It is no secret that food prices have gone up a lot in the past couple of years. We have seen an influx of YouTubers and Bloggers sharing their experiences with growing their own food, preserving food, and shopping for ingredients on a budget.
Today, I saw a short clip of the NDP leader in parliament and he mentioned that 1 in 4 Canadians are going hungry because they cannot afford groceries. Whether or not this is an exaggeration, it does hit home. It appears we are in a transitional period, much like how our grandparents and great-grandparents went through highs and lows, we are in the midst of a low period.
So what can we do about the high price of groceries?
In short, take the lost skills of our great-grandparents and grandparents and put them to good use. I’ll outline exactly what I am talking about.
1. Self Sufficiency is Key
The less you can rely on others, the more in control you will be. This is the same way for food. Grow your own food and learn how to make it stretch as far as possible. Visit stores less often so you don’t go to the store when you are completely out of food. Learn how to do things in your own home besides cooking, like doing home repairs, taking care of finances, and enjoying what you already have.
2. Food Preservation
Having a well-stocked pantry will help save you during those even tougher times when you can’t afford to spend a dime at the store. Besides, what can you even get for a dime these days?
There are several ways you can preserve food.
- Canning
- Freezing
- Drying or Dehydrating
- Cool Storage
- Pickling
- Fermenting
- Year-round gardening
We are likely familiar with freezing food. I mean, almost everyone has a freezer attached to their fridge, or even a deep freezer hidden down in the basement. This is one of the easiest ways to preserve food and one of the most common. The problem is that if you don’t wrap things tightly enough, the trapped air can dehydrate your food and cause that classic “freezer burn” effect that makes the food taste kinda gross if left for too long.
Canning is something people tend to love or hate. You need to follow specific instructions and recipes to make sure you are canning safely. If you trap the wrong bacteria in there, then it can be life-threatening. Botulism is what you need to look out for. If you have a canned product, whether home-canned or bought from the store, always check the top where the seal is. If it pops out like there is air in there trying to push out, then throw it away. If the wrong bacteria get in there, they create gas that can deform the can. This is great for you because it is a warning sign that danger lurks ahead. But it can also scare off many people from canning their own products. As with anything, the more you learn the more confident you will be. Properly canned goods can be shelf stable for a year or more.
Freeze-drying and dehydrating are two similar options that work in different ways. A freeze-dryer uses a vacuum and cold air to suck out the moisture of your food. A dehydrator actually cooks your food at a very low temperature. Freeze-dryers are insanely expensive ($3000 or more) and dehydrators are in the low hundreds ($100–$400). They take a long time for a batch to complete, often 24 hours or so depending on how thick your pieces are and what exactly you are doing. Food preserved in this way does take up a lot less space, so it can be more efficient for space reasons in your pantry.
Cool storage is like when you store your winter squash down in the cellar. It isn’t as cold as a fridge, but its cold enough to help preserve some garden bounty for a bit longer. Sometimes you need to wash the rinds of squash with a vinegar solution to deter mould growth, but often root vegetables and potatoes tend to do well with cool storage. Just make sure you check on your produce from time to time in case you get one bad potato — you don’t want that spreading and ruining your entire supply.
Pickling can be paired with canning, but you can also pickle vegetables and eggs in your refrigerator. Usually this takes a bit of time, a couple of weeks or so, but having something ready to go that you eat on a regular basis in your fridge can be handy.
Fermenting is another form of preservation that needs a bit of care, but its benefits are so worth it. Fermented foods are great for your gut bacteria and they can last a really long time. Sauerkraut is a classic example.
Year-round gardening can be thought of as a form of food preservation. If you grow something once and it comes back each year, you are ensuring food security year after year. Sometimes you can leave carrots in the ground for a bit after the first frost and they get even sweeter. Using your outside space can be a good idea.
3. Living on a Budget
If you can’t afford groceries, then it might be time to step back and have a look at your income and spending. Even if it is just short-term, living on a budget can really help you get ahead. All of us should be able to live within our means, so living within a budget is another way of saying that. What are you spending your money on that you might not need to? There are a million different factors going into this, but my favorite resource has to be from Gail Vaz-Oxlade. I first saw her TV show as a teenager called “Till Debt Do Us Part” which was about married couples up to their ears in debt that call on Gail to help set them straight.
Her book “Debt-Free Forever” is a great starting point. There are other age-old favorites in this subject and many to choose from. This is just a personal preference. Check out your local library to see if they have any of her books, she has written a few!
4. Saving as Much as You Can
This goes hand-in-hand with budgeting. If you are struggling now, you are likely to struggle later unless you have some sort of emergency fund put aside. Whether it is for home repairs or putting food on the table, putting money into savings while you can does help. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking it isn’t worth it to transfer $10 a paycheque into your savings account because it doesn’t seem like enough. Do it anyways. When you can put more in, transfer more in. Stop kidding yourself and grow your bank account if you can.
5. Meal Planning & Prepping
When you do finally get the food, you better use it to the best of your ability. Knowing what to buy ahead of time will help you avoid impulse buys in the grocery store. Prepping your ingredients will help them stretch and not go bad in the back of the fridge.
Here are some of my personal tips on the subject:
- Look at a monthly calendar. Do you cook everyday? Do you want to cook everyday? I love to cook but we all need a break. Count how many days you want to cook and how many you don’t. Getting a visualization will help. Figure out how many days you need to have food on the table. If your answer is 30 or 31, that’s totally fine. Sometimes people budget to eat out once in a while, or they get invited over to their parents' house for dinner. Try to think of these things when looking at the month ahead. Get your magic number.
- Cook once, enjoy twice. Cook larger batches and have leftovers. Don’t groan, leftovers can be awesome! My family loves leftover night because it is like a buffet with all different flavours on the plate. Other times I recycle the leftovers and transform them into something completely new.
- Have emergency meals for those nights when you are too tired, your menstrual cycle is kicking your ass, or you are so fed up with your work day that you just want to come home and crawl into bed. “F- this day” emergency meals are a godsend. It is so tempting to just order out because it is easy. Make it even easier by having something ready to go in your freezer or pantry like a frozen pizza, extra casserole you made, or even a few boxes of macaroni and cheese. Better yet, make one of your favourites and set aside enough for another meal. Have it in the freezer just waiting for a defrost. That’ll surely perk up your mood!
- Start small. So often people get super motivated to meal prep and decide to do ALL THE THINGS! and get overwhelmed and then say things like “I tried meal prepping, but it wasn’t for me.” Between breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks — which one would save you the most in sanity and money if it were ready to go ahead of time? What about days of the week? Are Thursday nights a gong-show because your kids have dance practice? Pick just one and try it out. Once you feel comfortable with that, work your way up.
- Buy similar ingredients to overlap in different meals. Ok, so you want to have tacos because everyone knows tacos are delicious and can be budget friendly. You go out and buy your shells or wraps, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, meat, tomatoes, salsa, etc. Taco night is great. Now what? You have half a head of lettuce, 2 lone tomatoes, half a bunch of cilantro, and an opened tub of sour cream in your fridge with no plans. Don’t let it go to waste. Plan for tacos twice, or maybe another tex-mex meal a week later (chicken fajitas, anyone?). This will help you use up what you bought. If you don’t have as much sour cream the second time around as the first, then oh well. Just use what you have and be happy about it.
- Have a rough budget for each meal. I usually aim for about $10 dinners to feed a family of four. We rely on leftovers for lunch. Breakfast is made from simple ingredients like oats, eggs, bread, yogurt, and fruit. If it costs closer to $20 for a meal, I make sure I can get at least two dinners out of it.
6. Self Discipline & Willingness to Work Hard
Yes, it is much easier to call up the pizza place and have a couple of large pizzas delivered at your door. But how many dinners could you have made at home for that same price? Work hard for your money and your health. Cooking from scratch doesn’t have to take all day, but it does take more effort that what you might be comfortable with. Make your own salad dressings and use the same one for a few days before switching to a new flavour. Instead of cutting one onion, cut two so you have less work for the next meal. Understand that in the beginning it is hard to learn a new skill but it gets easier over time. Before you know it, you will be a pro in the kitchen!
7. Shop Sales & Don’t Buy if You Can’t Afford it
Shopping the sales is a great way to save money. But gas prices aren’t cheap, so plan your trip so you are actually saving money and not spending your savings just going from place to place. Often, just because something is on sale in the flyer doesn’t mean it is a great deal.
At the writing of this article, here is a section from the flyer for a grocery store near me.
It would appear roasts and chicken thighs are on sale, and if I spent some points I can get $5 off. When you go into the store, that $6.99/lb roast has a $20 or more price tag on it because it is roughly 3lbs a roast. Ok, I’ll get my $5 off. Now I’m paying $15 for a roast. Is that really worth it?
Just below are some pork shoulder smoked picnic hocks or something. What is that? It is way cheaper. Maybe it could be great in some soup. Maybe it is gross. You don’t know unless you give it some research.
What they don’t advertise are the meats and things that are already a bit cheaper. Is there a discount bin? What are the prices of chicken breasts this week? I have found that non-advertised products sitting right next to the flyer ones are often a better deal. And that bacon? Don’t be fooled. Things like bacon go on sale every week, just the brand changes. It might be a “Hot Anniversary Special” but that doesn’t mean it is special to me.
Just down the street at another store, I can buy in bulk by getting two whole chickens for a way lower price overall.
It isn’t hard to cook a chicken, so cooking two isn’t hard either. It also isn’t hard to wrap up a raw chicken and huck it in the freezer! If you don’t want a whole chicken, then chop it up into pieces. Go on, find a video on YouTube and figure it out. You need to learn these skills and the only way to learn is to go ahead and just do it. That $5/lb you just saved can go right into a savings account.
In addition, don’t buy something just because it is on sale. Only buy things you can afford. If you find yourself reaching for your VISA, then hold off for a second and think about it. Are you trying to avoid fees? Are you disciplined enough to transfer the money over to pay it off as soon as you get home? If not, don’t use it. If you gotta wait for payday, then wait until payday. Simple as that.
8. Some Great Recipes and Meal Ideas
Earlier I mentioned I aim for $10 dinners and I bet some of you thought “yeah right, what is she eating, mac and cheese?” We eat pretty healthily for sticking to a budget. Buying on sale and preserving foods properly has really helped. I love butter so when I see it for less than $5 for a pound, I buy two. I freeze the second one right away. When my fridge butter has about 1/6 left, I pull out the new one and let it defrost in the fridge overnight. Works like a charm.
So what are some of our favourites? Food prices vary quite a bit, and I know in the States you can get a lot more bang for your buck than up here in Canada, but the idea is the same. Cheap, good eats.
I try to budget the roughly $10 mark like this: $5 for meat, $5 for everything else. Ok, where do I get meat for $5? I buy in bulk. If we are having chicken breasts, I’ll thaw out only one or two for dinner, depending on the size. If I bought chicken fresh, then my $10 meals would easily be more like $15. That’s ok, too. Still way cheaper than takeout! The point is, you can eat really good wholesome meals on a low budget. See what ingredients are affordable in your area and make those ingredients the bulk of what you eat. Beef is currently $8/lb so that’s not happening anytime soon. Don’t be afraid to try out vegetarian meals every now and then. They are nutritious and often much lower cost than meat-based meals.
- Mujaddara with a side garden salad
- BBQ chicken pizza (or other homemade variations — leftovers make great toppings, believe it or not! Chilli is a great example)
- Meatloaf (made in a pie plate, only takes 35 minutes to bake), mashed potatoes, gravy, corn. (leftovers make a great breakfast hash)
- Black bean burgers and homemade mac or pasta salad
- Jambalaya (makes enough for plenty of leftovers)
- Cabbage and Sausage (for the other half of that pack of sausages you bought for the Jambalaya!)
- Chicken or tofu stirfry dinner (made with frozen mixed veggies, rice, or pasta)
- Spaghetti and caesar salad
- African Cashew Chicken Stew with homemade rustic bread
9. Final Thoughts
This is a huge topic that I can write about for days (maybe I will?) so there are things I left out or simply glossed over. I do talk about some of these things on my blog at Honey Fox Living, but it is a learning journey on my end too. I can say for certain that learning these skills that died with my parents has enriched the life for my family. It has made me more confident about running the household with my spouse and excited about our future. There are still many things I want to learn, like being a beekeeper, having chickens roam my backyard, and buying meat off a local rancher. Being a smarter investor and seeing more return for my hard work are other goals I am actively pursuing. I hope that this article has helped you in some ways and that you have benefitted from the resources I linked. Take care.