Rice is Nice! Yes, I know I haven’t changed out the Cheap Eats food poll in nearly a year. I just kept putting it off in favor of reviewing things like cans of vienna sausage. You know how it goes.

I guess I wasn’t too surprised that Rice came in first place in our poll on food staples. A full third of respondents (759 voters) picked rice as their favorite food staple. It’s definitely one of the most versatile dry goods to have stocked in the cupboard. We have at least 3 different kinds at all times - it’s usually sticky rice, plain white rice, and then jasmine or some other sort of mix.

What’s sort of funny is all the hub-bub that’s been going on fairly recently (probably before I even put the poll up) with the price on bags of rice skyrocketing. I know at certain stores (Sam’s Club, etc) they were limiting the number of bags per customer for awhile. I never would’ve thought that could happen. When NPR started to devote coverage to the price of rice not being nice (haha), I certainly started to pay attention.

As for the other staples, I was surprised at how high Potatoes came in. I personally love potatoes, but I thought they would come in last. 660 respondents (about 29%) cast their vote for the humble potato. Bread came in third with 470 votes (about 21%) and Beans brought up the rear (hmm.. beans DO tend to make curtain call appearances near my rear) with 374 votes (about 16%).

All of these staples are great for Cheap Eaters. I tend to have nearly all of them around at all times - with the exception of bread because it doesn’t last as long as the others do, especially with how humid it is in the summertime. For beans, I have both canned and dry. Potatoes I nearly always have as fresh - I try to store them in a cool dark place to extend the shelflife.

OK - the new poll is up to the right. This one has to do with clipping those pesky, time-expiring but essential supermarket coupons. To Coupon or not to Coupon - that is the poll question…

Well lookie what we have here… I’m actually talking about The Cheap Eats Poll. Take a guess when was the last time this was changed out. That’s right - more than ONE YEAR ago. As such, the poll has had time to garner a huge number of votes (3095). Well, that’s huge for my site anyhow.

Several people had asked when I was going to change this darn thing out, and I just kept putting it off over and over again until it became almost a joke. But today, I decided to take a short break from food reviews to force myself to do it.

I have to say I’m pretty surprised with the results. According to the poll, today’s cooks are much more resourceful than I had thought. There’s hope for us after all. Maybe.

I had thought there was no way that the majority of people who answered would have cooked more than 2-3 times a week. Instead, nearly half the people (46%, 1429 votes) actually said that they cook dinner EVERY DAY. This is an astounding number to me, when you consider how busy modern workers today are and how easy it is to just pick up food on the way home. Sure, if this was the 60s I wouldn’t be surprised.

I have to admit myself that we fall into the category of only cooking dinner 2-3 times a week - there were 1211 other people who also responded this way, which is about 39%. If you add up the two categories, you come out with 85% of the people responding to the poll cooking dinner more two or more times a week. That’s awesome. Of course, you might also say that the people who visit my site, being the saavy Cheap Eaters that they are, would be more likely to cook their own food. I think there might be some truth to that.

In any case, it’s great: I keep saying it, but cooking your own meals instead of eating out is probably one of the greatest ways to save money on the food budget. If I get around to the Manifesto (and you know I won’t) then that’s probably rule #2 or 3.

The “once-a-week” chefs came out around 9% (265 votes). Hey, cooking once a week is better than none at all. Only six percent (190 votes) said they eat out all the time. I seriously thought there would be many more votes for those two categories.

At this point, I have to mention something nearly as important as cooking your own food: just because you don’t cook it yourself doesn’t mean that it’s eating out. My advice: creatively leech off of mom’s (or dad’s) home cooking all you can. That is, if you and the folks get along and they live relatively close. Hey, if you feel guilty about it, do the dishes! Or contribute to the cost of the food bill.

Ok, so there is another poll up now. I didn’t have much time to think about the theme for this one, so it’s pretty simple… what’s your favorite cheap eats food staple? I can’t promise that this one won’t be up for a long time like the other one was, but I’ll try to make sure it doesn’t stay up for a year at least!

I’ll be darned, but Progresso soup came out on top of the Soup Poll. I had Campbell’s pegged for an easy victory, due to the “nostalgia” factor. Who doesn’t remember eating a bowl of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle or Tomato Soup for lunch?

I sure had my fair share… those condensed soups were pretty cheap eats for moms on a budget. I think the price was a quarter to 30 cents when I was a kid, but maybe you remember it being even cheaper if you’re older.

Well, to be fair the race wasn’t a blowout. Progresso had 173 votes and Campbell’s had 124 votes, a difference of only 49. And before you start celebrating that David beat the Campbell’s goliath-behemoth, here’s something I just realized today when looking for the Progresso site. Progresso is owned by Betty Crocker, a formidable force in its, er, her own right.

I was surprised like the chickens, er, dickens that so many folks picked the “make your own soup” choice. I’m pretty proud of all the cheap eaters out there. At 135 votes, that’s a whole mess of homemade pots of soup out there. (By the way, Cheap Eats reader Peggasus has some pretty good tips on homemade chicken soup.)

I suspect that there were enough proud soup-makers out there who defected from Campbell’s nostalgia to tip the scales in Progresso’s favor. I personally favor Progresso, but only when I can get the cans for cheaper. I haven’t had much luck with Campbell’s Chunky Soup - either on price or taste, which is the main reason I usually stick with Progresso.

Oh, and then there’s Wolfgang Puck, whose overpriced restaurants, sloppy cooking style and half-baked product ideas have earned him the ire of many a Cheap Eater out there. He did get a few sympathy votes. I don’t see him much on the Food Channel any more which is a blessing. Maybe he pulled out of agreements with them because they didn’t pick him as a permanent Iron Chef. Scrooge McSuck.

Anyhow, enough Wolfie. The next poll awaits you. This time, I want to know your weekly cooking habits. I was curious how many times you cook dinner a week. Or, if like more than half the younger working population you eat out because there’s simply no time. No time! Speaking of which, I’ve got to jet. House painting to do…

Hello, what’s this. I seem to have left our Frozen Dinner poll running on autopilot for a couple months without switching it out. That might be for the best, because it actually took this long to get a sufficient number of responses. I guess frozen dinners aren’t the must-have, technological wonder-food that they were in the 50s anymore…

Anyhow, color me surprised (mangled Heatherism). Dark horse candidate Healthy Choice Frozen Dinners ended up beating out the competition. I had thought for sure that either Michelina or Banquet would have taken the honors. Though, it was quite close between those top 3… they were all within 30 votes of each other. Swanson frozen dinners brought up the rear. I wonder if that has anything to do with my giving their potpies the cold shoulder.

As I’ve said many times before, the Cheap Eats site is about cheap food, not health food. Though, over the course of the year, I’ve managed to sneak in quite a few more healthy choices. That has something to do with the fact that I’ve been having stomach issues the past 2 months. (I can hear the peanut gallery saying “See, I told you all those boxes of macaroni and cheese and instant ramen meals would catch up with you.”)

Continue reading “Healthy Choice wins Poll” …

Top ‘o the morning to ya. I’m only not dozing at the keyboard because I’ve got the winner of the Caffeine Poll sitting here at my side.

That’s right. As expected Coffee won the Caffeine poll in somewhat of a landslide with nearly 450 votes. Although there is some debate as to whether or not the twitchy fingers of caffeine-inundated folks weren’t responsible for mis-fired clicks…

A confession: I’ve never been a coffee drinker until about 3 years ago. Before that I never had more than a cup a week. It could have something to do with the fact that office coffee can be quite nasty.

We make the coffee at home and it’s much better stuff. I’m no coffee expert or anything, but you can definitely tell that this is better. So it’s not really Cheap Eats, but man you can’t skimp on certain luxuries…

Anyhow, I’ve gotten to the point where the first thing I do in the morning is brew a pot. I still only drink one cup a day and of course the 7pm rule still holds for me (no caffeine after 7pm, otherwise I have a hard time falling asleep).

Needless to say, my teeth are turning brown.

Continue reading “Coffee Wins Caffeine Poll” …

If the numbers from our latest poll about food lifestyle are any indication, then I guess the USDA might feel a little relieved. They recently (I forgot if I posted about this) flipped the traditional food pyramid on end and introduced the concept of exercise into the pyramid. (It’s about time, by the way). The food pyramid concept tries to get people to make smart and balanced choices about what you eat.

The little guy walking up the pyramid is supposed to represent exercise while the colored bands are supposed to equal the types and amount of food that you eat. I haven’t really gone through the details on their site yet, but I think that’s approximately what it’s about. Oh, the bands and their food types are below:

The writing on that little yellow band may be difficult to read. It’s supposed to be “oils”. I’m not sure why they used purple for meats and beans, I would have used red for that and purple for fruits.

So anyhow, in this latest poll I wanted to see what everyone’s food lifestyle was like… admitedly there wasn’t many in-between choices and it was pretty much only three different ones, with veggie eaters being split into conservative and strict. But it was nice to see “Equal Opportunity Eaters” win the poll handily. (I had thought I’d completely made up a new phrase, but I’m not 100% sure now.) With 192 votes, equal opportunity eaters formed the majority of Cheap Eaters.

I’m a bit surprised that Meat-A-Tarians didn’t run away with the poll. A lot of Cheap Eaters that I know tend to fall into this camp, what with all the fast food that forms a big part of their diet. I think there are a lot of nearly meat-only Cheap Eaters who maybe eat a salad once a week or something who didn’t check this box. Anyhow, I wouldn’t think that a meat only diet (Atkins, please go to hell) would be very nice on your bowels. But with 90 votes, meat eaters still came out in force.

For the Vegetarians and Vegans, the combined score was only 76 votes but that was pretty respectable. This is Cheap Eats actually, so I expected there not to be that big of a showing. After all, it is fairly difficult (but by no means impossible) to be a vegetarian on a budget.

I actually seperated Vegetarians and Vegans just to see if there were ANY vegans who adhered to Cheap Eats philosophy. There were only 14 votes (1 of them was me accidentally checking the box!) but my hat is off to them. Also, I’m taking the definition of vegan as I understand it… no dairy or eggs at all (veggies, don’t bite my head off beause I just got that information online somewhere). That is some tough tomatoes. I think there is a regimen even more strict than vegan… something like you can only eat fruits and things that DROP off trees. That is double tough tomatoes!

Ok, the next poll concerns a substance that is near and dear to my heart. Perhaps a little TOO dear. I think my intake of caffeinated drinks is way over the recommended daily allowance… but how about you? I’ve only listed the the most popular 3 though. I’d be interested to see how many caffeine abstainers there are in Cheap Eats…

So, I’m not sure how well this bodes for the nutritional health of today’s average Cheap Eater but the winner of this poll was Salty Food. I’m sure potato chip and cracker manufacturers are breathing a sigh of relief.

I must say that salty food is my Cheap Eats of choice as well. I will take a bag of Doritos over a slice of cake any day of the week. And don’t get me started on mashed potatoes with gravy versus Sweet Potatoes.

Well, Spicy Food didn’t go down without a fight. Salt won over Spicy by a narrow margin of only 11 votes with a total of 328 versus 317. I am pretty surprised that Spicy did so well. Incidentally, when I first put up the poll there WAS no Spicy. I had “Bitter” until I realized who the hell is going to say they like Bitter Cheap Food? You would be some kind of sadomasochist or something.

I was a bit torn over Salty versus Spicy as well since I’m a big fan of Chili Sauce, Peppers, Hot Sauce and Salsa. I like quite a bit of burn in food (Thai food is a favorite). But in the end, my salt-tooth won out.

The Sweets Coalition mustered up significant representation but fell short of garnering even half the votes of either Spicy or Salty. When I was younger I know I used to eat a lot more sweets and candy. It seems like over the years the sweet tooth has fallen out. It remains to be seen if in 10-15 years there will be another reversal and I’ll again go for sugar. I’ve heard of that happening to quite a few people actually.

Of course, I didn’t expect hardly anybody to choose Sour. With just 29 votes, the pucker-up posse was left in the dust. I do enjoy sour food, though I wouldn’t eat it for every meal. For me, it’s sort of an appetizer or between-meal pickup for me. I like sour and tangy fruits like oranges, green grapes, lemons, limes, pineapple and berries.

Well, I’ve put up another poll as you can see. First, I want to say that I don’t judge a person on whether they’re a carnivore, omnivore, veggie, or whatever. To each his own… as long as you don’t try to convert me over to your food lifestyle. But still, I’m curious to see what the stats are among Cheap Eaters. I expect quite a few less vegetarians/vegans and more meat-eaters or equal opportunity eaters, but who knows?