The Single Gal and Food
Welcome to my series about Frugality and the Single Gal. This week we're covering food.
Cooking for one can be remarkably difficult. I remember my days in my tiny studio apartment with no storage space and a busy schedule. It seemed like homemade meals were made for families with time on their hands. I was living alone and had such a packed schedule that I get tired even remembering it! I would stare with annoyance at the HUGE packages of food in the store, wondering how one person would *ever* use that before it rotted. I also was not interested in eating the same thing day in and day out. If I could go back in time, this is what I would have told myself:
1. Get a freezer. Really. I could have fit one of the smaller models in my tiny studio apartment and it would have been worth the money. When I finally broke down and bought my freezer, I lived in a small apartment. We made it fit.
In my studio, I would have had to use it as an extra table, but it would have fit. Once you have the freezer, buying that jumbo family pack of chicken breasts seems less insane. It is also handy to stockpile individual frozen meals, whether you buy Healthy Choice or make them yourself. While I would like to say that I always ate homemade meals when I was single, I ended up snarfing a Lean Cuisine and bagged salad more than I'd like to admit. Cheaper and a little bit healthier than the drive-thru, but not as cheap as making up my own meals to microwave that I could have kept in my freezer! Once a month cooking is not just for big families. Even freezing extra leftovers can give you a nice stash of delicious homemade meals that can be ready in a jiffy. If you plan ahead, you can stick tonight's meal in the fridge before you leave for the day so you can pop it in the microwave when you get back.
2. Don't buy into the Dollar Menu trap! Along with eating a few too many Lady Lunchables (as my husband calls Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, etc) I also hit up the nearby Wendy's for the dollar menu. I figured it was cheaper. If I thought of just the three dollars I was spending, it seemed cheaper compared to buying 8 dollars worth of stuff to make a meal. However, I think we all forget that the 8 dollars worth of stuff to make a meal makes more than a single meal! I can make a pretty fancy casserole for 8 dollars, and that would be at least 8 meals for me alone. Much healthier than the drive thru and not as expensive as you think. If you don't want to be eating the same old thing for eight days in a row, package the extra up and put it in your freezer. With some skillful rotation, you can be eating a different thing each day for about the same amount of time and less money spent than hitting up the Value Menu.
3. If you do eat out- don't overlook the buy one get one coupons that come in the paper. Do you throw away those buy one get one free restaurant coupons that come in your coupon book or in the newspaper? It seems like those coupons are made just for couples, but you can use them too, even if you have no dining companion. Order two and pack away the free one for lunch later in the week. Poof- two for the price of one, even when you're single!
4. Couponing is not just for moms with kiddos in diapers. Yes, coupon inserts are stuffed with junk food and diaper coupons, but there still are excellent deals to be had. If you're lucky enough to live in a place that doubles coupons, even better! Crystal is the master at explaining how to use coupons to your advantage, so I won't even try in this article. I got a ton of coupons in college by causally mentioning to my coworkers that I was into couponing. Many of them kindly brought in their inserts. I wish I had gotten into hardcore couponing a lot sooner, so I could do things like...
5. Stockpile! This is advice that I sort of ignored when I was single, thinking that it was for large families. What was I going to do with a jumbo pack of pork chops? I was sure not planning on eating pork chops every night, and they would go bad before I ate them. This is where having a seperate freezer would have served me well as a single woman. I could have bought the jumbo packs of meat, cheese, frozen veggies, Lean Cusines when they went on mega-sale, etc.
This mentality does not just apply to food. I lived in a *very* small space with extremely limited storage options, but even I could have found room for an extra tube of toothpaste or a few rolls of toilet paper. By combining coupons, sales, and Walgreen's Free After Rebate books, I frequently get these items for pennies or even for free, and I could have saved money had I not considered stockpiling something that only families could do. I had my bed up on bed risers, but I did not use much of the space. I bet I could have stored a lot of toilet paper under there!
6. Potluck- if you are a social butterfuly and have likeminded frugal friends, have a potluck once a month (or once a week... or whenever!) Everybody brings their favorite dish, everybody goes home with an assortment of leftovers. It's a fun and inexpensive way to socialize and stock your freezer at the same time. Everybody wins!
7. Crockpot- fill the ceremac insert the night before and put it in the fridge. Before you leave for the day, pull it out of the fridge, set it on low, and go! Knowing that a hot meal was waiting for me kept me out of McDonald's more than once. Freeze leftovers. There are different sizes of crockpots, and even<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000R8BT0A?ie=UTF8&tag=frughomeplus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000R8BT0A">this handy multi-sized one</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=frughomeplus-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000R8BT0A" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />, so you don't necesssarily have to make enough to feed an army. Even now, I scale down recipies all the time.
8. So a freezer is impossible and food is packaged for families- ask if they'll make the package smaller for you. Ask the butcher if he'll repackage that jumbo family pack for you. Just because their are twelve in the package does not mean you have to buy twelve- just ask if they'll sell you three. A lot of times they will! I've even gotten half of watermelons, half heads of iceberg lettuce, and half heads of cabbage just by asking the produce guy if they'd consider selling me half. They almost always said yes.
These are just a few ways that you can save money on food as a Single Gal!
What other things can singles do to save money on food? What's your favorite trick? Share in the comments!
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6 Responses to “The Single Gal and Food”
October 14th, 2008 at 7:46 am
always try and buy bulk if your store has a bulk section. You save by not having to pay for the packaging. The plastic bags the store provides are strong enough to reuse.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:10 am
THANKS!!! Putting “Freezer” on my Christmas Wish List!
October 14th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
A trick I learned from my college roommate is to put food for the freezer in ziploc bags, flatten them, and remove the air. You can stack a lot of meals in a tiny freezer that way!
I know that when I was teaching full time, I didn’t like coming home with a pile of essays to grade and having to cook dinner. Sometimes it would help to cook on the weekends, then eat what was cooked all through the week.
October 14th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I do the same as Ewokgirl to fit food for my large family in a standard, top-of-the-fridge freezer.
I buy the economical 10# roll of ground beef, brown it all at once, and divide into ziplocs for single uses. Squeeze out the air, flatten the packs, and it’s amazing how little space that much ground beef requires.
I do the same thing with the enormous (and cheap!) bags of chicken legs & thighs. Just dump the whole bag into a roaster, cook til tender, debone and bag it.
It’s easy to take advantage of bulk purchases this way even if you don’t have a freestanding freezer.
October 14th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Hey make a stew pot in your freezer. With those bits of left overs that do not make a meal put them in your “stew pot” (covered tupperware dish). All that this and that of meats, vegtables, pasta and taters will go in the pot. When it is full then take it out, defrost while at work, then add to large pot with some broth. Now there is a large pot of stew that takes no time to do as it was already cooked before and your just heating it up. Have those buddies bring crackers, corn bread, tea and desserts and y’all have a great POT LUCK dinner.
Thanks for coming to see my blog care of the SITSers.
October 15th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Canned soup and add extra goodies.
With some fresh french bread — 3 meals, and so easy.
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