After reading a recent article on FoxBusiness.com, entitled, “Nearly 70% of Americans Struggling to Pay Grocery Bills, Survey Finds,” I decided to conduct my own poll in our community, regarding life after food boxes. Now that this era has come to an end, I wondered how local families were managing – what they were eating, what their average weekly food bill totaled, and if they had any money-saving food shopping tips for those with dwindling stockpiled food box groceries.
“My fridge and
freezer are emptier,” Malka Friedman* responded. “We are eating the basics and
no longer eating all the new and different foods that came in the box. We have
a lot less to share with others. I keep an eye out for discounts when possible.
Every little bit helps. We are doing what we can to get what everyone would
like to eat – which is not always easy with picky eaters – but we are managing,
b”H.”
“A lot of the
ready-made foods that came in the food boxes, like the pizza bagels and snacks,
we never would have bought because I buy very simple food,” explains Ahuva.* “For
instance, we don’t buy juice, and they gave us tons of it. The boxes did help
our food bill because they provided some things that we normally buy, like
chicken. I usually bake challah and desserts, and don’t buy the baked goods
that came in the boxes. We are back to the simple way we were doing things
before.
“It was nice
because sometimes they gave fancy meats, like ribs and corned beef – things
that we would buy only once in a while or for Yom Tov,” continues Ahuva. “We
enjoyed it while it lasted. I think I might have one frozen slab of meat left. Of
course, there was always the dilemma of what to do with the food that the kids
didn’t want to eat.”
At present, only
half of Ahuva’s children are regularly at home. Still, she considers food
shopping a part-time job. “I make a point of getting different groceries at the
stores where they are at the lowest prices,” she notes. “I go to Aldi twice a
week. I go to Costco every couple of weeks – mostly for some produce, as well
as kosher cheese, deli, and chicken. That takes up a lot of time. I also go to
Seven Mile Market every week. I find that ‘store-hopping’ shaves a significant
amount of money off the grocery bill, but I consider it a job because it takes
a lot of time. It’s much quicker to buy everything in one store.”
The trips to Aldi
and Costco happen to easily – and economically – fit into Ahuva’s life, because
they are both close to Torah Institute (TI), where she drives carpool two
mornings a week. Otherwise, she says, the expensive gas fill-up of her large
van wouldn’t be worth the trip. “If you can work your menu around the sales,
you can save a significant amount of money,” says Ahuva. “For example, when
zucchini is cheap, I buy a lot of it, make kugels, and freeze them.”
Her system of
cooking, which she says is easiest for her family, is to cook in large
quantities and freeze. For example, for Shabbos, one week she might be making
challah and chicken soup and freeze the excess. “Usually, there is some cooking
and some pulling out of the freezer each week for Shabbos, and there is always
a fresh salad,” says Ahuva. “I find that if you buy a lot of the things on sale
and freeze them, you will save. It’s a whole avodah. You must feel it is
worth your while to busy yourself with it to save money.”
* * *
Nechama is one of
the savviest shoppers and meal planners I know. This mother of four and her
family are still living off their food box goodies. “Our food bill averages
about $200 to $300 week because we are still living off of our food packages.
But weekly food bill varies because, when higher-priced items like chicken,
meat, or cheese are on sale, I will buy in bulk and freeze it. I go to different
stores on different weeks.”
The family has one
very big, well-stocked freezer – thanks to a hand-me-down from Nechama’s
in-laws – and she bases her food prep on what is in the freezer as she did
during the food box distribution. They also have two side-by-side refrigerator
freezers that have been very helpful. In addition, they bought a gigantic
storage cabinet to help with the food package overflow and because she wasn’t
going to the store as often to restock paper goods, aluminum pans, school snacks,
cereal boxes, crackers, and other items.
“During the peak
of the food distribution, we were definitely at capacity,” recollects Nechama.
“We would put overflow food at my parents’ and in-laws’ homes. There was no
point holding onto food that we knew we were not going to eat; I gave it away,
either to family members, my cleaning help, or posted it on our community
Facebook page.”
Whenever Nechama
added new items to her freezers, she put them on the back of the shelves,
rotating the older inventory to the front. “I would see what foods were listed
on the various distributions for the week and plan our meals that way. If I had
ground beef or corned beef left from the pick-ups, I wouldn’t buy more. The
only time I would buy more, is if I forgot to take it out of the freezer to
thaw in time to cook it.”
She continues,
“Although we’ve always eaten meat and chicken, in a way, we are eating
differently now because, when the food packages started, we were introduced to
foods that either we didn’t know existed or didn’t think our kids would like.
Because items such as chicken nuggets and McCain’s beer-battered fries were in
the food package, the kids tried them and really love them. The fries are on
the high side, but we will occasionally buy them now.”
Here are some of
Nechama’s hottest tips for saving money on groceries:
·
Don’t
eat snacks
(also a weight loss tip!). Tell yourself, “If I eat this pudding, it will be
one less pudding for the kids’ lunches.”
·
Be
mindful of your leftovers. Utilize them by revitalizing the food. For example,
if you made meat sauce for spaghetti one night, turn it into a meat lasagna for
a different night.
·
Planning
your week
based on what you already have is
very helpful. Take inventory to see what you have so you don’t spend money
needlessly – and so you can use what you have already put your money into.
·
Look
for sales.
Restrain yourself from buying items that are not at a good price
·
Know
your stores and know your prices. It is not always beneficial to
store-hop, because you may be saving 50 cents on an item but spending two
dollars on the gas to drive to that store. It costs you time as well.
·
Plan
your shopping trips.
If I know I am going to one of my kids’ schools, I will plan to shop in that
area – at Target or Market Maven, for example. Or, if I am in the Seven Mile
Market part of town, I shop there. I like to start at the top of Reisterstown
Road and work my way down; Sunfresh is another stop I make in between.
·
Write
grocery lists.
I like to keep my shopping list on my phone to make sure I have it with me. The
trick is to make sure I look at it while I am at the store! You are never going
to only stick to your list – you will find extra things, or you will forget
things, but that’s okay. A list will keep you a little more focused.
* * *
The Goldbergs*
have nine kids under 18, ka’h, so they were entitled to a lot of food
boxes. In fact, they didn’t even have to go shopping, since they made do with
what they were given. They found the prepared food to be a convenient treat.
“It was amazing,”
says Mrs. Goldberg. “We saved a lot of money. When the food box program ended,
we still had a lot to use up, which was good. Once it started clearing out and
I started going shopping again, I was shocked when I saw that the prices had
doubled. A whole chicken at Costco went from $6 to $12. I couldn’t get over the
prices. I thought back to the stuff I gave away that we didn’t use, thinking
how it was so valuable.
“I’m happy to be
cooking and baking again, and I also enjoy buying what I like,” shares Mrs.
Goldberg. “I served the program food because I didn’t want to waste it. So many
friends of mine told me that their kids wouldn’t touch what was in the boxes,
but we are not into wasting. If we got pulled beef, we made a pulled beef wrap
out of it, to make it exciting for the kids. We really tried to use everything
they gave us.”
Mrs. Goldberg’s
biggest money-saving shopping tip is to be discretionary about where you shop.
“I shop at Costco for chicken at $1.99/pound, and Aldi for things like salmon,
crackers, fruits, and vegetables. Aldi is shockingly inexpensive; it’s less
expensive than Walmart. I also buy the Aldi store brand, Clancy’s. For me, it’s
been a game changer – and the whole frum
world is in there! You hear women calling the Vaad Hakashrus from the store
asking about hechsherim. Now that I am used to the hechsherim on their blueberry muffins and their coleslaw, I know
what to buy.”
Mrs. Goldberg
reminisces, “While we were getting the food boxes, everyone had the same
Shabbos food, and everyone’s kids brought the same lunches to school. The
families with nine kids got nine boxes of chocolate wafers and nine bunches of
celery. You were able to freeze the meat and chicken, but you were time bound
in using up all the cucumbers. What can you do with nine cantaloupes in ten
days? It was a real challenge to find people to give them what you couldn’t
use. Some of the food got moldy, and I always felt bad, but what are you going
to do?”
Mrs. Goldberg
feels that life is easier now, in a way. “It was a lot of pressure. People
would tell me that I didn’t have to get the pickup, but I felt guilty not
picking it up. The food they gave us was worth so much; I felt like I had to
get it in order to save money. It was such a treat to get all this pre-made
stuff. It was very interesting. The food filled the entire dining room table. I
took pictures of it because I wanted to remember the ‘box life’! It was such a
crazy lifestyle.”
* * *
When Bethy Guttman
heard that Mrs. Goldberg and another neighbor felt horrible that so much of the
food box contents were wasted if it couldn’t be used, stored, or given away,
she came up with a solution. She offered the porch of her house as a drop-off
center for these items, to give to those in need. Every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday,
her porch was piled with as many as 80 boxes of a single item.
“People would pull
up in their cars – first from our block, then from our neighborhood and beyond
– and unload their stuff at the Guttmans,” recalls Mrs. Goldberg. “One of the
beneficiaries was a local yeshiva. Its kitchen employee picked up the boxes and
prepared meals from what was distributed. This chesed saved the yeshiva
thousands of dollars.”
As Bethy mentioned
to Mrs. Goldberg, “Hashem could have given us a famine; instead, He gave us an
overabundance. I want to take that overabundance and to show Hashem that I’m
doing the best I can not to waste it.”
“I was so touched
by this,” concludes Mrs. Goldberg. “It was a hard time in people’s lives – I
lost my grandmother to Covid – but I look back and I say, ‘The chesed
that people did to make things better was amazing!’”
