Wednesday, March 26, 2008
By KATHLEEN PURVIS
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — You think your food bill is up? Try shopping with Don Hinkle.
He buys 6 to 8 gallons of milk a week. If meat is marked two-for-one, he’ll buy $200 worth.
Hinkle has a lot of mouths to feed. Three teenagers, ages 19, 18 and 16, and 7-year-old triplets. “We were afraid of losing tax deductions,” he jokes.
Joking aside, that’s a lot of food. Hinkle, an information technology project manager for Wachovia who lives in Weddington, N.C., really notices when prices go up.
“It pains me,” he admits.
How can you save money on food? Ask the experts — like the families in Mothers of Multiples, a networking group for people with twins, triplets, quads and quints.
Food and beverage prices climbed 4.8 percent last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s the biggest increase since 1990. The numbers vary slightly according to which study you use, but most statistics show eggs were up almost 30 percent, whole milk was up 13 percent and bread prices climbed more than 10 percent.
The reasons could fill a shopping cart: higher demand for milk and meat in Latin America and Asia, drought in several parts of the world, more corn and soybeans being scooped up for ethanol, big boosts in the fuel it takes to grow food and get it to market.
You don’t have to tell Meredith Ritchie food costs are up. Ritchie has only three kids — in MOM, triplets doesn’t get you much in bragging rights. But that means she has to fix breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week for three 7-year-olds.
Ritchie works part time, as a vice president of sales for Momscorp, a professional staffing company for mothers returning to the work force. Her husband, David, works for a nonprofit, the Boy Scouts of America.
“Every dollar counts in the Ritchie household,” she says.
Both Ritchie and Don Hinkle, who does the shopping for his family of eight, watch prices as closely as a schoolkid watches snow clouds.
“I’ve got a real math brain, so it’s easy for me to keep tabs,” says Ritchie. “I have it in my head that I don’t want to spend more than $100 a week.”
To do that, she moves her shopping around — perishables one week at the Harris Teeter, bulk goods another week at a discount warehouse like BJ’s.
And she doesn’t like to compromise on food for her kids.
“I try to be calm about organic, but I do believe in it.” For instance, her kids eat peanut butter and jelly almost every day for lunch. But since that’s their main source of protein, she prefers the organic peanut butter she finds at a good price at Trader Joe’s.
And she looks for other ways to trim. The kids take lunch to school, but baggies are expensive. So she found a brand of inexpensive reusable containers — the kind with two compartments — that fit in a lunch box.
“We wash them and pack them the next day, so we don’t use baggies. It’s just part of the routine.”
She buys large containers of organic yogurt and parcels it out. She buys pudding and gelatin snack cups in bulk.
Hinkle also moves around a lot for his shopping, buying perishables and meat at a supermarket, cereal at Big Lots and staples at Costco and BJ’s.
He buys so much at Costco, he gets the executive membership that earns back 2 percent of what you spend. He gets back enough to pay the cost of the membership.
He doesn’t drive far for a deal, he says. “At the price of gasoline, it quickly counters that.”
But he and his wife, Laura, make lists, then adjust them for sales at the store.
“If it’s not on sale, we’ll wait. We can do without it, or we’ll do a different vegetable or a different combination of things.”
A favorite way to stretch their food dollar: potluck night. Everything gets pulled out and put on the table.
That can mean some odd combinations. One night recently, dinner at the Hinkles was lasagna, pancakes, pork chops and pork roast with cherry sauce. But it keeps them from wasting food.
At the Ritchies’, budget dinner is often breakfast. Meredith Ritchie watches sales on bacon and when it hits two-for-one, she’ll buy 20 packs and freeze it.
Both the Hinkles and Ritchies say a key to scooping up sales is storage. The Ritchies have two refrigerators. The Hinkles have two refrigerators and a deep freezer.
That’s how Hinkle scored a great deal on meat. When the supermarket had a two-for-one sale, he bought $400 worth for $200.
“If it’s two for one, I’m loading up the car.”
There’s one budget shopper tip Hinkle doesn’t use, though: Leaving the kids at home when you shop.
Taking them along, one at a time, is part of teaching them to be thrifty — how to pay attention to the price per ounce and which things are more expensive than they’re worth, like junk food.
One of his kids is now a sophomore in college and he rarely drinks soda.
“He’ll order water at a rest-aurant.”
Part of teaching kids to eat cheap is to train them early, he says.
“We don’t make special things for dinner,” he says. “We teach them, ‘This is dinner — eat it. This is not a restaurant — you don’t get to choose.”’
BAKED SPAGHETTI FRITTATA
Butter for pan
2 tablespoons fine dry bread crumbs
1‚Ñ4 cup olive oil, plus more to drizzle on top
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 ounces spaghetti, cooked and drained (about 2 cups)
1 (3.5-ounce) can tuna packed in olive oil, drained and flaked
1‚Ñ4 cup chopped pitted green olives
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (optional)
6 large eggs
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Generously butter a medium-size cast-iron skillet or any heavy skillet with a heat-proof handle. Sprinkle with bread crumbs to coat.
Combine oil and garlic in a large skillet and heat over medium heat just until the garlic begins to sizzle. Remove from heat, add spaghetti and toss to coast with oil. Add tuna, olives and parsley (if using).
Whisk the eggs in a large bowl until blended. Add to the skillet. Using a fork, move the ingredients to distribute the eggs evenly. Top with a drizzle of oil.
Place in the oven and bake until the edges are browned and the frittata is set in the center, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in the skillet for 10 minutes, then loosen the edges with a spatula and slide the frittata onto a platter. Cut into wedges and serve.
Serves 4 to 6.
From “The Good Egg,” by Marie Simmons (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). In Italy, leftover pasta is often used in a frittata, which also lends itself to other leftover vegetables, meats and cheeses. Use this recipe as a template to try other combinations, such as chicken, shrimp or ham instead of tuna. Or make a meatless version with coarsely grated cheese.
TORTILLA-BLACK BEAN CASSEROLE
2 cups chopped onion (about 2 large onions)
1 1‚Ñ2 cups chopped green sweet pepper (about 2 medium)
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
3‚Ñ4 cup bottled picante sauce or green salsa
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 (15-ounce) cans black beans and/or red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
12 (6-inch) corn tortillas, divided
2 cups shredded reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese, divided
2 medium tomatoes, chopped (optional)
2 cups shredded lettuce (optional)
1‚Ñ2 cup light sour cream or plain low-fat yogurt (optional)
Combine onion, sweet pepper, tomatoes, picante sauce, cumin and garlic in a large skillet. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Stir in beans.
Spread a third of the bean mixture over the bottom of a 3-quart rectangular baking dish. Top with six of the tortillas, overlapping as necessary, and 1 cup of the cheese. Add another third of the bean mixture; top with remaining six tortillas and remaining bean mixture.
Bake, covered, in 350-degree oven 30 to 35 minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Let stand 10 minutes.
Top with chopped tomato, lettuce and sour cream if desired.
Serves 8.
From “The Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook” (Meredith, 2006.) If you want to save money on meals, go meatless. If you really want to cut costs, cook large batches of dried beans instead of using canned, and buy cheese to shred yourself.