32 replies to this topic

[SueC]

I dont have the room to shop a month at a time anymore - so even prepping is a challenge. But for many years I shopped once a month. My biggest issues were perishables. I made sure that I got the containers from Tupperware that keeps veges better. I made a point of paying a little more for better quality perishables.

But it is not that hard to change your shopping habits. For a few weeks I bought extras. So that my pantry now had a months supply. I kept lists, and saw what I used in a month, from that I could fine tune my regular shop. If I ran out then I changed my meals to suit. The key was not to go looking for one more ingredient at the local shop. You cannot buy one thing! It simply doesn't work.

If you know what ingredients you normally use, then your pantry can be useful. It is the beginning of successful prepping, knowing what you use and how often. If you have a one month supply, it doesn't take much to extend the non perishables to 2 months, then 3 months. If you combine those principles with the other suggestions that have been made, you will simplify meal times. The hard work is setting it up, once that happens, it will be easier.

[HSmom]

This is a REALLY good thread. I think meals are a challenge for many of us. Whenever I identify a problem, such as "I never know what to make for dinner," my first priority is to ask myself some questions. In this case, the first is: Would a meal plan help me? From experience, I know that the answer to that is "It depends." Next, would cooking ahead help me? That's a resounding YES! I keep asking questions until I've gotten to the root of the problem. In my home, it's complicated by two picky eaters.

Like Stephanie, I try to use home canned goods to make "easy" meals. My favorite is a pint jar of hamburger. I toss it - along with its liquid into a saute pan and add taco seasoning. I open a can of refried beans (if I planned ahead, I'd pull homemade beans from the freezer), slice some onion, grate some cheese and - if I have some - slice some lettuce. We either have nachos, on purchased corn chips, or I make tortillas. I keep a homemade dry tortilla mix on hand - just add water. I can make two tortillas for EACH member of the family by the time the meat is done.

Y.T., you have made a lot of excellent suggestions; thank you for your input!

[nini2033a]

Sounds like you got alot of good advice here. The 2 things that I would add,,
1- google Dump chicken recipes.... basically you line up gallon sized baggies with enough chicken for your family meal, then you dump in other ingredients (Often including preserves or salad dressings) seal baggies and freze. Then on the day you want that meal, you take it out of the freezer, dump into a crockpot and let it go all day long. You come home to an easy great meal, just add instant rice and a veggie.
2- The easiest way to make meatloaf, even my kids can do it by themselves, (got the recipe from the stove top stuffing site) is basically adding a box of stuffing mix, eggs and ketchup or BBQ sauce to ground meats and cooking. Any stuffing mix works. You can make them up in advance, then freeze wrapped in Aluminum foil, write on it at what temp to preheat the oven then who ever is home can pop it in the oven and cook. It also can be baked in a muffin tin then individually wrapped and frozen for fend for yourself night...

[HSmom]

I forgot something I wanted to say. I think some of the pressure we feel about meals is societal. We feel that it is expected that we make "new" and "interesting" things everyday. We've been told that "leftovers" are not okay. We've been told that it's not okay to make chicken salad one day and tuna salad the next. I've been re-reading the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I'm noticing that they often ate the same thing day after day. I also noticed that there weren't separate "breakfast" and "dinner" foods. In one book, they had prairie chicken for supper (because "dinner" is at noon) and the leftovers for breakfast the next morning. A wise choice in an era without refrigeration, to be sure. Why can't we do that? My dh takes the exact same lunch EVERY SINGLE DAY. Why do I have to make up new stuff every night for dinner (cuz we eat "lunch" at noon )?

[nini2033a]

well, last night we had a cottage pie for dinner, my picky DS loved it. So he had another slice for Breakfast and wanted more for lunch. I love it when that happens because other times I have left overs that become science experiments because nobody would eat them after the first serving.

[Grace&Violets]

I forgot something I wanted to say. I think some of the pressure we feel about meals is societal. We feel that it is expected that we make "new" and "interesting" things everyday. We've been told that "leftovers" are not okay. We've been told that it's not okay to make chicken salad one day and tuna salad the next. I've been re-reading the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I'm noticing that they often ate the same thing day after day. I also noticed that there weren't separate "breakfast" and "dinner" foods. In one book, they had prairie chicken for supper (because "dinner" is at noon) and the leftovers for breakfast the next morning. A wise choice in an era without refrigeration, to be sure. Why can't we do that? My dh takes the exact same lunch EVERY SINGLE DAY. Why do I have to make up new stuff every night for dinner (cuz we eat "lunch" at noon )?

This is so true. People have "Breakfast for Dinner" nights, why not "Dinner for Breakfast" mornings? When I was in high school, I remember eating whatever was cold in the fridge for breakfast, because I didn't have time for anything else. Cold pizza or lasagna was fine then, why not now?

On a side note, when DH was a kid, his stepmom raised chickens and would butcher a bunch at a time. They would then have chicken and dumplings every day for weeks, with no variety. DH hated eating the same thing for weeks at a time. My guess is that chicken and dumplings was all his stepmom knew how to make with chicken! They also did the same with bread and butter beans...weeks of beans would be horrible, imo. I think this is what they mean by appetite fatigue.

[ROBIE]

I've always been told that you can eat anything you want for breakfast except for 2 things..............lunch and dinner

I've read something about this idea in a book called "America's cheapest family gets you right on the money" by John and Anette Economiedies. They shop only once a month for a family of 8. They have lots of ideas and tips that I've tried to use. Some of it works for me some dont. They recomened getting a freezer to keep extra stuff in. Where I live, in an appartment, its not as practical yet.........yet......

My loving wife has it easy.....I'm the cook in our house. (appartment) I try to plan menues for 2 weeks or more and keep things that we use more often on stock. We eat plenty of leftovers, but I always try to find some new way to serve them. This comes from the several years that I've been a cook in restaurants.

As Im thinking about it, its been over 28 days... how did this come out?

Robie

[backdoor]

Thank you all for the suggestions and ideas. I did accomplish my goal in reducing stress in my life and I saved money. I went the entire 28 days without grocery shopping. Very tempting since I ran out of wine the first week…..thought I had stocked up on that prior to the challenge. There were times I wanted to go out and do a snack run, or stock up because of a good sale, but I didn’t.

I planned ahead for the entire week. Every Sunday night, I moved a weeks worth of food from my deep freezer to the fridge/freezer. Each night I took out the meal to defrost, the next day meals needed less then 20 minutes to warm and serve. It really was a no thought process, which I wanted.

It takes an entire day to grocery shop and prep meals. I recently bought another food saver, hope this one works a little better. I have experimented with a few new recipes, which I think we lacked variety with the first trial.

I knew the fruit favorites of the house would be an issue, grapes and bananas. I plan on keeping a few bananas in the fridge to see if it changes the taste. I’m also going to store the grapes in the freezer, see what reaction I get from the family. I froze the milk and cheese, no one knew any different. My carrots received freezer burn, had to throw out two bags.

Since my challenge, I have done another two weeks before going shopping. I need to do some tweaking in my menus, but I plan on trying this challenge again before the New Year.

I told family members and friends, received little support. I think they thought I was going to sell up and move to the nearby Amish community from the questionns they were asking me.....really didn't think that was a bad option.

Bd.

[ROBIE]

Glad to hear that it turned out so well for ya. Hope your next trun at it will work out better, and even make your family and friends want to try when they see how much less stress you have and money saved.

Now it will be interesting to see who will be next to try it.


Robie

[Simplegirl]

I would like to think we could do it, but I can't actually see it happening.

However, this thread has really been helpful to me for ideas how to get ahead of that "what's for supper?" question every night. I get no help from my DH- I work the same amount of hours as he does but he does nothing when he gets home whereas.... well, you know the story.....

[dogmom4]

Interesting thread...

[FarmLife]

Thanks for bringing this back up. It was a very interesting thread to read. As such a new member, I'm still reading through a great many topics and subforums to learn more about the site.

I did find many helpful tips here. I agree with the 'what's for dinner' from my DH. Some nights, I'm just too tired to try and think of something to cook. For us, the issue is not coming home from work, since we are both 'retired' and work here on the farm. DH does not cook - he's tried several times (at my encouraging) and they have been monumental disasters. Long ago, we decided that since he didn't cook, then he would contribute by the clean-up.

So many nights, I don't want to decide what to make, but I would like to get more 'ready-to-eat' meals canned up and on my pantry shelves. I find myself going back to the same 3 or 4 recipes ALL the time. Food cooking fatigue for me, I guess you would call it.

[Amishway Homesteaders]

WOW! An oldie but goodie.

And it could have been typed yesterday as things are just the same.

I do this all the time when we go shopping - but spend a whole lot less?
Now there are just 2 of us but I still think I do OK when buying things like meat or sale item.
Like this week we got a frozen package of stir-fry but seeing we had chicken on hand I put some up chicken (1 breast) and added it to the stir-fry that way we got 2 meals out of it (large bag at Aldies for something like $3.59). the other chicken breast I am making chicken Kabobs for supper tonight with little potatoes (from bag of salt potatoes (on sale for 75 cents), onion from last year’s garden and pepper’ we got on 'day old sale' at the bulk food store for 89 cents. There were 3 big one in the pack so I used 1/2 of one tonight and the other two will be stuffed peppers on the weekend. The other half of the pepper from tonight got chopped up and put in frigerator for western omelets for Sunday morning along with more of the bag of potatoes and left over ham and another onion from the garden. Got chop meat on sale ($7.59 on sale for $4.00 - part of the stores 5 for $19.99 sale) so THAT will be a meatloaf (2 meals or more) and some of the chop meat will be part of the stuffed peppers.
Also I try and cook more than one meal at a time in the oven to save heating it up for each meal and when the meals are done cooking i will make bread (banana this time) or rolls and even cookies for snacks.
Now THAT a good way to save money!