When I was growing up, I didn’t think much about meal decisions; I ate what I was given. Some meals excited me, and others were less interesting. Things are different now that we live in a world of restaurants, drive-throughs, and DoorDash. It is common to ask the question, “What do I have a taste for?” These selection options have also drifted into home cooking. Have you ever looked into a full cupboard or refrigerator and said to yourself, “There is nothing good to eat!” If so, you may be wasting food and increasing your grocery costs, something that can be especially stressful amid inflation and the Trump tariffs.
I have talked endlessly about the benefits of cooking at home, especially cooking from scratch. However, to achieve cost savings, you need to prepare what you have. If you find yourself buying groceries only to throw them out at the end of the week, you are needlessly wasting your hard-earned cash. With that said, I am also guilty of tossing wilted salads and leftovers that are past their prime. However, I am making efforts to reduce these behaviors, and those efforts are easier than they may appear.
When I was a resident physician, I was very poor. I was in the process of getting a divorce, and I needed to pay my divorce attorney, who seemed to think of me as an ATM rather than a client. I had a small child who stayed with me on the weekends, so it was impractical to share an apartment; I had to rent my own. Additionally, I was paying child support. Money was extremely tight, and the most I could spend on my weekly groceries was $20, or about $55 in today’s money. That cash had to fund three meals a day, as well as other necessities like toothpaste, laundry detergent, and the building’s pay washer and dryer. Resident physicians were not paid very well in those days, and even when I became Chief Resident of Psychiatry, I was only given an additional $100 (before taxes) a month. For that $100, I not only had to do all my regular doctor work, but also administrative duties for a 4-year residency program, including scheduling, monitoring, disciplining, training, interviewing candidates, and other responsibilities.
Aldi stores existed, but not in my area, so I shopped at “the Jewel,” our local grocery store chain. In those days, they had a generic aisle that carried inexpensive foods. These foods were clearly a cut below house brands and were objectively of a much lower grade. Once, I opened a can of green beans to find an entire plant inside, including stem and roots. The refrigerated section of the store included cheap items, like hamburger meat mixed with TVP and a generic bologna made with mystery meat products, possibly yak? One highlight was turkey legs, which, for some reason, were pretty inexpensive in those days. These were the foods that I could afford, so these were the foods that I bought.
With my doctorly, administrative, and parenting responsibilities, I didn’t have much time for elaborate meal prep, so I came up with options that were both easy and tasty. I also developed hacks to save money. For instance, it was sometimes cheaper to buy frozen hamburger patties than fresh hamburger (even the TVP stuff), so I would use 1 or 2 patties to make meatballs or a meatloaf. I had more of these simple but effective hacks; I’ll save those for another post. I figured out how to make meals cheaply and simply. I would make dinner for two and then immediately portion my meal in half. I would eat one portion for dinner and place the other in a Rubbermaid container for my lunch the next day. This simple meal prep allowed me to make two meals at once, saving me both money and time.
Most of my kids are now living independently. We cooked together for years, and they are wholly comfortable in the kitchen. They have professional, demanding jobs, so their time is limited. They are also in the early stages of their careers, and they understand that eating out all the time will hamper, not enhance, their financial progress. Based on this, they have adopted their own meal prep styles.
My one daughter has been meal prepping her breakfasts and lunches. She likes breakfast soaks (oatmeal, fruit, chia seeds, etc.), and will make 3-4 at a time. She also packs a dense bean salad for work. Apparently, these salads stay fresh for days. She picked up an Instant Pot on Black Friday and has started batch-cooking dinners. As I write this, she sent me a photo of some red beans she made and another of her using food cubes and a vacuum sealer to portion them for future meals.
My daughter sent me a photo of her batch of red beans. It made eight portions, so she needed to freeze some.
She froze portions in food cubes and then repacked them with rice for a complete red beans and rice dinner. These vacuum seal bags can be dropped in boiling water to cook or you can make a little slit in them and cook them directly in the microwave.
My other daughter has a repertoire of dinners for 4 that she has gleaned from home, friends, and a website called “budgetbites.com.” She is comfortable eating the same dinner for 4 days in a row, and that is exactly what she does. She recently sent me a photo of a roll-up lasagna that she made. It was inexpensive and made more than 4 meals, so she froze a portion or two for emergency backups. She also has my love of vacuum sealers, so those extra portions will stay fresh in the freezer for a very long time.
My other daughter found this recipe for lasagna roll-ups on budgetbytes.com. It made more than 4 portions, so she freezed a few extra meals.
Here are the lasagna roll-ups baked. Delicious!
I have a son in a PhD program who still lives at home. He is quick to grab our dinner leftovers to take for his school lunch. He likes home cooking, and the price is right!
My son will pack leftovers from our dinner for his school lunch. When he gets hungry dinner is just a press of a microwave button away.
I’m incredibly proud of my kids and their frugal habits. Each has adapted a version of batch cooking that works for them, and I’m certain that they will modify those behaviors as their needs change.
I enjoy watching food prep videos where the presenter prepares elaborate batch meals or transforms a single ingredient into 5 different dishes. However, for my kids and me, that is just too much work. Each of us has developed ways to save both time and money using batch cooking. I’m not pushing any of our methods; rather, I would like you to think about what would work for you.
Abandon the idea that every meal needs to be exciting. Buy basic foods and build a reasonable pantry over time. Explore recipes that you like. You don’t need 100 of them. My one daughter has around 10-12 dinner menus that she rotates, each serving her for 4 days. This makes her grocery shopping very easy. Since many of her menus use similar ingredients and spices, she always has what she needs on hand.
Consider purchasing the right tools for the job. My other daughter has slowly curated items to make her meal prep easy and fun. Mason jars for her soak breakfasts, an Instant Pot, food cubes, and a vacuum sealer to freeze extra meals. Yesterday, she told me that she would like a Dutch oven for her upcoming birthday. My son has a favorite commuter mug and a quality packable/leakproof food container for school. What is that container? A Tupperware one that my wife found at a thrift store that he claimed as his own.
There is no sense of deprivation; there is a joy in reducing decision fatigue and a sense of security in saving money. How great it is to know that a homemade dinner is waiting after a long workday, ready for a quick reheat. Running late in the morning? No problem, grab that jar of cold soak and eat it at your work desk. Trying to save money as a student? Easy when you have a completely delicious lunch waiting for you that only requires the press of a microwave button.
Come up with your own ideas, the ones that work for you and your lifestyle. Remember, you don’t have to be perfect. This is not an all-or-none behavioral change. Perhaps you want to meal-prep only a couple of lunches per week. That’s OK. Maybe you can’t stand leftovers. Freeze them and eat them later. That way, they are no different than heating up a purchased frozen dinner, except the quality will be better and the cost lower. Feeling left out when everyone goes out to eat? Join them, just don’t do it every time. It is all OK.
Happy eating!
Mike