STEP ONE:  What to Buy and When

Buying in BULK

Continue with caution!  This can be trap.  Buying in bulk is usually not
a good idea for people who don’t support many mouths to feed—so trips
to Costco can actually waste your money in many circumstances if you’re
buying for yourself or another.
So, assuming you’re NOT buying for an entire household, these are the things you should and should not buy.
NEVER:
-perishable items (shortest shelf-life)
              -fresh fruit
              -fresh vegetables

-milk/orange juice/buttermilk/silk/half n’ half/heavy whipping crème etc…

                            -eggs (unless you can consume up to 60 in within two and a half weeks)
                            -cheese
                            -cream cheese
                            -bread/bagels
              ALWAYS
              -longest shelf-life

-canned/frozen

              -canned/frozen fruit
                            -canned/frozen vegetables
                            -any meat or poultry (when frozen they last for months)
                            -rice
                            -potatoes
                            -dried beans
                            -garlic
                            -onions
                            -sauces
                            -noodles

**Frozen
Food Tip: to avoid any frustration while preparing a meal, think ahead
of time:  This is very helpful because, as we tend to forget, frozen food needs time to defrost
before we can cook with it—it tastes much better to defrost ahead of
time & is environmentally friendlier this way because you won’t
have to use energy from the microwave or hot water from the sink. 
So,
if you think ahead, you’ll have time to take anything frozen out of the
freezer, take however much you want and put it into the fridge.  That
way it will be cold and fresh, and you will be able to cut, marinate,
shred, or mold to your liking.
Be
careful though, once you have taken something out of the freezer to
defrost, it cannot go back in, or else it will experience freezer burn.

**Seasonal
Tips: purchasing something at the end, or mid portion, of its season
will actually save you money because the products are cheaper then. 
You can bring them home, prepare them how you’d like, and then put in a
tupperware and freeze for a later time.  Try to avoid buying products
when they’re not in season as well because the storing of these
products actually requires the use of more energy.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 9:13 pm and is filed under Guide. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.