Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

What to Keep in Your Pantry?

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What to Keep in Your Pantry

Since the pandemic, many of us now realize that having a full pantry is a necessity. Of course, this is different than hoarding and having so many items in your pantry that you’ll never be able to use them. Instead, your pantry should have enough to be able to feed you and your family for a month to three months. How much you need depends on a variety of variables.


Why Keep a Fully Stocked Pantry?

Keeping a fully stocked pantry is necessary for a few reasons:

You May Get Sick

If you get sick, you may not want to or be able to go to the grocery store. In such a situation, you can find items in your pantry to prepare for meals.

You May Have a Weather Event

In many parts of the country, having a fully stocked pantry is essential because weather events may prevent you from getting to the store. You may have hurricanes in the South. In the Midwest and East Coast, blizzards may keep you from the store.

You Want to Save Money

If you build your pantry slowly, you can stock up on items when they go on sale. For instance, maybe canned beans are $1.29 a can, but you buy them on sale for $0.99 a can. If you buy 20 cans, you have saved $6.

In addition, if you have a fully stocked pantry, preparing meals is a snap because you likely have all of the ingredients you need. If you decide one night that you’d like to make chicken noodle soup, you probably have everything in the pantry, so you can easily make the meal. When everything is at your fingertips, cooking can be quicker than ordering take-out and waiting for the meal to arrive.

Supply Chains May Be Interrupted

In the United States, we are spoiled. Before the pandemic, most people never had experienced empty store shelves. If you, like me, thought that after 2020, empty store shelves were a thing of the past, you likely now know that thanks to supply chain issues, our days of items being unavailable are not over. We may be facing this situation through next year. If you keep a fully stocked pantry, you’ll be less affected by the market turmoil.

What to Keep in Your Pantry?

So, you’ve decided having a fully stocked pantry is necessary, but what does that mean exactly? What should you include in your pantry? Here are some ideas.

Baking & Cooking Supplies

You’ll want to include ingredients for basic baking and cooking recipes:

  • Baking soda,
  • Baking powder,
  • Flour,
  • Sugar,
  • Cocoa
  • Salt,
  • Pepper,
  • Onion,
  • Garlic,
  • Seasonings

Ingredients for Simple Meals

You’ll also want to include ingredients for simple meals you can make fully from the pantry. If you like spaghetti, include noodles and spaghetti sauce. If you like taco soup, make sure to have taco seasoning, beans, tomatoes, and nacho chips. You may also want to have some canned soups. Just open, heat, and eat.

Vegetables and Fruits

If you don’t mind eating canned vegetables and fruits, make sure to have those. If you’re without power due to a hurricane, for instance, you could always eat those without needing a stovetop.

Toiletries

Before 2020, I don’t think most of us realized just how much we take having toilet paper for granted! Toilet paper is just one of the toiletries you’ll want to have stocked in your pantry. You’ll also benefit from having the following:

  • Toothpaste,
  • Deodorant,
  • Dental floss,
  • Shampoo,
  • Soap,
  • Band-aids

What Should Be in the Freezer?

What to Keep in Your Pantry

If you can afford a freezer chest, I highly recommend buying one. My husband and I have had one for almost as long as we’ve been married, and it’s paid for itself over and over again. If you want to have a well-balanced diet even if you can’t get to the store, a freezer is essential. Consider stocking these items:

Meat

If you’re an omnivore, consider stocking a variety of meat. We usually have beef, pork, chicken, and a variety of fish. A deep freezer pays off if you can stock your freezer with meat you found on sale or if you can buy a quarter side of beef direct from the farmer.

Vegetables

Keep a variety of frozen vegetables. Once your fresh vegetables run out, you can turn to frozen for nutrition. You may want to include

  • Peas,
  • Corn,
  • Mixed vegetables,
  • Greens like spinach and kale,
  • Cauliflower,
  • Broccoli,
  • Lima beans

Fruit

You’ll also want to include frozen fruit for the same reason. We frequently make smoothies with our frozen fruit, but you can also eat it plain or mixed into items like yogurt. We keep the following in the freezer:

  • Blueberries,
  • Strawberries,
  • Mango,
  • Pineapple,
  • Bananas
  • Smoothie mixes (I bought a bag from Costco that has berries as well as some greens like spinach. The kids said it tasted less sweet than a regular smoothie, but they drank it down.)

How Should You Build a Pantry?

Most of us can’t afford to fully stock a pantry in one swoop. Instead, buy items little by little as they go on sale. For instance, spaghetti is a great pantry meal. Recently, there was a coupon for our preferred jars of spaghetti sauce. Instead of being $2.49 a jar, they were on sale for .99 a jar. I bought the maximum limit of 5. If you do this week after week, you’ll soon have a full pantry with items bought at a lower price than if you just went to the store weekly to pick up what you need.

How to Maintain a Pantry

Once your pantry is full, keep a running list of items that are low or that you’re out of. Then, buy those items again to refill your pantry.

Don’t forget to put the items that expire soonest at the front of the pantry so you’ll use them up first. Put the replenished items with a later expiration date in the back.

Final Thoughts

If you haven’t already, now is the time to create a fully stocked pantry. Hopefully, you now have some ideas of what to keep in your pantry and can start building it with items you find on sale each week at the grocery store. Even if you don’t have an emergency, you’ll be glad to have a fully stocked pantry because it makes meal prep so much easier!

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Cheap Foods to Buy When Broke

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Cheap Foods to Buy When Broke

Whether it’s nearly the end of the month and you’re out of cash, or you’ve just lost your job or you had a large expense this month, we all have times when we have to nourish our bodies for as little money as possible.  Luckily, there are many cheap foods to buy when you’re broke that are also nutrient power houses.

Cheap Foods to Buy When Broke

To get the most nutrition from limited money, you’ll want to first focus on fruits and vegetables.

Vegetables

There are many basic vegetables to choose from:

Carrots

Carrots are so versatile!  You can eat them raw or use them in soups and stir frys.

Cabbage

One head of cabbage can stretch, and stretch, and stretch and be used many ways.  Just recently, our family of five had a head of cabbage to use.  The first night, we made cabbage beef soup; it fed us all, plus there were leftovers.  The second night, we had skillet kielbasa and cabbage, and again, there were leftovers.

You’ll find plenty of recipes for cabbage.  Consider looking for recipes from other countries, too, as cabbage is a staple in the cuisine of many countries.

Fruits

While fruits like grapes, blueberries, and strawberries are delicious, they’re not affordable when they’re not in season.  Instead, focus on fruits that are affordable in any season.

Bananas

Bananas are quite filling and cheap.  You can eat them plain, or blend them up and use them as mock ice cream.

Apples

Cheap Foods to Buy When Broke
Photo by Sarah Gualtieri on Unsplash

Apples are in season for quite a long time and can often be found for less than $1 a pound.  I like these because of their nutritional value and because they can be eaten as a fruit, or used in a meal, or baked for a dessert.

Starches

When you’re on a budget, you need foods that are filling.  After fruits and vegetables, your next priority should be starches.

Potatoes

Potatoes are almost always a reasonably priced food.  Add them to meals to bulk up the content.  (One of our favorite breakfasts is diced, cooked potatoes mixed with a little cheese and scrambled eggs.)

Oatmeal

Oatmeal makes a great, filling breakfast for just pennies.  Stir in some protein powder or jam for a little extra flavor.

Oatmeal can also be used in muffins and ground up in a food processor and used as a substitute or supplement to flour in baked goods.

Flour

The price of flour can’t be beat per pound.  Use it to make homemade breads, rolls, desserts, etc.  You can also use flour as a thickener to homemade sauces and gravies.

Rice

Rice is also versatile and can be used for a side dish, dessert, or breakfast.  When rice is combined with beans, it is the ultimate frugal meal.

Protein

Protein will help satiate you longer, stretching the length of time you feel full, so hopefully you’ll need fewer in between snacks.

Dry Beans

A pound of dry beans costs between $1 and $2 per pound and can likely be used for several meals.  Use beans in soups, casseroles, and dips like hummus.  You can even use beans in desserts like black bean brownies.  (Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it.  They’re delicious!)

Chicken

Chicken is a great animal protein that can be frugal if you buy it on sale or on the bone.  We usually try to use our animal protein as a supplement to a meal, not the main focus of the meal.  Try dishes like fried rice with some shredded chicken or chicken pot pie to complement all of the vegetables in the meal.

Don’t forget to take the bones and turn them into a homemade broth to use for future meals.  (We freeze our broth in ice cube trays for future use.)

Final Thoughts

If you’re on a tight grocery budget, remember that if you choose the most frugal food options, you can still eat healthy, nutritious, and filling foods.

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Five Foods You Shouldn’t Waste Your Money On

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If you go to a grocery store, you are likely to find several other shoppers with convenience foods in their cart. From cans of soups to packages to frozen dinners, I wonder if these “convenience foods” really make life that much easier. I do know that they can waste a big chunk of your grocery bill. These five foods not only cost more but are not the best for your health. These five foods can be made so easily for a fraction of the cost.

    • Bottled Teas: I made this stupid purchase move last month when I bought a box of Honest Tea from Costco. While they are organic, tasty teas, twelve teas cost me about $9-$10, not including CRV. The tea had natural sugar in it, but I can drink green tea “black” and not mind. It takes about five minutes to brew your own tea. Just place four tea bags in a medium container and microwave for five minutes. Transfer to a pitcher and add more water and sugar/honey if desired. This should make a gallon of tea for pennies a serving.
    • Packaged, Cut Fruit: When I use to work at Starbucks, I was always amazed at how many people purchased the fruit bowls for $3.65. You can find these tiny bowls there today. Each bowl includes a few pieces of pineapple, a few grapes, and about two pieces of blueberries, strawberries, and kiwis. Ridiculous, right? For less than $10, you can buy strawberries, blueberries, grapes, kiwis, and a pineapple (depending on the sales). It takes only a few minutes to chop up all the fruit and separate them into single serving bags. I did this two weeks ago and was able to get 12 bags of fruit for less than $8. They were perfect for grabbing a snack on the run.
    • Trail Mix: Sad to say, but trail mix is another overpriced, packaged item. While nuts are expensive, if you can buy them in bulk along with your favorite dried fruits, pretzels, and chocolate chips, you can make an affordable trail mix. Get creative and come up with new mixes, like white chocolate chips, cranberries, and cashews.
    • Foods Waste Money OnFrozen “TV” Entrees:I know this one is going to get me some angry looks. Have you looked at the back of a frozen dinner lately? Even healthier frozen dinners Lean Cuisines (and my beloved Amy’s Organics) are packed full of sodium. Truthfully, these lunches/dinners are so small! Unless you can get them for free, these frozen entrees are not a good deal financially. It is much better and dare I say, tastier to make a whole pot of chicken pasta or chicken breast with veggies from scratch. If you are relying on frozen entrees to help you get through the work week, here are two tips for you:
      • Make extra dinner each night, package the leftovers in Tupperware and grab them in the morning on your way to work.
      • Spend a few hours every weekend preparing your own “frozen entrees” by cooking up chicken breast and other desired meat, steaming vegetables, and cooking rices and pasta. Throw a serving size of protein, grain, and vegetables in five separate Tupperware containers and throw them in the freezer. The Tupperware containers that have dividers work very well. You can whip up whatever you would like to eat or make entrees more appealing with a sauce.
    • Canned Soup: I love the ease of canned soup, especially when I am in a pinch. While many soups are low in fat and calories, their sodium content is astonishing. Anyone can make a tasty soup for pennies per serving. Just throw your desired ingredients in a crock pot in the morning and you will have a delicious soup by dinnertime. Just add vegetable, chicken, or beef broth (homemade is the tastiest and thriftiest) as the base and add your favorite herbs, vegetables, and meat. Twenty to thirty minutes before you want to eat the soup, throw in some rice, pasta, or quinoa. I then freeze leftovers in single serving Tupperware containers, pulling them out the night before. It is just as easy as taking a can of soup from the pantry.

Of course, when any of these products are at a low or free price, it is nice to have a few on hand. The point is to not to heavily rely on them from week to week when you can easily make them at home. What convenience foods do you make from scratch?

 

img credit:nickgraywfu on Flickr