First browse what you have/clean out bad food.
Go through your fridge and see what you have. This is also the perfect time to toss out old food and clean out the fridge. Try not to let food go bad, freeze food that you don’t think you’ll eat before it goes bad. These make excellent lunches for later. Don’t be afraid to freeze food even if you think it might not freeze. With a little bit of experimentation you’d be surprised the things you can freeze. *** Freezers are friends for your food ***
Make a list of things on sale at your grocery stores.
Go through and write out things that are on sale at your grocery store alongside the things already in your fridge. This can help plan what to make for your “free meals” (“free meal concept is explained in the next paragraph!) and maybe you can change up a few ingredients to your “consistent meals” to change them up every now and then. Good sale on bell peppers? Try putting them on your homemade pizza.
Make a menu ( or a two week rotating menu )
For this menu you will write down 12 meals that you already know how to cook/make/like to eat. Give yourself a “free day” every week to try out a new food to put variety in your diet. If you find that you really like the new food you can replace it with one of the other 12 foods you’ve chosen that has lasted its stay. This is how planning 12 go to meals won’t drive you crazy! There’s still variety and trust me, it is enough.
When writing the menu I only plan dinners. I make sure I cook enough dinner that there will be leftovers for lunch the next afternoon. Decision fatigue is a real thing. The less decisions you make for yourself the more likely you will be to stick to a plan.
Once you have your menu set write out all the ingredients you will need to buy at the store. Here you will write it out in two sections “Bulk Items” and “Normal Perishable Items.” Write down everything you think you would get a better deal on if you bought it in bulk.
Shop bulk (Budget from a different place.)
*** If you are not confident that you will love the menu you have skip this step till you know it is a menu you will love. Save up money while waiting to find your dream menu. *** You will need to budget money ahead of time for this one. Guesstimate how much money it will take to buy these items in bulk and figure out where you will budget this money from. You are stocking your pantry right now which costs a bit upfront but once you have these things on hand you will spend much less money and time. *** Don’t be afraid to freeze things and be patient***
Shop normal
These are the things on the list you would prefer not to buy in bulk for one reason or another. Fresh foods, cheese, whatever. Don’t buy this for both weeks. ***Just buy for the week you are currently on. It helps free up the fridge.***
Ingredient prep
***Prepare as much as you can. Freeze what you can. You’ll be surprised what you can do.***
Once you get that massive amount of food home the first thing you should do is set a game plan of how you will go through all of your bulk food and do what you need to do. If you bought a bunch of meat freeze it. If you bought that meat for a specific purpose you can season the meat now. Trust me it works really well. Then, brain storm through all of the foods you have and get creative on how you can save it or prepare it for later. The goal is to set it up so that on cooking day there is not much work that needs to go into cooking it. Think about making it into a T.V. dinner or something of comparable simplicity.
Juggling The Jungle 