lower my grocery bill without compromising what I eat

Go me! I’m closing this goal out… Between Trader Joes and Costco, I’ve done a good job of this one. I never kept track of how much I’ve saved from month to month, but I do feel like firing my bad local grocery stores was a good call. I like the options at my two new places better, and I feel like I’m keeping better food in the house, even if I need to work on cooking and knowing a variety of recipes. I also need to buy [and use!] more food from the Greenmarket and order more vegetables when I eat out.

My freelance client-of-the-week is far out on the West Side, and there’s really no veggie-friendly food out here unless I have pizza everyday. They’re not providing lunch, so I’ve decided to try and carry my lunch every day. The Costco food has really helped me. I’ve carried in fruit, juice and snacks from Costco and only had to think about my main dish each day. I’ve been buying myself smoothies as a break/treat, but I still reckon that I’ve saved a little cash this way. I also have eaten better—yesterday’s lunch was leftover Saag Ponir with rice and today’s is red pepper hummus with soy pita. Go me!

[The soy pita has actually been okay… I bought it for the extra protein, and it tastes pretty much like regular pita bread. Some of the health food products scare me a little, but this one hasn’t been too bad. I mostly taste the hummus, and regular pitas don’t taste all that interesting either.]

This time I mostly got good snacks, cereal and juice. My friends were both in Weight Watchers, so they were able to read labels well. We were all looking for healthy choices, even if I was looking for protein more than low fat…

I liked hanging out with them for the afternoon—I hope we can do it again in a few months. Another friend of mine offered to bring me along when she goes, and that could be good too! What I really want is for someone to build an elevator to the subway in Brooklyn so I don’t have to stock up…

I’m making a trip to the Costco upstate with my friend’s Maggie and Sam on Sunday. I’m taking the train up there, but then Maggie has a car and will drive us back into the city to drop things off.

I hope they enjoy it, since I’d be good to have a regular set of people to go shopping with…

By the way, here’s the schedule for the NYC greenmarket closest to me, from http://www.cenyc.org/

Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat, 8am – 6pm, year round.

It’s almost time for another trip to Costco. I’ve zeroed in on the things I actually eat—juice and cereal are the big ones, although I might stock up on a few other essentials like pasta and cheese. My bf’s cousin has a Jeep, so I want to plan on going out there with her and her husband… Buying little bottles of juice and those Luna Bars has really cut down on the ammount I spend on snack foods at delis. It’s also been good to have a Luna Bar tucked in my bag for hungry moments.

In other news, a new Trader Joe’s opened down the block. They have really good prices on food, but there are two things I don’t like about them: they often have lines to get in after work and on weekends and if you come late in the day, they won’t be fully stocked. I’m not certain if the lines remind me of Soviet Russia’s breadlines or the velvet rope outside the hip new club. Clearly, other people are not happy with the choices at their local grocery stores. I often see people getting on the train to Brooklyn with bags from Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and the Greenmarket. I would use them as my primary grocery store, but… Maybe if they open a couple more outlets here in the city the pressure will ease up a bit and the deliveries will be more consistant.

I think I’ve mostly solved this one, but I’m going to keep it on here for a little longer, just to see how it goes. I might morph it into another goal—I need to learn how to cook better and get more veggies in my diet. I’ll wait on that until I have time to really dive in…

My bf borrowed a car and we drove[!] out to Costco today. It’s actually close to the NR in Sunset Park, but it’s really a lot nicer to not have to add all those extra staircases to our trip. I don’t know how I’d really have gotten all that food home without Brian’s help and his dad’s car… I probably won’t go more than four times a year, but it’s worth doing.

I think it’s worth it to be a member over there. They definitely have cheese, juice, cereal and oatmeal covered. Probably the biggest saver for me was buying apple juice, granola bars and Luna Bars there—these are the sorts of things I tend to pick up at the deli for ridiculous prices. My 24 pack of Luna Bars was $19, when usually they’re two bucks a pop. I also got some other good staples, like beans, pasta sauce and fruit cocktails…

I have a couple things that are consistantly on my grocery list but cost a bunch in my neighborhood:

• good cheese
• good soup
• juice that does not contain corn syrup
• milk
• cereal+oatmeal
• bread
• onions+peppers+fruit
• veggie food

Many of these are more expensive because I buy the “fancy” version that is better for me, like juice. I’m not buying the 3.49 carton of Tropicana, but I do want something that has some quality to it, and no sugar. I don’t want to nickel and dime those choices off my grocery list, but I do want to get my grocery shopping down to a more reasonable ammount. I suspect each of these things on my list will require me to do some homework. Cereal and milk may have to come from different places.

I already know that the greenmarket is the cheapest place to buy veggies and apples [and it’s a lot more fun than being in the grocery store]. I need to learn its hours and visit more often. The selection is really wonderful, and good food is cheap. My bf + I have made a pact to go to Costco and try it out next weekend. It’s a gamble—the closest one is somewhere in Brooklyn, and you have to join before you go wandering, but even if it’s only a good place for cheese and laundry detergent, it’s a start. I’m hoping to see things I want to buy at better prices, but we’ll see how that one works out. My other short-term goal is to find a cheaper source for milk. My mostly-fired grocery store charges the same as the drugstore and deli around the corner from me. Someone has a better price, and I just need to keep trying different places until I figure it out…