The list went up on the fridge on the Fourth of July, under a magnet shaped like the state of Tennessee, and the rule was simple: if you use the last of something, write it down. Nora wrote "vanilla" in purple gel pen with a little drawing of a bean. Jack wrote "SAUCE" in capital letters and nothing else. I knew what he meant.
My in-service started Wednesday, the kids go back on the sixth, and the first two weeks of school are always the weeks I'm too tired to think about supper. So over the last week we made two Costco runs, and I stocked the pantry and the chest freezer in the garage with the thirty things that turn into school-night dinners.
The why is something I tell my students when we plan meals in class. By four o'clock on a school day I've already made a few hundred decisions, and "what's for dinner" with an empty pantry is really six more of them. A stocked pantry turns it into one: which of these?
The thirty staples
Prices are what I paid, rounded, before tax. Everything came from Costco except the three marked Aldi.
Pantry (17)
- Long-grain white rice, 12 pounds: $10
- Spaghetti and penne, 6 pounds: $8
- Crushed tomatoes, eight 28-ounce cans: $12
- Diced tomatoes with green chiles, six cans (Aldi): $5
- Black beans, eight cans: $8
- Chicken stock, six quart cartons: $13
- Peanut butter, two big jars: $11
- Rolled oats, 10 pounds: $9
- Olive oil, 2 liters: $19
- Canola oil, 3 quarts: $9
- Coffee, a 2.5-pound bag: $19
- Sugar, 10 pounds: $8
- Taco-night spices (chili powder, cumin, garlic powder): $14
- Tuna, eight cans: $13
- Granola bars, a 48-count box: $13
- Applesauce cups (Aldi): $6
- Ritz crackers, a two-box pack: $8
Freezer (13)
- Boneless chicken breasts, about 6 pounds: $21
- Boneless chicken thighs, about 4 pounds: $16
- 80/20 ground beef, about 5 pounds: $26
- Pork tenderloin, a two-pack: $15
- Frozen meatballs, a 6-pound bag: $16
- Frozen broccoli, 4 pounds: $7
- Frozen mixed vegetables: $8
- Frozen corn, two bags (Aldi): $3
- Frozen berries, 4 pounds: $12
- Butter, four 1-pound packs: $14
- Shredded cheddar, 2.5 pounds: $11
- Flour tortillas, two packs: $7
- Sandwich bread, two loaves: $6
Cheese, tortillas and bread all freeze fine for cooking and toasting. Ground beef gets split into one-pound bags and pressed flat, so a bag thaws in about twenty minutes in a bowl of cold water. Every bag gets a date in marker. The eight quart bags of peaches we froze in early July are still in there too, waiting for January.
What it cost
The thirty items came to about $347 before tax: $333 across the two Costco receipts and $14 at Aldi. Tennessee's reduced grocery rate plus local tax went on top, and the trash bags and paper towels that snuck into the cart got the full rate. Those aren't part of the thirty, so the two Costco receipts together came to a little over $370.
That's a lot for one week, and I felt it. But it isn't extra money so much as early money. Nearly all of it would have been spent anyway, one tired weeknight at a time, at whatever the closest store charged. This way the chicken breasts cost $3.50 a pound and they're already in the freezer.
The first run, on Saturday, was the pantry half, and I made the mistake of bringing everyone. Jack hit every sample table twice, Ryan came back from the far end of the store with a bag of beef jerky that is not on any list, and the freezer items stayed on the paper because the cart was full. Sunday I cleaned out the chest freezer (two bags of mystery leftovers and a roast with freezer burn). Tuesday I went back alone and was out in thirty-five minutes.
What I'd do differently
- Go alone, once. One trip with a list beats two trips with an audience.
- Skip the 6-pound bag of meatballs. The kids love them for two weeks and then never again. Last year's bag was still half full in March.
- Write the list in store order. Produce, meat, dairy, freezer, pantry. I zigzagged across that warehouse three times.
- Clean the freezer first. You can't stock a freezer you can't see the bottom of.
The list is back on the fridge, blank except for one line. Jack already wrote "SAUCE" again.
