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trick is to get higher quality produce, make multiple services, and lean how to store things. Cheap produce goes back quicker. I live alone yet go to Costco every 2-3 weeks and I expect everything I get to last.

Meat is split up, vacpacked and frozen. produce is put in the fridge in containers that best store them: some lined with paper town, some not, some with lids, some not. I have 2 week old tomatoes peppers cucumbers romain for salad that is totally fine. Onion garlic and potatoes go in burlap in the pantry. Rice and grains are put in sealed containers. And so forth.

And when I cook it’s always multiple servings. Today and tomorrows dinner, 5-10 servings of soup and I freeze most.

Storing food so it keeps is a skill.

150-200$ every 2-3 weeks, much cheaper and healthier then ordering in or frozen.

Well, space is something else that is at a premium in a city... I have two 5.5cu-ft freezers for storing bulk stuff that I see cheap on sale... have fun with that in an apartment. And especially if you are doing soups and other liquids, you really kinda want a chamber vacuum sealer, which is a big dealie that sits on your counter with a 1/4hp motor. Even keeping the sealing area very clean (wiping down the foam seals and electric seal strip regularly, etc) I cannot get one of the cheap vac-u-saver vacuum-pump machines to last more than a year, after that the seals on the packets start getting marginal and they leak air and eventually ruin the food. Someone in a new york apartment doesn't have space for 2 cubic feet of vacuum sealer and 15 cubic feet of freezers.

(do you need the chamber sealer, no, but they do a much better job, if you're doing tons of bulk food prep and sealing they're really a nice tool for it.)

Tbh I don’t vacuum seal soups, toss it in a glasslock and freeze. Year later it’s still fine because soup.

I live in an apartment, have a good commercial sealer, but it sits in my office, and just my fridge and a 7cuft (upright being key) freezer that’s in a closet. It’s more then enough space then I need to buy bulk from Costco, have a wide selection, and space for portions. 15 cu ft seems like way more then you need to just buy bulk and freeze?

Do you have any resources? When I've tried repacking and vacu-sealing bulk meats it seemed like a huge waste in time, plastic, and counter space.

sorry i don't off hand :(. mostly it was trial, error, and googling. If i buy something from costco and it doesn't last i would try different was to store it and if none work just stopped buying it. really only couldn't get blackberries and raspberries to keep long thou.

suggest getting commercial food storage bins, they stack and can seal in moisture, great for storing something like sliced peppers. Don't just toss everything in with the package they came in, do a little prep and get them in better containers. If things go moldy paper towel does wonders to manage moisture.

as for vacpack i got a good commercial one, and then put it in another room out of the way. i prep in the kitchen then i take it over to seal. it would be a lot of counter space but its not so bad in the corner of my office. Also i only use it for ingredients like meat. soups and sauces i just toss in glasslocks and freeze as they seem to do just fine that way.

> There are things like the difference in the cost of a single, reasonable, serving of chicken. Buying a chicken breast is more expensive in price per pound than the family pack of chicken breasts or an entire chicken.

This is something a freezer handles very well. Chicken that's been frozen before cooking isn't quite as good, but it's very nearly, and for many dishes you can't tell.

My freezer is fairly well stocked with frozen meat (a good but not overly large chest freezer).

A whole chicken doesn't freeze as well as chicken parts. And chicken parts, if not vacuum sealed don't have quite the freezer stability as those that are vacuum sealed (and we're back to the individual portion problem).

When I do get raw (not frozen) meat, I've got to have a corresponding meal plan to use it all within a reasonable amount of time.

Realizing the "I am again paying a little bit of a premium here" I've ordered from an online meat company that does have individually packaged units of meat that are delivered frozen and then went right into my freezer and have been thawed as needed.

The main issue is that when buying in a grocery store, purchasing in units that a single person can reasonably cook without waste is higher price per unit than if one was purchasing in family sized units. Purchasing in the larger sizes requires an additional amount of effort and planning for meal planning, saving of ingredients so they don't spoil, and an increased tolerance for half serving leftovers.

I felt exactly the same until a friend introduced me to vacuum sealers and a big freezer, now I can buy the larger amounts of fresh food, divvy it up and freeze it with little loss of quality for many types of produce

3rd party vac bags are inexpensive on amazon

For thawing, I throw the frozen vac-pack into a sous vide set for 0C/32F - the circulation thaws very quickly. Rarely cook in the sous vide much anymore, it's become my thawing machine

For things like carrots, I freeze them in vac bag in an orientation where I can remove just a couple of carrots and then have enough space to reseal the bag in the vacuum sealer to save on plastic waste

Consider the question "how much time per person per meal do you spend in purchasing, planning, and processing?"

This is where, for me, the amount of effort to try to minimize the per meal cost begins to falter.

My "ok, this is how I do it" is to have two different prepared meal services (one microwave, one conventional) that gets to about $25/day for three meals (my breakfast is cheap). This does have a higher cost, but makes up for it with variety that I otherwise wouldn't have combined with portions that are appropriate and no food waste. The corresponding time savings (about 5 min of prep per day) is also a consideration for me.

While I've got space (and a chest freezer), many single people who are living in apartments have more difficulty with trying to buy larger amounts and limited freezer space.

As an aside, I tend to cook more (slow cooker and a stew that is ~3 meals worth - dinner one day and lunch and dinner the following) in the winter. It may be my appetite preferences or the "I don't want something cooking in the summer", but that's just how my meal preferences tend.

the trick is to cook about one and a half servings everytime. this way you eat one serving, store the half and heat up a previously stored side dish (previously remaining half serving)