Yesterday, I posted in this space that a new survey found Canadians are buying less food – simply because they have less money to buy food. But there are ways to make your food budget go farther in terms of nutrition value…
Common wholegrain foods: You get a lot more for your
nutrition dollar with whole and multi-grain foods…
I realized this ‘other side of the coin’ position shortly after completing yesterday’s post on the most recent ‘state of the grocery cart’ report from Canadian officials. I hope it makes you feel a little less edgy about the seemingly unstoppable increases in food prices in the face of soaring inflation.
If we’ve come to the point where we can’t afford to buy enough of the groceries we usually need to feed out families, what do we do? In short, consider buying unusual groceries.
Ways to address the challenge
There are a few different ways to approach this challenge:
First, talk to local market gardeners who set up stands in suburban parking lots near you about discounts on ‘ugly’ food. That’s to say, less-than-perfect, off-sized, blemished, under- or over-ripe produce. Supermarket chains have given lip service to stocking ‘ugly food’ options, but they never got much further than a few products – mainly potatoes. They don’t want cheaper options cutting into their already thin profit margins.
At the supermarket, check out specials on food that’s nearing its Best Before date. ‘Best Before’ doesn’t mean expired, just past it’s probable appearance or flavour prime. You can get meat and other top-tier foods for up to 50 percent off their original marked prices. Look for the ‘Enjoy Me Tonight!’ labels.
Buy foods that will keep in bulk, if you can get bulk discounts. Just be sure to store them properly so the last of them don’t go to waste.
And remember: frozen foods, flash-frozen the same day they were harvested, are often just as fresh and nutritious as their never-frozen counterparts. They’re often cheaper, too, since they’re frozen at harvest time when they’re plentiful. And as long as you keep the left-overs frozen, in tightly-sealed packages, they’ll stay fresh indefinitely (for your intents and purposes). Bonus: there’s no waste weight from stems, shells, leaves or other stuff with frozen foods.
But there’s more to consider…
You can make your food bucks go farther in terms of the nutritional value they can buy if you follow a few simple rules:
Buy whole-grain and multi-grain flour, breads, pastas and cereals. And try to use the least-processed forms of these products you can find.
Segue your family’s diet to veggie proteins – such as rice, quinoa, lentils, beans and peas (see photo, top of page) – from dramatically more-expensive meat. Again, there is little or waste with these products and they have very long shelf lives if stored properly. Just be sure to pair your ‘beans and peas’ to ensure you and yours get complete-vegetable-protein meals.
Be aware of ‘root cellar’ veggies you can buy relatively cheaply in season and stretch to last all winter. Potatoes, onions, parsnips, hard ‘winter’ squashes, and so on. If you have a root cellar, just put them down there. If not, create a suitable corner of your basement where it’s cool, dry and dark. There are only about a million posts online telling you how. Just don’t let them freeze.
Remember that potatoes are really good for you. It’s the stuff we customarily put on them or pair them them or cook them in that makes them unhealthy.
Remember that eggs are now considered safe to eat as often as once-a-day; that is 5-6 times a week. They’re chick-full of a variety of nutrients, protein and other good stuff and their price seldom changes much, especially in Canada’s supply-managed food price environment.
Let your newly stimulated imagination fly!
… And see where it takes you on your journey to food-dollar savings. Never say, ‘I have no choice’, or ‘That’s the best I can do’. There’s always a choice, always something better you can do with what you’ve got! Just ask any oldster you know who was a kid in the Great Depression…
~ Maggie J.