How to Afford to Eat: A collection of recipes, pantry staples, and tips on how you can feed yourself and your family despite the steep inflation we are facing.
It’s been quite a year. I don’t know about you, but our family is really feeling the compounded effects of inflation, rising costs of living, stagnant wages, and food supply chain issues this year. Our food spending has sky-rocketed and we are taking a long look at how to continue to feed our family healthy, balanced meals while staying in budget.
As grocery prices and the cost of dining out continue to rise, my partner and I have been more aware of our spending. We have been lucky enough to have a flexible food budget in the past. Even when things were tight, there were always leftovers from the coffee shop we owned to fill in the gaps. But as I go back to school this semester and switch careers, we need to tighten up our spending and stick to a budget.
Eating healthy, sustainably, and within a budget is a huge topic, and not one I can succinctly talk about in a blog post. There are many barriers to accomplishing this, including income, time, access to grocery stores and farms, knowledge about nutrition and how to cook, kitchen and outdoor space, etc.
It’s easy to say “buy pantry staples in bulk” when you have the kitchen space to store them. It’s easy to say “grow your own veggies”, but hard to accomplish in a studio apartment. If all you know how to make is ramen, home cooking can be a daunting experience that requires an investment into pots and pans and knives and cutting boards and strainers and mixing bowls and measuring spoons and appliances. I ate out significantly more when I was working 60 hours a week – who has energy to cook a healthy, homemade meal after a 12 hour shift? Our only downtown grocery store is closing next month, creating a food desert in the middle of a lower income area of our town. For those that don’t drive, it will be an hour’s walk to the nearest grocery store.
That is to say, if you are feeling any or all of those things, I see you. This series of blog posts is about our family’s particular journey with food and cooking and budgets, and it may or may not resonate with you.
How We Are Changing Our Eating Habits
If this does resonate with you, come along as we share our journey of making more sustainable, healthy, and budget-friendly food choices to continue to feed our family!
We set three main goals for affordable eating:
1. Reduce our grocery budget
Make a meal plan, buy the groceries we need, and then actually use the ingredients instead of letting them go bad in our fridge. Sounds simple, right? But we have been awful at this in the past.
A few things we are implementing:
a) We are building up a recipe collection that use similar ingredients over the week. We are bad for using half a cabbage, half an onion, half a bundle of cilantro, and then the rest goes bad because there’s no plan for it.
b) Instead of grocery shopping, I place grocery orders for pickup. I make the orders at home, where I can check the fridge and pantry to ensure I’m ordering only what I need, and make a meal plan for what we have on hand. It takes some time to do this, but I end up saving the time since I’m not grocery shopping myself.
c) Reducing waste. I’m trying to be proactive about processing the food in my fridge before it spoils. We have a small chest freezer, so I freeze half loaves of bread, individual meals of leftovers, and berries and fruits that I won’t get to in time. I’ve been making chicken broth in my Instant Pot with scraps of vegetables and leftover chicken carcasses/meat. I make a plan for leftovers and keep them at the front of the fridge so we see them.
d) It’s such a small thing, but I bought a sharpie and masking tape, and I label and date everything going into my fridge and freezer. We’ve always done it in the restaurant, and I don’t know why I never thought to do it at home. It makes it really easy to tell if things are still okay to eat or if they should be tossed, and I never have to wonder what the strange frozen container of ?soup is.
2. Not eating out as much
We love to eat out, and it’s still a part of our food expenses. I’m not willing to give it up entirely, but we are committing to making better choices with our dollars to feed our family.
Here are some ways we are working on this:
a) Having a well stocked kitchen with a plan for the ingredients on hand is a big part. We have a list on our fridge with meal ideas. It’s not cute or fancy – it’s just a piece of lined paper on the fridge with some meals we bought ingredients for this week. It’s easier to cook at home when you have a recipe planned out and the ingredients for it.
b) For things that we can make at home, we do. Little investments, like my Bodum milk frother, cost $50 but I can make cafe mistos, London Fogs and chai lattes at home. I’m a pretty good cook, so I try to splurge on ingredients instead, and make them at home. But there’s lots of stuff I am not good at cooking, and that’s when we eat out. Korean friend chicken? Sushi? Pho? Neapolitan pizza? All worth ordering out for. And then when you do go out, it’s such an occasion.
c) Keep some easy, pre-prepared food at home. It’s okay to occasionally eat a frozen pizza, a microwave burrito, or some KD. It’s delicious, it’s cheap, and it won’t hurt in moderation. Plus it feels like a fun splurge, but still costs less than going out for fast food and is probably quicker.
3. Focus on Sustainability
Our food supply chains are precarious at best, and the environmental impact of our eating habits is devastating. Yes, it’s nice to be able to buy oranges in February or have a wide variety of every premium cut of meat available at any supermarket, but it is taking it’s toll on the environment. Not to mention that while we’ve weaned out plastic bags at checkout, all our packaging is in plastic clamshells, wraps or bags.
I’m not even going to pretend like our family is close to perfect on this. And I’m not going to start a conversation about individual actions vs corporations actions against climate change because that’s an entire can of worms. But I will tell you a few small changes we are making to address this in our own lives.
a) We are focusing on eating what’s in season, and if we can, buying it locally. We buy CSA boxes of produce from local farms, and try to get to the farmer’s markets and food stands. We buy our eggs from a friend with chickens. For us, it makes sense to buy berries when they are ripe, and freeze them for the winters instead of buying them for 3x the price and after they travelled 4000km to get to us.
b) Eating less meat. This doubles as a way to reduce our grocery bill, since meat prices have increased significantly in the last year. It also means we will be eating more plants, which is healthier for us. I love meat, but we can’t afford to buy meat from local farms, and therefore are choosing to cut down on our meat purchased from the grocery store.
c) We are going to plant a garden this summer. I have no idea what I am doing, but last year we had rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries and tomatoes, and every time I went out and picked them, it felt like stealing. Like, I could just eat them for free? It was amazing, and this year I’m going to try to plant a lot more. We are lucky enough to have purchased our home last year, and it feels amazing that I will be living in a house long enough to plant a garden in. That being said, there were some really cute portable raised planters at Costco last year that would be convenient for a rental with an outdoor space or patio, and I’m not sure why I didn’t do this sooner.
How We Are Affording to Feed our Family in This Economy: Resources
As our family continues to focus on eating well on a smaller budget, I’ll be posting regularly with updates, recipes, lists and guides.
I’ll update this page regularly with our newest posts on the subject. Subscribe to our newsletter or social media for updates.
Pantry Staples
Pantry staple lists for home-cooked meals, plus some of our favorite ingredients and snacks.
Grocery shopping can be daunting, and meal planning takes time and energy. In our house, we are working at compiling lists of dry, frozen and fresh staples so that our weekly shopping trips can be simplified, and we aren’t wasting ingredients by buying on a whim with no plan.
It’s also easier to throw together a quick meal when you have the basics at home.
Recipes and How-Tos
A collection of recipes we find ourselves making over and over again, plus guides and how-tos.
Years ago, I took Culinary Arts certificate program. It gave me a well-rounded knowledge of food preparation. When you understand the basics and the “whys” behind a recipe, it allows you to be more creative and flexible in the kitchen.
Using that knowledge, my goal is to write recipes that are approachable for all skill levels, as well as guides and how-tos so you too can create amazing, restaurant quality meals in your own home.
Tried and True Equipment and Tools
Our most-reached for tools, appliances and equipment to make home cooking easier and quicker.
We never recommend anything we don’t love and use all the time! For kitchen tools and equipment, we firmly believe in investing in quality where it matters (knives, pots and pans), and then limiting the amount of appliances or niche items.
Functional Kitchen Spaces
How to organize your kitchen in a way that is both functional and beautiful.
We say it time and time again – kitchens are meant for cooking in. From our experiences in owning a restaurant, food truck and a coffee shop, we’ve simplified our processes, our storage solutions, and our design styles. We don’t believe in hard-to-clean design choices, an abundance of plastic food containers, or having every appliance and gadget that’s trendy right now.
We believe in beautiful, simple kitchens that are practical and functional.
How are you approaching eating with rising inflation?
I’m curious to know how everyone else is approaching these large scale issues of food security, inflation and cost of living. How are you affording to eat? How are you feeding your family and what changes are you making? Is it impacting your day to day life? Please share in the comments below or on Instagram!
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