Some Fabulous Deals at the Market and Lots of Free Food

The other day I was in town, heading to the market via public transportation and I met another English speaker. She saw my empty folding shopping cart and asked me if I was heading to the market. I confirmed that, so she commented, "You can get some pretty cool deals there." Yes, definitely.
We were talking a bit and then introduced ourselves by name, and when I said mine she exclaimed "Oh! You're the frugal market lady! I read about what you get there!" That was amusing.
Anyhow, we then started talking and she asked me what I was planning on getting there and how much I planned to spend. Since I had a decent amount of vegetables in my house already, although not all the ones I needed, I told her that I planned to spend no more than $30, but ideally less than $15... Usually when I go to the market I don't decide beforehand how much I plan on spending. I just buy what I need for as little money as possible—trying to find as many free or nearly free things as I can—and whatever I spend, I spend.I does typically end up within the $15-$30 range, hence my goal. Once I have a challenge though, I have a lot of fun seeing just how little I can spend, because I enjoy proving something to myself and the one who challenged me.

I came home with all this food. 83.6 lbs of produce. 22.2 lbs of fish. 105.8 lbs of food, all paleo and unprocessed and healthy, for a grand total of.... wait for it... $11.42!
That works out to under 11 cents a pound for all that food!


So, what exactly did I get and how did I do it?

As always, my first stop was to Gideon's stall, where he has extremely cheap grade B/reduced rack type produce and often gives away free food. I got 20.7 lbs of zucchini for a grand total of $2.85, working out to be 14 cents a pound. He showed me a box of food he was going to toss, and suggested that I take it. It was filled with so much goodness, but more on that in a bit. He also gave me a quarter of a watermelon.

Next, I stopped at the stall of another shop keeper, who doesn't exclusively sell grade B produce, but often has a decent selection. I bought 4.1 lbs peaches, 1 lb apricots, 6 lbs pears, and 5.1 lbs bananas for a total of $7.14, working out to be 44 cents per pound. I bought all his grade B carrots, officially marked at 13 cents a pound, but since I finished them off, 13.82 lbs for $1.43, working out to be 10 cents a pound.

And that was all that I paid for. 50.6 lbs of produce for $11.42, averaging out at 22.5 cents a pound for produce. But that was not all, not nearly. And once you average in all the free produce, it works out to be so much less per pound on average.


I found a few more boxes with produce that was going to be thrown out, so I was able to get those without pay as well. I don't remember what was in each box, but here's the total amount of produce that I got free, from various places.

That quarter watermelon from Gideon, 2.8 lbs.
1.2 lb lemons.
3.3 lbs grapefruits
.2 lb nectarines
.3 lb pears.

7.8 lbs fruit free in total.

1.8 lbs zucchini
.9 lb pumpkin
1.4 lb cucumber
3.4 lb purple onion
.4 lb regular onions
.4 lb kohlrabi
5.3 lbs carrots
.6 lbs corn
1.3 lb fennel
5.1 lbs radishes
4.4 lbs peppers
.3 lbs potatoes

25.2 lbs of vegetables free.

Overall 33 lbs of free produce.

I also got free fish.

Since it was nearing the end of the day, some fish stores were throwing out their scraps. To the average person, these scraps seem like just that- garbage. But I know that they have so much good meat on them, which you can access if you are willing to do a little work and get your hands dirty. Since I try my best to stick to a paleo diet, and paleo friendly proteins are probably some of the highest cost items of my diet, when I can get that free, I am willing to make the effort.
The scraps were a mix of fish heads, fish bones, and salmon skin.
Fish heads, surprisingly, have a good amount of delicious and fatty meat on them, fatty fish being the healthiest type, since it is chock full of omega 3 fatty acids. (I did a calculation for salmon heads--and assume other fish have a similar makeup--to figure out the ratio of meat to bone, and discovered it was about 40% meat by weight. When paying for them, factor that in, as it works out to be 2.6 times the original price per pound for the actual meat.... but when it's free, it's a great deal, no matter what, since 2.6 times zero is still zero.) Fish bones also have a decent amount of meat on them that can be removed once cooked.
 As for salmon skin? It cooks up deliciously into crispy salmon skin, and is a wonderful filling for sushi- something they serve in many restaurants.

It was a total of 11.2 lbs fish heads, a mix of bream, mullet, sea bass. and tilapia from what I can tell (but more than half mullet).
9.1 lbs of fish bones. (I can't tell what most of it was simply by looking at the bones. I could tell what was salmon though, and assume the rest is the same as the heads.)
And 2 lbs of salmon skin.
22.3 lbs of free fish.
I didn't weigh the fish after cooking and deboning, but it was at least 10-15 cups of deboned fish, including at least 4 cups of deboned salmon, and the salmon skin.
I froze the skin to use at a later date.
If I wanted to get even more out of this, I could have boiled the fish bones after to make a fish stock... but didn't bother to this time.

I have been using some of the deboned fish in various dishes. I made yummy stir fry with  the fish and some of the other free veggies, and served over baked free pumpkin for myself and over rice for the kids. That food cost me 50 cents for two meals worth of healthy food for the family, including paleo food for me.

As you can see from my shopping trip, I brought home an extraordinary amount of carrots (nearly 24 lbs) and zucchini (22.5), as well as a large amount of radishes (5.1 lbs) and peppers (4.4 lbs), and have been trying to find ways to use that up.

I made this delicious carrot and peach leather...

I also made a really large batch of Vietnamese style carrot and radish salad and my spicy and sweet carrots medallions.
I'm going to make Korean radish salad.
I actually gave my dad most of the peppers, since he is such a big fan, and peppers are hit or miss around here, depending on my kids' moods.
I have yet to figure out what to do with this mother-lode of zucchini, other than just making it in various dishes...

I really love going to the market, because it gives me a fun challenge, to see if I can beat my spending goal (and I did, by $3.50), and because I end up with so much great and healthy food. If I shopped at local stores, yes, I would have less work, because it wouldn't involve taking all this back home on public transportation (usually an hour and a half each way), but I'd end up spending at least 5 or 6 times that amount to get the same amount of food, or less. Going to the market to get my past prime produce and more is probably my favorite money saving "trick" because it really does allow me to live by my mantra, living well without spending a lot. I get delicious and healthy food without needing to spend too much. Win win for me. (And as for time, even to go to the closest big grocery store takes me 20-30 minutes each way, so it ends up being an extra 2 hours once every week or two, which I think is worth it.)

Have you gotten any terrific deals lately? 
What frugal idea or skill do you find best allows you to live well without spending a lot?
What should I do with all my zucchini? Ideally freezer friendly ways.