Isn’t that the best frozen pizza ever?? So good! I love the mini ones when I can find them, because they limit how much I eat.
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I want to join! Not sure of the full extent of my goals, but I can definitely avoid buying any sweets (I got soooo much for Christmas) and maybe avoid buying English muffins, since I’ve made some bagels and plan to make more soon. I’d like to make some bread, so I should put a limit on how much bread I can buy, too. And maybe I’ll try food-processing a bunch of nuts as @AllHat once described as an oatmeal topping, to use up some of the nuts in the pantry.
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I’m in! My goals include:
- Meal planning every week, I don’t need to stick to it religiously (swapping meals around will be fine), but I should have a plan so I don’t end up eating plain pasta with no sauce for lunch because I forgot to prepare something.
- Freezer inventory. I just defrosted the freezer on Sunday, so that’s easier now!
- Put all my recipes into Paprika to help with future meal planning, shopping list generation, etc.
- Have a reference list of foods I like to cook and eat, and how long they take. This is mostly covered by Paprika, but I also want to have a nice list of healthy snacks and breakfasts and I’m not sure that “cereal” really belongs in Paprika!
- Know how much per month I’m spending on food. I know I’m not overspending, but I’d like to see how much I’m spending in total!
I’d also like to find a replacement for the genuinely healthy frozen steam meals my supermarket used to offer. They disappeared entirely and were quite affordable.
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Hmm i may need to tweak this as the month progresses but i want to limit our supermarket convenience food (and consequently, plastic), Meal planning will help here. Stick to our grocery budget under $400. Eat down the freezer and pantry stocks as there are some old stuff there that needs something done with it. Find my kitchen mojo again and get a bit more experimental.
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Happy New Year, everyone!
I’m starting off Snackuary with a nice big batch cook. I baked some bread this morning and decided to take advantage of the hot oven to roast some squash, potatoes, and rutabaga to put together a giant batch of cabbage, roast veggie, and wheat berry salad for lunches this week.
I’m going to start inventorying the pantry and freezer while things cook.
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Joining!
Spouse and I are trying to live on his salary his starting now in preparation for me quitting my job in a couple months and reducing food costs is a pretty big part of it.
Goals:
- Total food spend under $600 (2 adults, including alcohol)
- Roughly broken down as $320 groceries, $250 restaurants, remaining $30 for work lunches/coffees
-Stretch goal of $550 since we overspent December’s budget yesterday getting food for a NYE party and there are tons of leftovers from it available for the next few days.
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I’m definitely in too! This is one of the biggest points of contention in my house - how much we spend on food and how much food we waste. I’d like to cut down on both. So… some draft goals!
- Stick to our goal of only eating out or doing takeout 1x/week (lunch or dinner, but mostly dinners).
- Clean out the fridge and do an inventory of it, the freezer, and the pantry.
- If we keep up with SunBasket, actually make them instead of letting them sit.
- Try making cold brew!
- Pack lunches (so, meal prep?) If anyone has good vegetarian or vegan meal prep resources, I’m all ears!
- Meal prep grab and go breakfasts! Freeze smoothie ingredients in grab-and-go containers that can easily be made?
- Write down a weekly meal plan.
- More water, fewer sugary drinks or wine.
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Welcome @olschelsea - excited to see you on the forums!
Today was my first victory. I say I don’t normally have trouble not eating out, but we hosted a party in a hotel (in our town) last night, and didn’t eat enough, so we woke up very hungry.
We almost ate at the hotel restaurant for brunch since we were right there but since it was like $15 for a chia muesli, we gave up and took the train home and made breakfast at home instead. Saved probably $30 between the both of us.
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This thread just inspired me to start some beans cooking in my Instant Pot!
I think I’ll set my goal as not buying any bread or English muffins for myself this month. I tend to get lazy and just have peanut butter sandwiches with store-bought bread for my work lunches. I can still have peanut butter sandwiches, but once I get through the bread I already have, I have to make my own. And next week I’ll have farro and beans for lunches.
In addition, I want to stay under this month’s food budget of $560 (for two adults and one toddler).
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All right, I’m going to aim for reducing food costs by using what’s already in my cupboards (per GYSTember inventory) to make all my work lunches. Fresh vegetables/cheese/yogurt are allowed as necessary, but given how many beans I found I think there are going to be a lot of variations on bean recipes over the course of the month. Hopefully with some new ones mixed in.
Specifically I would like to:
- Use 3 cans of garbanzo beans (roughly half of supply left by tenant this past summer)
- Use 1/2 bag of dried cranberry beans (no idea why I have three of these or where they came from, but I like cranberry beans so they might be my fault)
- Use 1/2 bag of dried lima beans (blaming tenants for this one’s appearance because I didn’t care for lima beans the last time I tried them)
That covers three weeks assuming I shoot for a recipe for one each week, so the fourth will be asking one of my Indian coworkers to translate the instructions on one of the spice/recipe boxes that got left behind and trying that recipe for the last week.
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thought about sitting this one out, but the prospect of the december sticker reward is very exciting and i’m ready for another round and another sticker. also i need to save more money so why not reduce food costs (really need to reduce everything…)
My goals as of now:
- eat more stuff out of aluminum cans (canned food is cost effective per ounce, less prep, and from what I understand, aluminum is one of the easiest materials to recycle/alternative to plastic packaged food)
- bring yogurt to work for lunch amap/make as much yogurt as is required at home in my instant pot
- eat oatmeal for breakfast every day (to reduce hunger/ cheap meal)
- eat oatmeal as a late night snack instead of going to the grocery store for chips
- find a different type of honey that’s really tasty but cheaper than what I’ve been buying
- bake more grains stuff to reduce cravings for processed foods (I’m celiac)
side note: not super interested in baking real loaves of bread, i don’t want to deal with yeast or a bread machine or new baking pans (more like quick breads, crackers, flatbreads, whatever) - figure out how to use instant pot remote start function so i have dinner ready for me when i get home from work, hopefully have a routine where i never go grocery shopping because of unchecked hunger or cravings
- find some sales and freeze a stock of the cheap items
- not allowed to have chips and dip as a meal more than twice this month (maybe i can work around this by making my own chips and dip from scratch)
- plan errands to grocery shop at Target and Aldi as much as possible (best prices)
- how to get more fat into my diet while eating less cheese?
edit: this focuses a lot on chips because i want chips so bad right now lol! good thing i’m way too tired to leave my house this late at night.
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Inventory of perishable items (that I think will perish if not eaten this month):
- a small amount of lemon pie filling. I was using this as lemon curd on scones but finished the scones. finished 1/3
- an opened tub of sour cream. How long will this last?
- about 6 egg whites. Left over from making egg nog. Should be used this week.
- a few slices of sharp cheddar cheese that were served xmas eve and not eaten finished 1/2
- half a package of hard salami. This is from mid-November so needs to be eaten soon.
- a half pound of prosciutto. Some of this was tonight’s dinner, with some of the cheese.
- about 2 pounds of grapes, washed. I meant to put these out xmas eve and forgot. I like the green ones more than the red, but I have more red.
- one pear eaten 1/5
- 5 apples (one golden delicious, the remainder honeycrisp)
- the rest of the bag of clementines
- grape tomatoes
- three ribs celery
- a bag of sweet onions
- most of a bag of baby carrots
- two pounds of potatoes that are already starting to sprout because I didn’t have a cool storage space available for their first week in the house.
- about a cup of cranberry sauce that may already be too far gone. It is from Thanksgiving.
- two eggs, best by 12/24 used 1/5
- a tub of feta cheese crumbles. The package says best by 7/19, but it hasn’t been opened so I think it is still ok. But must use quickly after opening.
ETA: 19. a small block of smoked cheddar, from mid-November
20. about a pint of OJ, exp 12/31. Would like to use by mid-month.
21. an unopened package of bacon, exp 12/23/19
22. a small loaf of honey bread, gift from a neighbor finished 1/5
23. about half a head of broccoli, cut up eaten 1/4
24. 2/3 package of graham crackers
25. half a box of triscuits
26. most of a bag of Aldi ginger cookies
During my fridge inventory this evening, I tossed a lot of food items. Some were open jars of things that had been in there for years. So other than maybe the cranberry sauce and feta, I’m starting the month with edible things. My goal is for none of them to end up in the trash.
This week I need to use up the egg whites, grapes, celery, cranberry sauce, cheese, and make a dent in the salami, potatoes, and other fruit. Any ideas?
The celery, some of the carrots, and an onion can go into a batch of lentil soup. I just have to make it before the celery goes bad.
I have new next door neighbors I haven’t met yet. I was thinking of baking something to bring over, and decided to make blueberry muffins. But this morning I found my blueberries had gone moldy. (See why I need this month’s challenge?) So I had to toss those and now need something else to bring the neighbors. I have a lot of excess fruit, so maybe a fruit basket. Would apples, clementines, and grapes make an OK basket? I don’t actually want to give away my clementines, so I need to make sure I can get more first. They are no longer available at the Safeway these came from. Maybe I’ll buy some more pears?
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I don’t have any specific ideas for meals (except the eggs, I guess), but I do have a couple of random thoughts for you to take or leave whichever you like. 
#2. Sour cream usually last a couple of weeks if you put it in the colder part of the fridge (like the back) and you are sure to always use a perfectly clean utensil when scooping out. In fact, I am convinced that sometimes things go bad because they are contaminated by utensils. (A lot faster than they would have otherwise, anyway.) See #18 for more on this though…
#3. I sometimes have a lot of leftover egg whites from making ice cream or pasta, 6 of them is legit only like 1 big or 2 smaller egg white omelets or scrambles. You should use within a few days though.
#7. Grapes, if they are seedless, can be frozen and are yummy treats. Especially in summer, but I can see eating them any time, so just pop them in the freezer, don’t even let them get a chance to go bad.
#10. Clementines last a good amount of time if you put them in the refrigerator in the crisper.
#16 If the cranberry sauce is very sweet with a lot of sugar in it it might be ok. Sugar is a preservative (regular-sugar jam/jelly will last, like, forever in the fridge (but low sugar has a short shelf life)). If it doesn’t have a lot of sugar you might want to consider tossing it, Thanksgiving was over a month ago.
#17. Eggs last waaaaayyyyyyy past their “use by” date. Seriously. Like months. I would just crack into a small bowl just to be safe it wasn’t bad, but I think I have only ever gotten 1 or 2 bad eggs in my entire life and until very recently I didn’t usually eat that many eggs and often kept them for a month or more after their “use by” date. So what I am saying I guess is there is likely no rush on this egg.
#18. Be careful with this one (and also with the sour cream), particularly with respect to mold. I’ve learned some things about mold with respect specifically to ferments, but can be applied generally to pretty much any food. If you have mold on a soft food (like sour cream, yogurt, soft cheese, or food within a liquid/on top of the liquid), it is not generally considered safe to just scrape off, because by the time you see the mold there are filaments from the mold throughout the entire food item. This is particularly true with colored mold (and white and grey molds tend to be considered relatively harmless, but green/blue and especially pink molds can be quite dangerous). I used to think it was fine to just scrape it off, but don’t do that, just throw it away. The one exception might be hard cheeses (like parmesan)? I think I maybe read that somewhere? I am not sure about that. But feta is not a hard cheese, so just be careful to inspect that cheese before eating it. And know that I say this as someone who will drink coffee with cream in it that has been sitting out all day. And sometimes leaves food overnight on the stove (oops) but just brings it back to a boil for a few minutes and then eats it. And I make all and eat kinds of homemade ferments and stuff. But that is all done under known and controlled conditions. Mold can be bad news. And yes, obviously there are good molds (penicillin, the ones used in cheese), but random wild molds can be very harmful (and also anything that spontaneously ferments in the refrigerator is also bad, do not eat it). I try really hard to not ever waste food, and I very rarely have to throw something out and it really bugs me when it happens, but just recently I had some semi soft cheese in the fridge that I had forgotten about (it was the kind that they wrap separately from the cheese counter that originally came from a larger block) and I saw that it had some mold on it and I was sad and I threw it away. So just, like, just be safe and stuff and don’t eat something sketchy just to save a dollar and not waste it! (And I am totally not implying you would, I just want everyone to be safe. )
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I’ve regressed to the point where I cook maybe once a cook maybe one meal a week - Mr. Flan cooks a couple meals a week, and the rest of the time we eat scraps or snacks or in restaurants. This month I want to try some things that may get us set up for a new routine that involves cooking more meals at home, starting Jan 5 since I’m still traveling through the weekend.
- try out meal-planning for 2 weeks (eMeals free trial or self-plan)
- no food delivery
- $300 budget for eating / drinking out (coffee, bars, restaurants, delivery, take-out all included)
- no eating out by myself
- do try out one new restaurant for fun
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Hm, I usually keep my sour cream way longer than that. Not dead yet? Maybe I should toss the tub of it that I have had in the fridge for 3 weeks or so. Probably longer, now that I think about it.
It’s frustrating- aldi’s prices for dairy are so cheap but the containers are huge so I can’t ever finish it all. Same with plain unsweetened yogurt. If I want smaller containers so that I don’t waste, I pay more and I have to make a separate trip to another store. Frustrating!
Yesterday I used up some eggplant i had frozen months ago, in a curry recipe. I always buy eggplant for something and then remember I don’t actually like it that much, nor am I good at cooking it. Also used up about half of the frozen shredded carrots in a big pot of chili.
My freezer is very well stocked so, while I typically do a grocery run right after getting paid and that happens tomorrow, I might not actually need very much? Probably just some almond milk and some fresh produce.
I spent $3.86 this morning on a coffee and bagel at the au bon pain in the lobby after my VERY OMG EARLY gyno appointment this morning. Apparently when I have to leave the house at 6 am for the two-train-and-one-bus trek to the doctor, I make poor decisions. Oh well. I will consider it my reward for having to get my hooha looked at first thing in the morning on my first real day back at work, gah!
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Not starting out very well - new person starting today on my team, so will be going out for lunch. I do have other food with me that I guess is lunch tomorrow.
Also tonight I need to make the beef stew I was supposed to do on NYE.
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This week is sort of weird, because friends are visiting for the holidays, which means more eating out than usual. I am going out for lunch today, but have a feeling the other person might insist on paying. I picked a cheap restaurant so it’s not a big deal either way. My husband and I are probably eating lunch out with different people tomorrow, in which case we would pay for our half, but the people are really frugal so I think we’ll be fine.
Husband bought some groceries this morning but it was just $8 – supplies for his work lunches. I think once I have a little more free time, I will start making things for him to take to work out of groceries we already have. I know I have two servings of beef stew (which he likes but I don’t) in the freezer.
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Egg whites + Chopped Salami + Basil + Oregano = Frittata
Potatoes + Minced Celery + Cajun Seasoning + Oil = Home Fries
All the fruit together = Fruit Salad
I think you have the makings of a classic clean out the kitchen brunch party 
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We spent Lots at the grocery store BUT we meal planned first and wrote the Plan on the fridge and bought almost only the things on the shopping list. I’m saving all receipts in an envelope this month to review at the end.
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I am in!
My goal is to eliminate throwing away of food. The ways I want to accomplish this:
Using as much food scraps as possible
Eat everything we cook (which includes creating a detailed plan for the week)
Use dried beans instead of canned
Try to use 2-3 coupons.
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