"budget" news and stories

For those who just did their taxes and are feeling a bit cash-poor, budget wines may be on the brain. Here are five wines that really deliver for the price.

1. Pacific Rim Sweet Riesling 2007 ($9). Normally I'm not a big sweet Riesling fan, but I brought this bottle to Easter dinner at a friend's house, where some of the diners prefer sweet wine. Sweet Riesling is a knockout with ham, and this Pacific Rim (at right) really delivered. My problem with most sweet Rieslings is their flabbiness, but this brand has an underlying backbone of acidity that perfectly balances the sugar. Riesling is a great spring wine with its aromatic bouquet that recalls the apple blossoms blooming in the northeast. At $9, it's a steal.

2. Graffigna Pinot Grigio 2008 ($13). Pinot Grigio has a bad rep as a wine without much character, but this Argentinian version turns that idea on its head. Its nose has a heady fragrance of flowers and peaches and the wine itself is zingy with a peachy taste. It's a dry vino, but so fruity it tastes almost sweet.

3. Korbel Brut Rose ($11): Lots of wine snobs dismiss Korbel, but I happen to think the Brut Rosé is one of the best sparkling values out there. It's a perfect aperitif, the kind of wine you hand your guests when they're walking in the door and dinner isn't quite ready -- it's like giving them a glass of strawberries to sip before dinner is served.

4. Castello Monachi Salice Salentino 2006 ($13): Hailing from Puglia in the heel of Italy's boot, this blend of 80 percent Negroamaro and 20 percent Malvasia Nero is dark, leathery and earthy with a typically slightly bitter Negroamaro finish. It's a very food-friendly red with high acidity and earthiness that seems to vanish into fruitiness when paired it with a red-sauced pasta dish or veal. Oh, and did I mention that Robert Parker gave this wine 90 points?

Rachel, of the wonderful Coconut & Lime blog, has a new entry on cost-saving tips on her Food Maven blog, which is dedicated entirely to food tips. We've written about how to save on the food bill before here at Slashfood, but there are a few entries on Rachel's list we hadnt thought of. Here are two of my favorite tips:

I pay attention to cycles in sales, baking stuff goes on sale in December, yogurt about once a month, roasting chickens in the winter etc and stock up the best I can.

I plan meals around what is on sale rather than rushing out and buying (full price) ingredients for a specific dish.

Check out the blog for the full list of ten tips.

What are your favorite grocery cost-saving tips?

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We talked earlier this month about whether we could live on a $15 a week grocery budget. Many of us thought we could, though it would be hard, time-consuming and rather boring. Now, CNN reporter Sean Callebs is attempting to see what it's like to eat for $176 a month, the most a single food stamp recipient can get in a month. The economic stimulus bill is calling for raising food stamp payments by 13 percent, a sign that the current payments are not enough, Callebs says.

So far he seems to be doing OK, eating basic but healthful meals like chicken stir fry and grilled cheese sandwiches with salads. He's also eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches and a lot of pasta with tomato sauce. But, Callebs points out, he has time to cook and is well-educated on which cheap foodstuffs are also healthy. He also has energy to run three or four miles a day, making his carb-heavy diet less of a weight gain risk. The average food stamp recipient may be working two jobs, with little time to spend in the kitchen chopping and stir-frying lean cuts of chicken.

Callebs is also getting a lot of interesting comments, ranging from budget and shopping tips to admonishments to "stop whining" to thank-yous for raising awareness about consumer food spending.

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I stumbled across this old post on How to Feed Yourself For $15 a Week from Get Rich Slowly, and it seems particularly apropos for the current financial climate. Tips range from the obvious - don't allow leftovers to go bad, don't eat out - to the thought-provoking. Who would have really considered, for example, that a single small item of pre-packaged snack or junk food, like a candy bar, bag of chips or pack of gum, can cost more than a full homemade meal? Other tips include filling up on oatmeal, buying seasonal produce in bulk, and using powdered milk (that would have to be a true desperation measure, IMHO). Be sure to check out the comments section as well - lots of valuable ideas.

If you don't mind my asking, I'd love to hear how much you spend on groceries. How little do you think you could get by on if you had to? I've spent as little as $20-30 a week, but that when I was living alone and eating a lot of free pizza at work.

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As you've no doubt noticed, food mags and websites are dropping the references to expensive sea salts and pricey, hard-to-find spices in favor of extolling the virtues of the simple potato and the joys of buying lentils in bulk. Epicurious has a new "Top 10 Money-Saving Ingredients" article online now, which is quite useful as it calculates price-per-pound and links to various different recipes which utilize the ingredients.

Potatoes, unsurprisingly, are number one. We probably all could have figured that out on our own. But would you have thought to put those 73 cent a pound potatoes in a New England-style potato and cod cake? Not me. But it sure sounds like a good idea. Rice, pasta, chicken, beans, apples, canned tuna, eggs, cheese and flank steak round out the list, each with three or four recipe links. I'm particularly keen to try the spinach and carrot stuffed flank steak and the scrambled egg, potato and bacon tostada (double score for two cheapie ingredients).

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