Life as the new Lower Middle Class.

[DebJ]

63. About cooking economically for one or two people:

My husband is on a specialized, highly restricted diet for kidney disease. If I ate his diet, I'd have a coronary from lack of potassium.
And I'd stop eating altogether, because I can't eat the same things all the time.

So I have to 'cook for one', mulitiplied by two, for each of us. It's a real pain to fix two separate dinners every night; two sets of pots and pans or baking dishes etc. So I DON'T do that.

Here's what I do:

I buy all meats in bulk. Before i freeze them, I cut them into serving size portions (like chicken breasts today are humongous....1/2 a pound and more! So I cut into 4 oz sizes, which are 3 oz when cooked.) Chicken breasts, raw, can be stored a very long time. About every three months the price drops to $1.99 lb; that's when I stock up.

Other meats, I cook ahead, before freezing, but in a big batch. For example, hamburgers; I'll cook up to 8 at a time. In this fashion, I'm only using the gas stove once, only cleaning the pan once....less labor and less soap and hot water. The same for manwiches, or taco meat, etc. I do the same for all of his meats, precooking all that i can, then freezing the portion sizes.

Also I cook a double portion of brown rice, then freeze in 1/2 cup servings. Mashed potatoes, the same. Pasta, the same. He eats a lot of pasta salad.... I found out I could freeze it if I made sure it was pretty dry before freezing it. I let it drain awhile, then put it in an 8.5 x 11 tupperware container, then blow dry it with my hair dryer. Then I freeze portions in cheapo portion bags (they don't seal, you twist the ends up), and put the whole batch in a heavy duty freezer bag that I reuse until it doesn't close anymore.

So, when it comes to dinner, I have a choice of something to grab that I paid a lower price for by buying in bulk, on sale, and is a quick nuke away. No pots or pans, just my plate. His too. All I have to add is the veggies and/or fruit.

Our chest freezer cost about $120 and paid for itself in four months or less. It holds two months of food for both of us, plus the frozen foods that I keep up to 6 months out (but usually four months; almost all meats go on a good sale at least every four months). He has to eat Pepperidge Farms whole grain breads (lowest sodium around), and it is d&*m expensive... $4.29 a loaf, which 2 years ago was 20 slices, then 18 slices, and now, only 16 slices for the the same price. BUT I watch for sales, can catch it at $2.99 a loaf, and it freezes well with their packaging style. Or, when we go to Jersey, I go to the local Pepperidge Farm outlet store, and I literally fill our back seat (he eats a lot of their cookies too). The cost savings covers the cost of our gas up there, so it's like a free visit to the family for us.

If stocking up is near impossible because of the current situation, I lived that way for decades raising two kids so I know what that feels like. Nickeled and dimed to death. But maybe with your friends you could go in together to buy in bulk.

I'm 59 and made the mistake of completing my college degree to teach 5 years ago, just as tens of thousands of teachers were laid off. No jobs for me, not that this hole in the wall of a town has any jobs except drug counsellors and shrinks anyway. Still have $10k in debt from college, and can't work. Then hubby, a teacher, had to retire early due to his illness, but just because the school district was working down a list of highest paid first to be harrassed and stressed out of his job.... the stress combined with his illness would have been fatal, and we knew that, but that doesn't qualify one for disability under SSI, nor does it do so for the pension plan. So our income lost $1000 a month for the rest of our lives, and our health care for three years has been over $18000 a year plus copays. The living room ceiling sprung a $2000 leak, and then we got termites, another $2000, around the same time. Just as my parents, in their 80s, quite suddenly became near helpless and losing their faculties very quickly. And my son's bipolar disorder whacked him mercilessly for a year. The financial challenges have seemed less relevant because of the emotional heart-rending that accompanied the last three years. Praise God, that part has finally subsided. But now, financially, we are barely hanging on. In March, with Ted Cruz's permission, he will get Medicare, so our health care will drop to aboutr $1000 a month and MAYBE we can make up the $10k in debt we had to accrue to survive this long.

I am glad to hear you have friends. Hubby and I have become rather isolated. After 20 years of working together and playing together as a team, things have become so painful teachers don't want to hang out together anymore, and this WAS our circle of friends. The up side is that this has strengthened our marriage. The down side is our social circle is almost empty at this point, and if one or the other dies, the remaining spouse will be very much alone. For now, I'm just glad for this time together, every day, and for having the skills to save my husband this long with the diet I created for him. I try not to think of the future. For now.

Thanks for sharing your story. Somehow it always help to know we aren't totally alone in struggling.