Let's start at the very beginning.
I love being scrappy, and I love living cheaply. Eating for a whole week on what I could have easily spent on a single meal out (back in the day, you know, when I still went out)—now that was an idea I could get behind. For inspiration, Julia showed me videos where people spent only $10 a week, which might be doable when you have access to a whole gallon of milk for $0.98 at Walmart—but that's a bargain hunter's dreamscape compared to my $4.89 gallon jugs in NYC. Add to the mix the feverish shopping behaviors in the time of COVID-19, the weekly sales and discounts I'd grown used to seeing simply disappeared from every aisle. Not one to give up once challenged, I scanned the shelves, followed my gut, did some sketchy mental math, and hoped for the best.
Wanna see the receipts?
I emerged from the shopping experience only mildly traumatized. My most expensive purchase was a dozen eggs, which rang in at $4.39—these were the absolute cheapest I could find at the time, due to recent price spikes. With no sales in sight, even fruit became a luxury. I bought a single apple: 54¢. I splurged on a bag of chickpeas because they are the best legume in the game ($2.19) and a jar of peanut butter because I wouldn't be who I am today without peanut butter ($3.49). The best deal of the haul? Two 32-oz. bags of instant oatmeal at $1.99 each. These came in real handy in several recipes and were super satisfying in both savory and sweet applications. All in all, I bought nineteen different ingredients for a breathtakingly close-shave grand total of $34.94.
I made a few exceptions...
I tried to set myself up for success with a single loophole: Pantry staples that I'd already had on hand, that would be used in small enough amounts, were not included in the budget. These included oils and butter, salt, sugar, spices, herbs that were growing on my windowsill, and condiments like mayo and hot sauce. Because my budget excluded these staples, I limited my usage to 2 tablespoons of these ingredients per recipe. This inadvertently put me on a relatively low-fat, low-sugar diet. Thank goodness I had the foresight to buy that jar of peanut butter, because a life without fat isn't a life at all. (You can bet your bottom dollar I finished that entire jar of peanut butter by the end of the week.)
...And then I started cooking.
Monday
I decided to start the week off as traditional as possible—I figured I had lots of time to get funky with the ingredients as the days worn on.
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
The weekend rolled around and my anxiety levels were rising. I had so many things I wanted to make still, and FOMO: Cooking Edition was setting in.
The day started off quite miserably. I tried to make rice milk with cooked rice. Big mistake. I ended up drinking a tall glass of what tasted like chalky, extremely diluted congee—decidedly not delish. With my blender already riced up, I decided to blend another round of rice paste to bake into crackers later. I ate some leftover tortilla chips to tame my disappointment.
Sunday
I ended the week with some valuable takeaways for stretching $$$.
Be flexible.
You might have an idea of what you want to buy for the week but you won't know the actual prices until you step into the store. Find similar ingredients that are more reasonably priced or on sale that week, or switch directions and be open to what your local Food Universe has in mind for you. If bread is out of stock, give that stack of corn tortillas a shot this week. If fresh tomatoes turn out to be $4/lb, canned is the way to go. This is especially true if they aren't in season—canned tomatoes are often more flavorful to begin with.
Shop around.
If you have a handful of stores nearby, it could be worth checking out their stock and doing some price checks. Grocery shopping is a personal pastime, so this was something that seemed more like a fun activity than a chore to me. If your stores are super packed and busy right now and it's simply not feasible to visit multiple locations, stick to your favorite store and grab everything from one place.
Reach for "core value" ingredients.
These are ingredients that tend not to shift wildly from their humble price points. Root vegetables, tubers, legumes, rice, oatmeal, peanut butter, eggs, and bananas are among my favorites. Unit prices tend to decrease with an increase in package size, so go with bigger bags of potatoes, carrots, apples, grains, and legumes when you can afford it—most of these ingredients keep well.
Reinvent leftovers.
I have a theory that any food that gets cooked twice will always taste better than just a single heat treatment. So, really, leftovers are the pinnacle of home cuisine for me. I like to cook off all my grains and legumes in large batches and do something a little different to them every day. Flavor each iteration with distinctive spice combos, and apply heat in a variety of ways. To develop flavor over long periods of time, long bakes, slow roasts, and simmering stews work best. To get crispy-crunchy results, go with deep fries or shallow sears and sautés. Switch it up!
Use ingredients in uncommon ways.
I started the week thinking I'll buy a bag of flour and make some bread for myself. That was not to be. The flour aisle was like a ghost town, trails of powdery carnage lingered and haunted the shelves. So I resolved to grab two bags of oats, because they were cheap, and throughout the week, I ground up my oats to make oat flour. Lo and behold, oat flour is pretty healthful to eat and very versatile. Got rice? Make it into crackers! Got potatoes? Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew! And then make some gnocchi and delicious paratha-arepa-inspired patties with 'em.
Keep it spicy.
Spices are the unsung heroes of cooking. Always have the basics on hand, but also branch out and grab a few that are new and strange to you when you go shopping next time. If committing to a whole jar of a single spice worries you, reach for a spice blend—packaged spice mixes tend to be more rounded and balanced in flavor, and play more easily with whatever dishes you choose to use them in. Throw a teaspoon in to your soups, stews, and stir-fries to experiment with the new spice, and taste as you go to see if you like it. My bet is on ground coriander and toasted cumin seeds overtaking black pepper's popularity one day soon.
Here's what really matters.
This project reminded me of why I love cooking: It's the ultimate form of play, and you get to eat it all at the end of the day, whether you turn up with miserable mistakes, happy accidents, or surprising masterpieces. Life is too short to be spent following rules to a T. Have you ever baked cooked quinoa into a loaf of banana bread? YOU SHOULD TRY IT. I dare you to push the boundaries on conventional recipes and have fun experimenting with the weirdest combos in the kitchen. Don't be scared—GET EXCITED. Just don't forget to write me a love letter when you win that James Beard Award.
