For years, I’ve enjoyed guessing the cost of my groceries, a simple brain exercise before I get to the cash. I’ve done it so often that my teens now play along too. Most recently, however, with the increase in inflation, this fun exercise has become more and more distressing. Another big concern to me when grocery shopping is the near impossible task of trying to avoid purchasing food wrapped in plastic, as well as the looming issue of food waste, both mine and the grocery store’s. You can read more about why we need to phase out plastic here, and why food waste is a huge environmental concern here.  

Like most families, my partner and I have busy schedules, and as much as I would like to cook all our snacks and treats from scratch to avoid packaging, that’s not realistically going to happen right now. That said, I am not about to throw up my hands in despair. I have managed to make a few modifications to our food-related habits to save money, reduce food waste, and decrease our consumption of plastic, and I hope they’ll be as helpful to you as they have been to our household.

1. Create a meal plan: I promise you this is not as daunting as it seems! Make a list of your family’s favourite meals or ask some friends for their most popular ones. I have a dry-erase calendar hanging in the kitchen that I like to fill in a few weeks at a time. I try to include pasta, fish, meat, and beans,  and make a soup or stew once a week. Creating a meal plan reduces both food waste and food costs because I’m buying what I know I will use for the week, and because most meals will be cooked from scratch. 

2. Buy raw ingredients: Creating a meal plan means that I can more easily make home-cooked meals when I have the ingredients on hand. Much less dinner stress and no guesswork! I try to buy as many fruits and veggies as I can that are not wrapped in plastic, and if I am able to, I double the recipe so I can freeze half for later. That’s one less pre-packaged, plastic-wrapped meal I need to buy for a busy night.

3. Buy in bulk: This doesn’t mean you have to buy 11 kilos of flour at a time... though you can! This just means you’re not buying a pre-packaged quantity of an ingredient. I love the bulk counter at Marché Tau. They have an excellent selection of organic bulk grains, flours, rice, dried fruits, and even spices at very good prices. They encourage you to bring your own container to fill, but they also carry paper bags (compostable!), which they offer at no cost. Tau also allows you to order large quantities of dry goods and will give you 10% off the retail price. Bulk Barn also offers a large selection of items in bulk and you can bring your own containers there as well. Just remember to have the cashier weigh them first! 

4. Give beans a chance: Legumes, including beans and lentils, are extremely affordable, versatile,  and can often be purchased in bulk. They can be cooked into soups, chilis, curries, refried beans, pâtés, and even into a tofu alternative. As a bonus, the environmental impact of plant-based meals is up to 14 times lower than that of meat-based meals. (I’m not discussing regenerative farming now. That’s a topic for another time!) Luckily, if you’ve cooked too many beans you can easily freeze them for later. To give you a head start, here are a few of our personal favourite legume recipes: Lentil soup, refried beans (reduce the amount of water), red lentil curry.

5. Break bread: Have you always wanted to bake your own bread but thought it would take too long or that it would be too daunting? I have THE recipe for you! If you have a Dutch oven, I urge you to try this no-knead bread. It’s the easiest and least daunting recipe you’ll ever try. It will cost a fraction of a loaf of bread you’d buy at the grocery store, you can add whatever you want to the dough, and even if you don’t make it all the time, every loaf you make is one less plastic bag for the planet. If you notice you’re not eating your bread quickly enough, you can freeze it to make croutons or bread crumbs later. 

Extra tip: Own an Instant Pot? You can save money and reduce waste by making your own yogurt or by quickly cooking beans from dry. 

Similar to how pennies add up to dollars, every choice or change we make is essentially a vote, despite how small we think it is. In this case, these choices and changes in purchasing patterns can make their way to business owners. Perhaps more corporations will start offering bulk food options, and perhaps others will reduce their sales of plastic wrapped products. It’s difficult to enact drastic changes in our larger food system, but it is easy to take small steps in our own lives. I encourage you to do so, and if you can, let me know (editor@pcrecord.ca) if these tips worked for you!

Geneviève Lussier is a dedicated educator with a B. Ed. in elementary childhood education, who is not only shaping young minds but also leading the charge for environmental stewardship and community activism. From her family's household of activists to her passion for crafting and gardening, Geneviève embodies a holistic approach to living sustainably and fostering connections within her community. Whether she's teaching knitting at the Pointe-Claire library or preserving food from her garden, Geneviève's boundless optimism and unwavering belief in the power of community shine through, inspiring those around her to embrace positive change and collective responsibility.