Are you throwing away food every week because you forgot it was in your fridge? Do you feel like you’ve got nothing to cook, even with a full pantry?
Get smart. Supermarkets post their sales in the Wednesday circulars, at least where I’m from. Foodies recommend sitting down on Wednesday night to plan your shopping trip, write out menus for the week, and get yourself organized.
I wish I could do it.
Oh I threaten to, and I come up with a great idea as often as I throw away another canteloupe that got away. Frankly, I hate to clean up a mess, so dealing with peeling and seeding and cutting a melon is more work than I have time for in our rushed little household. But buying the ready-cut fruit in the produce aisle isn’t going to do me much good, either. For one thing, I’m paying someone an arm and a leg to cut up my fruit for me, and for another? I don’t know how long ago everything was prepped, and I hate to spend that fortune on fizzy fruit.
It pays to get smart. Look into the real cost of things. If that giant pack of NumNums is only 20 cents per unit, and the smaller pack is 30 cents per, stop and think. Will you be able to eat it all before it goes bad? Do you have the storage space for it? Will it freeze? Make sure the price fits the unquantifiable costs in your life — time, capacity, and storage.
And another thing. Just because it’s on sale doesn’t mean you have to buy it. Junk food isn’t a good deal, no matter how ‘on sale’ it is. It’s empty calories. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re going to save money. “It’s crrrrrap!”, says I, in my best Monty Python voice.
Keep some quick fixes in the cupboards. We’ll resort to fancy mac ‘n’ cheese when neither of us has the energy to deal with life, and it keeps us from throwing up our hands in despair and wandering out to a restaurant — expensive! We’ve got potstickers and veggies in the freezer, pre-grated cheese in the bin, and a Boboli pizza crust in the fridge.
And you know what? Treat yourself to something extravagant. I was spoiled silly last weekend, as Quail Sinatra style was served up. We didn’t explain to the kids why it was all Sinatra style, but they devoured the little birds drowning in wine, stuffed with Italian sausage and their little legs tied up.
So sit down next Wednesday — or whenever your newspaper publishes the grocery sales — and come up with a plan. Write down your meals for the week, and make a grocery list. Getting ahead of the grocery game will save you time and money.
Agreed, planning is key when you can do it. I tend to keep my focus on meals that freeze well. As far as produce goes, my son is 5 and I can somewhat bargain with him. I let him pick the fruit (funny it’s almost always canteloupe) and the deal is he has to eat at least half of what we buy. I’ll eat any fruit & make sure he sees me eating my half. Anything that gets thrown out means he doesn’t get to pick the next week’s fruit. Took about a month to get it going, but he’s pretty cool with it now. Watching him inspect the fruit for the best pick like he’s seen me do is hilarious.