Ballin' On A Budget
“Repurposing leftovers for lunches, using scraps for recipe ingredients and freezing food are good ways to reduce waste, said registered dietitian nutritionist Kaleigh McMordie. Store foods so that items are not out of view and forgotten and try buying only the foods needed for a few days to reduce the likelihood of waste, McMordie said.”- Food & Nutrition Magazine (5/31/19)
One of my favorite phrases of all time (though I’m biased, I created it – lol!) is “ballin’ on a budget”. But seriously, I am a firm believer that budget does not have to prevent you from ballin’ out on your nutrition! The suggestions provided above are great ways to save on your food costs, as well as improve your meal prep efficiency. For example, repurposing leftovers for lunch is not only a great way to prevent waste, it also saves time on having to prep a whole other meal. For those of you who are not exactly “leftover people”, I’ve found that people often have an easier time eating dinner leftovers for lunch the next day than they do having the same leftover for dinner a second night in a row. Why this is, I’m not sure, but who really cares as long as it rings true! Using scraps for recipe ingredients is a similar concept. This practice reduces waste while also cutting down on time needed to prep a new recipe, as these scraps are typically are cut, cooked, or somehow farther along in the preparation process than starting from scratch. Freezing food is another super strategy. This removes the need to eat leftovers multiple days in a row, while still reducing waste + saving time down the road when you can just thaw a meal and quickly reheat it before voila – dinner is served!
Other ways to cut back on food costs include buying fresh produce that is in-season, comparing “per unit” costs between certain fresh vs. frozen vs. canned items to determine the highest value, and buying certain items in bulk. If buying in bulk provides too great a quantity of fresh foods for you to consume before they go bad, either freeze the portion that you don’t plan to eat immediately or split the total amount with a friend. Freezing food also allows you to stock up on fresh produce while it is in-season (typically the lowest price) and save for enjoyment at a different time in the year when prices are not so favorable. Also, I like to compare the cost between whole vegetables vs. those that are already cut up. For me personally, I am much more apt to consume veggies before they go bad if I either buy them already chopped or chop them the second I get home so that they are ready to go when I am ready to eat. To determine which pre-chopped veggies present this added value of being less likely to get wasted, it’s important to think through the true difference in cost per unit. For example: when comparing price by weight of a whole onion vs. a container of chopped onions, you can’t necessarily do a direct comparison. When I chop a whole onion, I remove a couple of the outer (non-edible/bruised) layers before getting to the part I will actually cut and consume. The cost per weight of the whole onion will likely seem cheaper upon initial calculations. However, when you factor out the portion that will not be eaten and thus divide the price by a smaller quantity (by weight), the result is likely much closer in price to that of the pre-chopped alternative. For me, this makes the pre-chopped onion the better option because it saves me time, money (not going to waste), and tears!
What money-saving tactics do you employ in your quest to be “ballin’ on a budget”? I would love to hear your strategies!