Due to popular demand (and I listen to my readers!), I made a separate page for this topic for easy access.
Here you'll find all the posts I've made about the diet, which is geared toward two active and omnivorous adults. It is an experiment in extreme frugality, planning, and health... care to join me?
(... care to give me a better catchphrase than A Year of Frugal Foods?)
The Basics, Part 1: 2014
- Purchase 450 pounds of grains and legumes in bulk at the beginning of the year, at the cheapest prices I can find.
- Store dry foods in air-tight containers to keep them fresh throughout the year. Exception: flour will be bought in 20-lb bags as needed due to its short shelf-life (6 months).
- Supplement with a specific amount of meat, produce, dairy, and oils throughout the year.
- Make food completely from scratch... I'll include some ways to make this easy.
- We'll be gardening (in zone 9b) as much as possible for food production from a small amount of space, preserving the extras, and sharing what works. Anything I preserve from the garden this year is fair game for 2014.
Why?
The dry goods cost about $1/day per person, fulfilling half the caloric needs. The overall diet will be $5/day, or $4 if non-organic meats/eggs/oils are chosen. $5/day is the average diet on minimum wage, and I'm convinced there's a way to do it really well and healthily*. Compared to what we're eating now on almost twice that, and the culinary ruts we've been in, this is a more varied and health-conscious diet.
Optional - The Basics, Part 2: Long-term storage
- Purchase 350 pounds of the same foods in bulk, along with the 2014 goods for better shipping rates.
- Store dry foods in 5-gallon buckets, with mylar bags and oxygen absorbers, which I will be setting up myself.
- Food will last for up to 25 years... but we will use it by 10 years at the most.
Why?
I'm not preparing for an apocalypse, but you never know what could happen. Perhaps a natural disaster or terrorism in the bay area disrupts food or gas distribution for a few weeks, and we want to keep all of our neighbors fed. Perhaps we have a large personal economic setback, and we have to choose between the mortgage or groceries for a while. In any case, we'll be a single-income family soon, and it will give me a large sense of security knowing that we have the insurance of almost a year's worth of healthy food in reserve.
The Preparation Posts
Already up:
- Preppin' for leaner times: The initial plan, and advice on why to use Basmati rice.
- Coturnix (Japanese) quail fantasy: An option for reducing organic egg and meat costs using just 12 square feet of space.
- A year (or two) of survival food: A closer look at the diet, and the birth of the long-term storage plan.
- Superpails vs. Homemade Storage: In which I decide the homemade way is a far better plan, after finding cheap sources for materials.
- A request for price checking: Can you help me find cheaper dry goods, this year or next?
- Digital scale: A tool to help me keep track of the plan, since I want to be perfectly accurate about how much food we're growing and eating.
- Food storage for the apocalypse... or for fun: Setting the record straight on why I'm buying food in bulk.
- Changing up the amounts of dry goods: I had overestimated what we could eat.
- LDS Home Storage Centers: A potential alternate supplier for very cheap dry goods sold at cost.
- The daily diet: A specific look at what a day's meal plan will look like. Calories, vitamins, and the fat-carb-protein ratio are examined and look darn good. The average week's exact allotment of dry goods is also laid out.
- 10-14-13: Recipes based on dry goods: Curious as to what you can cook with these foods? This ever-growing list will eventually have links to all the recipes as I try them out. If there are additions you'd like to see on the list, or you have an excellent recipe, please reply to the post or contact me privately.
- Coming in November: Bought it in bulk: I will show you everything I purchased... all 807 pounds of it (minus 60lb of flour, which will be purchased as needed).
- Coming in November: How to preserve dry goods: Exactly how to make sure your food stores well for 25 years.
- Coming in November: Pantry of Plenty: I will show you the newly-organized pantry in preparation for the new year, and so that you can see what we have to start out with.
- Coming in December: Reducing the food budget: Less obvious ways that I'll be trying to reduce the food budget next year.
- Coming in December: Summary: One post that contains all the finalized need-to-knows... where exactly to buy each item, how much of each item to buy for your family's caloric needs, exact calorie/vitamin analysis of the diet, how to store it.
- Jan 1, 2014: Whole Foods for a Whole Year: The adventure begins!
Living well on the year of frugal foods
(Real-life experiences with the diet coming in... you guessed it... 2014)
- Recipes
- Reducing food boredom
- Following Paleo principles without eating an expensive pre-agricultural diet... using methods like yogurt-making, fermenting homemade kimchi or kombucha, grain/legume soaking, sourdough starter bread, making bone broth, natural fitness.
- Once-a-month cooking, using the stash of dry goods.
- Throwing a party/picnic/holiday celebration/date using only the frugal foods
- And everything else I can possibly imagine
- Dec 31, 2014: A look back at the year... what worked, what didn't, and how I would restructure it to be the perfect frugal whole foods diet plan.
Resources
(coming soon)
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? ... Please let me know!
*Disclaimer: Be aware that this is my first experiment with the diet. If you have a lower budget and want to buy food in 50 pound bags, consider going in on a bulk purchase with several families or friends. I live in an area with a very high cost of living, so you may be able to find cheaper sources in your area.
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