Saving Money on Food During the Holidays and Beyond

For those of you who don’t live in the greater Boston-area, or who didn’t have a chance to catch these money-saving tips on FOX 25 Boston this morning, here is video of Cindy Fitzgibbon and me discussing ways to save money on your holiday – and everyday – groceries.

Before we all head off to our respective kitchens to continue with our Thanksgiving preparations, here are a few other quick holiday tips that I wanted to share:

1.) Embrace the pot-luck – it cuts down on prep, stress, and cost.

2.) If you are embracing the pot-luck and you use disposable aluminum pans, take a look at your local party supply store (such as iParty). Two lasagne-sized pans are $4.99 at the local chain supermarket in my area, yet the same size pans are on sale for 44-cents – yes, CENTS – at the iParty near me. (pssst: don’t forget to recycle.)

3.) Don’t shun the box o’ wine, or the BOX-O, as one of my dear friends has it coined. We’ll be drinking Duca del Frassino Corvina-Cabernet and Duca del Frassino Garganega-Pinot Grigio this weekend (there will be more on both of these wines here, but not today, I’m afraid. Must get my pot-luck dishes started stat!).

At $18.99 (plus tax) per box – and there is the equivalent of four bottles contained within each box – our holiday wine spending has plunged significantly, and I’m pretty sure (no guarantee, though) that I’ll have wine left over in those boxes – wine that will remain fresh for a couple of weeks beyond the holiday. All that for less than five buckaroos a bottle. And, as my friend who came up with BOX-O will tell you, if you didn’t see the box, you would have no idea that the wine came from a box. The days of Franzia propping open our college apartment windows (to chill the wine, of course. Oh, and to let the cigarette smoke out.) are safely behind us now, and good-quality wine can be had in a box at significant savings.

If you aren’t able to locate the Duca del Frassino boxes, ask your local wine merchant which boxes they stock that contain good-quality wine – there are quite a few options out there.

And with that, I’m headed back to the kitchen to start making my bargain stuffing. I hope that you have a wonderful holiday, that the day is relaxing and joyful, and that your table is full of your favorite foods, shared with your loved ones.