Tag Archives: food

Simple and Easy Ways to Save on Food

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Food is definitely something that I talk about it a lot, and it’s obvious from the variety of  posts that I have already written on the topic. I decided as part of the new way I was going to write on this blog was to make things succinct, to the point and easy for readers to follow. So here are some general things that I think about when I go to the grocery store or some simple and easy ways to save on food.

    • Purchase generic brand or private label products instead of name brand foods

    • Yes I know everyone thinks the No Name brand tastes like crap, but that’s exactly what they want you to think because of the millions they spend on branding each year. What’s often the case is the same company that produces private label/no name food often has their own name brand product or is the name brand product you always buy just minus the flashy packaging.
  • Purchase full fruit instead of cut up packaged versions
    • Please don’t be extremely lazy. You can buy a full pineapple for $1 on sale at No Frills or pre cut pineapple for almost $3-$5. Oh and fruit trays are extremely expensive too, so please don’t buy them.
    • Buy a big bag of regular carrots, peel and cut them. It will turn out to be a lot cheaper than the $2-3 dollar bag of baby carrots.
    • Check out this site on how to cut an avocado, pineapple and mango, because yes I know they are annoying to cut.
  • Buy in Bulk
    • For the most part, buying in bulk will save you money. This is often the case with meat products. Of course your thinking, I don’t need 8 chicken breasts. Well eventually you do. Buy ziploc bags and bag up the meat in meal size portions and you have meat for a while and you’ve saved by buying in bulk and probably getting it on sale as well.
    • You can also buy yourself a really large piece of pork and cut your own pork chops and once again bag them in individual portions. Check out the video here
  • Don’t Buy in Bulk
    • Yup I know, I’m contradicting myself, but there are situations where buying in bulk may not be your cheapest option. Costco is one example. It’s really important to know your prices when you go to Costco because some products aren’t that cheap, it just seems cheap because its a massive box. A few products I have found at Costco that are a great deal is Liberte Greek Yogurt, 2 Tubs for about you $7.50 I believe, or 3kg of Oatmeal for $7 approximately as well. Know your prices and you will be fine
    • Also when using coupons it actually makes more sense to purchase smaller formats of the products and use more coupons. Instead of saving $0.50 on a $4 item, buy the smaller format at $2 and save more if you are using multiple coupons on multiple smaller formats.
  • Don’t Go For Variety
    • I’ve learned this the hard way. I thought I was going to be a gourmet chef and would make a variety of meals all the time. And of course I didn’t finish a bunch of food I purchased, it went bad and all the ingredients cost me quite a lot more. If you stick to a few staples and go for less variety you end up spending less and using it up without dumping half of it in the garbage. Your a student not a chef.

Also another tip when you really need to buy something and it’s not on sale, make sure to check the unit price of the product which is often in grams or kg.

This is a great way to compare 2 products and determine which is less expensive based on the cost per oz, lb, g or kg. A product that costs. $0.263 per oz is cheaper than a product that costs about $0.5 per oz

How do you save on food?

Post Bar Foods You Can Make Yourself

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I started to realize this year especially that more than 50% of the money I take with me downtown ends up going towards post bar foods.  This covers everything from poutine to pita pit. I’m not recommending not eating after a night out, because it definitely helps. Instead I’m of course going to talking about a way to lower these costs so you can buy more alcohol or save some cash for

your next night out.

So here are a few options for a nice post bar snack that can save you some money and ease the morning hangover.

Grilled Cheese

A serious classic, with a nice mix of carbs and grease and it’s easy to make. The less intricate the cooking the better is what always works the best. Go with a basic cheese and bread or add meat, tomatoes, veggies or whatever else works for you.

Nachos

Now these can be made with tortilla chips or crackers if you have them (triscuits often work well too). You can either grate cheese or just cut it up. Throw on some salsa and put it in the microwave for a minute or so.

Mac and cheese

Always a classic option post bar. It’s hard to mess up, just try to avoid burning yourself. If your scared just buy kd cups instead, just add water and nuke them throw in the cheese mix.

Mini pizzas
You can make these with any sort of bread but the best options are with English muffins or pitas. Either grate or slice cheese, and use pasta sauce or pizza sauce, whatever you have on hand. Either microwave or put it in the oven to cook. You can add toppings including cold cuts, pepperoni or vegetables. Whatever you have lying around works.

Pasta with Red Sauce or Pesto
Boil up some pasta and then once your done just dump in pesto or red sauce from the fridge and stir, easy and tasty.

I hope these help you save some cash and ease those morning hangovers.

For those who like to plan ahead. You can always save some leftovers from dinner or make something awesome to heat up late at night.

What do you eat after the bar?