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Browsing tag: groceries

  • April 17, 2010

    Compromise: what do you cheap out on?

    Quality versus quantity – it’s a constant balancing act in so many areas, and not least of all the supermarket. I’m curious: what do you scrimp on?

    People generally say to buy budget rice, pasta and so on. I’m a fan of basmati/jasmine rice, though, and I usually manage to pick those up on special. We also tend to buy branded sauces, frozen foods, tuna, eggs, crackers and biscuits, usually on sale.

    Where we do tend to go for price over name, though…

    Bread: we usually buy the house brand for $1.44, or the next step up at $1.79 (which is SO much nicer).

    Toilet paper: we tend to buy Earthcare recycled TP when it’s $1.99 for four, otherwise it’s Kiwisoft at 12 for $3.79. I draw the line at Budget TP, though.

    Canned vegetables: Tomatoes, chickpeas, corn. Anywhere from $1-1.70 a can.

    Cooking oil: T goes way overboard with the oil when cooking, IMO.

    Milk: We go through it like water.

    Dried pasta: It’s all the same to me. T likes to buy the expensive stuff, though, so I let him pick every once in a while.

  • March 27, 2010

    Help me eat better!

    Somehow, I’ve gotten to be 21 and never really learned to cook. Since leaving home, my diet has totally changed – I make easy stuff like pasta, Mexican, stirfry and steak. Mum used to make a lot of Chinese (with the odd hint of Malaysian), the kind I never learned to make and is at odds with my philosophy when it comes to dinners: I want it fast and I want it now. Hence, my veggie intake has also suffered. She also used to make two or three separate dishes a meal (veges being usually separate from meat), where I go for one-pot meals.

    And T is absolutely no help in this area! He really isn’t too concerned about getting 5+ a day; but his is a family where it’s okay to feed the little kids chips (and maybe sausages) for dinner. (Not that my parents did much better. My brother literally never ate a single vegetable during his formative years, and still only eats a very very select few today. You know, I can’t even remember what he DID used to eat, except that there always had to be a separate meal made for him.)

    But scurvy is not a good look for anyone. Summer meant salad season, and this year I discovered the wonders that yoghurt and sour cream can do to vegetables. I’ve never been a fan of lettuce, but I’ve come to realise there are so many ways to do salads. (Although I love potato salad with a passion, I don’t really count potatoes as veggies. But I’m willling to be convinced otherwise :D)

    I may start buying real veggies for stir fries and curries, because frozen packs invariably contain ingredients I don’t like (Broccoli, I’m looking at ya). I might even look up some spinach recipes, which my iron levels will no doubt thank me for.

    Sadly, now it’s getting colder and vegetables are going to get expensive. What are some winter veggies? Share your favourite recipes…I want them all!

     

  • November 12, 2009

    Eating in vs eating out

    2745938812_1dc4cb6febDebt Hater and Fabulously Broke recently blogged about the costs of cooking at home versus eating out every meal. Honestly, I think eating out every day would be bliss – but it’s a luxury FB says gets old, fast, and sometimes you just want a simple basic meal instead of heavy, restaurant fare. Something I can totally understand.

    We spend around $120 a week on groceries for the two of us. Sometimes it’s more, especially when we get lots of fruit and veg. (This also usually includes bits and bobs like cleaning products and toilet paper). I have to admit, we’re usually out of food by the Saturday and eat breakfast and lunch out. But the $120, by and large, covers most of all our basic meals.

    If we were to eat out three times a day, it would cost us $294. That’s cutting it really low, too – I’m talking a pie or roll from the bakery for breakfast, and an average food court/fast food meal for lunch and dinner. It would probably also be enough for sushi, a salad or something similar at that price.

    Breakfasts – 14 x $3  ($42)
    Lunches – 14 x $9 ($126)
    Dinners – 14 x $9 ($126)

    Ouch! Dinners alone would be the equivalent of our weekly shop. I’ve thought about this topic a lot, but never actually sat down to crunch the numbers. Looks like it’s definitely worth it for us to cook and eat at home.

    (Just as a side thought: why are all the quintessentially NZ foods so greasy and fatty? Fish and chips, pies, sausage rolls…)

    Photo / midorisyu

  • October 19, 2009

    Pantry staples

    Believe it or not, it wasn’t until I’d been living away from home a couple of years that I started to stock my kitchen cupboards with things like flour, rice and stock. I pretty much lived off pasta and strirfrys and as for baking? Nuh uh. The one time I ever tried to make a cake, I managed to produce this beautiful tri-coloured marble cake – rock hard on the outside and rubbery on the inside. It was in no way edible, even by the lowest standards. I was SO disappointed; I’d spent over an hour mixing ingredients and painstakingly layering the colours. Sigh.

    Now, at least, I can manage super basic cakes/muffins/biscuits. And we now have staples on hand which means if we haven’t planned out a specific meal, chances are we’ll still be able to whip up something for dinner. Not like the good old days…

    On any given week, you’ll pretty much find in our cupboards:
    -rice
    – pasta
    – beef and chicken stock
    – flour
    – sugar
    – tomatoes
    – corn
    – eggs
    – onions
    – soy sauce
    – chili powder
    – curry powder
    …and potatoes. It may be the poor man’s food, but I can’t get enough of them! Fries, chips, roasted, mashed, boiled, hash browns…I love them in all their varieties.

    We’re also working on expanding our spice collection (currently stands at less than 10, due to the fact each jar costs almost $5. We picked a buy-one-get-one-free voucher from one of those instore demonstrators last week though, which was neat).

    Am I missing anything? Should I be buying other things that I just never realised I can’t live without?

  • October 11, 2009

    The grocery game

    Personally, though I’ve done virtually no travelling – and certainly not on my own dollar – I think food in Auckland is somewhat overpriced.800px-Apples_supermarket

    Let’s do a comparison, shall we? Worldwide readers, feel free to chime in!

    (I’m aiming for budget brands/lowest sale prices here; bread, for example, can run up to almost $5 a loaf, and chicken up to over $20 a kilo)

    2 litres of milk – $3.20
    Cheapest loaf of bread – $1.40
    Boneless chicken breast (with skin on) – $9.99 kg, at the lowest
    Cucumber – 99c in summer, 3.99 in winter
    Kelloggs cornflakes – $2.99 for 500g, on sale
    Tomatoes – around $1.99 kg in summer, up to double or more in winter
    Potatoes – $1.99 kg, although we sometimes buy in bulk which is slightly cheaper
    Cabbage – $1.49
    Bananas – $1.79 a kg at the lowest when in season
    Beef mince – $5.99 kg, at the lowest – up to a ridiculous $13.99 sometimes at the supermarket for the premium stuff
    Cheese – between $8 and 10 a kg, at the moment?
    Muesli bars – varies by brand, between $2.50 and $3.50 at the lowest for a 6pack
    2 litres of ice cream – $3.50, at the lowest
    1.5kg flour – $2.50
    1 kg sugar – $2
    Eggs – we usually get a 20 tray for $5
    Pasta 500g – $1.10
    Pasta sauce – $2.99 for 700g (cheap stuff) or $3.50 for 500g (better stuff, on special)

  • June 15, 2009

    It’s a Monday, but it feels like Sunday…

    because I’m on study leave!

    Not that I’m doing much studying.

    It’s really, REALLY hard to get motivated. This is my only exam, and should be my last one EVER. Oh sweet, sweet relief.

    But….I just don’t care! I’ve handed everything else for all my other papers. This is a core paper that I need to pass to graduate; it’s the most academic of all my papers, and the most stuffy. At this point, as long as I pass, I actually don’t think I’d care.

    Well, as long as I didn’t get anything below a B-. I’m Asian. To get a C would be, shall I say, unthinkable.

    Had a good weekend, financially. Went shopping at Lim Garden (crazy Chinese supermarket in Mt Albert). We got all our meat and produce there – spent about $25 or something ridiculous on meat in total – and bits and bobs like noodles, sauces, sugar etc. If only they stocked everything a normal supermarket does…it would be perfect. We still had to go to Pak n Save for things like razors, tampons, baking soda and cereal. We spent $51 at Lim, which pretty much covered all our dinners and other important stuff, and then a whopping $60 at PnS! This did include toiletries and a fair few treats, to be honest. If we go back to Lim this week and spend a similar amount, I’ll try to make sure we rein ourselves in at PnS afterwards so we can really get that grocery bill down.

    One thing that has always been hard to manage is BF’s lunches. While he was working, I usually made him rolls or sandwiches – sometimes the odd pasta, salad or fried rice – and he had another $40 or $50 for lunches. I know, that’s a lot, but the physical work kind of calls for it, and the kinds of food places around his workplace were expensive. Honestly, it was just one of those things it was easier to pay for. Especially when he was on sites that didn’t even have any kitchen facilities at all. Since he’s been home, he hardly eats lunches, but he has had a couple of one off days worth of work recently and that’s been hard to account for – especially not knowing until the last minute. We’re just taking it as it comes.

  • June 7, 2009

    We shopped at Countdown this week, and had to get things like batteries, a multiplug board and mop in addition to groceries. But with the help of my Visa Rewards Card (which is accepted there) we got out spending $113 out of pocket. Of course, I got home and realised I forgot to get any fruit, but we have some fruit salad somewhere in the pantry.

    Although Countdown is pricier than PnS, it also has some really good specials from time to time. EG:

    Cheese – 500g Anchor, 4.99. Saved 4.10 (finally prices are starting to come back down!)
    Griffins malt/wine/arrowroot biscuits – 2 for $3.50 (except you always have to buy both to get the discounted price, which can be a pain)
    Meadowlea margarine – 2 for $5. Saved 2.50
    Watties canned cooking sauces – 2 for $4.60. Saved 1.80
    Leaning Tower pizzas – 2.99 ea. Saved 2.70

    And CD are usually pretty good about scanning through the correct prices, too.

  • May 31, 2009

    We squeaked in at just under $120 for groceries this week. Hurrah!

    So it’s not going to be a particularly exciting or healthy week. Which is just as well, as it’s going to be a busy and stressful one, and the easier the dinners are to throw together, the better.

    Sunday: Rolls with chicken and salad
    Monday: Chicken kiev
    Tuesday: Pork belly and fried cabbage
    Wednesday: Nuggets and chips
    Thursday: Shepherd’s pie
    Friday: Nuggets and mashed potato
    Saturday: Fried rice

    Yes, I still love chicken nuggets and so does BF. Don’t judge…

  • May 24, 2009

    A full belly is a happy belly

    I’m sitting here rubbing my tummy with glee (sort of); I love when BF throws together epic meals like the one we just had!

    I should have taken a photo…grr. He made surf and turf with steak, prawns, mushrooms and onions (stir fried with a pinch of soy sauce) and a bit of KFC potato and gravy on the side (a weakness we both share…).

    Much as I loved the prawns, it was the mushrooms I wolfed down! One of my favourite fall back dishes was born from a desperate weekend brunch consisting of leftovers – toss in onions, mushrooms and canned tomatoes, and even better if potatoes can be incorporated somehow.

    We went to Countdown for the first time in a couple of months and made it out at $130. Which was pretty good considering what we bought – lots of meat, a few splurges and even some produce. This week we’re having nachos, chili, chicken giouvetsi, and fried cabbage.

    Standouts (in a good way): Cabbage half, 1.85; capsicum, 99c; 24 prawn cutlets, 5.03 (we don’t normally eat THIS well!!);500g brown sugar, 1.25; Nature’s Fresh bread, 2 for $5 (now we’re eating two loaves a week, I usually get name brand as there’s virtually always a 2 for $4 or 2 for $5 deal on); Select chilli beans, 1.59.

    Standouts (bad): “Breakfast” mushroom pack, 4.98; Raro, 1.79, Home brand milk 4.75 (thirty cents cheaper at PnS, get with it Progressive!!)

  • May 19, 2009

    Grocery shopping

    Assessing the damage….

    $147 for this week, so I was pretty close on guessing $150 at the checkout. I figured anything under that would be okay. considering it included a 5.50 carpet cleaner, $10 razors and $6 shaving cream for BF, I think we did pretty well.

    Here’s what we’re having for dinners this week:

    Lemon/basil pasta

    Lemon/basil pasta

    Chicken fried rice

    Peanut satay burgers x2

    Lemon and basil pasta

    Sausages with peas and corn

    Chicken/sour cream tortilla bake

    Bolognese

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