Monday Q&A | Flour Storage and Single-Person-Produce

Every Monday I answer a few questions from my readers. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, you can leave a comment on this post with your question, or you can email me (thefrugalgirl {at} gmail {dot} com). If you choose to email me, just put “Q&A” in the subject line so that I can easily put it into my Q&A folder.

Calimama submitted this question.

What do you store your open flour in?

Even using the 5lb bag I always have some that stays in the bag. I love the idea of the 25lb bags but I just don’t know what I’d do with it once I took out the 4lbs that fit in my jar!

I buy my white flour in 5 pound bags when it goes on a really good sale. I can usually get a 5 pound bag for $1-$1.50 around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. So, I buy a LOT of flour then and store it on a shelf in my laundry room.

I’ve not had any problems with bugs or weevils or anything like that. If I had difficulty with those pests, I’d put my bags of flour in my chest freezer until I was ready to use them.

Once I open my flour, I just store it in a plastic bin (mine holds five pounds) with a lid. Because I use it so often, I hardly even ever bother to put the lid on (a habit which slightly annoyed my mother when I was baking in her kitchen!).

Though I don’t have a pantry (boo!), I’m fortunate enough to have a cabinet with a sliding shelf, so that’s where I keep my flour and sugar. It’s really handy, and I’d think hard about installing one of these in my next kitchen if it wasn’t already equipped with one.

‘Scuse the flour and sugar mess in the bottom of the drawer. I do occasionally vacuum it all out, but somehow it’s not long before there’s more mess again.

I grind wheat to make my whole wheat flour, and so I buy 50 pound bags of wheat berries. Those I do keep in the freezer, mostly because it’s an out of the way place to have them. 😉

This one is from Elizabeth.

I’m single and live alone (for now, my new roommate moves in August) and the bills have really started to catch up with me (which is why I started reading your blog!). I’ve started line-drying and conserving electricity, but I was hoping you might have some advice. I struggle mostly with saving money while shopping for food because its hard to buy produce for one without spending a lot of extra money for small portions and a lot of packaging. When I buy regular-sized things, they tend to go bad before I can finish it. I hate to waste food because it feels like I’m throwing money away! Do you have any advice on how to shop more frugally for one?

I’m most likely not the best resource for this question because I’ve never lived alone! I went straight from living with my family of six to marrying my husband, so I’ve never had to shop for one.

If I were living by myself, though, I would try to buy produce that can be used in several different ways. For instance, if you bought a bag of spinach, you could make a salad with it, use it in smoothies, put it in sandwiches, and throw it into the blender when you make pesto. It’s much more versatile than lettuce, and more nutritious too.

I’d also buy loose produce whenever possible. That way you can buy one apple or three bananas. Apples might be more expensive per pound when you buy then individually, but you’ll probably save money in the long run because you won’t throw any apples away. Better to spend $2 on a few loose apples than $5 on a big bag if you’re going to waste a bunch of the big bag.

You may already know this, but you can freeze some produce, which might be a good idea if you end up having more than you can use. Fruits are especially easy. You can slice bananas up, spread them in a thin layer and freeze them. These are great for smoothies. You can also freeze blueberries and strawberries whole and use them in smoothies. Frozen grapes make a tasty snack too.

Speaking of freezing, if you don’t mind the taste/texture of it, frozen produce is a good way to go. It lasts for a long time and is often more nutritious than the produce you find in the stores. Frozen fruit is pretty tasty, and there are some frozen veggies that are decent tasting too (Cook’s Illustrated says frozen peas are actually tastier than fresh, unless you are getting them straight from your garden).

Lastly, I would be careful to not overbuy on produce. I know it’s easy to go to the store with great intentions of eating salads for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but you should be realistic about how much produce you actually are going to get through in a week. Nutritious as produce is, it’s not nourishing you if you’re throwing it away.

To help you avoid buying too much produce, I would recommend planning out your meals, including your side dishes, like salads, steamed veggies, or fruit salad. I’ve found that to be very helpful as I’ve worked on reducing my food waste. Knowing exactly what we’re going to eat keeps me from being overzealous with my purchasing in the produce aisle. Planning ahead could also help you use a whole package of produce. If you decided to buy the big bag of apples, you could decide to eat apple slices in your lunch, have some in your salad, make apple muffins for breakfast, and maybe make some applesauce with the rest.

So, those are a few of my ideas. But I’m sure I have some single readers out there who have some actual experience with this! If you’re single and have mastered the art of handling produce, leave a comment telling us what you do.