Cutting costs and still having fun, Part I

Between the country’s sour economic mood, getting gigged at the supermarket and pump, and my own sorry freelancer’s salary, I’ve been thinking: How can I trim the fat out of my crazy-high grocery bill?

It’s high because I love food. I love expensive food. I love beef, cheese, wine and pretty much anything else with a fat price tag. While I shop at Wal-Mart and Target, I prefer Whole Foods, online gourmet rackets and the Farmers Market. It’s not that I was raised around expensive food. Chef Boyardee cooked most of my meals, and the cheese I knew best took the form of shakable powder. But since I grew up, food has had a hold on me like shoes on Carrie Bradshaw.

So, between the need to cut back, and pangs of guilt over the wastefulness of my typically unplanned, inefficient and unfocused weekly food life, I said no more. Recently, I announced a plan to stick rigidly to a weekly budget. Otherwise, there would be nothing left for Christmas, or the future, except the memory of bleu-cheese stuffed filets bought on credit.

But, it’s been harder than I thought to strike a balance between quality and price, and there’s a big gulf between what works when it comes to supermarket savings and the BS hyped by the media. Most websites hosted by so-called cheapskate families feature unrealistic depictions of rabid coupon-clipping and the value of grinding your own meat and making your own milk from powder. And grocery fliers, with their confusing 10-for-10, and 2-for-1 lures, seem to keep prices on common items high.

What works? For me, it’s been the following:

Decide a comfortable weekly budget, and stick to it. Split a percentage with your spouse or partner, if applicable.

Grocery shop the minimal number of times you can per week, and no more. I can’t possibly shop once a week no matter what menu-planning experts contend. But I have found that planning 3 or 4 days of meals and shopping only on Sundays and Thursdays does work.

If you’re a fresh, unprocessed food fanatic, follow food writer and author Michael Pollan’s suggestion to shop the perimeter of the store, meaning fresh produce, fresh meat and fish and dairy products, and avoid preservative-packed processed foods no matter how cheap they are. Health shouldn’t be sacrificed.

Part II, affordable fresh recipes, next week.