Good for the Waist

26.09.11 / Bargain / Author: TWGranE

Going into the grocery store is a “Journey into Fear.”

After after purchasing my 50-cent thrift book, “A Treasury of Great Mysteries, Volume I,” I realized two savings:

1. Buying used books for 10 cents to 50 cents at The Friends of the Library book sale, and;
2. Reading at night instead of buying sleeping aids when you can’t sleep because you’re worried about going grocery shopping.

I digress. As I was saying, the last novelette in this book is a 1940s Eric Ambler story, “Journey into Fear,” about a U.S. Navy engineer who is being pursued by Nazi agents. The engineer flirts with and enlists a show girl’s help. The show girl waves off hard times and slow tips as “Good for the figure.”

What a way to look at hard times.

I must admit a very large portion of my paycheck goes to gas and groceries. With milk beating out gas at more than $4 per gallon. Coffee and meats boldly increase their prices while decreasing their sizes.

Good luck in the fruits and vegetable aisles. If the ever-increasing chance of a deadly strain of bacteria doesn’t kill you, the prices will.

Tips for saving at the grocery store:

• Watch your proportions when you eat. The meat portion of your meal should be roughly the size of a deck of cards or your palm. Stop super-sizing your meals.
• If your recipe calls for 1 pound of hamburger, expand your palate by using 1/2 pound, mixed with rice (ex. sloppy joes), beans (ex. tacos), or bread crumbs and oatmeal (ex. hamburgers, meatballs), increase pasta in your goulash.
• Take advantage of coming holiday sales. Grocery stores compete against each other over their turkeys and hams. Be sure to buy an extra one when prices are rock bottom. Then plan several meals with the extra meat, not just one.
• Watch for good sales. Always compare price per pound. Just because the store says it’s a sale, doesn’t mean it is.
• Pick one day of the week to go meatless. Explore your Italian side, and re-think pasta.

If nothing else, we’ll come out of this recession smarter, better cooks, and with slimmer waists. So to all the tightwads out there, tighten up your belt and pocketbook and journey into the grocery store.