Well, I’ve been away again! I moved. From country living to city living, from a house to an apartment, from BC to Alberta. It’s a big change. Surprisingly, one of the biggest changes we’re going through is the way we shop for our food.
We used to have a pantry – at least we had pantry items! Lots of pantry items. We’d buy bulk to pay the lowest price, shop less and always have things on hand. Now, our very small apartment kitchen cannot hold many items. We left our chest freezer in storage and now have only an icebox in our tiny little fridge. Most of our food didn’t fit in the truck anyway, so we’ve had to start from scratch all around. Just like someone who is moving out for the first time.
We did manage to squeeze our full compliment of spices into the truck, so at least we didn’t have to replace all of those. I will add here that if we did have to replace them, we would do that at a bulk food store as opposed to a grocery store. I would anticipate a savings of at least two thirds. We started out shopping for one day at a time - two if we were lucky. We’re at the grocery store every day. We were also buying semi-prepared food like crusted fish fillets, or stuffed chicken breasts. What an expensive way to shop! On one hand these items were fresh and flavourful, but on the other hand it was blowing our food budget.
Meal planning has never been more important to us. Another change right off is how much time we have to prepare meals. I used to work from home and had many an hour to spend on prep work for timely meals. Now, the household arrives home at 5:30 and we’re hungry and tired, it’s not the time to think about what to have for dinner. I want to walk in, know what I’m having for dinner and know that it’s going to be quick, easy, and delicious.
As we learn our new way of managing meals, I’ll share my successes here and hopefully something will filter through that can help others save money, save time, and eat well. Till then…
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