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i think i like living on rice and beans

2K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  elephantmargaret 
#1 ·
our family just moved across country and are broke, well beyond broke i guess. up until two days ago i was contacting food banks until i discovered our car payment date got bumped back to after DH's next paycheck. the point of this is that i've been very diligent to not let a single drop of food go to waste. everything is getting used and we are full after meals and eating well. i'm cooking almost everything from scratch and living off our pantry. i think i've only spent about $60 on groceries in the last 10 days and won't need to by anything else until after payday(15th). i'm a little afraid that once we get back on track that i'm going to splurge on food and waste it. i'm going to switch us to a cash system and i'll have my set amount for food. this really was a blessing in disguise and it helped me reset my head about what we really need vs. what we want.
 
#2 ·
thats awesome!

i know how you feel, sometimes i get into the "woe is me" when it comes to money, and then i realize just how much fun budgeting and planning can be. i know exactly how much money i have, and where its going.
i love meal planning and coming up with meals out of the pantry.

 
#4 ·
I need to learn more about mealplanning and budgeting, as well as using up leftovers. It seems like we can just go shopping and then say, "well, what are we going to have for dinner? we don't have anything to eat!" I swear, the whole fridge, freezer and pantry are full (for us, we don't actually eat a lot of things that live in the pantry) and we keep on shopping. DH is especially bad. He'll say "I'm going shopping for dinner" and I'll say "did we already use up XYZ" and he'll say yes, not even knowing that 3/4 of it is still left in the fridge. I've had so many things go bad because I take his word for it and he never even looked! Ugh. Any suggestions on where to start?
 
#5 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by leila1213 View Post
I need to learn more about mealplanning and budgeting, as well as using up leftovers. It seems like we can just go shopping and then say, "well, what are we going to have for dinner? we don't have anything to eat!" I swear, the whole fridge, freezer and pantry are full (for us, we don't actually eat a lot of things that live in the pantry) and we keep on shopping. DH is especially bad. He'll say "I'm going shopping for dinner" and I'll say "did we already use up XYZ" and he'll say yes, not even knowing that 3/4 of it is still left in the fridge. I've had so many things go bad because I take his word for it and he never even looked! Ugh. Any suggestions on where to start?
I found that the best ways to stop wasting food is to
-plan meals a week at a time
-buy only that and the things we are out of that we use (cereal, milk, yogurt, fruit)
-plan meals that serve just enough for us plus DS and I to eat for lunch (so spliting meals and either making less or making double and freezing). A lot of meals that serve 6 I double and then divide into 3rds so it serves 4. If I need a 1/2 an onion for a dish I chop the rest and freeze it. And if I need 1/2 container of sour cream for a dish I either double it and freeze it the rest or find another meal for that week that also uses 1/2 container of sour cream (baked potatoes, chilli etc)

HTH!
 
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