How This Roseway Resident Feeds Herself on $150 a Week (With Daily Gourmet Breakfasts)

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Welcome to Rose City Receipts, a new feature of Stumptown Savings where Portlanders take us inside their grocery shopping and meal planning strategies. Portland’s food scene is legendary, but figuring out how to enjoy it without breaking the bank can feel like an unsolvable mystery. With food costs on the rise, Rose City Receipts aims to inspire and motivate by showing you how one of your neighbors is making it work. Want to show off your shopping prowess? Email me to participate in a future Rose City Receipts!)

This week, Courtney from Roseway, OPB's climate and environment editor, shares her strategic approach to grocery shopping and her dedication to starting each day with an impressive homemade breakfast.

Who are you? Courtney
Where do you live? Northeast Portland's Roseway neighborhood
What’s your weekly grocery budget (roughly)?: $100-$150
How many people are you shopping for?: One and three quarters, I guess? I do most of the grocery shopping for myself and my partner, and then he supplements by shopping for bargains at specialty stores and discounters and also stocking up on the protein bars and smoothie supplies he likes.
What are your favorite stores?: Trader Joes, Safeway
What’s your top priority when it comes to grocery shopping?: There are a few things I'll pay more for because of quality or convenience (coffee beans, pizza dough, my favorite heat-and-eat lunches), but beyond those I'm all about trying to get the best reasonable price for the way I eat.

I have a set list of groceries I buy every week, and then pick up staples when they're on sale and produce that's in season and looks extra good. 

I typically start my shopping by adding everything I need that I can get at Safeway to that store's app, which lets me see what's on sale there and allows in-app coupon clipping. Then I head to Trader Joes. As I shop at TJ's, I put anything that's cheaper there into my cart and take it out of the Safeway app. 

There are also a few things I only get at TJ's – 2% single serving Greek yogurt (Safeway only has whole milk or 0%) and the frozen Indian meals I like to have for lunch on my three days/week working in the office.

When it comes to candy, soda and wine or cider, I tend to pick things up right when I want them. If I keep these treats around the house, I find myself grazing on them out of boredom. It's a better deal for me to pay more to get a treat when I really want it instead of paying less per unit but eating/drinking and spending more overall.

Weekly food total: $222.45
Eating out total: $56.84
Groceries total: $120.75
Convenience store total: $34.89
Most-expensive line item: $25 for a bag of coffee beans. It's the best coffee I've ever had, and worth the splurge.
Least-expensive line item: 38 cents for a lemon
Number of grocery trips: Two (Rocky Butte Farmers Market and Trader Joes in one trip, Safeway a few hours later)
Number of meals out: 1 (2 if you include take-out snacks of juice and a muffin)
Stores visited: 2 supermarkets, 2 convenience stores, a farmers market, a coffee shop, 3 restaurants

This is more elaborate than my typical dinner, but I was excited about the great deal I got on artichokes. Made too much food, so it looks like I’ll be having leftovers for lunch on Tuesday. 

Monday total: $0

Tuesday total: $3.98 for convenience store snacks 

Wednesday total: $11.94. Bought snacks during work and grabbed cider from a convenience store to go with dinner.

I had the day off work, and I got way too many tomatoes at the supermarket this week, so I started my morning making a yummy spiced tomato and pepper mix that was the base for two meals — shakshuka with eggs in the morning, and then reheated with chickpeas and served over leftover couscous with cilantro for lunch. 

Thursday total: $3.99 

Friday total: $25

Saturday is about finishing leftovers and using up ingredients from the last week. For breakfast, I had a veggie-filled tofu scramble with the tofu I didn’t fully use in a recipe earlier in the week, then the leftovers from that recipe — tofu and sweet potatoes — for lunch.  I didn't have a real dinner, but filled myself up by snacking on strawberries, chocolate, pepitas, fudge, Cheerios and Coke Zero through the day. 

Sunday I had more leftovers for breakfast — this time a chickpea and spinach stew with poached eggs — and then lost all willpower for cooking and heathy choices. I was low on coffee beans, so headed to Guilder Coffee for a bag of beans (one of my rare big splurges at $25 for 12 ounces — but they are the best coffee beans I've ever had). I also got a cappuccino while there, and picked up biscuit sandwiches for my partner and I at Pine State Biscuits. 

Pre-COVID, when my household income was higher and restaurant food cost less, I used to get biscuits and cappuccino a few times a week. Now it's a special treat, and one I savor. For the rest of the day I grazed, mostly on butter-and-herb drenched air-popped popcorn and pita bread with cheese, and some wine.

Saturday is grocery day!

Sunday

Weekend total: $167.58

As much as I like home-cooked food, making lunch from scratch is more than I can handle when I head into the office. I'm a big fan of Trader Joe's frozen Indian foods for my midday meal. My current favorite is the Palak Paneer, which has 19 grams of protein, lots of spinach, a list of ingredients I recognize, and it's $3.99. It's the perfect serving size for me, though if you need a heartier meal it's also good on top of a bed of rice with yogurt on the side. I also try to pack an apple and some yogurt on in-office days – if I forget, odds are good I'll be hunting down a $5 cookie from the Zupan's across the street.

I'm all about breakfast. I figure if I'm only going to get one good meal per day, I might as well start out strong. My "formula," to the degree I have one: I aim for two eggs, one extra source of protein (yogurt, egg beaters, veggie sausage, lentils, etc.) a few cups of veggies, a fat like olive oil, avocado or cheese, and either fresh herbs from the garden or spices from my home spice cabinet.

One of my favorites is shakshuka, which I usually make with leftover tomato sauce the morning after pizza. But we didn't have pizza for dinner this week and I had a ton of fresh tomatoes, so I used this online recipe as inspiration.

I worked with Courtney for years at OPB, but had no idea she was such a breakfast enthusiast! I'm impressed that she manages to make a complete breakfast every morning, even while commuting to the OPB office in South Portland. Having a strategy around those breakfasts definitely makes all the difference. Those meals look delicious!

As a fellow snacker, I totally relate to Courtney's tip about resisting the urge to stock up on sweets by buying in bulk. Not having those things on hand is a game-changer. It lets me be more mindful about when I actually want something like a candy bar or chips. Otherwise, I'd be munching on them all day long 😆

Want to be featured in Rose City Receipts? Email [email protected] and share your grocery shopping approach!

Happy saving!

Bryan M. Vance,
Founder/Publisher,
Stumptown Savings