Optimize Food You Already Have

Open the cupboards of your kitchen where you store your groceries. What do you see? Probably a surplus of unused food.
Here’s how to truly optimize all the food you already have.

Two simple truths

• Whatever food you have in your kitchen, fridge, and cupboards, is stuff you already bought. If you’re not going to use it, it’ll be a waste of money and space. That’s something you can’t afford, especially if you’re on a budget.
• It also means that your money is in somebody else’s pocket. You should promise to yourself that you won’t mechanically buy things because you “think there may not be any left at home.”

Optimizing your food

• Acknowledge that you already have enough ingredients available to do a lot of healthy meals, as long as you only buy fresh ingredients/produce to accompany them. That’s already a lot of savings to be expected for your next grocery shopping session.
• Get rid of all packages, bags and bottles that has been expired for a while, or have been open for too long.
• Take whatever ingredients remain, and find three different recipes for each. Opt for recipes using complementary products that you already have and/or ones that are cheap. We are, after all, talking about working under a budget here. No need to get a lobster just to finish a bag of beans.
• Also do not forget to pick recipes that are simple enough in their executions. Who wants to spend over an hour in the kitchen working on a bag of wheat?
• Plan to put these recipes in use in the next two weeks. The goal is simple: reduce the stock you have accumulated.
• For the future, remember how long it took you to “use up” your stock. You’ll probably end up with the following conclusion: no need to stock up. No one needs to buy that much food in advance.

“Inventorying” your kitchen food ends being a little bit of work, but for a big reward. On top of eating through your food supply, you’ll be saving quite a bit of money.
For the record, if these techniques are able to save you about 20 bucks a week, you’ll have saved $1,040 by the end of the year!

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