Reader Story: How I Save Tons of Money by Grocery Shopping Once Every Three Months
Published on - August 8th, 2010 (by J.D. Roth) This guest post from Jenny Sandman is part of the “reader stories” feature at Get Rich Slowly. Some stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success — or failure. These stories feature folks from all levels of financial maturity and with all sorts of incomes. Jenny blogs about frugal gourmet cooking at Broke Foodie.
When my husband and I got engaged, we knew we were going to foot most of the bill for the wedding ourselves. Fortunately, we didn’t want a big, fancy affair, but we still needed to save a few thousand dollars quickly. Our massive joint debt-load complicated matters. So, I combined our finances and slashed spending to the bone. He wasn’t particularly appreciative, since he had no real concept of financial planning or budgeting, meaning most of the slashed spending was his, but we were able to save the entire amount in five months and pay for the wedding in cash. (A shade over $10,000 — and that included the rings, photography, and cross-country airfare.)
During that time, we had no life. We didn’t go out, didn’t buy anything, dropped our cable plan, and put everything on power strips that we then kept turned off whenever possible. (Cutting our electric bill from $70-something a month to $20-something a month.) It wasn’t as draconian as it sounds — we went to the beach a lot (free), walked to the library every week (free), and watched a lot of Netflix movies. It also meant we didn’t buy groceries.
Fortunately, I cook. More fortunately, I had a very well-stocked pantry prior to The Saving Time. So until we got married, we ate solely out of the pantry. By the time we left for the wedding, I was sick to death of soup, and our pantry was almost completely bare. I think there may have been a tube of anchovy paste and some pickles left. (Let’s not even talk about the depleted state of the liquor cabinet.) But we ate well for those five months, and we didn’t spend a dime on food or alcohol.
When we returned, I decided to follow that template again. We had some money left over after the wedding, which I used to completely restock the pantry and liquor cabinet, in preparation for another three-month run without shopping. If this appeals to you, here’s how to do it:
- Shop in bulk wherever possible. I buy whatever I can at Sam’s Club and only then go to the grocery store. [J.D.'s note: If, like me, you live an area without Sam's Club, shop at Costco.]
- Forget convenience foods, frozen dinners, and brand-name loyalty. The plan worked because I cooked from scratch, with an eye toward using up leftovers and some sense of variety, in that order. We ate a lot of soup, a lot of variations on beans and rice, and a lot of pasta. But we also ate fresh-baked whole-grain bread, roasted beet pizza, butternut squash stuffed with Italian sausage and wild rice, and black bean and spinach enchiladas with cilantro pesto. I cooked enough so that every dinner yielded four portions, dinner plus lunch for the both of us the next day. I don’t buy canned soups or vegetables (other than tomatoes), bread or pancake mixes, breakfast cereals, soda, or anything processed.
- Join a CSA. We get a big box of fresh fruits and vegetables every two weeks, year-round (living in California is great for that). It costs $177 for six boxes (12 weeks), prepaid. Meaning our three-month supply of fresh fruits and vegetables is done, right there, with a new influx of fruits and vegetables every other Sunday. I don’t buy anything else — not bananas or grapes or whatever. I eat only what comes in the box. (Although I do buy onions, garlic and potatoes in bulk, as I consider those more cooking essentials than “vegetables.”)
- Become one with your freezer. Because I only use milk for cooking (our breakfast is usually steel-cut oatmeal or homemade muffins, no breakfast cereal), I buy a half-gallon and freeze it in small amounts, taking only what I’ll need out of the freezer. Same for butter, cheese, and meat in bulk. I can buy a three-month supply of parmesan cheese, freeze what I don’t need immediately, and shred only small amounts at a time.
- I grow my own herbs.
- I make my own vegetable stock from vegetable scraps. Occasionally I’ll roast a whole chicken; the scraps from that become chicken stock. What I’m not using immediately goes right into the freezer.
- I use meat more as flavoring and less as the centerpiece of a meal. The traditional “meat plus sides” meal format is expensive and fattening. Usually I make one thing for dinner, and we both eat that one thing until we’re full. Risotto, spaghetti, salad, pizza, whatever. One thing.
Obviously, this isn’t an approach that works for everyone. But I cut our food expenditures from $500+ a month to an average of $164 a month. For two people. For every meal: breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day.
Like I said, it’s not for everyone. But we eat very well, and we have completely eliminated the need for a second car. If we don’t need to run errands all the time, we can use our one car exclusively for commuting and then relax on the weekends. No fear of impulse shopping, or walking into the grocery store to pick up one thing and coming out with twelve.
Because I either have to make do with what I have or do without, my recipes have become a lot more inventive and a lot more versatile. (Out of parsley? Can’t run down to the store to get more…what can I use instead?) I didn’t spend all my time in the kitchen, either. I spent an average of 30 minutes a night preparing dinner, and maybe an hour a day on the weekends to prepare breakfasts, bread, prep dried beans, cook in bulk, that sort of thing. Menu planning got much more precise, but I didn’t have to worry about tracking sales or clipping coupons, either.
Bonus points: We’ve both lost weight (especially him, since he quit drinking soda and going out to lunch with his coworkers every day), and we’re walking a lot more.
Best of all, our savings account is growing again by big leaps and bounds. Once we establish a good emergency fund, we’ll be able to tackle all that debt.
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Ah, I was wondering how you did that. I thought: I could do that if we had a CSA for fresh veggies and could buy milk for cereal every couple weeks (I’m off the oatmeal kick and eating Dorset cereals now). Looks like those are taken care of. We didn’t shop much when we were doing a CSA either. I’m pretty sick of green leafy things right now so we’re taking a couple years off. (We don’t live in California…) Our CSA was also about 2x as expensive.
I’m also really big on pantry cooking. Though restocking it can get pretty expensive. We just dropped $330 at the grocery store… I don’t think we’ve ever spent that much in one trip before.
We shred the Parmesan before freezing.
Once the school year starts this year we’re going to be swamped so we’re trying to organize cooking. We’ve been doing a little bulk “make ahead” cooking and sticking it in the freezer. And, of course, restocking the pantry.
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“During that time, we had no life. We didn’t go out, didn’t buy anything, dropped our cable plan, and put everything on power strips that we then kept turned off whenever possible.”
Life is not about going out, buying things, watching TV. Life is much more valuable than those material things.
You can be much more happier with life with very simple pleasures.
THINGS SHOULD NOT DEFINE YOUR LIFE. YOU ARE YOUR LIFE.
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This is a great article and very inspiring. You should write a book. I had no idea CSA’s existed and I checked them out in my area. However, like Nicole, mine are 2x more expensive than what was listed in the article. But it is all practice in sustainability. Bless you both in your wisdom!
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I like that this is without coupons and with eating healthy food. Obviously unrealistic for a lot of us – no California food prices here in Winnipeg. And there’s no way I’d get DH on board with that plan. If it was just me though, I could, and have lived similarly to that. Just with Canadian food prices.
Good, well-written interesting post.
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Interesting. I spend about $75 a month (for one person) on food, using the opposite strategy. I shop weekly, usually at two-three of the four stores which are along my commute, so I can take advantage of sales. I’m pretty good about not doing much impulse buying (more accurately – I know what I tend to impulse buy, and put it on my list to keep it under control), so it works for me. Plus, I live across the street from a grocery store, which would make it incredibly hard to go three months without “oh, I’ll just get more…”
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I am really amazed how the writer and her husband could scale down like this so fast and that extreme.
I can honestly say my wife and I could not get to that level.
However, I admire their ability to put a plan in place and stick to it.
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I would love a followup article on this one.
My husband and I go shopping once a month. It is a huge time saver! Occasionally we buy milk and that’s it. Frozen veggies for us when we run out of the fresh stuff.
A couple of questions:
what else do you freeze?
Do you meal plan ahead of time?
Tell me about your weekend prep, I prepared burritos from scratch for my lunches this week. It took me 3 hours to do. I’d love more tips on how to be efficient with time.
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When I read the title, I was sceptical at first. But I see how you are doing it.
Like others, though, CSA prices are a bit higher than what is listed in the article, and not year round – in Northern Colorado, the growing season is 4 months at best. In fact, they are about half of what our total grocery bill currently is. And we don’t spend a lot of fruits and vegetables. My other complaint about CSAs is that you wind up with a lot of food you have no interest in eating. I personally have not found a way to make eggplant seem edible and can’t get past the smell of kale and many other leafy greens. That said, if someone does eat a lot (quantity and variety) of vegetables and they can find a low cost CSA, then it’s a great idea.
One caution about Sams Club (I can’t say about Costco, I’ve never even seen one, let alone been in one). You have to know your prices. On some things, you get a fantastic price by buying the large quantity. On other things, you wind up getting the same unit price as a grocery store and can even pay more. So don’t buy anything at Sams unless you know how much it would cost at your local grocery store.
Stockpiling the pantry and freezer isn’t really an option for us right now; space in both are at a premium in our small kitchen.
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This is amazing. We don’t currently have the means of going to this level (not having a car and walking to the grocery store kind of limits options), but we’ve cut down grocery shopping to about twice a month except for things like eggs, milk and bread. We both like convenience foods way too much, but I’ve started making home made hot pockets to replace my husband’s hot pocket addiction and I’ve been collecting recipes for home made frozen meals.
Hopefully I’ll get a bread maker soon and solve that problem, too (I’ve tried making bread in the oven a few times, it ends up being a waste of flour).
But I love the ideas here, I’m going to try an implement some of them at least.
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This reminds me of a very dear family friend. Unable to drive, she relied on others for transportation which meant she had to carefully plan things like grocery shopping. Having grown up in a much different era, she really understood the fine art of ‘preparedness’ And until the day she died, she was never caught off guard. Her shopping trips were few and far between so she really stocked up. Fresh vegetables were bought from the ‘vegetable truck’ and if she ran out, she would make do, do without, or make her own. To pay for a wedding this way is inspiring because it is creative and lends itself to being independent and not reliant upon credit. Shopping this way saves money and a lot of time, because you aren’t running out to get that one teeny thing you forgot to put on the shopping list. I have little extra space but even I manage to stock up when I can. Great post.
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For people who do do CSAs, I strongly recommend The Victory Garden Cookbook. (It has just been reprinted, and is available in portions on Google books.) It organizes by vegetable and is fantastic for when you have a LOT of one kind of veggie or the other or just don’t know how to prepare a new veggie.
The book, Greens! Glorious Greens! helped keep greens be a little more edible before I gave up completely. I still need time off. Kale is one of the GOOD greens… nothing like turnip or mustard. Ugh.
I like baba ganoush for eggplant. Add enough garlic to anything…
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I really like this post. I have Celiac disease (can’t eat gluten – aka anything with wheat, rye, barley, etc.) and most advice on cutting back on groceries involves coupons, which cover processed foods I can’t (and don’t particularly want to) eat. This kind of plan, however, is really appealing and I could actually make it work. It helps that I’m living alone, also, so I’m the only one I need to convince to do this – plus I hate the grocery store anyway. I’ll have to check out her blog!
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This was a really fantastic post! I didn’t quite believe it was possible, but when I read it, I saw that it is quite possible *and* you can continue to eat well.
Jenny, I think you should write a cookbook. Seriously. With tips for what to do when you run out of parsley. I would like to try out your method, but I’m not as creative in the kitchen, and a cookbook from you would really help!
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@6-Edward, are you prepping your eggplant right? Try slicing and soaking it in salt water before you use it.
We’re trying to seriously cut down our food budget. It’s not going too well, though. Sigh. My experiment in making my own chicken stock went well though. I’m not sure how much money it saved me, but it certainly tastes a lot better than store bought stuff.
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Great article. Cooking from scratch – a decidedly learned craft – should automatically reduce your spending at the grocery. Using meat as a side instead of the main course also reduces spending. Learning how to use up everything edible is invaluable.
Educated in the late 60′s, majoring in Home Economics, and having courses that emphasized Pres Johnson’s War on Poverty, I learned how to live on very, very little. And, the emphasis was on food as it is one aspect of our lives that we can have major control over.
You are an inspiration – keep up the good work.
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Great article, but I am completely stuck on one thing…. freezing the cheese.
Cheese is a mold, so plain refrigeration will keep cheese good for way longer than 3 months. Plus the ice crystals that form on the frozen cheese would be bad for the cheese after thawing.
Long story short- good article, just DONT FREEZE THE CHEESE.
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For those talking about higher costs for their CSA shares – if you have health insurance, check with your provider to see if you can get a partial reimbursement for making this health choice.
My box cost $350, but my provider reimbursed me $200. I’m also splitting my box with a co-worker (I live alone), so I got a CSA share lasting from June until October that only cost me $75.
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This was one of the few posts I really felt inspired about. It’s something I’m going to try for the next few months.
Thank you for all the practical advice.
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Like everyone else, I was very skeptical when I read the title. But after reading through, I realized that it IS possible to do just that. You’ve inspired me to look into CSAs in my area to cut down on my own grocery bill. Thanks for the inspiring story!
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Whoever wrote not to freeze the cheese is incorrect, same goes for milk. I’ve done both, it’s a trick a lot of our parents learned from growing up. My mom used to do it, when it was on sale. Cheese that is. If you freeze it immediately upon getting home, it will last indefinitely. I’m not sure where you’re getting the idea that you can’t freeze cheese but it’s not correct.
I also cut up fruit and freeze it in the summer so we can have smoothies all year long and just add a little apple juice and no ice necessary.
Lots of things that our parents did have been lost because we’re all about immediacy of the moment rather than planned-out frugality.
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Love this article. In the future, if I am fortunate to get a full-time job where I commute 5 days via public transit, I would seriously consider a plan like this and get rid of my car.
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I thought I was doing well by only going to the grocery store twice a month! You rock! I have been humbled by the master! Perhaps I will try to go to the grocery store once a month (I can’t stock pile too much).
Great article. Thanks for promoting cooking from scratch!!!! I find it a lost art, especially among the young who have lived their whole lives with a microwave.
Cooking from scratch is not as hard and complicated as people think and it’s fun.
I think if people are thinking of trying of cutting down trips to the grocery store it’s all about baby steps. Not everyone can go 90 days, but maybe starting at 14 days, then 30, then 45 etc. And maybe you don’t have to cook every meal from scratch. It might be okay to have a few prepared meals. There are days when I’m tired (or grumpy) or short on time so I buy a few prepared meals and eat them rather than stop off at a fast food place.
Glad you two lost weight too. That’s awesome!
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I am working more andmore to get in this direction. WE always did something similar (commissary shopping once a month and now costco), but I used to go out each week and get the loss leaders. I’m convinced now, as a family of two that we spend more money. Unfortunately, we still need to get produce and milk on at least a weekly basis and that probably wont change. but Im stretching out my big shops more and more. Although I do include broths and other things in my big pantry shopping. Oh-and yes, you certainly can freeze cheese, even good cheese. Just shred it afterwards, not before.
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We do pretty good through 3 seasons but tend to get off track every summer. It’s pretty hard to muster the willpower to cook meals when it’s 90+ degrees (we don’t have an air conditioner). Any suggestions?
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At #24 Carter – http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/ just did a whole month of “no-cook” recipes for all of July. Lots of good ideas for eating at home, even in the summer heat!
Great post. One of my joys and regular relaxation times is going to the farmer’s market every Saturday morning, and I doubt I could give that up.
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Amazing accomplishment Jenny, congratulations on making your goal. And thanks for the concrete tips and results – who knew that mindfulness and power strips could reduce a power bill by $50/month? Great results, thanks for sharing.
I’m curious about a follow up as well – you mention not having a life, sucking your pantry down to a tube of anchovy paste and pickles, and tackling your debt after establishing an emergency fund. Is there a maximum threshold for having no life before one or both of you will go bananas and start buying PREPARED FOODS like it’s going out of style or paying full fare for movies? Are you giving yourselves occasional breaks in the strict lifestyle you adopted- or do you feel comfortable continuing, knowing that by a certain date, you’ll be debt free and on your way to financial independence?
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I grew up in the 50′s & 60′s, the eldest of 5 by the time 1965 rolled around. My mother, the forever cost saving individual she is, always bought items in bulk when ever she could find them back in the day. She made 12 loaves of bread every weekend and cooked the week’s meals, from scratch, as well(she worked a rotating shift at the hospital and dad worked swing). My mom and dad bought 1/4 – 1/2 a steer every 6 months or so. Back in the day the stores did not sell milk by the gallon, so she’d mix 1/2 a gallon of milk with 1/2 gallon powdered. She froze everything. My mother lives alone and still bakes bread and fixes meals by the week. She still freezes everything.
I cook from scratch, plan the weekly meals and would freeze everything if I could. My freezer is too too small. I used to buy and plan for meals 2 weeks at a time – son still lives with me – and have gone back to the weekly shopping, but sometimes this lasts a couple of weeks as my son hasn’t been eating at home very often because of his work.
So bravo to Jenny. Great article.
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Re: Cooking meals in Summer heat. Get the heat outside. Cook pizza on propane covered grill. Large Toaster oven outside. One-two electric burner, they are inexpensive. Crockpot outside on porch. Even know of folks who put an additional 220 plug in carport porch like area. They got a used second stove.
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Its hard for me to imagine not grocery shopping at least once a week. I tend to buy food in small amounts (only need to feed one person), local, organic and mostly vegetables/greens, non factory farmed meats and wild fish. No grains, sugars, processed foods, starches, or legumes for various reasons, including intolerances. I don’t believe meat or certain types of fat is the devil and have done very well eating more of a Paleo type diet health and weight wise than a “traditional” starch heavy, low-fat diet – especially since I’m a heavy exerciser and have insulin resistance.
I don’t have a car so I have to shop at stores that are walking distance to me. Sometimes I’m able to go to Costco, but the only thing I can really eat there are veggies and some wild fish. I can go though a large container of their organic spinach in two days. I don’t have a large capacity fridge/freezer (apartment living) to stock up for a week, let alone three months. I can go though an entire fridge full of veggies in a week flat. Any longer and the food will start to go bad anyway.
I know you said that your approach doesn’t work for everyone, but once I get a car and a place with a large capacity freezer, things will be a little more efficient for me.
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This is a great article! Like someone else above, I also have to avoid gluten and I’m a vegetarian to boot with a host of other weird food allergies (rice? really?? Thank goodness for Quinoa!), so cooking from scratch seems to be the best option for me. I tried the CSA boxes, but like some others, often found it was too much food for one person. I then found “Spud” – a local organic grocery delivery service (www.spud.com). They service Seattle (where I am), Portland, LA, San Francisco, Vancouver BC, and Calgary. They emphasize buying locally and in season, but do also buy further afield to, say, get bananas which don’t grow here. They also have staple items such as beans, breads (for those who can eat it), dairy, nut milks, oils, spices, teas, etc. They have a $43 min for a “free” delivery and I like the fact that I can pick and choose what to get every week or two to compliment what-ever is in the pantry. I can buy organic Quinoa, dried beans, etc., at Costco, and between that and Spud, I rarely hit a grocery store anymore.
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I’ve started to do a once/week shop (baby steps) and am amazed at how much money it saves. I used to go shopping almost every day. We’d never plan meals, just decide on the spur of the moment what we wanted and then go buy it. I had no idea how much that was costing us until now. All those impulse buys, all that wasted food that we ended up not using because it didn’t fit into that night’s meal!
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Well, I’m impressed. And once I move out on my own, I imagine I’ll be doing something similar. (Except living in Texas, CSAs are only available April/May-November, so I’ll have to find a way to work around that. And I love bananas.)
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Wow, love hearing about such a different approach! Way to go!
For those of you who live in the NW or Alaska, and haven’t been happy with your CSA, check out Full Circle Farm. It’s a CSA that lets you choose from a list of available veg and fruits each week, so if you really don’t like turnips, you can substitute something else. It’s been a great compromise for us–more choice of organics than our local store, but we don’t get stuck with things we don’t like.
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Cheese CAN be frozen, but that doesn’t mean it should be. It’s not so much taste, but the texture when it thaws that causes some problems for me. I wouldn’t even think to try and freeze some soft cheeses. And what’s the point of eating ricotta if you don’t eat it fresh the day it is made?
Regardless, Bellen is right when he says hard cheese will last 3 months without freezing. There’s some in my fridge way older than that which is still good.
My grocery bill remains high and I don’t see any change in the foreseeable future (I just spent what you did for a week’s worth of groceries–there are 4 of us)
However, I am satisfied with this amount. My family’s grocery-bill-heightening vices are practically nothing compared to what they could be.
Jenny, I really like your blog and you have some great recipes!
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This is a great post that has given me alot of ideas. I’ve been debating joining a CSA for months but may give it a try. Freezing is a great way to use items bought in bulk. Bread, milk, meat, the possibilities are endless.
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It is amazing how much money can be saved by thinking ahead and buying in bulk. For us, we live in a rural area. No Sams. No Costco. No Walmart. I was disappointed with this article (as with most) because I can tell that this article was targeted for those who live in big cities with all the big city amenities. However, us small town folks can save just as much (or more) by thinking out of the box.
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I like this idea but have one question–where can we get eggs on a regular enough basis for all the scratch cooking? Are those bought at Sam’s then once they’re gone, no more omelets, cake, etc?
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Am I the only person who reads finance blogs who hates to freeze anything? Sure, I buy frozen foods, but personally I find that prepared food that I freeze just sits in the freezer for months until I have to throw it out, or I don’t like the results when I thaw it to eat. I can almost always taste the freezer, even when I double bag or take precautions. I know people who freeze bread, cheese, milk, etc. none of which holds any appeal to me. We take part in a CSA and last year we had a glut of green beans. I read online how to freeze them for later use, followed the directions to a tee, and they were just awful when we ate them. The only thing that seems to work for me is freezing fruit.
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This article helped me in how I view my pantry.
I’m going to be honest here. The main reason I have a pantry it to store stuff I’m going to use, but never do.
Then I read about uncluttering, throw most out, and proceed to refill my pantry.
It sounds funny, and though I’m stretching the truth, there is some truth to what I write.
After reading this post, I’m going to actually eat the food that’s in my pantry. This is just another great post making me aware how I can not be so wasteful. Thank you.
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Jane, I agree with you.
I find I’m not satisfied with most things I freeze, save bread and fruit.
With oatmeal, I can take my frozen strawberries, frozen banana, and frozen blueberries, and have a wholesome breakfast.
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@34 Jane: I never have luck freezing fruit except if I stew it first, so you’re one up on me there. (In fact, we are currently stewing overripe peaches.) We don’t have a deep freeze for exactly that reason– I don’t like things that are freezer burned or have been in the freezer too long.
Mostly I only freeze stews and soups (and shredded parmesan, which we keep in the freezer door and use up pretty quickly), and they turn out well on reheating. DH has had a lot of luck freezing uncooked pie crusts and pizza dough. Sometimes waffles. We are starting to freeze make-it-ahead casseroles that are specifically geared towards freezer-to-oven. Back in the day I also froze stewed shredded chicken (leg-thigh meat) for use in daily meals, but now we can afford boneless skinless chicken breasts so we don’t have to do that anymore.
I always date stuff on the freezer and take things out from oldest date to newest once a week. Also we deep clean the freezer from time to time and keep an open box of baking soda in it.
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I loved this post–would like to see more like it.
We are working towards something like this, but it’s difficult because my husband is *really* picky. (He doesn’t like most vegetables.) Maybe if I were a creative enough cook I could make it work, but unless I follow recipes exactly (including the parsley), he often doesn’t like it.
I’d love to see more from this author, including advice for substitutions and how to change recipes in other ways when you don’t have the called-for ingredients.
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#34 Jane-I don’t freeze dairy products and so on. Most of what I freeze is either meat that I wrapped for the freezer (I’m one and a college student living athome so we break down the costco packs of meat) or things I made for the freezer. I will say that things I make for the freezer are planned that way, not left overs. For example, I cut up meat and put fajita marinade in it and freeze it so all I have to do is thaw. I do the same with bulk chicken breasts, package in individual bags of two with marinade. As for foods that freeze, winter type meals with freeze better: lasagnia, spaghetti sauce, beef stew in the juice. YOu absolutely must, must get all the air out (I use a straw). And truthfully, items you freeze will taste, MUCH better if you cook in the oven and not just zap. Also, I dont freeze the toppings. So if we make say, italian casserole (ziti with spathetti sauce on top topped with cheese), I will freeze the zitti in the meat sauce, and then put on the topping and heat it thru while the cheese melts,if that makes any sense. FWIW I eat alot more meat than the poster and with two of us, the CSA stuff in my area is still too much for two people.
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A suggestion for those of you who are used to buying milk regularly: Switch to coconut milk. Look for the coconut milk in boxes (not the typical cartons). It stays good for quite a while. It also tastes similar to cow’s milk and is far more environmentally sustainable. The boxes will be in the NOT refrigerated section, and not all stores will have them. I found the boxes at our local Whole Foods. The brand is So Delicious.
-Erica
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Good for you. Not sure we could do that with a family of 5, all with different tastes. But worth considering ways to cut down on our enormous food bills!
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@Jenny Sandman
A very inspiring essay. Thanks for posting!
Bonus points: We’ve both lost weight (especially him, since he quit drinking soda and going out to lunch with his coworkers every day), and we’re walking a lot more.
From looking at my own bad habits in regards to many impulsive trips to the food store I would bet you saved a lot of gas and a lot of time too.
You probably enjoyed your Saturday afternoon instead of standing on line at a supermarket.
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I am a single person who lives in an apartment. One of my best investments is a freezer.
I cook 4 quarts of pinto or black beans at a time. I keep several servings out for the week and freeze the rest. I have also had good luck freezing different types of pancakes and chicken stock.
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I am so impressed! I’m a super picky eater (and now that I’m pregnant, I’m even more insane when it comes to what I will an will not eat!) so I don’t think anything this drastic would be workable for me. HOWEVER, there were a lot of really great ideas in there that I’m going to take to heart and see if I can’t at least make a few small changes. People who can make a system like that work are my idols, though. What a great article!
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Great post! I do a lot of the things you are doing except for the CSA. The one near me is very expensive and I couldn’t go through all the produce, but if I move, I will be on the look-out for a new one.
I agree with the other posters who said you should write a book!
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What a great article and after reading the comments, I’m really happy to see many others are doing similar things. Great ideas for saving.
Last year we began doing some of the things Jenny mentions. We’re a family of five and now do our major shopping once a month and stick to three-four stores and have ‘a list’! I bake all our bread (in a Zojirushi bread maker), make our yogurt, pizza dough and sauce and we cook almost everything from scratch and use leftovers for breakfast/lunch or soups. We also grow window box herbs and salad greens (not enough for all of us year round, but it helps) and when the weather’s warm enough grow some veggies in an outdoor plot.
Please share more posts like this!
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