Tuesday is fish-dinner day at my house. After yoga, I pick up fresh fish from the grocery store on my way home. Last week, something was different at the fish counter. They were selling "restaurant portions." Each piece of fish was de-boned, de-skinned and cut into 6 oz sizes...for more than double the price ounce for ounce! I thought if I wanted to pay these prices, I'd go to a restaurant and they'd do the dishes too. Besides, we eat a 4 oz portion and I don't need someone telling me to buy more and eat more or throw it away. Last time I checked, we were in a recession.

With all this talk about food prices going up, I thought these offerings were insensitive. But, you know what? I haven't really noticed my food bill going up very much. Maybe it's just what I buy. I shy away from convenience foods, like the "restaurant portions," and do a small amount of work myself. Meanwhile, I save a bundle, and it's not even a lot of work. Don't think it could make a difference? I did some research:

The most obvious one is replacing bottled water with filtered, but we all know that. Saves: $hundreds per month and lots of resources

Salad

• 10 oz. Fresh Express Romaine bagged salad $3.69
• 28 oz. Head of romaine lettuce, no bag $1.59

Bottom line: You'd have to buy 2.8 bags of Fresh Express to get as much lettuce as the bulk romaine, which would cost $10.33. The bulk lettuce is 85% cheaper and saves $8.74. Just wash and dry the leaves, wrap in a kitchen towel, and back into the bag until ready to use. (I know you can't buy a fraction of a bag of lettuce, I'm just using that for the math).

Greens

• 16 oz. packaged, chopped, ready to cook collard greens $2.49
• 60 oz. bulk collard greens $1.99

Bottom line: You'd have to buy 3.75 bags of packaged greens, which would cost $9.34. The bulk greens save $7.35 or 79%

Popcorn

• 6 bags / 80.8 g Orville Redenbacher microwave popcorn $3.99
• 1 jar / 907 g loose popcorn $1.29

Bottom line: Here, you get over 11 times more for less than a third of the cost. Amazing! To get an equal amount of microwave popcorn, you'd have to spend $44.79! We don't have a microwave. We picked up an 80's air popper for $2 at a garage sale.

Iced Tea

• 1 gallon jug Arizona Iced Tea $2.50 (on sale)
• 40 teabags organic green tea, makes over 6 gallons $3.00

Bottom line: With 6 teabags per gallon, you have fresh organic green iced tea for $0.45/gallon, a savings of 82%.

Sandwich Patties

• 9 oz box of 4-pack Morningstar Farms veggie burgers, veggie chicken patties, or other variety $3.59
• ingredients for a batch of 16 curried lentil burgers to make and freeze as needed $1.75

Bottom line: A 16 oz bag of lentils for 69 cents, plus a few other ingredients will produce a superior meal in both tastiness and healthiness. You'd have to spend $14.36 on 4 boxes of Morningstar burgers. The homemade version would save 88%. (Let me know if you want the recipe!)

I have always been the scrutinizing grocery shopper, making sure I got the best value, comparing and contrasting various goods. I'm not sure where this came from, other than I love math and I love a good deal, so I'm compelled to work the numbers. If you look on the price sticker, they supposedly have this all worked out for you already, but many times, it's incorrect, or inconsistent with similar items, making it impossible to compare. Food makers are counting on you not to compare. Take for instance Hershey's chocolate bar. Used to be 3 oz, now it's 1.55 oz. Looks the same form the front, but it's paper thin. Instead of charging more, they give less. Ha, they thought no one would notice! With all the extra cash I save on my groceries, I buy Ghirardelli...60% cocoa chips, that is. (You get more than twice as much for less than the bar.)

There are other ways to save on groceries. If you aren't vegetarian, try it a couple days per week. Check out your local ethnic grocery stores. We save big on tahini, freshly baked pita bread (which make excellent pizza crusts), feta cheese and olives at our neighborhood middle eastern grocer, Oasis. We frequently buy our produce at a farmer's market and walk away with more than we can carry for $20.

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