I don’t think so really, the only exceptions is if you are into fine dining in expensive restaurants. Sure individual items you purchase might be higher in cost, BUT its not like you replace staples with them they are just treats. You don’t eat caviar every day after all, and even then keeping your eyes open for bargains and stuff on clearance racks you can get some good scores.
Hell if you actually shop in ethnic or import markets catering to expats things are often quite reasonable, ditto for ethnic restaurants.
Several people have told me they don’t have the money to eat “fancy”, I get a chuckle because I probably eat cheaper than they do.
But I do know in some places it does seem eating home cooked or healthy food is damn expensive, NYC for one seems to have very high produce prices and even higher if you want quality stuff.
I suppose it depends on what you mean by “foodie.” If you mean someone who occasionally splurges on something “fancy” like caviar, that’s probably not very much money in terms of total grocery expenditure. But that’s not how I or a lot of other people understand the term. I understand it to mean someone who understands and appreciates and is willing to go out of their way for good technique and high quality ingredients. And in that case you typically are replacing staples.
Instead of buying regular table salt, you’re using Kosher salt, sea salt, maybe some pink Himalayan salt. You’re buying King Arthur flour that costs more because it gives more consistent results. You’re getting Vermont aged cheddar instead of processed cheese food singles. You’re picking up artisan sourdough boules from the deli instead of a sandwich loaf from the bread aisle. You’re patting down and sniffing the individual Pink Lady apples for bruises/ripeness instead of throwing a pre-weighed bag of Red Delicious into your cart. And every one of those decisions, not to mention a hundred others you make when grocery shopping, tacks a bit extra onto your grocery bill. It adds up to more than you might think.
Of course, if you’re a foodie odds are good you’re not buying a lot of processed convenience foods and snack cakes and fruit gummies and whatnot, which takes a decent bit back off your food bill, so maybe it breaks even.
There are many flavors of foodie - fine diner, luxury grocer, locavore, etc. All of those lifestyles have different costs. I would say one could be a frugal foodie by buying local and buying intelligently (at ethnic shops, hole in the wall restaurants, etc).
A foodie is just someone who treats food as a hobby. I’m sure my grocery bill and restaurant tabs are a fair bit higher than those of a similarly-situated person with no particular interest in food, but that’s not really a fair comparison. You’d have to add together his grocery bill plus whatever he spends on golf, or motorcycles, or whatever it is that stirs his soul the way food and cooking do mine.
When you look at it that way, it’s probably one of the cheaper hobbies out there.
We just recently started eating steak! A strip steak is about $10 or more, and that’s $20 extra per week on the grocery bill. Little Cornish game hens cost as much as a whole big roaster. Pine nuts for pesto. Extra-virgin olive oil instead of canola oil, exotic olives off the Mediterranean bar in the grocery. A nice piece of imported cheese instead of the $1.99 block of store brand cheddar. A chunk of halibut ($27 a pound) instead of a bag of cheap tilapia. Fresh grated Parmesan-Romano costs a lot, as do heirloom tomatoes, fresh pineapples, honeycrisp apples, and do not get me started on any kind of fresh berries. Hell, YES, it costs a lot to go above the ordinary, if that’s being a foodie!
You just described me. Right down to the Pink Himalayan salt for the table. Our grocery bill (for 2 people) runs roughly $300 per month. I cook a lot at home. We don’t have the funds to eat in fine restaurants more than once or twice a year on special occasions. We don’t eat fast food on a regular basis or purchase much convenience food (dinner in a box stuff) or ready to eat foods at the grocery store.
Any hobby is likely to cost more than what the ordinary, non-enthusiast spends for their version. While a car nut may keep costs down by knowing his way around a junkyard, the combination of time and effort still makes my Sentra cheaper to run.
But the cost/enjoyment ratio is what makes people pursue hobbies, whether it is eating fancy, dressing well, or playing on-line games. I spend my free time and disposable income on what I like, you spend yours the way you like, and it is commendable to have learned your pastime well enough to be able to enjoy yourself frugally.
Like any hobby, there’s cheap ways to do be a foodie and expensive ways to do be a foodie. I use a lot of fresh herbs in my cooking, but when you grown them yourself it’s quite cheap. I buy really expensive cheeses and bread, because it’s what my husband likes.