Every Tuesday is Kitchen Sink day at Living Behind the Curve.

Yesterday at PFAdvice, a reader named RobertL wanted to know:

I’m single male and I keep reading that it’s less expensive to cook your own food. I would love to save money, but I find that it is almost always cheaper to buy prepared food. What am I doing wrong and am I missing something? Is the advice only meant for those with families and not for a single person living on his own? What is the best way for somebody who is single to save money while still preparing nutritionally balanced meals?

With a little poking and prodding, RobertL revealed that:

• His monthly food expenses total about $250.
• Most of his grocery budget goes toward prepared food.
• He does not want to keep large amounts of food around, because he will eat anything that’s in the fridge, including leftovers. It’s good that he knows his boundaries, but he’s losing out on the advantages of bulk-cooking.
• Part of his monthly expense is lunches out with his buddies, which he is not willing to give up.

Everyone, including me, threw lots of ideas at him, but you know what? RobertL, you’re doing pretty darn good already, given the circumstances. Your monthly food budget includes lunches out, and you’re still averaging about $8.33 a day in food, which is quite low for a single guy (bonus points if you’re between 18 and 30.) Young, single people traditionally spend enormous amounts of money on food. Having said that, there is definitely room for improvement.

My first question to anyone in this situation, RobertL included, would be, “What are you currently paying for food?” A plan to cut costs from 10 bucks of take out every day looks a lot different from giving up a freezer full of TV dinners you picked up for $1.50 each.

Regardless, we’re big fans of bulk cooking. For instance, chili freezes very well (particularly if you make a bean-free version), and if you bulk it up by serving over rice, with some cheese on top, one large batch can become 12 or more individually frozen servings for your future microwavable convenience. (The rice doesn’t freeze well, but for fast rice prep, check out our post on microwaved rice.) My favorite brew works out to about 50 cents a bowl.

Some other great meals that freeze nicely are lasagna, homemade macaroni and cheese, meatloaf, soup, and sloppy joes (meat and sauce only, please - freeze your buns separately.) Recipes for plan-ahead freezer meals can be found on almost any online recipe database, and there’s an excellent series on freezer cooking at Mom’s Budget. We also have our own tongue-in-cheek take on bulk and freezer cooking, SRSLY.

When planning freezer meals, it’s sometimes helpful to know what doesn’t freeze well. Those items include sour cream, fresh mushrooms, lettuces, eggs, pasta (if not in a casserole), and potatoes. The University of Illinois provides a comprehensive list of things that do not freeze well here.

If you’re truly set against bulk cooking as RobertL seems to be, this is what I would recommend:

1. Research
   Pull up your favorite search engine and start looking for easy recipes that sound appealing to you.
2. Experimentation
   Pick one night a week to try something new. See how easy it is to make and how much you enjoy it. If it’s not a recipe designed for solo cooking, play with the ingredients a bit to scale it down.
3. Creation
   Don’t be afraid to get creative with your food. You don’t have to be a culinary genius to find new dinners for your hectic life. One of the classic tricks is to re-purpose breakfast food - some eggs with cheese, a few vegetables, and a slice of toast or a piece of fruit, and you have a well-rounded meal that’s healthy, easy, fast, and perfect for just one person.
4. Documentation
   Once you have an arsenal of preferred recipes, keep them where they can be easily referenced, whether that is on your fridge or on your laptop.
5. Preparation
   Now that you have an idea of what you will be cooking, try to keep the non-perishable items on hand.

When Dani was single and living alone, one of her favorite meals was a “Pork Sack“. Lay a single pork chop on a piece of aluminum foil about three times larger than the meat. Top with canned green beans, breadcrumbs, and grated Parmesan cheese. Crimp the foil closed and bake. (A toaster oven works well for this.) The moisture from the pork steams the beans, and the Parmesan melts into the breadcrumbs to create a crunchy topping.

As with any other aspect of frugality, it all comes down to what you truly want to achieve. If RobertL’s priority was eating well on a low budget, he may have been more willing to compromise. No matter how inflexible the situation may seem, however, there are always small steps we can take to move toward our goals — and that’s a lesson we can all stand to learn.

Image courtesy of Image*After.