This is why work from home is such a blessing. In an office I could never be able to fuck around as much as I do, but I was definitely less productive overall because I wouldn’t do the hyperfocus periods because I was recently l resentful about being at the office.

Just made me feel elderly is all

This post just rocketed me into menopause

Hey, we’re all clueless about things sometimes right! 😅 💖

What you said about the fear-based stocking up is so real. It’s an easy way to try to feel like you’re in control when you have suffered from food insecurity in the past or when you’re nervous about the state of the world generally. It makes total sense that you had that experience!

The point I was trying to make is that pre-determining the ingredients you need to buy will end up costing you money rather than making the meals based on what is currently discounted and cheap.

Yep, I got your point! I was agreeing with it, then adding my own thoughts about what I think is a complementary technique of stocking up on staples.

Re: poverty, I definitely agree with the sentiment of not beating yourself up by trying to optimize grocery habits when you’re in survival mode. However, frugality is not lock-stepped with poverty. Since OP didn’t mention living in poverty but was asking for cheap and healthy meal planning tips, I shared my thoughts on that.

Storing extra food can easily become wasteful if you don’t do it mindfully. Buy what you use and use what you buy. Research take storage precautions to extend shelf life like I mentioned in my post (and your good point about pests!). In my experience, when you approach it like this, it’s a great way to live more frugally by taking advantage of bulk discounts and sales. So personally, I disagree with the idea that stocking up is a bad thing.

Aside from reasons of frugality, it’s nice to know you have a good amount of calories in your house in the case of, for example, a global pandemic. I know that’s not the topic here, but just pointing out that there are other good reasons to store food.

Yep. It’s also good to figure out what your nonperishable staples are and stock up on those when they go on sale or buy in bulk if they price per pound is cheaper.

If you’re just getting into cooking, don’t do this before you have a pretty good idea of what your staples are. Pay attention to the recipes you go back to over and over, find other recipes that use similar ingredients and try those too. My personal staples are canned tomatoes (whole peeled and crushed), olive oil, dried beans (chickpeas, black beans, kidney beans, white beans), and rice (basmati and short grain). I cook with all of these things a ton (and they’re all pretty cheap, except for olive oil). If I see any of these things on sale I’ll almost always grab some. I always have a pretty deep stock of all of them in my pantry. You must have a good system for organizing by expiration date. For stuff like rice and beans I like to store in Mason jars with oxygen absorbers to extend the shelf life.

Having this stuff on hand in larger amounts can also save money as a hedge against inflation and supply chain issues. Can also keep you fed if you get laid off.

Again, know what you’ll use before you start with this approach. It doesn’t save money to buy food on sale that you won’t eat.

Why buy something when you could spent dozens of hours and * checks watch * wait, also spend way more money??