How we save time and 200€/month on our food shop
The short answer: we started eating much less meat and putting on fewer fires (more on that below).
The long answer: I'll go through
how this impacts our zero waste efforts
added benefits
before and after costs
how I save time meal planning
some meal ideas
Impact on Zero Waste
As this is a "zero waste" blog, I have to say that I had put off cutting down on meat for a long time as it was much harder to buy vegetarian items packaging/plastic free. Not impossible but much more time consuming. For example: beans, chickpeas and pulses can be bought loose and in bulk but they are dried and need to be soaked overnight and boiled for a long time before they can be used. I have done this before and cooked in batches where I froze the beans in the same quantities you'd find in cans but the time and effort was not sustainable. Wraps and pasta (in our case gluten free) can be made from scratch using ingredients that come in more recyclable packaging but again the time required for regular use is not sustainable (for me anyway especially with a newborn). Cheeses and the like can also be bought without packing if you go to specialty shops or are lucky enough to have a section in your grocery store. On top of that, for us to get into the farmer's market we needed to drive into town and pay for parking which was totting up to at least another 20€/month and as we are down to one income now this was not justifiable.
It was easier to buy meat without packaging at the butcher.
All that said, I continued to see quizzes, infographics, videos and articles stating that cutting out meat was one of the easiest, most impactful things you can do for the environment as an individual, so I made the trade off - to buy more things in packaging in order to eat less meat.
Like all things, it's a balance to choose the lesser of two evils in order to maintain a lifestyle that is sustainable long term.
I still try to buy loose wherever possible and if not I try to source the most recyclable packaging (in order of preference: glass, cans, cardboard/paper, tetra-packs, easily recyclable plastic (PET 1, 2 and 5), non recyclable plastic (PET 4, 6 and 7)). Quite often you will have the option of both packaged and unpackaged right beside one another in the shop or even in different locations ie: sun-dried tomatoes in plastic in the fridge or in glass in the aisles).
Added Benefits
Some unintentional benefits have been that I've lost weight. I'm now back to my pre-baby weight without much exercise. I can only assume it is this diet. Meat is not great for health in general, according to the EAT Lancet study: "Current overconsumption of meat in Western diets is a significant contributor to poor health and increases a person’s risk of becoming overweight, obese or developing certain noncommunicable diseases"
Before and After Costs
Since I have been off on mat leave our average food costs have been broken down as below (5 month averages):
567€ Groceries (everything from grocery stores including fire supplies and alcohol)
37€ Restaurants
40€ Take Aways
114€ Work Lunches, Coffees, Snacks
760€ Total
This is actually 30€ more than when I was working and buying lunches everyday so I stopped to think and realised that the main difference was that we were buying fire supplies. On average putting a fire on for one evening was costing us 2€ (1 fire log and 6 briquettes) - not much when you see it like that but when you're putting on 3-4 fires/week that equates to 24-32€ extra/month. A bit like the latte factor.
Now that we are eating less meat and putting on less fires our costs are (based on half a month multiplied by 2 - once we are doing this a while longer I will update the figures with more like for like comparison):
362€ Groceries
40€ Restaurants
60€ Take Aways
106€ Work Lunches, Coffees, Snacks
568€ Total
A savings of nearly 200€/month, that goes a long way when living off one income!
How I Save Time Meal Planning
My two biggest tips are to:
use a shopping list app
bookmark recipes into a recipe folder
I use a free app called shop.shop, you can have multiple shopping lists as well as sync it using dropbox so that you and your partner both have access and it's synced in real time, so if C. is out doing the shopping and I realise we are out of something, I add it to the list and it appears on his phone while he's in the shop. It's also handy for adding to as you go about your week and you notice you are running low on something.
I have a list for meals and another list for shopping. The meal list looks like this:
When meal planning I take a look and drag and drop the meals from the OPTIONS section to the THIS WEEK section, as we eat the meals that week I drag it back to the OPTIONS section for the following week.
Once I have my meals chosen I open up my bookmarked recipes and see what ingredients we need, and add them to the separate shopping list (while checking the pantry/fridge to see what we still have in stock).
The other time savings is that once your pantry/fridge is stocked with these main staples there is very little else you actually need to buy to make up a vast array of recipes:
tins of beans
chickpeas
quinoa
rice
potatoes
sweet potatoes
ginger
nuts
sesame seeds
lentils
spices and herbs
maple syrup
sri racha sauce
soy sauce (tamari brand for gluten free)
wraps (corn flour for gluten free)
Our shops now usually consist of topping up the above items as well as bread (fresh from Lidl in my own bread bag), fresh fruit and veg, milk, cheeses, yogourt, and a few odd treats/snacks and bottles of wine.
Meal Ideas
When I first attempted eating less meat I tried a few batch recipes and found that they all ended up tasting quite similar so I gave up on the idea for lack of variety. However, this time around I have found a good range of go-to recipes that are quick and very tasty. Here are a few of my faves.
I make my own tahini (which is just roasted sesame seeds, blended with oil) and substitute coriander (yuck) for basil. The recipe makes enough sauce for 2 meals for 2 people so it's easy to throw together a second time.
I can never find black beans in tins so I just use kidney beans or mixed beans. The pepitas are just the seeds from the squash, scooped out and roasted in the oven with oil, salt and pepper (the best part of the recipe). The squash calls for pre-cubed but I just cut a squash in half and bake it in the oven with a bit of water then scoop it out and mash it with a fork or blend in the blender.
We couldn't find gluten free pitas but did find a GF pizza base so used that. Also we added pesto as a base. Super quick, fresh and super tasty
This is another quick and easy go-to. It's great to use up whatever veggies you have that need to be used up. We use tamari soy sauce as it's gluten free. Also use gluten free spaghetti noodles instead of ramen.
Omlette
No recipe or photo for this one but super simple. Again a great quick one for using up whatever you have in stock. Crack two eggs in a bowl (2 seems to be the magic number for ease of flipping), add a dash of salt, pepper, and milk and beat together. Add to hot pan. Chop up whatever veggies you want to add (my faves are onion, mushrooms, spinach, feta, basil, cherry tomatoes etc), fry them in a separate pan, grate some cheese and throw them all on half of the egg mixture. Flip half of the egg over the fillings.
This one has shrimp so not strictly veggie but again super quick and tasty.
Those are my favourite go-tos but have also tried the below recipes if you wanna give them a try
Phew that was a long winded one. Hope you didn't nod off and even better found a few tips to save money and the environment at the same time!
What are your favourite veggie meals or life hacks to save money at the grocery store?
