The pantry is the lifeblood of our food system.
We are able to stay on such a low budget of $30 per person each week because the pantry is stocked first. That way, when it’s time to make a meal, we can draw most of our ingredients from our pantry shelves.
But how do you stock the pantry when our budget is so tight?
We start with the most expensive items and work back to the less expensive weekly purchases.
Here’s how we plan and purchase our food.
Choose five of your favourite meals and list the ingredients in each recipe.
Separate the ingredients into three categories:
- Food that is purchased in a bulk amount, requiring a large cash output
- Food that is shelf-stable or frozen and is purchased regularly or monthly
- Fresh food that is purchased weekly
Bulk purchases
This is an example of a few bulk purchases and how we fit their cost into or budget.
For maple syrup this year, we paid $80 for one gallon. To fit this purchase into our budget, we used a $40 rebate cheque combined with $40 divided over two weeks of our pantry budget.
These foods are often purchased seasonally. The cost is figured in over more than one week.
Flour is purchased in a 50-pound bag in the fall. A bag costs $36. To cover this purchase, we used one week’s stock-up budget plus $6 from the next week.
We attempt to keep these bulk foods in stock all the time. Sometimes we run out of one and don’t have room in our budget to replace it right away. When this happens, we wait until we can afford the food.
Per week we are using $30, or half, of our food budget to keep our pantry full.
Our budget of $60 per week feeds two active adults.
Shelf-stable and frozen foods
On weeks that we haven’t used up our $30 on large bulk purchases, we look for deals on shelf-stable and frozen food.
Frozen peas are a favourite around here: we purchase them on sale for $3.
Example
Here’s an example of what our $30 pantry budget can buy per week.
Week 1
- Frozen peas — $3
- Frozen perogies — $3
- Bacon — $3
- Salt — $2
- Pasta — $1.50
- Canned tomatoes with herbs — 2/$6
- Canned black beans — 2/$2
- Ground beef — $4.50
- Canned tuna — $2
- Chicken backs — $3
Total — $30
Week 2
- Hot dogs — $4.50
- Hot dog buns — $2.50
- Ground beef — $8
- Chicken legs — 4/$8
- Ham — $7
Total — $30
Week 3
- Ketchup — $6
- Pork chops — $8
- Spaghetti — $3
- Garlic powder — $3
- Bacon — $5
- Jam — $5
Total — $30
Week 4
- Relish — $3
- Olive oil — $8
- Tuna — $2
- Hamburger buns — $3
- Chicken legs — $4
Total — $30
All of these items would be purchased for the best possible prices we can find.
The receipts would be entered into and any other rebates would be claimed.
Fresh food
This is food you would purchase weekly.
The money for purchasing fresh food would be spent from the second half of the weekly budget of $60.
Let’s look at an example of $30 of fresh food.
Week 1
- Milk — $5
- Strawberries — $2
- Bread (two loaves) — $5
- Lettuce — $2.50
- Tomato — $2
- Eggs — $4
- Cheese — $4.50
- Butter — $5
Total — $30
Combine the non-perishable list with the $30 fresh food budget.
You will have spent $60. You’ll be eating well and the pantry shelves will be beginning to fill.
Recipes


A pierogi dish.
Maureen WilsonToasted perogies with bacon and peas
Serves 2
This dish makes a satisfying dinner or a large lunch.
- Cut up four rashers of bacon. Fry in a cast iron pan until crispy.
- Remove the bacon from the pan and pour off as much bacon fat as possible. Chop up the bacon into small bits.
- Add a layer of perogies to the pan and toast the perogies until heated through and lightly browned.
- Add in 1 cup frozen green peas. Stir until the peas are heated through.
- Add the bacon bits.
- Serve on warm plates and top with plain Greek yogurt.
- Store leftovers in the fridge.
Sandwiches
Two loaves of bread give lots of options for lunchtime sandwiches.
Store the bread in your refrigerator.
Tuna and waffle panini
- Use a fork to mash one can of tuna into small flakes. Add 1 teaspoon of prepared mustard, 2 teaspoons mayonnaise and 1/2 teaspoon onion salt.
- Scoop the mixture onto two slices of bread.
- Cook the sandwiches one at a time. Set one tuna-covered bread slice into a hot waffle iron. Add 1/4 cup of grated cheese and place a plain piece of bread on top.
- Cook in the waffle iron until toasty and cheese is melted. Repeat with the second tuna-covered bread slice.Â
Super saver pro tips
Take advantage of low prices on marked-down produce racks.
Did you know? Some vegetables taste better in certain recipes when they have aged.
Cauliflower’s flavour deepens as it ages. Pick it up cheap. You can boil it in chicken broth or purée it to make a delicious soup.
Aged eggplant and soft tomatoes are perfect for making eggplant Parmesan.
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