this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2024
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What are the staple foods in your pantry? I've never bothered filling one before, but I need a source of cheap meals if required.
This is whole topic worthy of an extended rant. It depends on what you like to eat basically. Mine has (among other less used items) :
These plus fresh green vegetables allow me to cook up a fast cheap meal in a variety of cuisines. If stocking a pantry, I'd keep shopping receipts for a month, and see what you've actually used and base purchasing decisions on that. Food that just sits in the pantry and isn't used is the most expensive of all.
EDIT: I forgot eggs & olive oil (or whatever oil you like to cook with)
I use vegetable oil for more unhealthy things, like stuff that needs to be fried or deep fried and olive oil for things that just need a drizzle. Vegetable oil isn't the best, but it's not the worst and it's generally quite cheap for massive bottles of it.
Only thing I'd add to your list is some noodles. Personally I despise 2 minute/ramen noodles because a lot of days that was breakfast lunch and dinner for me for weeks on end (same reason I hate spag Bol), but you can buy it super cheaply and you can make it in a lot more ways than just boiling a kettle and letting it sit for 2 minutes. Also good if you get sick and need something easy, cheap, and not too hard to digest (just forgo the spice).
Edit: noodles were the first thing on your list... FML.
You refrigerate onions & potatos? This seems rather odd to me.
It's dark and cool in there. I don't have another space that's suitable as all my cupboards are full of stuff. I used to have a proper root cellar, but lost that when I sold my EBrunswick house.
plain flour, salt, rice, pasta, wokka noodles, tinned tomatoes, tinned beans, tinned coconut, thai curry pastes, soy sauce , sesame oil, herbs and spices, dried fruits, nuts, baking powder. lots of frozen vegies in freezer
Dried beans are considerably cheaper, but you need to think ahead to soak them.
dried beans take too much work and electricity, if the mexican supermarket i used to visit had a full aisle just for cans cans are most economical
Everything everyone else said plus cans of chickpeas, hummus and baked beans.
Add to what the others have said some sort of packet sauce/curry for canβt be fucked cooking days, and about 8 varieties of hot sauce. Iβve usually got rice paper sheets, tortilla/wraps, Mustard and pesto. The spice list is too long to type.
rice
Dried pasta (many types), tinned fish / spam / beans if you partake (jaffle stuffings), flour if you bake, corn flour at least for sauces, tinned tomatos, you basically build it around what you like and longer shelf life stuff
Pasta, some tinned tuna/fish, 2 minute noodles and some canned stuff when they're on discount works for me.
Also some herbs and spices can so a long way in flavouring a meal sometimes.
Patsa, Pasata, Beans, Rice, Canned Fish, Frozen Veg, eggs, herbs/seasoning. You can make a ton of stuff from just those items. Get as MUCH as you can from Aldi too. The aldi pasta is god tier when compared to Woolies home brand. I'd probably just skip aldi's tuna.
Another good option is NEVER cook a meal for 1 meal. Batch cook. Make some soup or bolognese and freeze multiple serves from it, a big batch of chicken stroganoff reheats super well. Our Freezer has got like 10-20 meals ready to go at any point.
Rice, canned fish, pasta, pasta sauce, salt n pepper, hot sauce, soy sauce, instant ramen
Baked beans. I have some oats in there too. Oh and sultana bran.
Nothing else in there is or could be considered a meal (spices and whatnots). Classic bachelor pantry.
Depends what you like to eat. Eg having dried pasta and a jar of your chosen red sauce you can throw in leftover chicken and/or veg and have an easy meal. If you like curries and stir fries it makes sense to keep rice. If you want to bake, then flour and sugar. For breakfasts things like cereal, jams, peanut butter, eggs, and keep some bread in the freezer for toast. Start small and build up what you need, and when you use something up put it on your shopping list to replenish. Buy quantities that you will use in a reasonable time. Buying in bulk can be cheaper but if itβs only one person you donβt want items going stale waiting to be used. Not everything is equal in being shelf stable, for example cooking oils can go rancid, so keep an eye on the expiry dates and donβt overdo the bulk buys.
there's pantry foods and foods that need refrigeration
try not to buy foods that can go bad
buy from asian grocers, don't travel to shop unless you are walking, the cost of transport soon eats up any savings