Welcome back to Rose City Receipts! It’s been a minute, but I am so excited to dive back into the series where we take a peek behind the curtain at how fellow Portlanders navigate grocery shopping, meal planning, and budgeting in our city.

Today, I’m thrilled to introduce you to Lillian Karabaic! You might know her as the host of OPB’s “Weekend Edition” or from her work as a financial reporter. She’s also been tracking her grocery spending for more than a decade. As an avid bike commuter, Lillian brings a fascinating approach to budgeting and meal prep — including Costco stock-ups hauled home by bike trailer — no minivan required.

Before we dive in, I want to see your receipts! You don’t need a bike trailer or a decade of spreadsheets to be in this series. I’m looking for people to feature in the new year. If I publish your piece, I’ll send you a $25 grocery gift card.

Who are you? Lillian
Where do you live? North Portland.
What’s your weekly grocery budget (roughly)?: I budget on a monthly basis, at $175 per person for groceries and $15 for “treats.” We have a CSA 26 weeks a year, which works out to $38 per month, though we pay for it once annually.
How many people are you shopping for?: 2 adults
What are your favorite stores?: Trader Joe’s, Grocery Outlet
What’s your top priority when it comes to grocery shopping?: Price, health

As two busy full-time workers, we balance efficiency and cost by buying dry beans, making homemade energy bars and vegetable stock, and bulk-prepping (like freezing protein waffles and canning veggies). However, I only DIY when time equals real savings — no homemade corn tortillas, tofu, or soy milk.

Without a car, I bike commute and trip-chain to minimize grocery runs, stocking up during sales and focusing on holistic expenses over weekly budgets. We make 3-4 Costco runs a year with big bike trailers to stock up on nonperishables (oats, nuts, coffee, soy sauce).

As a competitive athlete training 25 hours a week (including bike commuting), I track macros for protein and carbs. 

Rising staple prices — especially tofu, which has increased in price nearly 50% over the past 2 years — are our biggest budget challenge right now. While Ota Tofu is great, it’s pricey. Trader Joe's tofu nearly matches Whole Foods’ store brand, but Whole Foods isn’t worth the extra trip.

Weekly total: $117.19
Eating out total: $0
Groceries total: $117.19
Most-expensive line item: $12.99 for 28 oz. of coffee
Least-expensive line item: $0.65 for 1.2 lbs. of bananas
Number of grocery trips: 2
Number of meals out: 0
Stores visited: 2 (Grocery Outlet and Trader Joe’s)

Monday is my grocery shopping day and day off. I get to sleep in until 5 a.m. Breakfast is overnight oats, prepped the night before with peanut butter, frozen berries, oats, and oat milk. I rode 45 minutes to the rink, skated for 4 hours, and biked home.

I went grocery shopping in the afternoon at Grocery Outlet and Trader Joe’s. My big win was curry paste: it’s close to $8 at Whole Foods, but it was only $1.99 at Grocery Outlet. I got three, which should last us several months. Other scores were discounted King Harvest hummus, vegan cheese, and 8 Honeycrisp apples. I also bought a small stock-up of cashews since our Costco stash ran out.

After an afternoon gym session, dinner was roasted Okinawa sweet potatoes with cashew-garlic cream and air fried tofu.

Monday total: $117.19

Tuesdays are the most complicated day, despite being my day off work. I wake up at 4 a.m., eat a pre-prepped overnight oat breakfast. Then I bike 11 miles to the ice rink. I skate for about 4 hours, with snacks during the Zamboni break, then head back down the hill to home.

I get home in the mid-morning, have my third snack of the day (hummus, corn chips, and a banana), go to the gym for an hour, and then have lunch when I get home at 1 p.m.

In the afternoon, I did more chores including getting my flu and COVID-19 vaccines, and then cooked dinner — gnocchi with stir-fried veggies and vegan sausage in cashew-garlic cream sauce. I pick up our farm share and then prepare lunches for the week, and make homemade energy bars and granola.

Then it’s time to head back out in the evening and ride another 22 miles round-trip to go to evening off-ice team practice.

Tuesday total: $0

This is the one day each week I can sometimes work from home. Black bean tacos for breakfast, leftover sweet potato with cashew cream for lunch, and I made a standard vegetarian mapo tofu (this recipe, with some slight modifications) with quinoa for dinner. I use dried shiitake mushrooms as the base, which are much more affordable than fresh mushrooms if you buy in bulk. I just rehydrate them in hot water, and use that mushroom water as a dashi for cooking.

Usually I have it with rice, but discovered too late we had run out of rice. Added it to the Costco list, and subbed in quinoa. (Oh well, at least it has protein.) Also prepped tomorrow’s breakfast of overnight oats and packed lunch.

Wednesday total: $0 

Started with a 3:20 a.m. wakeup for early morning skating team practice before work and overnight oats as usual. I get to work about 7 a.m., after about 3 hours of biking and skating. I have my snack of peanut butter pretzels, homemade protein bars, and apples while I check my inbox. Lunch is leftover mapo tofu and quinoa.

I spend about 9 hours at the office, and head home to make an easy dinner of air fryer tempeh with a gochujang glaze. Quinoa instead of rice again, because I’m holding out to go get the 25-lb. bag at Costco.

Thursday total: $0 

Overnight oats for breakfast, then I head into the office. Somehow some Halloween candy (a mini pack of Sour Patch Kids and a mini Airhead) snuck into my lunch, along with more leftover mapo tofu and quinoa, plus apples, carrots, and homemade protein bars as snacks.

After work, I head to the gym. An easy dinner of roasted sweet potatoes and air fried “popcorn” tofu while trying to finish a book for work. Somehow, a little goblin got into the Halloween candy early and I may have had some Gushers for dessert.

Friday total: $0 

I wake up at about 3:40 a.m. for work on Saturday and Sunday. For breakfast, I eat vegan protein waffles that my partner pre-preps and freezes in batches every few months. I usually put some peanut butter and berries on top.

On Saturday, other than an hour at the gym after work, we spend time working on our Halloween costumes and cleaning the house while listening to an audiobook for work.

After work on Sunday, I finished sanitizing the kitchen and hosted nine other volunteers to make 168 waffles in 2.5 hours (7 waffle irons, and only blew one fuse!) to serve at Breakfast on the Bridges on Friday, Oct. 30. The ingredients for those were purchased by another volunteer using some of our nonprofit donation money, but there is some leftover soy milk that I’ll use this week.

Sunday night our tradition is to make nachos to congratulate ourselves for making it through the week — mine with vegan cheese and no olives, and my partner’s with regular cheese and (ick) olives. Other toppings are pickled jalapeños, black beans (made in the Instant Pot from dry), and habaneros. We make and bottle our own hot sauce about twice a year!

Weekend total: $0 

I’ve been tracking my grocery expenses on a fairly granular level for over 11 years. For many years, I got $165 a month of SNAP benefits. Even after I stopped getting SNAP, my grocery budget stayed around that level per person until 2022 when inflation started hitting it really hard. I make a good salary now, so I’ve been in a position to splurge on certain things and not worry about every penny.

I’ve also been keeping a loose price book for commonly bought groceries for about 10 years, so I know when things are actually a deal vs. just marketing. I used to struggle to stock up during sales because of a tight budget, but now I am able to buy extra if something is a good deal. There are a lot of apps now that will do the work of a price book for you if you scan your receipts!

In a past life, I helped manage a vegetarian kitchen, including ordering, recipe development, and meal planning for an intentional community of 30-80 people and I volunteered for Food Not Bombs. I’m used to buying in bulk and thinking in terms of months, not days, for food purchasing.

We have worked to make sure there is always backstock that makes it possible to make a healthy meal (but it might require elbow grease like soaking beans). We could go about 5 weeks on our food storage. There’s barely space (we live in an apartment) but we have backup food storage everywhere it can fit — even under our couch.

Once a year, we do a “Pantry Survivor Island” month where we eat down the entirety of the pantry and don’t buy new dry goods, so that things don’t expire in backstock. If we can’t use up a random can of tomatoes or something before it might expire, we’ll donate it or put it in a free pantry.

I can’t decide what impresses me most about Lillian’s week: the 3:20 a.m. wakeups, the Costco runs by bike trailer, or the 168 waffles. But what I keep coming back to is her price book. Stumptown Savings started as my own grocery spreadsheet, so I’m biased, but knowing what something usually costs is one of the most useful shopping skills you can build. It’s how you can tell a real deal, like Lillian’s score on curry paste, from a store that just put up a sale sign. This is exactly why I built the Portland Price Tracker, to help you offload that work so you can shop smarter. 

As Lillian points out, stocking up can be tough when money is tight. If that’s where you are, start small. Pick one or two things you always use and buy a little extra when they hit a good price. WinCo’s bulk bins are great for this because you can buy only as much as you can afford that week. 

Read more Rose City Receipts to discover other tips, tricks, and hacks. 

Want to be featured in Rose City Receipts? Fill out this form, and if we pick you, you’ll receive a $25 grocery gift card when we publish your piece!