Since my family's meals are vegan & gluten free, its easy for prices of meals to soar! Gluten free food is ridiculously expensive when you buy food that is specificly labelled for that and found in the Health Food sections of stores. Rarely can I find coupons for these products as well.)
Yet, I keep my food bill for the 3 of us (and trust me, as many know, these boys eat twice as much as me EACH!) down to $100-$150 a month.
My first stops are Saigon and The Friendship store. Two asian grocery markets in town. Because asian countries don't have the land to grow wheat, most of its main starches are either edame (soy) or rice. I can get a package of rice noodles for $1.29 at Saigon however, a package of rice noodles is $4.99 in the "Gluten Free" section of the grocery store or the health food store. The asian stores also have MUCH more variety, different shapes, thicknesses, and even flavors! You can find spinach, carrot, sweet potato, mung bean, edame, and other noodles all for the same price, and variety is so important for anyone, but especially for 9 & 11 yr olds who HAVE to eat rice or bean based pasta most of the week. I am also able to find spice mixes and curries for much less there! The kids have favourites, such as Gia Pang, a 6 pack costs 69cents, well worth 10cents to flavour a stirfy or soup mix!
Next stop is buying at the dollar store! Here I pick up packages of plain or sesame rice crackers (teryaki has wheat and obviously no cheese). I stock pile a months worth at a time, because sometimes they sell out and we don't know when they will be back in. The same size packages of rice crackers are $1 at Dollarama, $1.99 in the cracker section of SuperStore and $2.79 in the "Gluten Free" section of the store. I also pick up soy milk at Dollarama if I don't have any coupons for it. At Dollarama, you can get 946ml for $1.25, rarely can you get the 1.89L of soy milk for $3 at the grocery store unless you have coupons, so I stock up for the periods between coupons.
I found some products we can buy in the regular grocery isles are also safe! I found some corn tortillas have wheat flour in them, however, El Paco has gluten free ones that are $2.59 for a dozen and in the bread section of the store. In the Health Food section there are gluten free corn tortillas at $4.99 for 8.
At Sobeys they do not mark down their products as they approach the sell by date or if they are no longer going to be carrying the product. They dispose of it (no, they do not donate it either). At SuperStore they mark items down to 50% off when they reach close to their "Best Before" date. I have noticed that the vegetarian products are marked down earlier than other products, for example, tofu is marked down a week before its "Best Before" date. I keep track on my calendar the dates of the tofu they have in stock and check in a week before its due. I stock up on all tofu with the 50% of stickers. They keep well in the fridge for 2-3 weeks (since it is not an Expiry date, simply a Sell By date) and freeze the extras. I keep an eye out for all those pink stickers. I just picked up 8 blocks of Vegan cheese at half price because they were no longer going to be carrying that brand (Best Before date was October 2011).
Produce is one of those expenses that you have to watch closely whether you are vegan, vegetarian or just eat healthy! Keep an eye on sales, and try to buy local and in season. I know, we've all heard it, but it does help! I do NOT find the farmers market here is cheaper, however, I find Victory Meat Market, a local independant grocer to have FANTASTIC produce prices!! Checking local grocers can lead to great surprises! I shop during the summer at the farm stands like the Big Potato and Country Pumpkin. The produce came off their fields and straight to the shop so the cost is less, and I buy large quantities in the summer, freezing in baggies for the winter. Its only a little extra work for yummy healthy veggies in the winter when you can't find some on sale.
