Green Options

With the holidays approaching and the economy on the downturn, I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels the pinch in my wallet. There’s not much you can do to lower rent or mortgage, utility bills, or car payments, so your food budget will likely be what gets cut back. If the thought of eating nothing but rice and beans for your holiday meals scares you, don’t worry! You can trim your food budget while still eating well and keeping it green. In fact, there are many ways to lower your grocery bill while helping the planet out at the same time.

Following are some of the ways I’ve tampered my food spending, but please comment with your money (and earth) saving ideas!

Sorry, vegetarian and vegan Eat Drink Better readers.  This tip is for the omnis! We recently made the move from a vegetarian kitchen to a sometimes-omnivorous kitchen.  Without getting into the nuances of both my husband and my’s food preferences, we’re more likely to eat at home if I cook meat sometimes, and I’d rather save the money and eat at home where I can control ingredients.  One thing I recently tried as part of this new arrangement was cooking a whole chicken. Why deal with a whole chicken when you can buy the convenient prepackaged boneless skinless breasts?  Because you can save a ton of money by buying a whole bird.  Find out how, after the jump…

We’ve recently joined the whole urban homesteading movement and one thing I’ve been focused on is trying to really up the ante on having a low-waste, self-producing kitchen. I’ve concentrated on wasting less and producing more with local and/or homegrown ingredients. Repurposing waste–finding new ways to use things that would end up composted, recycled, or trashed, has been very rewarding as I rethink and organize my kitchen, refrigerator, and pantry. Here’s six tips I’ve found to turn would-be trash into items easily utilized in my kitchen.

A good friend sent me Daniel Gross’ post on Slate.com, “The Agony of the Food Snob.” The article is a bit self-deprecating, a bit of humor, and a bit of a poke to food snobs’ plight as food prices rise for all of us. At times the article points out the more stupid purchases that defy reason, and at others, it shows that none of us — save the very wealthy — is immune to the price increase.

The last line of the piece is truly a challenge to all food snobs, “We’re spending obscene amounts on food we don’t need at a time when so many others are genuinely struggling to pay for enough basic sustenance to get them through the day.”

I am not a food snob. I am also on a budget these days. Even so, I certainly enjoy the best foods of every season, and the relative abundance and the fact that I can afford to eat when so many can’t has been weighing on me. I needed to do something to help.
So, here’s how I answered the challenge.