Smart shopping

The economic vise Americans are feeling began tightening last year on Gerardo and Briana Fernandez.

Gerardo Fernandez, a general contractor, had watched his income drop from about $100,000 a year to less than half that. Briana Fernandez, a cosmetologist, was out of work. They had two children, a baby on the way and, one day, they want to buy their own home.

So the Santa Rosa couple took a hard look at their monthly food bill, which including groceries and eating out was topping $600.

With guidance from Briana Fernandez's mother, Wanda Tapia, a veteran nutrition educator, the couple have over a year sliced that bill by almost half. At the same time, they've cut the number of trips they take to the store and, they say, created a healthier diet.

Saturday, they sat down at their kitchen table with Tapia, now assistant interim county director of the UC Davis Cooperative Extension in Sonoma County, to review how they've done it.

It's a blueprint of sorts for others now searching for ways to make it in the new economy.

When you boil it down, they agreed, it's all about planning, even more important since Briana Fernandez found a job, adding to the balancing act.

Without planning, they were more prone to eating out.

"Because we didn't prepare and we'd be so darn hungry and we just didn't want to cook, we'd go out and eat something or go pick up some fast food," said Gerardo Fernandez.

Without planning, they'd often buy groceries twice -- and often some would go uneaten, leading to spoilage.

"We had to break that habit because not only were we spending money on groceries and not eating them, so that's throwing money away, but then we were going to eat out," Briana Fernandez said.

But planning takes, well, a bit of planning.

Here, paired with some common-sense strategies, are the building blocks that the Fernandez family used to construct a manageable food budget -- that still allows for some treats and the odd meal out.

"It really does save you time, energy and money when you plan your meals in advance," Tapia said.

Briana Fernandez added, "It's a whole lot easier than what I thought it was going to be."

MENU PLANNING

Once a week, the couple plan a menu for the week ahead.

Briana Fernandez's is on a plain sheet of 8½-by-11-inch paper, divided into four columns, with room for six breakfasts, lunches and dinners and some high-protein snacks to get everybody through between meals, including string cheese, cottage cheese and turkey jerky.

The goal is to know what you're going to eat, so that you know what you need to buy.

"To me it's huge," Briana said.

"That's how we did it last night," she said. "We made the menu, and we looked at it, and I said, 'OK what do we have?' and he's looking in the fridge and in the cupboard to see what we still have for the meals, and I write down the things that we don't have."

And voila, the result is a "reality-based" shopping list. Among other things, Tapia said, having a list reduces impulse purchases.

"You know what's in your cupboard, so you're not going to the store and buying something you already have, that's wasting money," Tapia said.

"You want to know what you have in your cupboard now, and your shopping list should only be those items that you need to complete your menu."

PRE-COOKING

An hour's worth of cooking ahead of time can save hours and money later in the week.

In the Fernandez home, Gerardo said: "We get the big value packs of chicken breasts or thighs and just grill them three days, two days in advance, and then we eat that with our salads, other meals."

When he can get home for lunch, he said, that reduces the headache of trying to figure out what to make in a rush -- the type of headache that's likely to send him to a fast-food joint.

"It's real easy because you just take it out of your Tupperware, throw it in your microwave, chop it up and throw it on your salad or whatever," he said.

"Maybe make a roast and stretch that over the week" Tapia suggested. "And say, maybe Tuesday, we'll have roast beef sandwiches instead of buying foods at a restaurant for lunch, and then Wednesday night we'll have a beef stroganoff or something like that."

COUPONS

The Fernandezes use coupons cut from supermarket ads in Wednesday's paper and from inserts in the Sunday paper.

They also make use of the in-store fliers and coupons that markets often give with receipts. The advantage of those is that they're "coordinated with the purchase, Briana said, "so it's not just some random thing that doesn't have anything to do with what you buy."

She said when she can buy store brands, she does. She often finds that when a name brand is on sale, the store brand also will be.

"There is always an alternative and it doesn't necessarily have to be an expensive alternative," she said.

"A lot of times, when I see something, 'Oh, I want to try that, and, oh, that's 10 bucks,' and you can look for the store brand, and they'll have it."

VEGGIES AND FRUITS

The Fernandezes try to plan a vegetable with every lunch and dinner and fruits for breakfast.

Briana Fernandez, at Tapia's urging, said she especially focuses on such vegetables as broccoli, because they're packed with vitamins A and C, and apples and oranges for breakfast.

Here's where the planning starts to show up.

Perishables start to go off in a week, so Fernandez, using her menu plan, buys only enough vegetables for the week. For example, snap peas to go with chicken and rice she plans to make on Thursday.

But she also buys frozen or canned vegetables to fill in meals, such as a spaghetti dinner. She blends them into the sauce so the kids (and Gerardo too, who prefers salads) get their greens without a fuss.

Farmers' markets prices tend to be higher, but the produce is fresh and locally grown, so Fernandez shops there when she can.

Plus, she said, "It's fun and it's an experience and another way for the kids to learn about fruits and vegetables."

Also, Tapia suggested, "If you go at the end of the farmers' market, at the last hour, then they're more likely to give you better deals, just because they're going to have to throw it away or donate it."

RESIST SEDUCTION OF BULK

Although the couple, whose regular grocery stops are Safeway, Grocery Outlet and Wal-Mart, still shop at Costco for certain items, such as flats of water and, occasionally, toiletries or meat, they have dialed back their shopping there.

Before, Briana said, "We were shopping at Costco and buying all sorts of stuff that we really didn't need."

"Like big packs of muffins," Gerardo added, as the couple laughed.

Other shoppers note significant savings can be had on such items as butter and bread.

DON'T SHOP HUNGRY

Finally, Tapia said, try and do your grocery shopping when you're in the right frame of mind. Otherwise, you're likely to come home with things that fill you up but don't do you much good.

"You need to be rested and you need to be fed, definitely, because you are attracted to high-fat, high-sugar foods when you're hungry," she said. "And things that wouldn't necessarily look attractive to you become very attractive when you're hungry."

"Chips, Doritos," Gerardo said.

"Sweets, cheesecake," Briana said.

You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 521-5212 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com