Recession Cooking (or, things I was already doing)

Everybody's seen these tips on how to spend less money on food, and being a poor student, I'll click on it every time. What do they say?

"Cook in your home instead of going to restaurants or ordering in" Check. I might not always cook the cheapest stuff, but for the price of pizza I can have a salmon fillet with roasted potatoes and sauteed spinach and have money left over for wine.

"Don't throw out food" Check. I've developed a complex about throwing out food, to the point where I will go out and buy 4 other ingredients to use up the cilantro or something like that.

"Make a big pot of something on the weekend to eat all week and take for lunches" Check. Almost everything I make.

"Eat less meat" Check. Beans are filling, and a can is like a dollar.

"Buy things like meat, chicken and fish when it's on sale and freeze it" Check for sure. I'm all about that; I'm looking at you, tilapia for $3.99/lb, Buy 1 get 1 free frozen shrimp, half-price organic chicken... This might be a better strategy for families. I have more meat and fish in my freezer than I am likely to eat in a month.

"Buy local produce" Check... but it's tricky. My yuppy heart melts as I walk into a place like Eastern Market in DC, the Ferry Building in San Francisco, Italian Market in Philly or even the Merchant Square Farmer's Market here in Williamsburg. You know, the kind of place with hand made fresh mozzarella and fresh picked lump crabmeat from the Chesapeake and homemade mushroom ravioli. The kind of place with lots of dogs and women in sundresses and heels, and there are children that beg their moms to buy lima beans and eggplants. No, I'm serious. The point is, you pay for this trip to crazy-puppy-baby-sundress-land. Or, you can find the guy selling produce out of his truck. That guy is awesome and he has the best peaches.

"Bring your lunch instead of buying it" Check...90% of the time. This is hard for the same reason quitting smoking is hard (well, almost). I miss taking walks to Wawa for lunch to get out of the lab, out of the air conditioning. Wawa salads are a good deal, but I can't get out of there without the biggest diet coke possible, fruit salad or a pretzel, and I can often be talked into a lunchtime beer. I make better decisions in the morning.

"Instead of buying pre-cut vegetables at the supermarket, buy whole vegetables and cut them yourself" Wait, people actually buy that shit? Why would anyone do that? It'll go bad immediately, if it hasn't already. Also, 4 times the price. That is some bourgeoisie shit.

"Bring coffee to work instead of buying it" ... I try. I just love those paper cups, and having one less thing to wash. And again, I just want an excuse to take an afternoon walk to the coffee shop. How about I just go 3 times a week? And I go to the cheap place? And I get a small coffee instead of large latte?

"Cut out non essentials, like desserts, wine, beer, and cocktails" Eh, I got most of others. Besides, I bought the wine for the soup.