I’m a single, middle-aged mom with one child attending university from home. I have a mortgage, a car payment and typical household bills. Those aren’t the issue.
I put in about 50–60 hours a week at work. I order groceries online (I pick them up in-store) to save time and avoid impulse purchases. But I’m NOT a skilled cook, and meal planning is not my strong suit.
Both my daughter and I eat healthfully and stay active. Yet we toss out a lot of food because it goes unused or spoils, and I end up buying restaurant meals too often because of poor planning and limited kitchen ability.
I’d like to trim about $400 a month of wasted spending by getting control of this. I need a simple, effective meal-planning approach and healthy, tasty, easy recipes to follow.
-S.
Dear S.,
You blame the wasted groceries on weak planning and cooking skills. But I think the real issue is trying to do too much — overreaching ambition.
I empathize: I’m a single woman working long hours who isn’t fond of cooking either. Over the years I’ve thrown away more food than I want to admit. Don’t even ask how much I used to spend on takeout apps.
I can’t claim to have totally reformed my habits, but I’ve made meaningful improvements over the last year or so.
It wasn’t through sheer willpower. It was by becoming more realistic. When I’m refreshed on a Saturday morning, I can get carried away browsing Pinterest for recipes and elaborate meal plans.
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I’ve learned I’m willing to spend at most an hour or two on meal prep when the weekend starts fading on Sunday afternoon. Some weekends I don’t plan at all.
What keeps me practical is that I commute by bicycle. I buy most of my weekday groceries on my ride home, so I’m constrained by what fits in my bike’s basket — roughly a medium grocery bag.
That forces selectivity. I have to gauge how much effort I want to invest in that night’s dinner. Sometimes the answer is “none,” and I’ll get takeout. Is that the absolute cheapest option? No. But it’s better than buying ingredients for a meal I’ll never make in addition to ordering food out.
The trick is deciding how much time you’ll commit to meal prep each week and sticking to it. You want to reduce food spending, but you also must factor in the value of your scarce free time.
If you can spare even an hour or two weekly for prep, you’ll see real progress. Try chopping vegetables and cooking a couple of protein basics with olive oil and a few spices. (Invest in decent storage containers.)
Then you’ll have simple building blocks to toss over rice or a bed of greens. You can use them as taco fillings or pizza toppings. Start with meals so straightforward you don’t need a recipe. As your confidence grows, aim a bit higher.
Be honest: when you’re working 50–60 hours a week, you’re unlikely to cook 21 meals from scratch every week. That’s fine.
Breakfasts and lunches don’t take much effort — smoothies, omelets, sandwiches or salads come together fast. Dinner usually feels more involved, but it doesn’t have to be.
So try targeting all seven breakfasts and lunches, plus four dinners per week. Ask your daughter to take charge of dinner one night. Allow yourself to order takeout for the remaining three evenings.
Keep your priorities clear: You want to save cash and eat well. Neither goal demands you become a gourmet chef or a Pinterest star.
Make incremental improvements in the kitchen, grant yourself permission to fail occasionally, and you’ll likely reduce the food you waste.
Robin Hartill is a senior editor at Savinly and the voice behind Dear Penny. Send your money-saving questions to [email protected].
