Convenience Foods Can Be Economical

In the past, I always believed that there was no way convenience foods could be economical.  I was cooking for a growing family on a tight budget.  However, fastforward 15 to 20 years and that is no longer the case.  Now that I am cooking for anywhere from 1 to 3 people I find that I have lost the “economy of scale” that cooking from scratch offerred me.  That isn’t too say that cooking from scratch and prepping all your own ingredients isn’t less expensive possibly, but that is only if you have enough people to consume items in a reasonable amount of time before they begin to spoil.  I no longer do.

I almost fell out from shock this week.  I threw out my first ever (that I can remember) loaf of bread because it had molded.  Yeah.  A loaf of bread sat here for two weeks despite my daughter taking sandwiches for lunch and her having the occassional snack from it.   Like I said, my world is changing.  (Yes, I know it can be frozen and toasted, but other than a grill cheese or a BLT she will not eat sandwiches made with toasted bread....and she does NOT like my gluten free bread...)

Anyway, this is how I am finding convenience foods to be economical.

Stir Fry was on my menu for tonight.  I’m the only one eating it...literally.  My daughter won’t eat it and my husband is gone.

This is my general break down:

$4.99 for the pre-packaged fresh veggies

$1.29 for the ready to go brown rice

$1.00 for the garbanzo beans (sale price)

$1.00 (overestimation) of homemade sauce

So for less than $8.50 I made enough stir fry for my supper and at least four lunches (which I packaged up individually).

How is this more economical?

The veggie mix had broccoli, onions, snow peas, carrots, red bell pepper, mushrooms, etc.

To buy all of those ingredients individually would have cost me more than the $8.50 by themselves.

Yes, I would have had more veggies, but as 1 person I would not have been able to eat them fast enough.

I would have found myself throwing out veggies.

I’ll concede I could cook the brown rice from scratch and set aside, but I needed very little.

I also had the benefit of the cost savings of cooking time.

I simply crumbled this into the hot veggies and let it simmer a bit in my sauce to heat it up.

I did use bulk items for my sauce — liquid aminos, corn starch, Chinese 5 Spice.  

All in all I think this was an economical way to get my extra veggies in and meet my dietary guidelines.

Would this have been the case 5 years ago — probably not.

I’m also looking at another factor that will play into my future — time savings.

I’ll be taking night courses, working part time, and still handling the household.

Nothing that isn’t done by thousands of people, but I am guessing “that” population is the one that made the convenience items so popular.

I literally popped a top on the veggies, opened a can of beans, tore open a bag of rice, and mixed together a quick sauce.

This meal didn’t take me 15 minutes to cook.

If it is true that time is worth money then I consider that a steal.

I would have spent longer waiting to pick up take home and spent far more for one meal.

A convenient win-win!