Quick! Think about how often you have to buy groceries. I'm not talking about fresh fruits and vegetables; I'm asking how often you need to buy more than 5 not-fresh items for your family's meals. If you're just starting out on the "cooking real food for your family" train, the answer is probably "pretty often."
That's the thing that sucks about starting this habit. Though it's good for you, for them, and for your budget, you have to learn how to not have to buy everything every week. So, here we are at the beginning of the month - the time when most people get their paychecks, child support, or deposits to their benefits accounts. Now is the perfect time to start to build up your food inventory. If you do this at the beginning of the month for the next couple of months, I think you'll find your need to shop will drastically reduce.
The first things you need in your inventory are staples. These are the things you use all the time and can't go without. For me, those are flour, sugar, eggs, pasta, and rice. These are items that go bad really slowly (you'd be surprised how long eggs stay good), so I always have at least one back up ready for when I run out. That means 2 - 5 lb bags each of flour and sugar, 5 dozen eggs, and 5 lbs each of pasta and rice at the very least. When I open my second bag of sugar, I know I need to buy another one at the beginning of the next month. It also means that I check those things when I go on my first shopping trip of the month and get enough to replenish my stores.
There are other staples in my kitchen. Those of which I don't have backups because I don't use them up very quickly or because they go bad. Examples of these are corn starch, olive oil, brown sugar, canola oil, and milk. When I run out, I buy another box or bottle. The items on this list that don't go bad are excellent things to stock up on, if they're on sale.
Then there are your proteins. Whether or not you stock up on these is dependent upon your budget, the sales in your area, and your storage capacity. That means, even if your local warehouse store has 20 lb flats of chicken breasts for $20, don't buy them if you can't freeze them. If you don't have a big freezer, buy your protein week-to-week. It's the only way you won't get green pork chops. Next week, I'll talk more about buying and storing protein.
Finally, I have my canned and frozen goods. I know that might sound strange from someone who wages war against convenience food once a week, but when you consider that buying fresh produce isn't always possible, fiscally or seasonally, having frozen or canned vegetables and fruit starts to make a lot of sense. Planning on comparing fresh to canned to frozen in a post soon.
First, you need to decide how much you can afford to spend building up your inventory. I'd recommend budgeting about $50 a month to building your inventory. It really shouldn't cost near that much, if you're careful. For example, if you have a bag of flour already, wait until it goes on sale next and buy two. I've found 5 lb bags of flour as low as 88¢ in these circumstances.
Make your list today as to what you want in your inventory and check it off as you get it. Then go through it once a month and update it as you need.
What staples can you not go without? Questions? Comments? Tweet to @cookingcheap
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