Make Your Food Last Longer to Save Money
March 29, 2009 by Jennifer Chait
Filed under food, groceries
To maximize your grocery budget, make the food you buy last as long as possible. Tips…
Don’t buy on a whim – try sticking to a list. Oddball ingredients may sound good, but if they’re fresh or have a short shelf life and you don’t end up using them in a recipe, it’s a waste.
Don’t mix produce – fruits give off ethylene which will make your veggies go bad faster. Use separate drawers for produce types.
Freeze bread, muffins, and other baked goods vs. storing them in the fridge. The fridge will keep them from spoiling, but it’ll also make them stale and dry. Keeping bread out of the freezer is ok in a large family – i.e. it’s gone in two days, but otherwise freeze the extras.
When storing leftovers, try freezing them instead of putting them in the fridge, just in case you don’t eat them right away. Also if you can, store leftovers in clear containers. You’re more likely to eat what you can see.
If you eat meat, repackage it before you store it in the freezer. Use a strong zip-lock like bag (squeeze out the air) or vacuum seal. The packaging it comes in is not great for long-term storage.
Your fridge is bad for some items, like citrus, potatoes, and squash. Keep these out of the fridge, but also out of direct sunlight.
If you don’t keep your grains in the fridge or freezer (you should) then add a few bay leaves to the top of the container. Bay leaves can help to keep bugs out of flour, cornmeal, and other grains. You may be able to taste a slight bay flavor in some baked goods, but a little bay is better than a bite o’ bugs in my opinion.
What tips do you have for grocery storage?
[image via stock.xchng]
I take 45 minutes or so at the end of each month and create a menu for the month. Not only does this help you spend money wisely at the grocery store, but it cuts down time thinking about what to cook (plus you can prepare yourself days ahead, like taking out the frozen chicken a couple days before to thaw in the fridge). It may seem like a lot of time to devote to a menu/shopping list, but it is for the entire months and I think it’s worth the investment if you are trying to keep a tight budget. If you have time, you can price out your shopping list, and if it doesn’t come within your monthly grocery shopping budget, then review the menu to see what you can delete or substitute.
I keep my weekly menu & shopping list on an excel spreadsheet. After a while, the 45 minutes should be more like 20 minute by just looking at past menu’s for ideas (and cutting/pasting the information)
My spreadsheet list includes
* main meal
* any side items
* any ingredients that may spoil quickly (in case something comes up and you are unable to cook that meal right away, you know which meals you can bump to another day and not risk any ingredients spoiling)
* recipe book & page number
* special events (like if you are having friends over for dinner)
It may sound OCD or for the super organized (which I admit I am), but I think this might be helpful for those who are not so organized.
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If you are able to bring lunch to work, cook enough for left overs to bring to work the next day or two days later. This will help cut down on the amount of food you spend at restaurants and at fast food joints).
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I have two shelves on my freezer door, the bottom I used for already open items (If I didn’t use a whole bag of peas, I will write the date I opened the peas on the freezer zip lock bag). The top rack is for unopened items – that way when I am making my grocery list I can quickly see what I have or don’t have)
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Keep a sharpie handy in the kitchen. You might buy things that say something like “use within 7-10 days of opening”, but has a longer “use by” date. Once you open that item, write down the last day you should use it in an easy to spot place. Always make sure this is facing the front of the fridge. Every time you open the fridge, hopefully that date will remind you to consume that item before it goes bad and your hard earned money goes to the trash or down the sink.
I will probably use the pen idea. I’m so ashamed.
Or even better, can I come live with you? I’m more than happy to not bring the kids (or hubby, or dogs, or cat)!!!
LOL, thanks for the great tips.
Great idea – I wish my husband would agree to a meal plan. He’s the cook in our house, so I know I shouldn’t complain. However, he always wants to cook based on his mood or what the day brings. I love his free spirit, but it costs so much more to run to the store every night to pick up the last few things needed for dinner…
I don’t know if you’ve heard this from anyone else but I’ve been subscribed to your feed for months and since you’ve recently changed your site around, I’ve been getting duplicate posts on my feed reader. I unsubscribed and resubscribed but I’m still getting the double posts. Thanks!
Hi Katie. Sorry for the trouble. I’ll let one of our tech people know. Thanks for reading!
Hi Katie. I have a response to the problem. This could be because you are subscribed to feeds for Thrifty Mommy and Simply Thrifty. The blogs have been merged into one now. Sorry for the trouble.
These are great tips! Good job.