budget.

we spend around $200-250 at the supermarket but maybe $10-15 of that is food for me and pp.

per week, of course

like £800 pcm or something

: /

seriously I don't even want to work it out

and that is for 1xvegon + 1xvegetarion : /

There's a huge savings between eating/drinking at home and going out - the markup on a bottle of wine seems to be at least 100% in the restaurants around here.

100% is low markup the standard in the restaurant trade is 200-300% sometimes worse.

I haven't got a clue and can be very variable.

like £800 pcm or something

wtf are you eating?!

I worked it out at £440pcm, for two, on average... it's probably a lot less than that tbh but I was rounding up

xpost

vegon caviar and vegon cristal, almost exclusively

plus wtf we cook all our meals from a scratch wtf

anyway I clock crazy dolla$$ so whatevs

Also this is the first time I've realised who you are. Another reason I need a serious new name amnesty.

I'm better about cooking at home and using less pre-made, pre-packaged ingredients. It is hard though when you both have crazy schedules and little time at home/energy for food preparation.

How much is it?
- no idea, I pretty much stopped looking at/caring about the price of the food i buy (within SOME reason still) a while back

Where do you shop?
- there's two shops around Clapton Pond i get food from - both owned by the same people (mostly if not all Turkishh). one of them's all-organic and they seem to be doing pretty well with it. go to M&S maybe once a week but only for a few things (inc their ready-moussaka for when lazy, which is often). do an online Ocado order once a month or so (never seem to get round to it often enough. get a bag of local veg and fruit every week also

spend at least £25 a week on lunch at work yaow

In terms of what I actually buy my breakdown is pretty similar to Remy's I think but I'm sure I'm not spending nearly that much. I'd be surprised if it was £20 a week. I buy a lot of stuff like big bags of nearly-for-the-dumper veg from fruit and veg stalls and then cook and eat the hell out of it before it's too late

uh I think I probably spend about $80/month on groceries and another $800-1200/month on restaurant meals/drinks.

I spend probably $120 a month on groceries and like $600-1000 on restaurants. Looking forward to new job with CHEF.

Funny you should start a thread about this, just as I am overhauling my monthly food budget. I've realised that I end up spending wayyyyy too much without even thinking about it so May is the month of BUDGETARY CLAMPDOWN. I have made spreadsheets.

we also set up a spreadsheet. man, was it depressing. :-(

(posted while i'm eating broccoli, potatoes and fresh tuna. hah)

I dont keep track but I guess I spend at least $60 a week AUD on groceries (and that isnt counting booze, lordy no) but I have fallen into bad buy lunch at work habits, so $10 a day x 5 ads up and I dont want to think about that.

Went to make a roast beef the other day and beef is SO freaking expensive wtf.$25 for a 1.2kg topside? Fuck orf. So we've been eating chicken and canned tuna instead.

spend about €180 each week on food, breaks down into €30 for lunches at work, €50 on maybe two takeouts and the other €100 on five €20-a-go trips to get stuff to cook that evening.

lunch is just me, takeouts and €100 groceries includes brother and SO depending on who'll be at home that evening.

i try to keep it to around fiddy (USD) a week - not counting like a night out w/ dinner that probably happens twice a month or so. That goes under the entertainment budget.

I begrudgingly did the math for my budget this summer, and after taking out money for rent (both here in NY and in Boulder, where I'm staying for a few months) and utilities...I have around $250 extra. This is supposed to pay for all of my food and whatever else over the next two months.

A few years ago I was in a similar situation and made lentil or pasta for myself nearly every night. It was ok for a while but quickly became unbearable. What's the best way to eat extremely cheaply but with a hint of variety?

Rising food prices are kicking my ass WAY more than rising gas prices.

ZS, this is a good blog about food:

http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/

As are a lot of its side links. This one can be a bit fancy-pants sometimes. Are you a veg or no?

yes. I'm looking through the link now.

Yeah, that site has a lot of veg options. Her boyfriend is a veg and she might be too. A lot of the 'cheap food' sites have 843 tips on how to stretch your ground beef so I didn't know if you'd want those.

"Budget", riiiiiiite.

I hit F12 and brought up the Dashboard calculator - it's a budget, dammit!

Libcrypt sent me a sweet tater/peppers soup I could email if you want. It is fucking yum and good and healthy and about $10 for a weeks' worth of food. (You can freeze up leftovers.)

If that's okay, libcrypt?

I think she's a vegetarian, Abbott! "If that’s it, then everyone can relax. I am not deprived. I don’t starve (which you could tell if you could see me), and I enjoy the food I eat. I don’t even miss the meat. Sometimes I get a little wistful when I think of crab cakes or smell fried chicken, but it doesn’t last. I savor the memories and enjoy the vegetarian bounty before me."

Then again, on the sidebar there are links to plenty to "meat and fish" dishes. Nice link, though, thanks!

One idea that's helped me: get spices from a store w/bulk spices so you spend 40¢ on the cumin you need and not $4 on a bottle of old cumin.

Oh man, that would be great. Peppers are my favorite.

http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/search/label/Recipes%3A%20Vegetarian

Do you like making stir fries?

Of course, Abbs; please share.

That was wrt: sweet pepper stew. Did you try the chili recipe I sent? That's also a budget-maxxer.

I haven't yet, but I want to.

A yum desert or lunch or whatevs that is cheap:

Baked apples:

½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg (Double it for powdered nutmeg. – Kris)
1-1/2 cups apple cider or unfiltered apple juice
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon lemon zest
4 apples such as Northern Spy, Macoun, Cortland or Idared, washed and dried

1) Heat oven to 350F. Mix together the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix together the cider, vanilla, and lemon zest. Core apples without cutting through the bottom, using either an apple corer or melon baller. (I used a teaspoon. – Kris) Peel top of apple, leaving a 1-inch-wide band. Place apples in a baking dish and fill cores with sugar mixture. Pour cider mixtures into baking dish. Cover dish with aluminum foil.

2) Bake apples for 30 minutes, basting with cider once or twice. Pierce the largest apple with a small pairing knife to see if it is tender. Continue baking until done. (Baking time can vary a great deal depending on the type and size of apple, from 40 to 60 minutes.) Serve warm.

If you want a cheap/quick meal, I like to microwave a potato (takes abt 7-9 minutes) and put canned chili on top of it. This costs $1.50-$2 and is pretty tasy and filling.

Stir fries are a great way to use up the leftover bits of veg.

Or leftover chili if you make your own.

Do you have a slow cooker?

Oh man I should get a slow cooker. I love casserole. It'd be nice to put it on in tha AM and come home to a ready dinner. I just cant get past the fear it would asplode while I was at work!

No, it wouldn't! You can leave that thing going for 14 hours and it'll be okay. (Not that I'd know.)

That's the thing, I'm not sure what sort of appliances I'll have to work with. I'm subleasing a place I've never been to for 2 months, starting this Sunday. There's another guy I'll be with, but he's a 22 year old college dude so I'm assuming he won't have something like a slow cooker. Although, who knows, maybe he'll be a beast in the kitchen and this summer will actually be awesome.

A beast in the kitchen and an angel in the bedroom... uh sorry.

HEY AT LEAST I DID NOT MENTION COATS AND THE GETTING OF.

Albertson's has a sale on bell peppers about once every five weeks where they are $1 each (which I think is too $$$ but it's like 70% less than they usually cost). You can cut them up and freeze them for later stir fries, or make a bunch of stuffed bell peppers w/a spicy rice filling (or other filling of your choice) and then freeze THOSE. They reheat nicely.

As you can possibly see, I like to make large quantities of a thing and then freeze some of it. It costs just about as much as it would to make the recipe for just yourself, but then you get leftovers. And if you have different kinds you don't have to cook every night or eat the same thing every night.

I've found, too, that making food REALLY SPICY makes it seem more filling (you just can't eat as much of it) and is way more satisfying than eating just rice, pasta, beans alone for every meal. (There were times when all I ate was rice w/salt for every meal.)

OK, so far I have bookmarked this:

Lentil, Spinach, and Bulgur Stew
Yields about six 1-cup servings

1 cup green lentils, rinsed
4 ½ cup water
½ coarse bulgur
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
4 cups chopped fresh spinach
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, slivered

Another good way to preserve capsicum/pepper: roast it to peel off the skins, then cover it in herbs and oil and keep it in a container in the fridge. You can add it to things, make dip, eat it with crackers, put it in salad, nyom.

Slow-Cooker Bean and Barley Soup

1 cup dried multibean mix or Great Northern beans, picked over and rinsed
6 cups water
1 (14-ounce) can whole tomatoes, with juice
3 cloves garlic, smashed
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup pearl barley
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt, plus additional for seasoning
2 teaspoons dried Italian herb blend
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms, optional
3 cups cleaned baby spinach leaves (about 3 ounces)
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Extra-virgin olive oil

Put beans, water, tomatoes and their juices, garlic, celery, carrots, onion, barley, bay leaf, 1 1/2 tablespoons salt, herb blend, pepper, and porcini mushrooms (if using) in a slow cooker; cover and cook on LOW until the beans are quite tender and the soup is thick, about 8 hours.

Stir in the spinach, cheese, and vinegar, cover, and let the soup cook until the spinach wilts, about 5 minutes. Taste and season with salt and black pepper, to taste.

See if there's a local branch of the hare krishnas. When I was a (relatively) poor student, I'd get an absolutely fabulous, filling, fatty vegetarian meal from them every Wednesday in Chapel Hill. I mean, that basically cut my dining requirements by 1 day of food/week.

Find out where the food banks are and turn up once or twice - you'll get some staples generally, and some canned stuff, and depending on the local programs, fresh veg/fruit in the summer. Give back later by volunteering or donating when you can.

You cannot discount the power of the mighty ramen at 3 meals for $1. Not so healthy, but filling and damned cheap and will get you by until the next healthy meal.

Man that soup sounds great.

Lib otm also: and you can make ramen healthy by adding some miso paste, and tofu or carrot or chopped boiled egg.

Or just add a ton of sriracha and pretend it doesn't taste like ramen.

Right now, about $50 a month, with probably another $30-50 to eat out. Lots of tuna and Mac & Cheese. : / I do get free bread, though.

Potatoes have a reasonable amt of nutrition and a $10 bag can get you by for a week. Add butter and the cheapest veggie you can find and it's pretty reasonable.

Hahah Abb we have a bottle of that hot cock sauce, bf adds it to *everything*, I have to not be offended when I make a meal and he chili's it all to hell, I cant stand the spicy myself.

Haha sometimes I make myself a $1 frozen pizza and just cover it w/sriracha as its 'topping.'

hot cock sauce????

I don't know if you eat eggs, ZS, but many different things can be done with eggs, and eggs + toast is a very filling meal (esp w/a wheat bread).

I'm theoretically eggs-ok (plain vegetarian), but they just taste so godawful NASTY that I can't bring myself to consume anything where eggs can be detected (e.g., crepes, omelettes).

I eat eggs, and actually I have eggs + toast for a LOT of my breakfasts lately, but mainly I'm looking for stuff I put in tupperware and take to work so I don't have to blow $5 on Subway or something all of the time.

Hehe sorry hot cock is what we call that sriachia sauce from Cali with the rooster on the bottle.

Peeps in Cali call it cock sauce too.

How to eat on How to eat on $250 a month50 a month < for a family of 5.

Before I have even read any of it, I am pinning all of my hopes on Earth (in THIS life) on this.

Uh, I was expecting more tips on how to prepare really cheap, tasty meals, not vignettes on how cute it is that Troy wants to stick to the budget. Disregard.

Bahaha. Yeah, there is too much advice like that. "Use recipes! Make a grocery list! Buy things that are cheaper than other things!"

But WHAT? And HOW? And will it TASTE gross?

i've started using frozen spinach instead of fresh in recipes like the lentil/spinach/bulgur stew. it's much cheaper, and store-brand frozen veggies are on sale pretty often. aside from the money-saving aspect, i think that the frozen stuff actually works better in many dishes. i use fresh stuff only when light cooking is required.

another great frozen veg: chopped collard greens. usually even cheaper than spinach, nutritious, and being so hardy they stand up to reheating very well. add some vinegar and hot sauce, and you're in business.

aside from lentils, yellow or green split peas are good bean options that don't require hours of soaking. you can cook up a thick, filling soup in about an hour or even do kind of an indian dal thing (if you're using the yellow kind) with some basic spices.

i've started using frozen spinach

i've had bad experiences with that -- the amount of water that comes out of it! then again: perhaps that's a problem in the preparation (ie not actually thinking, right, this shit is frozen; deal with the excess liquid). maybe i should give it another go.

my mum used to make her own frozen spinach cubes. might try tha ... actually, no.

anyway. we spend about £50 a week on supermarket shopping. just back now, actually: £68, which is high, but did include "occasional" purchases (eg washing powder) plus wine and chocolate, so i'm fine with that. the other week i spent something like £20, which means it all balances out. (as an aside: one of my few skills in life is the ability to look at a trolley or conveyor-load of groceries and predict the price. i was bang on with £68 today. fuck knows how i do it; occasionally i'm spectacularly off the mark.)

anyway. we tend to plan a week's meals in advance (with my stupid hours, it's by far the best way). neither of us are vegetarian but we eat a lot of heavily veg-based meals. mrs F does almost all the planning (and the majority of the cooking, i admit; largely because of my hours but also because she's way better at it), usually based around two recipe books: a wee "good housekeeping" low-fat meals thing, and another newer one i can't remember the name of but is similarly health-oriented. (indeed: as i sit here drinking BEER and dicking about on ILX, she's making guacamole to go with the fajitas we're having tonight. i did offer to help; i was told it was fine. so there you go.)

we do most of our shopping at the 24-hour tesco about five miles down the road. yes, i know: i'm not proud. once the local fishmonger, butcher and grocer start keeping opening hours that fit around our working hours, we'll reconsider. until then: tough. yes, i'd say i've noticed a slight increase in cost recently; i think this time a year ago it was more like £160 a month. hard to say, though.

we probably eat out once a week -- there are some awesome restaurants on our doorstep (greek, spanish and scottish-italian) -- and maybe get a takeaway once every three weeks or so. that's usually a time thing, to be honest -- it's very rare either of us will go: "fuck it, i'm in the mood for a takeaway" if we've got food in the house. given the fact i'm actively trying to get myself made redundant/go part-time/basically get the fuck out of my job, i can see that being cut right back :)

i feel guilty now. i'm going to go and beg mrs F to let me help out.

oh yeh: and we eat late. again, my hours, etc.

Oh my god I hope you ate those spinach cubes like popsicles. (My mom used to make home-made ice cube tray fudgesicles w/chocolate pudding.)

i *did* once! and it was fucking lovely. she did the same with parsley, too. wonder if she still does? i'll ask her.

Yeah, that actually sounds pretty delicious, the spinach.

We always have parsley around for the guinea pigs.

i've been gently ushered back out of the kitchen and assured there's nothing i can do :)

Man, I kind of love when people are crazy territorial about their kitchens. that's how my mom was. "GET OUT of my KICTHEN!" So classic.

Abbott, I got some little padlocks for my knife safes finally :)

Hahahaha

Cooks are especially wicked insane territorial about their knives, esp. at restaurants. That's partly a liability thing but mostly "KNIFE MINE! MINE!" I won't let anyone use my knife now that I have a nice one. (Not that there's competition, really.)

Glad to hear your preciouses are safe. :D

I'm beginning to get really nervous and depressed about this summer. Specifically my will to consistently pick out a variety of delicious, cheap foods and make interesting meals with them. And then making extra and packing them up for lunch at work. I admit, as a kid and during my undergraduate days I was one of those pathetic boys who ate like a dumbass and never learned how to cook anything tasty. My mom didn't help much either, on that front - she cooked a lot of crap my sister and I back in the day. As a result, I weigh like 38 pounds and my natural tendency is not to think about food and cooking until the very last moment, and usually if left to my own devices I'm an awful, unimaginative cook.

Then 4 years ago I met my girlfriend and she's really been a lifesaver, turned me into a vegetarian, ruthlessly made fun of me for eating like a 5-year-old, etc. But this summer I have to live several states away from her for an internship, with hardly any extra money, and I'm afraid I'm going to be in the supermarket staring at the rice-a-roni boxes thinking "hmmm...."

"This has been your pathetic weenie update of the day"

There's really nothing wrong with not eating perfectly or picking up the store-brand pilaf for dinner.

it is astounding how much we spend on food now that we have a 2 year old. It's something ridiculous like $180/wk on AVERAGE. that includes some non-edibles but doesn't include diapers and stuff. Part of this is that we've decided to eat almost everything at home; part is that we try to buy organic when possible; we live in the bay area and shit is expensive; and partly, our son, who used to eat whatever you gave him, has suddenly gotten picky, so we're trying varieties of things lately and he's not eating half of it. you never know when he's going to gorge himself on something or eat one bite and declare dinner over.

we try shopping at trader joe's but after a while their food all tastes the same and you need to go to berkeley bowl or something, anything...

I hate buying groceries so much. I remember when I was a kid I ate wonder bread and oscar meyer and that was it, I'm sure my parents spent $10/wk on food. on the other hand I wound up with ulcers and stomach surgeries by the time I was 18; hopefully my son will have a better diet than I did

around $200 for just myself, which is a lot, and i don't buy meat. i am living in denmark, though, where it seems like the minimum price for anything is $5.

i just spent as much on a week's groceries for me as my mom used to spend on a family of four :( that makes me feel like a shit.

however i didn't realize the cherries were going to be $13!!!!! how is that even possible. i need to pay more attention.

I don't know, I keep reading "buy lots of fresh produce instead of processed food" as a tip for saving money on groceries but it just doesn't seem to be true! Compared to a lot of processed food, fresh produce is quite expensive for the amount of it you have to eat to fill up.

it really depends! some vegetable are so cheap and can be made into filling things, like potatoes, onions, kale, etc. i thought cherries were in season though and didn't even really look at the price, and damn. so expensive. the other big ticket items were fish, olive oil, that kind of thing. i love making fish but it seems like for whatever bulk deal they are getting at the sushi place by my house, they serve me more and higher quality fish per $1 spent than i can even buy at the supermarket.

hmm: from what i can see, processed food is often way cheaper than fruit and veg, which means most "eat healthy" drives are doomed. the other week, i stood behind a youngish couple loading up the conveyor belt with crisps, microwave curries and big bottles of pop and watched the running total on the till, which shows the "total saved" through 2-for-1 offers etc. theirs was about £10. mine (and i'm not saying i'm some fucking paragon of eating healthily, but we didn't have any microwave curries/crisps/pop) was less than a quid.

tesco is pretty good for special offers on fruit and veg (today: satsumas; also fucking asparagus, as always, which really can swivel) but even so ...

cherries, btw: always eye-poppingly expensive. £6 in tesco, bell labs, so that pretty much matches up.

I thought of buying some cherries in a farmer's market last week for $9, but got $7 strawberries instead. I'm grateful not to have to shop at the absolutely most utilitarian level, but geez, maybe we should just buy a farm.

oh i want a farm. i can't wait to at least have a decent garden! which is not going to happen in my apartment any time soon! but someday.

i also want an oyster bed. i think i could be a good oyster farmer.

£200 plus treats.

I want herb pots on the windowsills, at least, but am not sure if they're worth buying since I'm leaving in 3 weeks anyway. Someone in the house will probably want them, anyway.

fruit is fucking expensive

$200, yes, I think at least 1/3 of that is fruit!

these cherries are really great, at least.

I don't really ever eat fruit, except limes or lemons in water. Most fruit is too sweet for my palate. I know that there are less-sweet fruits, like melons or whatever, but they seem like such an investment. I should get on the apricot train, though...or get knee-deep into figs and persimmons and such...

I just spent, like almost ten bucks at the food store and have almost nothing to show for it. Food prices getting higher, man.

the prices on the good fruit are insane this year. i'm betting the special WA state raspberries will hit $15.

I will weep tonight and light a candle in solemn recognition of the personal hardship that you will endure if such developments do in fact come to pass.

It pains me to think that you might miss out on the "special WA state rasberries".

strawberries were actually 2/$5 at fairway and they are pretty great. and somehow i only paid $3 for 10 fiji apples. i think the cashier made a mistake.

hi dell, I am sorry about your pain, but I pay the asking price for the "special WA state raspberries," (there's a p in that word), whatever the number

You're such an elitist fuck, bless your heart.

I want Lauren to give me cooking lessons.

thanks, dell! i am eating an extremely elitist strawberry from Davenport, CA ($10/quart).

$10/pint, I mean

those driscoll's organic strawberries (white lettering) are pretty good in season

Okay, I'm feeling really really lucky right now to live where stone fruits grow really well. Right now, I can get California apricots and peaches (the apricots were okay, the peaches were really meh), but when they come in season here (late June) they are just so perfectly good. Never really cheap, but paying $4 or $5/lb for pretty local, tree ripe, farmers market ones >>> than paying the same or more for woody tasteless ones from Mexico and farther. Cherries start in mid- to late June as well, and go through almost to August, and berries sometime in early July almost through September. And the place is inundated with blackberries that you can pick in parks and along easements.

Z S, it's okay to be worried about your cooking mojo, but you'll be fine. Set yourself the goal of trying one cheap vegetable/fruit/ingredient each week, something you're not quite sure what to do with. Then try some stuff with it. If you get stuck, post about it and people will give you ideas. And really, the only thing you really need to learn how to make is a sort of soup. That's your base. Then you riff on it, adding some different spices, some fresh stuff, maybe some cheese or cubes of tofu or a beaten egg or milk or cream or sour cream or yoghurt. And so what if you eat ramen or rice-a-roni when you want it? You might find yourself looking at it going "I wonder if I could braise a little chopped kale, then sort of stirfry it with the leftovers from this, then maybe mix up some some hot sauce and sour cream to kind of make a dressing?"

gabbneb, can you get marionberries back east? They can be so incredibly good, but the season is only 2 weeks or so.

i don't recall having seen them, jaq. huckleberries, either.

dell, if you think fruit's too sweet, just stick with vegetables.

jaq, do you know anything about aquaculture?

gabnebb, i'm sorry for being a dick. don't mind me.

i love the way "stone fruits" sounds. so poetic.

"i gave my love a cherry, which had no stone..."

jaq,

yeah, i heart kale and, well, pretty much any vegetable, esp. the deep green ones to no end.

Only a little bell, from doing some work in fish hatcheries. Not so much for the fish farming itself. I was reading some stuff recently that made me wonder about some of the practices, but I haven't looked into it much.

There's so many veg that are just as sweet if not sweeter than fruits - beets and parsnips and carrots, especially when roasted. Sweet corn, obv. but also fresh peas. None of them have the same mix of tart and sweet that fruits have, more a sweet green-ness instead. </rhapsodizing>

uh "there are so many..." got carried away there and lost my grammar.

yeah, i don't like carrots or winter vegetables, particularly, but, still, cannot think of a vegetable that i can rage against in full

I too am really not a fruit person at all - but gimme the veg and gimme a ton, I love brocolli, sauteed in garlic italian-style, spinach or silverbeet, chickpeas and lentils, roasted root veg, pumpkin soup, beetroot chips, mashed potato, baby peas, roasted capsicum...nyom nyom.

And really, the only thing you really need to learn how to make is a sort of soup. That's your base. Then you riff on it...

This is encouraging advice, especially because one of the few things I can confidently cook is a mean pot of veggie chili, which usually provides tons of leftovers.

spinach is so beautiful, and so easy to make delicious. it's our friend.

i dunno what "silverbeet" is, but, i'm curious.

From what I can tell its a bit like kale. A rough, thicker leaf, wrinkly, with a thick, celery-like stem you usually cut out and dont use (but can make for good stock?). Seems to need a lot more rinsing for grit and cooking down than limpy spinach, but that means it keeps a good structure in a curry or stir fry.

I grew up much of my life beliving it was spinach, because boiled that was what we were served and thats what mum called it. When I discovered real spinach I was very suprised.

Silverbeet's another name for chard - it's not nearly as bitter as kale, and you can actually eat the stems too, just put them in the pan first and let them cook a bit before you add the leaves. It's excellent sauted in olive oil with some chopped garlic and a little crushed red pepper.

AKM OTM re expensive living with a 2yr old. I think I'll keep breastfeeding Elisabeth (our second) till she's out of the house. roffle.

hmm: from what i can see, processed food is often way cheaper than fruit and veg

Huh? I was always thght it was actually more expensive?!? I do buy frozen veggies (and even fruit) cause that's cheaper (and sometimes healthier) than fresh fruit 'n' veggies.

I prefer not to think about what we spend on food (nor anything else). It's just... sad. :-(

My food bill goes way down in summer due to work on farmer's market stall and I do not pay for vegetables at all until October. I don't think there is anyone better at shopping for food on a budget than my mom, and she taught me to buy special offers and plan around those for eat-in meals when I was like 10 so I'm hardwired for that. Normally I spend about £25 at the supermarket every week (including toiletries etc), plus lots of £5 meals out. I spend maybe £10 on booze a week not including in pubs, but my party drinking is usually at art dinners or other places where canapés are served.

Chard is awesome. There's a trend here for the chard with stems of many different colours, seen those yet?

Also is there any vegetable on Earth that does not taste better sauteed with garlic?

rainbow chard - i love it!

grimly, re: frozen spinach - yes, it does give off a lot of water (even the fresh stuff does if you do more than a quick saute to wilt it). i've found that the best way to handle the issue is to buy the larger bags (not the solid blocks) and thaw/heat on the stove as opposed to the microwave and then strain with the colander.

(that may sound like extra work, but it's not - the spinach thaws while you cook some other part of the dinner, and it takes about 2 minutes to strain.)

Also is there any vegetable on Earth that does not taste better sauteed with garlic?

I've been thinking about this for most of the morning. Fairly definite the answer is no, with the possible exceptions of fresh peas and sweet corn. I think working at a farm stand would be awesome - was talking to the counter-guy at the fishmonger (in Pike Place market, but not the boisterous crowd-pleasing throwing-fish guys), he was so pleased to be working there as opposed to the retail warehouse thing he'd been doing at the same time a year ago. Open air but covered, near excellent but cheap food purveyors, and he was learning about all the different kinds of fish and how to cook them. I may need to start plotting my next career step.

lauren: yes, something very like that occurred to me last night while i was typing. quite why i didn't occur to me when i was in the kitchen cooking ... well, that probably explains why mrs fiendish doesn't let me near the knives/hobs/etc very often.

No, I can see situations where peas and corn on the cob could come into contact with garlic. My favourite sweetcorn recipe: dip in melted paprika-infused butter before rolling in milled black pepper and sea salt.

Also re: fresh spinach, love how it essentially cooks the second hot liquid meets it. This is why spinach soup with hot veg stock and cream made in blender is quick and num.