How to keep your grocery stock fresh and save money
I am trying to keep to my shopping schedule and going to the supermarket and farms market fortnightly. And it’s a challenge to keep all that food fresh until the next shopping trip and not forget what I have in my fridge and drawers.
Here, I am going to share with you how I am coping with this issue.
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Sort, pack and store your grocery
The best way to understand what grocery items you have to use first and how to store the stock is to sort the foods in your pantry into 3 groups according to their lifetime:
- short-term storage products
- mid-term storage products
- long-term storage products
Short-term storage products
This is food like milk, yogurt, bread, almost all fruit (except apples, pears, bananas, citrus and similar), some sorts of vegetables (spring onions, leafy greens, etc).
These kinds of food can’t remain fresh as long as I need them to. To eat them fresh, I plan how much I’m going to use it before their expiry date. The rest of the products I divide into one-time portions, pack them into plastic zip lock bags and freeze immediately, without waiting for expiry dates.
It is a good idea to write the freezing date, name of product and portion size on the package. To be sure tags will not be erased or vanished, I use freezing date stickers with all the necessary fields on them.
Mid-term storage products
This is almost all types of vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, capsicum, tomatoes), some fruit (pears, bananas, citrus), and eggs. The fruit can be stored in a basket on the countertop. It can easily remain in good, fresh condition for up to two weeks. Eggs and some vegetables you can simply keep in a vegetable crisper drawer or shelf in your refrigerator. Broccoli, celery and lettuce can be fresh for several weeks, if you wrap them in aluminum foil before placing in the fridge. If the heads are too big to finish within 3-5 days, I cut them into pieces and wrap separately.
Tag your vegetables after wrapping. Tags help to find a needed vegetable without opening the foil and also keep a record of when it was wrapped. I use the wrapping date stickers to tag my vegetables.
Long-term storage products
This is potato, onion, carrot, uncut squash, apples, flour, sugar, all sorts of cereal, pasta, rice, unopened canned vegetables and jams. This is the easiest group of food to store. I try to follow the three main rules:
- low moisture
- no light
- low temperature
It means I keep them in a cool, dry and dark place. In my case, it’s a kitchen cupboard, but you might have a dedicated pantry. Whatever you use for keeping your long-term storage food, it should not be situated directly next to your oven.
To organize it well I use storage baskets for fruits and vegetables (keep fruits and vegetables separate), and sealed plastic containers for bulk foods to prevent moisturizing and oxidation.
Now you know everything in your pantry and it is time to plan how to use your stock in the best way.
Make a grocery register
Definitely, it’s hard to remember everything and, to be honest, it’s not necessary to do so.
To keep track of the stock I use a grocery register – a simple table with four columns:
- Food Name
- Quantity
- Expiry Dates
- Priority for Use
Even though the columns’ names are pretty obvious, I have some tips how to use them in the best way:
Food Name – the name of the product in your fridge or pantry. It’s important to write simple food’s name, but it should identify the product precisely.
Example: if you have Sweet Buns and Burger Buns, the name Buns will be not enough.
Quantity – the quantity of the product. You have to choose which unit you will use to count your foods. It can be either pieces themselves or portions, no matter how many pieces come in one portion. It’s good to have this data editable, as the quantity will change with time. Use a pencil for filling in these boxes.
Example: I use 2 slices of bread to make toasts for breakfast. There are 12 slices in the loaf. I can write 12 slices in my grocery register. But I prefer to count the portions, so I will put 6 as a bread quantity.
Expiry Dates – the date when the product will no longer be edible. You can find this information on the food’s packaging, if it’s packed. Otherwise, you can estimate approximately how long your food will last. Use the table below to estimate vegetables’ quality.
Remember, this guideline is just some helpful information; it’s always good to rely on common sense.
Example: I bought today my favourite broccoli. According to the guideline below it will keep fresh for 3-5 days only. But I’m going to store my broccoli wrapped into aluminum foil to keep it fresh for 3-4 weeks minimum.
| Vegetable | Fresh time |
| Potatoes | 1-2 weeks(2-3 months in a cool, dark place) |
| Tomatoes | 1-5 days |
| Onions | 1-2 months |
| Asparagus | 3-4 days |
| Beans (green, wax) | 3-5 days |
| Beets | 2 weeks |
| Broccoli | 3-5 days |
| Brussels sprouts | 3-5 days |
| Cabbage | 1 week |
| Carrots | 3-4 weeks |
| Cauliflower | 1 week |
| Celery | 1-2 weeks |
| Corn | 1-2 days |
| Cucumbers | 1 week |
| Green onions | 7-10 days |
| Lettuce | 1 week |
| Mushrooms | 4-7 days |
| Parsnips | 3-4 weeks |
| Peas in the pod | 3-5 days |
| Peppers (green, red) | 1-2 weeks |
| Potatoes (new) | 1 week |
| Rutabaga | 2-3 weeks |
| Spinach | 3-5 days |
| Sprouts | 3-5 days |
| Squash (summer) e.g. zucchini, patty pan | 4-5 days |
The source of data in the table above is here
Priority for Use – the order of products to be used. The most important part of the grocery register! Every priority depends on the expiry date and quantity of food. For a sooner expiry date and a greater quantity of food left – the priority is higher, so this particular product will be utilised faster, without any wasting.
While making priorities, I also pay attention to my eating habits: if I eat one type of food every day, the priority is high.
Example: I drink milk every day. I have 1 gallon of milk now and it’s going to expire in 7 days. The priority will be 10 out of 10, because I have a lot of milk, it will expire soon and I use it daily.
IMPORTANT!
It is good to have two grocery registers: one for fresh food and another for frozen food, as fresh and frozen food have very different expiry dates and priorities for use.
You can make your own grocery register, but I already created this register for my grocery tracking and will be happy to share with you.
Now you have a full picture of your grocery stock in your hands.
Let’s eat it 🙂 Let’s plan a menu for next week.
I always make a weekly menu where I plan all my meals in advance. It saves me a lot of time during a week, as I don’t have to think again and again about what to cook for lunch or dinner today. And now it’s going to save me money, because no food will be wasted, even though I have a big stock at home.
How to plan meals for a week?
- Download Free Weekly Menu and print it out
- Check your grocery register
- According to food Priorities for Use and your eating habits, choose dishes you are going to cook for main meals (lunch or dinner)
- Complete your menu with breakfasts and snacks
- Add notes about meal preparations that should be done in advance (soak, unfreeze, etc.)
- Place the menu on your fridge’s door and check it every time you are going to cook the next meal
Useful links
Here you can find the links for free files mentioned in this article:
Free Freezing/Wrapping Date Stickers
Shop online the items you need for perfect storage:
Hope these tips will make your life easier, more organized and safer.
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