When my wife and I lived in Southwest Virginia, we bought most of our food at Wal-Mart. It was close to our house, the produce section was outstanding, and the prices were low. In retrospect, it's pretty clear that we were spoiled; when we moved to the Bronx about a year and a half ago, we were blown away by the increased cost of basic necessities. While clothes, restaurants, and other discretionary expenses were much cheaper in our new neighborhood, milk and peanut butter cost almost twice as much, string cheese tripled in price, and beef was too expensive for us to buy. After comparison shopping at the five or six supermarkets in my neighborhood, I began taking weekly trips to Trader Joe's to pick up necessities. I soon discovered the local Farmers' Market, the canned food sections at nearby dollar stores, and the joys of cheap Dominican food.

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I also became friendly with the proprietors of my local international groceries. The Indian store, I found, offered fantastic deals on spices, nuts, snacks, and convenience foods. One of my staple foods, almonds, were three-fourths the price of Trader Joe's, and the nuts were fresher and more flavorful. Similarly, the Indian heat-and-eat dishes were not only cheaper than their US counterparts, but were also tastier and healthier. Gits and Ashoka, for example, both offer a wide selection of delicious dishes, none of which contain high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), partially hydrogenated oils, or any of the other dangerous pseudo-ingredients that are popular in American convenience foods.

Next to my Indian store, there's a Cambodian joint that has great deals on frozen fish, fresh produce, soy sauce, rice, sesame oil, and an almost endless array of mysterious Asian ingredients. I also discovered, a few blocks away, a Korean store that sells beef at about 2/3 the prices charged by my nearest grocery, as well as an even bigger selection of fresh produce, rice, and other ingredients. Both stores have an impressive selection of noodles and a wide array of bizarre Asian soft drinks, most of which have been delicious. Pennyroyal soda, by the way, is a major exception, and tamarind juice is touch-and-go. Proceed with caution and be sure to try roasted coconut juice whenever you get the opportunity!

My head is spinning, watching the value of my investments bounce up and down like a bungee jumper. Overall, however, it appears that, for the short term, stocks, bonds and various savings instruments are going to yield squat, or very little above squat. Perhaps this is the right time to invest in something with intrinsic value, and I'm not talking about gold. I'm talking about food.

Types and cuts of meat can vary in price dramatically over the course of a few months. What if you could lock in chicken at its yearly market low? Jump on flank steak sales? Buy fresh fruit at the give-away price of high season, and enjoy it on a cold winter evening? Then consider buying a deep freezer.

The numbers work this way. A good freezer, such as the Consumer Reports Best Buy Frigidaire FFC0723D, will set you back $160-250 and cost around $30 a year to run. It will last for years, too.

It's not unreasonable to expect that you could cut $10 a week from your food expenses by buying large quantities of meat and other freezables when on sale. Even including the time cost of money, the freezer would pay itself off in less than six months, and leave you a net of $200 or so at the end of the year. That's a handsome return on investment.

But... As PeeWee Herman was wont to say, "Everywhere you look, there's always a big but." The but here is power. A four-day outage such as I experienced after Hurricane Ike can wipe out your meat portfolio. So consider investing in a backup generator. For $300-600, gas, natural gas or propane generators are available with enough output to save your meat, keep your home warm or cool, and preserve your sanity, if you have children or a TV-addicted spouse winter. The benefits far transcend just supporting your freezer, so only a portion of this expense should be attributed to your frozen food initiative.

Unlike gold, traches, or blue-chip stocks, food is an investment that will always pay off. In today's market, doesn't that sound refreshing?

I recently read about a jail in Maryland cutting back on supplies for prisoners. The ideas included limiting inmates to three rolls of toilet paper and two bars of soap per week. I've been trying to figure out how much toilet paper and soap I use each week, and those limits sound like more than enough to me.

Now jails in Wisconsin are cutting costs by removing items from the menu. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches no longer have the jelly. The Milwaukee County Jail is likely going to cut dessert out of its daily menus. Some of the hot meals will now become (cheaper) cold meals.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke makes a good point: "As long as the taxpayers have to struggle with rising food costs and eat more Hamburger Helper, as long as they have to adjust their living and eating habits, why should they have to pay increased costs for people who have disregarded society's rules?"

Jails around Wisconsin admit they're doing things like cutting back on meat and limiting the amount of bread prisoners are allowed to have. And I think this policy is fine, as long as the prisoners are getting adequate nutrition each day. Sorry, but jail and prison are not fine dining establishments. Prisoners deserve adequate amounts of food and proper nutrition, no more and no less.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

Today a report by the U.S. Labor Department said that January saw a big increase in the cost of food. They say the cost of food jumped at a rate faster than it has in the last seven months. Do I want to pay more for food? No. But is it a horrible tragedy that will ruin families? No.

I truly believe that families still have room for more saving and more conservatism in their consumption. While increased food prices may impact the grocery bill, most families have plenty they can do to stretch their dollars further. This isn't the end of the world. First, mom and dad can still save money by cutting out unnecessary things like eating out, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, entertainment outside the home, and making unnecessary trips in the car.