I’ve been watching a few ‘beat inflation’ YouTube channels recently and an American one I like has a $5 pantry challenge she does each week. On top of her main shopping, $5 is set aside for buying supplies to store for a rainy day when funds are short. It is all long life foods like beans, rice and pasta, packet mixes or cans.
It made me think about the stores I have and how they help out so much with making meals. I do the same and buy a couple of bits each week to stash.
I have a lot of spices and seasoning liquids (for want of a better term) like soy sauce. I have pasta, rice and pulses I buy in big bags. Cans of tomatoes, cooked beans and a few proteins like tuna. I dry herbs from the garden and surplus fruit and veg I can’t fit in the freezer.
Today the slow cooker is full as I saw chicken on offer in Tesco yesterday. It cost me £6 for 1kg of boneless, skinless thigh meat. I had onion and garlic, plus fresh ginger and chilli from the freezer, that latter 2 I use frozen with a micro plane grater.
Some tinned tomatoes, dried cubed tomatoes and spices from my store, plus some mung dhal to disintegrate into the sauce and thicken it were added, plus some peeled cubed potatoes that I brought in from the shed a few days ago and needed to be used before they go soft.
The place smells lovely and I have enough for several meals for us both. I have managed to keep our food bill down quite well so far and OH hasn’t noticed. I heard him saying to someone the other day that ‘we have not really economised that much and are managing to still eat good meals’