The day
before the super bowl this year I got a phone call while I was doing
my taxes online. On the other end was the co-owner and manager of the
bar and restaurant where I was hired as kitchen manager. Without
warning, just out of the blue, she said that my services were no
longer needed and thank you very much. That was almost three months
ago and only recently did I land a job with the public library here
in Tucson. In all honesty, getting canned from that poop farm was a
blessing in disguise. Although being unemployed is pretty rough, in
the long run I came out a better person for it.
How did
my tenure as a jobless slob help me you might ask? Well, it taught me
a lot of things; mainly humility, but beyond that I was quickly
introduced to having to be extra thrifty about our food shopping. Not
that we shouldn't be on a day to day basis due to our current
economic vexations but I was introduced to some simple cut backs and
tricks to make that dollar stretch just a wee bit more. Or even
further. You'll see.
Okay,
first thing we did was become almost extreme couponers. I mean, I
have never if rarely used coupons but thanks to reality based TV
(that doesn't involve anyone with the last name Kardashian) light was
shed that literally free money is out there. For us, a local
supermarket, Albertsons, always has like some kind of game thing
going on and this time around they're doing a Monopoly themed one.
Best part is, each piece has a coupon in it. Well, most of them do.
Luckily for us, She-Ra is a very popular bartender with a lot of
loyal customers and when they found out she was collecting Monopoly
game pieces, people would just give her theirs and before long we
were inundated with in store coupons.
This
combined with raiding the Sunday paper, clipping stuff from mailings
and even trolling the internet for deals, we got a $100+ shopping
trip down to about $40. You have to get over the fact that clipping
coupons makes you feel like a mid-west housewife, but, c'mon! We got
a month's supply of, well...supplies for almost free. Sure it's kind
of embarrassing to hand over a wad of coupons over to the cashier
making the folks behind you wait a bit longer but, fxxk it. With the
money you saved you can fill up the car with gas because there will
NEVER be a coupon for that stuff. Or is there? Let me know if you
have a hook up.
Another
thing we do is comparative shop. We know the deli at once place has a
better product at a better price and another has a better bakery for
a decent deal, etc etc. Recently our local Food City was selling
chicken breasts for .88 a pound. Mind you it was skin on and bone in
but if you have any type of knife skills you can fillet that stuff
and have a perfect chicken breast. See, the boneless skinless chicken
breasts that cost $5 a pound is jacked up because someone making $30
an hour to de-skin and de-bone the stuff did the work for you. There
are even YouTube videos on how to fillet chicken and all other types
of meat. No really, go check it out. Sure you gotta have a stomach
for that kind of work (luckily for me my five years as a chef really
paid off) but now we have our freezer stuffed with chicken. We eat a
lot of chicken. Apparently. Maybe I should also learn to butcher my
own steaks. But...we'd need a bigger house for that one.
On a tip
from a good friend, we discovered a store that sells perfectly good,
normal store brand products for a fraction of what you would normally
pay. Now, we've driven past this place a lot only to stick our noses
up and go “Aw hell no.” Because who would buy food at a .99 Cent
store? I mean, could you imagine the back alley garbage food that
must be infesting those shelves? Forget it. No way.
But our
friend, a medical doctor, shops there all the time. So, taking her
advice we checked it out one day doing errands.
We were
stunned. Yeah, there's a lot of creffy looking folks mingling around
and, yeah, it is a .99 cent store so there is a bunch of cheap
birthday decorations and cleaning products that just read 'Sanitary'
but the food area was pretty decent.
At first
we were just window shopping. Then we picked up one item. Then
another. Then another. Then I had to retrieve a hand basket. Pretty
soon the thing was full and before we knew it, we had become fans of
the .99 Cent food store. Why? Because this haul right here cost us
just $12.
For
real.
As cooks
and fooders, we go to a lot of diverse grocery stores. So, with this
experience and knowledge, we knew that the same canned good they sell
at Sprouts or Whole Foods for $6 goes for .99 cents at this place.
Just like the boneless/skinless chicken that costs more than skin on
and bone in, you are literally paying for ambiance. We have a really
upscale market here in Tucson called AJ's and it has mood lighting, a
sommelier, decorated chef's and all that stuff, but they also carry
the exact same products the .99 Cent store has. You are not getting a
better item just because the clientele stink of money and the
vegetables have their own personal mister, you are being fleeced
because they can. So, on this note, I would check out your local .99
Cent food store and stock up. Just beware of a brand of spicy chips
called Takis. I'm pretty sure there is bovine hormones injected into
them. Either that or my Spanish needs some dusting.
Lastly,
as big time water drinkers, buying water almost every other day was
starting to get pricy. Not tom mention we were getting pretty tired
of throwing away large plastic containers on a regular basis seeing
as there is no recycle bin nearby and hauling those things around in
the car was starting to get silly.
What we
finally did, but was putting it off for some bizarre reason, was
purchasing refillable water containers. Now, a lot of people think
you can just refill store bought water bottles, you know like in the
gallon or three gallon jugs. This is something that you can do once
maybe twice, after a while the plastic fibers on the inside begin to
break down and before long you are ingesting synthetic grit that
affect your stomach lining and make you ill.
Being
the super cheapskates that we are, the idea of paying $10 to $20 for
empty plastic containers seemed silly. But when we figured out that
we would save over $300 annually just by using the water filling
stations that are in front of most markets, we bought them and
couldn't be happier that we did.
Here's
the thing: Those water fill stations in front of supermarkets have to
be authenticated clean water or otherwise you might as well fill up
your containers from the hose. Tucson, much like my last home of San
Francisco, is a bit hippie and really adamant about being “green”.
In fact, I'm pretty sure Tucson just usurped San Francisco in green
technology. Go look it up. No really, there are a lot of crunchy
people in this weird desert town.
The one
near us, which is an old school windmill looking thing, is certified
clean filtered water and even has the process on the side to prove
itself. And you know what...the water is pretty darn good. Thing is,
we go through so much water that we are literally there almost
everyday. We should have bought bigger containers. Darn it.
Oh, and
I know I'm quoting a blog from the past, but to save cash and room in
your fridge, something that we always do is plan our meals for the
week. Like one head of romaine lettuce could be a salad one day and a
Caesar wrap another. That meatloaf you made last night could be
sandwiches for lunch another. Stuff like that. It's really fun and
quite challenging to make the most out of your money but it is
possible. You just have to be a little open and imaginative about it
and you should start to see results almost immediately. We have.
Enough that I'm considering buying a new pair of socks.
And
maybe some underwear. Because, well....damn.
Have
fun!
