Here are a few tips on how to save at the grocery store, straight from the grocer's mouth via the New York Times business section. Tom Heinen, owner of the Cleveland-area Heinen's Fine Foods chain, gives us the dirt. This is a recap:

1) DIY everything is not always your best bet. Sometimes it can be cheaper to buy certain pre-washed, pre-cut or otherwise pre-prepared items, because the factory that makes them probably wastes less lettuce/pepper/carrot than you would.

2) Look for local "artisan deals," like Wisconsin cheddar instead of the imported New Zealand kind, or locally grown radishes. If your grocery doesn't have good local deals, ask why not. Whole Foods does.

3) In fact, ask tons of questions of store employees. What's the best deal this week? What did you buy for your own kitchen today? I'm guessing this wouldn't work too well at your local Supervalu. Try it, and let me know!

There's an interesting story in the New York Times this morning about how restaurants are dealing with soaring food costs. Some Chinese places are no longer automatically delivering rice to the table, others are subtly trimming portion sizes, some are simply raising prices. One proprietor even admitted to tacking tax onto the check rather than upping prices on the menus. A brunch spot has started charging $2 for the walnut-raisin topping that used to come free with the French toast. Frozen blueberries have begun replacing fresh.

With rice, flour, beans, tofu and milk prices through the roof, we're likely to see more penny-pinching maneuvers everywhere. Food costs in the New York area are up 5.3 percent this year, says the article, but the problem's nationwide.

So have you all noticed any changes in your favorite restaurants? Prices up? Hidden taxes? No more free green tea?

Writing in Slate, Sara Dickerman complains about how, despite the looming recession and sky-high food price inflation, food writers continue to rhapsodize over black truffles and $24 a pound Papillon Roquefort, without even a nod towards the fact that these ingredients cost more than many people's weekly food budgets. Any cookbook that mentions cost tends to be the kind of retro, housewifely home ec treatise that recommends things like sloppy joes and cabbage stew. Why not combine price-consciousness with foodie flair, Dickerman wonders?

Over at Salon, the always-hilarious Heather Havrilesky writes about the recession and the comforts of coupon clipping and worrying over the price of a $1 bag of dried navy beans. In hard times, people will need to get back to basics, quit obsessing about the origin of their organic lambs lettuce, return to crock pot cooking and making do. Maybe Dickerman can combine her food savvy with Havrilesky's thrift and write a cookbook?

With the U.S. economy on the rocks, it seems like a good time to take another look at cutting costs in the kitchen. Here's a (decidedly non-comprehensive, not necessarily "foodie-ish") list of some useful budget cooking and eating sites. Please suggest your own favorite cheap food sites as well.

Cheap Cooking: a spare, photo-free recipe site that seems mostly dedicated to people cooking for families. But hey, recipes for rump roast and apricot chicken will work just as well for one - just divide the remains into Tupperware and take them in for lunch. Food storage tips and a cost calculator are super-useful.

Cheap Eats: a blog with recipes, tips, and techniques for cheaper cooking and eating out. Includes an archive of cheap restaurants (lots of fast food), a Hall of Shame (Wagyu beef burgers with foie gras), and a list or recipes for $3 or less.

Better Budgeting: This frugal recipe list tends towards the retro. Think ground bologna sandwiches, cubed steak, and Tater Tot casserole. But come on, who doesn't like Tater Tot casserole?

USDA Thrifty Food Plan: Check out the 78-page PDF on budget food planning, with sample weekly food planners and some admittedly less-than-inspiring recipes (the ingredients for Baked Cod with Cheese are 'cod' and 'Cheddar cheese').

Rebecca's Pocket: One woman's quest to eat organic on a food stamp budget. Includes recipes and musings on food history.

Frugal Recipes: The "heirloom" recipes from the early- to mid-20th century, such as Ladies' Cabbage and Frozen Cranberry Fruit Salad make this site just as useful as a food history archive as a recipe source.

The Culinary Review: Slashfood has mentioned this user-friendly new site in the past, with its recipe cost calculators, shopping tips, and price breakdowns for various Food Network chef recipes (Giada De Laurentiis champagne risotto: $8.83 per serving).

With all the information in the news these days about the importance of eating locally and organically, the folks out there who can't afford to add these sometimes pricier ingredients (during the summer months, local farmers market produce is comparable or cheaper than its supermarket brethern) to their shopping lists start to feel sadly left out of the movement.

Novella Carpenter, freelance writer and urban farmer living in California's Bay Area has found a way to keep her costs low and her food as local as possible (last summer she spent a month living only on that which came from 100 yards of her front door). The San Francisco Chronicle recently ran an article by Carpenter in which she interviewed a foodie acquaintance who was finding ways to eat healthy, local, organic and (admittedly) slightly fancy foods, all on a fairly limited budget. It's an interesting read and a good source of eating inspiration.

Jonathan already put together a comprehensive guide to sparkling wines and champagnes for your New Year's Eve plans (or any other celebratory occasion), but the LA Times has a guide that is separated out by price, rather than by region, which will certainly help you make a quick decision based on your budget. Take a look at their full list for detailed descriptions of the flavors of each bubbly and details of where they found the best prices for every bottle. Here is the abridged version, by price:

$20 or less

• Caves de Bailly Brut de Charvis, N.V. - $11.
• Bele Casel Prosecco, N.V. - $13.
• Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut. - $17.

$21-$30

• Duval-Leroy Brut, N.V. - $25.
• Drappier Carte d'Or Brut, N.V. - $30.

Many of us only use a large roasting pan a few times a year and even though the meals we are using it for are holiday dinners, where to is important to try to get the food as perfectly cooked as possible, it is hard to justify spending $200+ dollars on a pan that gets so little use. Cook's Country tested some inexpensive roasting pans, all under $100, to see if they would do just as good a job as the more expensive pans while staying in our budgets.

Each of the pans they tested was designed to work both on the stove-top, so they could be used to brown meats, and in the oven or under the broiler. They chose pans with a minimum size of 15" x 11" inches, to accommodate largest turkeys. Overall, they strongly preferred pans that had sturdy, upright handles, which were easy to grip and did not interfere with the way the pan fit into the oven by adding an extra 2-3 inches to the length. They also found that stainless steel pans with aluminum cores offered the best heat distribution, while plain stainless steel could be a bit spotty when it came to browning. Their top picks were:

• CALPHALON Contemporary Stainless Steel Roasting Pan ($100)
• CUISINART Chef's Classic Roasting Pan ($80)
• KITCHENAID Gourmet Distinctions Roasting Pan ($50) - Best Buy
• GRANITE WARE Oval Roasting Pan ($22) - Best Buy for very infrequent roasters

One of the best things about leftover chicken is that it is perfect for making sandwiches with. Actually, just about any leftover meat (or vegetable) can be incorporated, somehow, into a sandwich because bread and condiments go a long way in making old food seem as good as new. A good illustration of this is this Chicken Salad Sandwich from Cheap Eats. The sandwich is dead-easy to make, mixing shredded chicken, diced celery and green onions with mayonnaise, salt, pepper and a dash of paprika. Once you have the basics, you can augment the filling with hard boiled eggs, dried cranberries or raisins, lettuce, tomatoes or bell peppers. Ever budget-conscious, Cheap Eats also served the sandwich up with a side of leftover smashed roasted garlic potatoes, but as for all sandwiches, a bag of chips makes a perfect acceptable side dish.

There are not many people who don’t have a budget when they travel, whether they want to save on travel itself, activities or accommodations. Most often it is the food budget that gets cut, since people tend to assume that they can simply eat cheap fast food rather than dining in “real” restaurants. And this, in large part, is very true. After all, you get a lot of food for a little money at fast food restaurants and you are not required to tip the servers. In addition, you get in and out very quickly, which gives you more time to pursue other activities. But fast food isn’t the only way that you can save money on vacation, and it certainly isn’t the best tasting.

If you are traveling by car, the best way to save some money is by bringing some of your own food. Save space for a small cooler somewhere in the car. You can stock it with water or soft drinks, which you might otherwise purchase at a convenience store or rest stop. You can cover the cost of a few lunches by packing a loaf of bread and jars of peanut butter and jelly, all of which will keep for several days, at least. Making your own lunch will give you extra flexibility with your dinner budget, too.

Consumer Reports recently ran a helpful article about buying organic produce on a budget. Actually, the bulk of the article details recent developments in the organic food industry such as the recent weakening of organic standards and the debate over Horizon dairy products.

Aside from a brief overview of what "organic" means when it comes to vegetables, meat and dairy, the article gives some insight into what the health benefits of an organic diet may or may not be. It also points out certain vegetables, such as asparagus and broccoli, that, even when grown conventionally, have such low levels of pesticides that buying organic versions seems unnecessary.

The piece ends with several tips for finding less costly organic produce. Suggestions include buying direct from farmers through local markets and CSAs or simply comparison shopping among the stores that offer organic foods in your area.