Grocery tips for singles

Well, yes: I'm single. It requires some planning and eating the same days times in a row. Which isn't too bad because it means I don't have to fully cook every day. For me, breakfast and lunch don't have a lot of things that go off quickly. Oats with skyr and raisins, and whatever fruit I have, and bread with 2 to 3 things to put on. The big planning really is dinner.

I actually buy very little fresh food, I prefer frozen vegetables for exactly the reason you describe. When I do buy fresh, I buy the absolute smallest amount I can buy. Peaches are my favorite and we have amazing ones where I live, but I never buy more than a couple at a time. I simply don’t buy things like cherries and grapes where you have to buy the giant, multi pound bag. I usually do a largish curbside order once a month or so for the majority of my homemade meals, then duck in when I need to refresh things like salad bags and oat milk.

Just remember, the store always has more if you run out!

@yirara It’s always so interesting to me how different approaches to the same thing can be for different people. Where I live, the grocery stores are giant, full of chaos, and you have to drive there, so I try to minimize my contact with it as much as possible, which is why meal planning is a big part of my strategy. When I was childless and lived somewhere walkable, I operated more like you do now.

history_grrrl wrote: »

Not single exactly, but I live alone and find myself wasting too many groceries. I started getting delivery during COVID and want to keep doing that - so much easier - but now that I’m eating less, more food is going bad. Obviously I need to get smaller amounts of things like deli meats, but I can’t even use veggies quickly enough. A single cucumber or avocado goes uneaten, and those aren’t things I can blanch and freeze (my freezer isn’t very big anyway). I’ve got a basket of peaches and a bunch of bananas that I need to deal with asap. Don’t even get me started with celery.

I realize this is a “good” problem to have, but help! Have others dealt with this? How do you handle it?

I ended up just buying my food daily when in that position. Saved a bunch of money in spoiled food.


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Avocado can be frozen. Smash, add a little acid (like vinegar or citrus) to minimize browning, and freeze in ice cube tray or the bottom of muffin tins. Once they're frozen, transfer the cubes/pucks to more compact freezer storage.

I'm lazy, and have lots of freezer space, so I just buy the multi-packs of refrigerated individual smashed avocado at Costco, and throw them in the freezer. 45 seconds in my microwave, and they're ready to use.

I'm single. Usually I don't waste lots of food, but I don't have a great solution for you. I buy very large amounts of veggies and fruits, but I have a goal of eating 800g of them most days, and often eat more (more than a kilo yesterday!). I do rely to some extent on frozen veggies (given my ample freezer space), but that's more to minimize shopping trips than any other reason.

I'd observe that certain veggies keep very well either refrigerated, or even (for some) on the counter or in a dark pantry/cupboard. Examples: Winter squash, spaghetti squash, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, carrots, rutabaga/swedes, turnips, parsnips, onions, beets . . . .

Romaine lettuce keeps better than other lettuce. I'm lucky to have lots of local farmers' markets. Leafy veg especially, but also others, keep much longer when I get them there, because they're much fresher to start. I've had bagged spinach still salad-suitable up to 2 weeks after purchase. The thicker the leaf, generally the longer they'll keep nicely refrigerate, i.e., collards and kale keep longer than chard or spinach, generally.

I can use up a large head of romaine quickly by broiling it and using it in salad. (Grilling is better but I don't have a grill.) A good-sized head is about 2 salads-worth.

Some more tender/spoilable veggies keep better (for a few more days than fresh) if cooked. I get baby eggplant, or slice regular eggplant, roast, then put in a tight container in the refrigerator. It's still good either cold in salads or pureed for dip, or reheated, for several days after a whole fresh eggplant would've gotten undesirably squishy.

Also, some fresh veg can be pickled to keep longer (just put them in salted vinegar, possibly with a little water if the vinegar is really strong). It's good to pickle the veg when fresh, not when they're starting to go. Similarly, cabbage can be refrigerator-sauerkrauted (thin slice, toss with salt, put in tight container in fridge), and quite a few veg can be treated similarly to make kim-chi-like fermented veg. I like pickled mushrooms, too.

Fruits can be put in - brace yourself - an alcohol bath, with some sugar fully blended in perhaps, to keep long term in the fridge. (That will limit the use-cases later, of course.) If there's enough alcohol/sugar, some fruits are shelf stable in tight jars: Basically, you've got fruit liqueur plus brandied (or whatever) fruit. Use liqueur recipes if you do that, to keep things safe.

Nowadays, I can find beets in shelf-stable packaging, pre-cooked. I like them as a veggie side, but also in salads.

Some veggies, like dried-type beans, are good from cans. So are some fruits, such as pineapple in juice or applesauce.

Consider sprouting at home. You can rinse-sprout lots of kinds of seeds, but be careful about regular rinsing and hygiene. If you have windows with good light, or a grow light, growing micro-greens in a small tray is also viable.

I don't do all of these things now (lazy, remember), but they're all things I have done in real life.

I had no idea you could freeze avocado. Thank you, @AnnPT77 !

There's one thing that helps me: I have a pantry app that I use exclusively for the freezer (or freezers, I have small one in the kitchen, and another small one in the basement, 4 floors down). This way I always know what I have and can plan to cook with this. Big surprise: I have a massive amount of salmon. No idea why actually. I have 3 100gr servings of something undefined that might very well be beef mince. And I have 8 loaves of bread from a neighbouring country in the basement freezer because I don't really like local bread. Well, I knew but kind of forgot.

@history_grrrl , I have a different solution for you - can you share your delivery with a friend, neighbour, colleague?

The suggestions above are all very good but many of the are suggesting freezing - and you have told us you don't have much freezer space - and others are simply suggesting that you shop more frequently/smaller quantities.
I'm guessing that the store you want to buy from has a minimum spend for home delivery? Can you find an alternative that has a lower minimum?
Our upmarket store - Waitrose - has a minimum spend of £50 whereas the store I used had £30 minimum for home delivery.

I also used home delivery quite a bit during COVID - but I was able to share my order with my mum (she lives near me and at 90+ she was very reluctant to go out, and I was calling in on her several times a week so dropping off groceries was easy).
I have reverted to frequent small shopping trips now - I'm retired, have plenty of time and live in a small town with 3 supermarkets within
1 mile from my home.

I agree it is a "First World problem" but you obviously want to avoid waste.

I have this same issue too, and it kills me every time when I end up having to toss out spoiled food. For me, it's often an issue of forgetting what food I have in the fridge, so making a list or inventory of what I have can help so I can look at it quickly and decide what I want to make using ingredients from off the list. I've always struggled with "out of sight, out of mind", so this definitely helps me out.

If your issue is more of just, buying more than you can eat, the obvious solution I suppose is to cut back on the amount you buy, or otherwise try to transition to foods that freeze better so you can avoid wastage.

That being said, I don't have much freezer space either so for now I'm just trying my best to purchase smaller amounts of produce and proteins (once a week), and doing my best to eat it all or prepare foods that freeze well (stews are my go-to) and won't take up all the freezer space. Stews and soups are good because you can freeze them flat in ziploc bags so they don't take up much room.

Anyway, if I had too many bananas, peaches, and avocados, I'd be making a smoothie, a parfait, or maybe cutting them up to add to plain yogurt, oatmeal, cereal, etc.. even just a fruit bowl could be great. You could also let the bananas over-ripen and make some delicious banana bread. As for the peaches, if you're sick of eating them by themselves, you could bake or roast them to use as a topping for ice cream. Mmmm...

don’t get “all” the fruits and veggies each trip. for fruit you can decide “this week will be strawberries and grapes” and skip the bananas, etc until the next trip. same goes for veggies. buy a head of broccoli and a zucchini and let them last 4 dinners. the following week, switch to asparagus. it’s repetitive, but that’s ok!

Interesting to see all the different approaches - just a couple of additional thoughts. It is not just celery that can last longer by sitting in water, I often do the same for my lettuces too (change the water regularly!) and carrots that need reviving. And if you find buying smaller amounts tricky, try buying a weekly veg box for one from an organic or ‘wonky veg’ company?. Ready portioned, fabulous flavour, environmentally friendly - though pricey.