Talking with my neighbor about meal prepping really made me stop and think

I ran into Mrs. Garcia from down the street last weekend. She mentioned she feeds her family of four on about $50 a week by using just a few core ingredients like rice, beans, and whatever veg is on sale. She said "I stop buying stuff that only fits one meal and start buying stuff that fits five meals." It hit different because I've been wasting money on specialty sauces and single-use items that just sit in the fridge. Has anyone else tried shifting to a pantry-first kind of cooking instead of planning around recipes?

2 comments

2 Comments

finley_harris51mo ago

That line about "buy stuff that fits five meals" really stuck with me too. I was the worst about grabbing fancy sauces for one specific dish (thinking of that jar of harissa I used once and then forgot about for six months). I switched to keeping a base of beans, lentils, and whatever frozen veg is cheapest, then just building meals around that. It's not glamorous, but my grocery bill dropped like 40% and I stopped throwing away half-eaten jars of random stuff.

averym821mo ago

Solid advice. Stockpile shelf-stable basics, ditch the one-off sauces.