How Frugal Foodies Works

(if you've not already read Things You Should Know, please do so before you sign up.)

Overview

Each and every week, on several nights and in several locations, about 10-20 people will get together to cook a mostly organic and entirely vegetarian meal, eat, clean-up, and connect with one another.  This is not an exclusive club so there will never be the same group of people on any given night, and that's a good thing.

Each week, the Frugal Foodies host will buy fresh ingredients for the meal that will be ready for your arrival. The meal that we prepare will always feature four or more dishes but what those dishes are will depend on the particular event's theme.  This is not about gourmet so much as it is learning about good new meals and cooking as a group.

This is not a pot-luck event, except for the optional drinks. So all you need to do is reserve your spot by paying in advance and then show up. The host(s) will arrange for everything else along the way.

We invite you to look at the specific web page for each Frugal Foodies location, so that you can see the specific format, rules, contact information, etc. Our current locations are:

Berkeley

Downtown San Jose

Seattle

To see what’s going on this month, click here.

Signing Up/Payment

You reserve spots for the Berkeley location (contact the other locations directly through the link above) by sending an email ( ), and subsequently paying a fee (currently $8) that is used for us to purchase all the ingredients.  Please do not send money before you’ve received a confirmation email telling you that there's a spot reserved for you.

You may pay the fee by check, cash, or PayPal/credit card (there may be a surcharge for paying on line to cover the service fee).  If you are writing a check, please make it payable to “Frugal Foodies”.  For the link to the PayPal portal, please click here. We require pre-payment from everyone--generally at least a few days before the event--as we are volunteers who run these dinners and don't want to buy the groceries and be left holding the bag for someone who does not pay for their attendance.

Unfortunately, your participation fee does not include drinks--besides water--so you should bring anything you’d like to drink and share with others.  If you’d like for me to buy drinks for you, the cost is an additional $2, and we are most appreciative if you can tell us if you prefer alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages.

Please note that if you have any food restrictions, you should tell us what those are at the time that you sign up so that it can be taken into consideration when we do menu planning.  While we'll do our best to be flexible in menu planning, there are certain nights when this is less possible.

Regular Mailing List

You can put yourself on and take yourself off of Frugal Foodies' Berkeley mailing list by visiting our subscription management page.

Last-Minute Mailing List

You now have the option to be put on a special email list. Frugal Foodies sends out one general email a month but we’ve not had a way to let people know about last-minute openings that may arise.  So now, you have the choice of putting yourself on the Last-Minute Mailing List, which means that you’ll get an email from Frugal Foodies, generally 24-72 hours before a night when there are several open spots.  So if you’d like to be included, please send an email to with “Last-Minute Mailing List” in the subject line, and tell us for which locations you'd like to be notified of openings.

Waiting List Policy

Frugal Foodies has a waiting list. And you can learn about it by visiting www.frugalfoodies.com/waitlist. Not sure why I can't get the hyperlink to work, so you'll have to cut and paste in the above.

Cancellations/No Shows

We buy groceries based on your payment and attendance and expect you to pay the participation fee even if you have to cancel last-minute.  On weeks when we have a waiting list, we'll do our best to fill your spot (and credit your account), but this can be very difficult within the last 24 hours.  In the case that you must cancel, your account will be credited for the amount that you paid as long as you contact us either 48 hours in advance of your Frugal Foodies date or by the time that we send out the reminder email (generally 2-3 days beforehand), whichever comes first.

On our end, we will cancel a Frugal Foodies date if we have too few people signed up.  You will always be notified of this at least 24 hours in advance, and often more, and your account will be credited for a future Frugal Foodies date in the case of cancellation.

Groups

When you registering for a regular Frugal Foodies night, you may not register more than yourself and four guests. That's the max, and we do this to ensure that there are always new people at Frugal Foodies, and that it's not about one group of folks. With this said, we are happy to accomodate larger groups of 10-20 people, but we'll set aside a special time for your group and the price will be less frugal Feel free to contact us for more information about this as it's a great teambuilding activity and your friends/staff/group will love it.

Night Of…

Frugal Foodies runs from 6:30-9:45PM or so and it is very much appreciated when you arrive ON TIME (and feel free to come up to 15 minutes early).  After a short ‘meet and greet’ period and an overview of the evening, we cook for about an hour and a half, and then eat and clean up for the remainder of the time.

Please dress comfortably and know that Frugal Foodies generally takes place in spaces that are not industrial kitchens, meaning lots of people in close confines, no air conditioning, etc.

When you come to Frugal Foodies, you should bring the following:

• A sense of adventure
• Tupperware/containers for taking leftovers home
• Drinks to share if you’d like something besides water

Afterwards/Recipes

Generally on the day after your Frugal Foodies event, you will receive an email with all the recipes. These are in an MS Word format, at least for the time being, and you will receive these as an attachment to the email.