“Is it cheaper to cook or eat out?”
This is the debate of the week on X. There’s a camp doubling down on cooking being more expensive than eating out all the time, and I can’t see the math–even with one person assessing an hourly rate to home chefs’ time, it’s still a no brainer for me to cook at home.
It’s nearly always cheaper–with top ingredients–and the quality of the food is healthier and tastes better. I know what I put in my food, and I source ingredients well. Over time, I’ve learned to make each of my formerly-loved take out items pretty well, and I think you will, too.
A good pantry is a game changer.
Keeping a deep pantry is the key here. It’s efficient, cost effective, and makes cooking convenient. Nobody ever goes to the store for just one thing. You go for milk, you leave with a cart. It’s expensive, you were probably hungry when you go, and you come back with things you don’t need.
Inventory management is the key. Keeping a running, rotated list means I’ll never run out and I have enough time to do my shopping lap when items are on sale. This saves me time, stress, and I eat like a chef with the least possible effort.
Defeating “There’s nothing to eat”
“There’s nothing to eat.”
You’ve heard that if you have kids. Even if you don’t, you’ve walked around your kitchen, thought that, and ordered takeout.
But, it’s a lie. There’s plenty to eat because the pantry is stocked. For me: I’ve got six months to a year of most of my staple items. This is because I can, preserve, freeze, and now freeze dry when I’m cooking or when things are in season. But, even a basic pantry can get you started, that way when you’re in the mood to meal prep or cook–or you come home with a few items on sale, you’ve got a range of ingredients to work with.
Combine a good pantry with learning to cook (almost) entirely from scratch and you become a living, walking restaurant for pennies on the dollar compared to going out to eat. Things I make from scratch: coffee drinks, yogurt cheeses, sauces, salad dressings, breads, baked goods…. and it doesn’t take much time. It takes routine, a good pantry, and discipline.
Pantry 101
Things I keep on hand at all times:
Fresh foods
- Dairy: milk, cream, eggs (eggs come from my chickens)
- Fresh produce (whatever’s in season–if winter, I often use canned and frozen, too).
- Yogurts and yogurt cultures (I buy the milk but make yogurts and kefir)
- Meats.
Legumes & Grains
- Beans, dried peas, dal, garbanzo beans, lentils, and black beans
- Rice(s). (Basmati, sushi, brown, sweet, plain white, arborio)
- Pastas
- Cereals (bulk steel cut oats and 7 grain cereal, the kid’s Rice Krispies)
Baking
- Flours (King Arthur bread and all purpose flour. Chick pea flour. Almond flour, corn flour)
- Leaveners: baking powder, baking soda, cream of tarter, yeast.
- Salts (regular, kosher, sea, pickling, whatever…)
- Oils (olive, coconut, avocado, toasted sesame)
- Cocoa
Sauces & Spices
- A million spices.
- All the condiments (ketchup, mustard, home canned relish, global cooking sauces, mirin, black vinegar, hot sauce)
Frozen & Preserved Foods
- Jams, jellies, fruits–frozen and canned in season. If you’re new to food preservation, start canning a couple jams. You’ll be hooked. The family eats jams. I love a peach salsa I make.
- meals, meats, broths, chili. Freeze meats in foodsaver bags (meal-sized portions). I also make broths and can them. This requires a pressure canner. You can just buy a few of the broths you use on sale.
- Fruits picked and frozen for later. I pick about 50 pounds of blueberries and freeze them flat every summer.
- Prepped and frozen meals. If you’re already cooking, double it. Freeze the rest in single serve portions. This goes for everything from soup to main dishes, to a cheesecake (slice it up, then take one out when you want it).
Beverages
- Coffees, teas
- brewing stuff (kombucha and beer here)
- Juices, etc.
Cleaning and non food items
- Paper items: toilet paper, tissues, paper towels
- Cleaners
- laundry soap
- personal hygiene items
- medications
- wraps (parchment paper, aluminum, and plastic wrap, Foodsaver bag rolls).
Inventory: The right way to stock up
The pantry should be full of things you use, not things that were on sale or “just in case” things. Coupon shopping often makes you buy too much or things you really don’t use. My goal: to buy just enough of a pantry item until the next sale comes around, or to preserve and prep things in season. Then: rotate the shelves.
My son recently brought up a bottle of ketchup that was purple. I checked the date–it was three years past expiration. I don’t eat a lot of ketchup and he must not have rotated the bottles. “Sell by” dates aren’t absolute–they’re regulated quality dates. But, in this case, it was way over the line and got wasted.
I date things so I know how long it took to use, and I stock the pantry but I resist the urge to overstock. There’s a fine balance. This meant I didn’t need to shop during Covid, for example. And, if I’m in the mood to cook something I generally have the ingredients I need.
The Quiz:
Here’s how I know I’ve got balance:
- If I want to make something, I have what I need to make it or can sub in something that works.
- I have enough decent food to procrastinate on shopping if I want.
- Nothing is getting buried in my freezer or freezer burned. It’s all wrapped well.
- Shelves are organized so I can see, use, and rotate what I have
- Everything is dated and labeled.
- I have enough ingredients, cleaning items, and paper goods to get me by in an emergency.
- If a group of family or friends suddenly arrived, I could whip up a dinner party–with great tasting food–on zero notice with no shopping needed.
- I’m not throwing much out. I use it before it expires.
If you can, grow, or preserve:
- I preserve enough in season to eat, gift, or share until the next season.
- I eat what I preserve.
- I preserve things correctly, so they don’t spoil, and they are always safe to eat.
- I can skip a season or change my preservation habits if I’m overloaded or notice I don’t eat something a lot.
Stop wasting!!
Only get the shelf-stable foods you actually like, use, and eat. This is especially important for sale shoppers, gardeners, and people who do a lot of canning. It is very tempting to double-coupon things, buy the deals or make a ton of pickles because they’re in season. I additionally rescue food from farms.
Americans waste 25% of what we bring into our kitchens. You can combat inflation, “the price of eggs,” and Covid just by inventory management and storing food correctly. This comes down to awareness and discipline.
Discipline
Do these things as a discipline and you will always be stocked. You will minimize waste:
- Keep a checklist and physically look at your pantry before going to the store.
- Organize seasonal and “haul” trips. Since I preserve food, I need to organize around harvests and food preservation tasks.
- “Do it now!” This goes for putting away the groceries, processing, cooking, or storing bulk purchases properly right away, and meal prep.
I have left bags on the counter thinking it was the apples, but the ice cream was in there, too. I’ve put off preserving a haul of B-grade fruits because I was tired, and the next day it went bad. The one win: I forgot to check inventory before going to the warehouse store and bought another 48 pack of toilet paper. I got home and saw I already had one. Turned out, it was two weeks before Covid–it was a big win.
Usually, though… buying more than I can use and store means I’ll waste.
Eat what you have
Instead of walking around a store deciding what to have for dinner then buying eighty things, keep the pantry full then eat what you have.
Years ago, when I started this, it was because I was a broke teacher. There have been years where I’ve fed the family for $30-$40. We ate well.
I find most people stock their pantry–then go to the store. That’s backwards. I “shop” in my pantry and freezer (I’ve already bought the ingredients when they were highest quality or on sale). Then, I make great meals from that. I still go out, but the difference is I know I can make something just as good–or better–at home any time I want. That’s power.
Learn practical substitutions
Supply chains still aren’t back to normal. Learning a few cooking methods and substitutions will stretch your pantry farther. Out of one bean? Use another. Grains sub in for each other pretty easily. You can sub cocoa and butter for baking chocolate. Leaveners can sometimes be swapped.
TL;DR
Cooking from scratch and keeping a deep pantry means you should never be hungry. And: if you shop efficiently, keep proper inventory, and eat what you’ve got in your well-stocked pantry, you’ll be eating better and saving money.
In the beginning, I had a limited repertoire. I burned stuff. I didn’t pay attention. I wasted. It became a mission to decode food, make all The Things from scratch and stop wasting.
Now, extra (home cultured) yogurt becomes yogurt cheese. I learned kombucha, breads, baked goods, and global cuisines. These days, I’m dialing down on my health,