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• Why you should inventory your food supply

  Posted Sep 16 2008, 10:10 PM by Donna Freedman
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  Filed under: extreme savings, spending, Donna Freedman, groceries
  Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money

  On Monday night I brought home 10 boxes of granola bars and 10 big boxes of old-fashioned oats, having paid just $17.50 thanks to a coupon/rebate combo. This was good news since I eat oatmeal every day and like to keep granola bars in my backpack to avoid buying pricey snacks when I'm out and about. The problem was where to put it all, because my cupboards already looked full. If I wanted to store this stuff, I had to reorganize.
  

  So I did. Now I'm torn between feeling delighted and a little bit nervous. On the one hand, I have obtained a lot of staples very cheaply; some were even free thanks to those coupons and rebates.
  

  On the other hand? I had no idea how much stuff I'd squirreled away.   Read More...

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• Paper or plastic? In Seattle, we'll pay for either one

  Posted Jul 30 2008, 01:17 AM by Donna Freedman
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  Filed under: spending, Donna Freedman, groceries
  Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money

  Starting in January, Seattle shoppers may see groceries go up 20 cents per bag. That's because the City Council voted 6-1 to institute a fee for the use of paper or plastic bags at grocery, drug and convenience stores. If that doesn't get people to start bringing their own bags, I don't know what will. Twenty cents each adds up pretty quickly.
  

  Councilmember Jan Drago, who voted against it, told the Seattle Times that the measure might make it look as though the council is not sensitive to the economic struggles of the average citizen. "It's about timing," Drago said, "not about the goal."
  

  Here's what I think about that: There's never going to be a good time to try and get people to break a habit. They're accustomed to doing it that way and will come up with plenty of reasons why it just isn't fair to expect them to, say, stop using handheld cell phones while driving. (That's verboten in Washington state, although only 113 tickets have been issued thus far.)   Read More...

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• Shopping at the farmers market

  Posted Jul 18 2008, 08:49 AM by Donna Freedman
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  Filed under: spending, Donna Freedman, groceries
  Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money

  Freshly picked Rainier cherries melt in your mouth. At $5.99 a pound, they'd better. This pricey indulgence appears in my menu only a few times a year -- namely, on those occasions when I visit one of Seattle's farmers markets.
  

  These venues are jammed with heirloom tomatoes, feathery field greens, dusty mushrooms foraged from Pacific Northwest woods, jewel-like strawberries, peaches that yield sweetly to the touch, radishes flecked with damp earth, sturdy maroon beets still wearing their crowns. Much of the produce is organic. All of it comes from small growers. To me, the best part of shopping this way is knowing that a family farm is getting a decent price for produce.   Read More...

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• Turkey dinner for just $189 a plate

  Posted Nov 09 2007, 09:25 AM by Donna Freedman
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  Filed under: spending, Wal-Mart, Donna Freedman, groceries
  Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
  The turkey ads showed up in my mailbox the other day. This week I can get a gobbler for 39 to 79 cents a pound, or even for free if I were to spend $100 at one store. Compare that with the $4.99-a-pound cost for the "heritage" (exotic breed) turkeys featured in a recent article in Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Times Sunday magazine. Author Lynda V. Mapes described supermarket turkeys as having "cottony meat" and as being "so blanderized by industrial-style production it can be like eating sawdust with butter." The chef of a renowned regional restaurant orders the heirloom turkeys each year, Mapes wrote. "Not just any bird, after all, would do for his nine-course holiday dinner that goes for $189 per plate and up, including wine." Last year's menu included a choice of poached white meat on king bolete mushroom bread pudding, confit of leg on mashed delicata squash with shallot, or herbed crépinette on cabbage with quince. Then there were the side dishes, like cauliflower fenugreek soup   Read More...
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