Eat Well, Spend Less

The Hub has never had more choices in cut-rate chow—but some values taste better than others. A smorgasbord of expert picks and sneaky strategies for the thrifty food-lover.

cheap eats in boston

Illustration by Grant Hanna

How to Beat the Salad Bar Boondoggle

“Uh, that’ll be $21.79,” deadpans the kid at the cash register. “You want a bag?” Yeah, and a hand truck to roll it all back to the office. Salad bars have become perilous terrain for frugal foodies—and no one’s mastered the lunch-hour hustle better than Whole Foods, which has proved that $7.99 a pound can be deadly when combined with a suitcase-size container. To find the least we could pay while still getting full, we built three salads and recorded the lessons learned along the way.


THE HEAVY


egg

boiled eggs
blob of gooey enchilada-like casserole
bone-in fried chicken breast
scoop of potato salad (veggies!)
grape tomatoes

WEIGHT: 1.81 lbs
PRICE: $14.46

REMARKS: Casseroles aren’t salad; they’re cheesy, sauce-shrouded sandbags installed by corporate accounting. // Bone-in and boneless meats are the same price here—go boneless. // Steps away from the bar, identical potato salad sells for $1.75 for two pounds. // Poverty. Guilt. Tummyache.


THE LIGHT


cheap eats in boston

Red leaf lettuce (to the top)
2 tbsp. Italian dressing

WEIGHT: 0.14 lb.
PRICE: $1.12
REMARKS: Closest we’ve ever come to getting out of Whole Foods for a dollar.// Saved some coin by putting the dressing in a plastic condiment container, which doesn’t get weighed. // Still hungry.


THE JUST RIGHT


cheap eats in bostonMixed lettuce (halfway up)
Diced tomatoes
5 cucumber slices
3 Vidalia chicken medallions
2 chunks of feta
2 tbsp. ranch

WEIGHT: 0.67 lb.
PRICE: $5.35
REMARKS: Greens fill space that might have gone to spendy fare; diced tomatoes pack less water weight than cherries. // Whole Foods knows better than to make its pricey cheeses a free-for-all, but somehow feta made the cut. Load up! // Boneless protein from the hot bar turns a salad into a satisfying meal.

Photographs by iStockphoto (egg and single leaf); Betsy Halsey (salad)