13 Clever Hacks for Cooking and Grocery Shopping for One Person

Grocery shopping and cooking for only yourself is often a very hard thing. It’s even harder if you have roommates. I lived a life of solo cooking for a long time, and truly, it can be the pits.

The good news is that there are ways to make cooking for yourself just as enjoyable and cost effective as cooking for more than one. Interested in some great hacks and tricks that make life easier to cook and grocery shop for just one person? 

Here are 13 places to start.

Depending on your access to a grocery store, you may find it easier to shop multiple times per week for fewer items. Perhaps corner stores and bodegas are far easier to stop by than an actual grocery store; consider making a routine of it.

Wasting food is probably the single costliest mistake when shopping, and when you prioritize dry food, that happens so much less. Stock your pantry with dry rice, beans, jarred veggies, and more. If you can minimize fresh ingredients, your food will last far longer.

We all know frozen meatballs are made of ground beef, but have you considered breaking them down to make just about any other dish that requires ground beef? We’re talking meatloaf, we’re talking tacos, and a whole lot more.

Pressure cookers can be intimidating because they have a tendency to, you know, explode if you don’t seal them up correctly. But we believe in you. They’re especially great if you have roommates, since you can easily get away with cooking in your bedroom.

Meal prepping can wear you out, especially if you like variety. The true key to shopping and cooking for one person is to meal plan, and prepare specific meals on specific nights. This will help you shop better and smarter, and save you from staring into your fridge wondering what to do with a can of Bud Light and a Kraft single.

Freezing food properly is its own skill, and since you don’t want to be constantly defrosting and refreezing meat or veggies, take care to portion out your food when you put it in the freezer.

Crockpots can provide you with a stupendous amount of leftovers. A full crockpot is good for at least four or five servings of food, depending on what you make. Things like vegetable soup and salsa chicken will keep you fed for days.

Making double use out of your ingredients is another good way to save some money. Pick fresh veggies at the store that you can use in multiple ways; maybe tonight you wanted to put mushrooms in your soup, but you can use the second half of the package to add to tomorrow’s stir fry. Same goes for proteins (frozen meatballs, hello!).

Feeling a lack of inspiration? Take a look at what’s on sale at your local grocery store, and try planning meals around those ingredients. 

There are so, so, so many of these things that have been written. Grab any that speaks to you — you’ll learn techniques for the basics that will help you refresh your creativity in the kitchen.

You know that plastic ice tray of yours? Well, it’s not just for ice. You can store pure flavor itself in those things by freezing your favorite herbs, spices, and fats. Use them later however you want, whether it’s in a pot of rice or over a pork chop in a cast iron skillet.

Chicken and rice is wildly versatile; all you need to do is dress it up with a few different flavors to transform it. Melty cheese, Italian seasoning, and marinara gets you an Italian dinner. Salsa, cilantro, and beans gets you a Mexican dinner. Curry sauce for Indian, Teriyaki for Japanese … the combinations go on and on.

Don’t eat meat? This is still very doable.

While still nowhere near as cheap as grocery shopping, some meal services can still be cheaper than you expect, especially if you catch them on the trial run.

Am I saying you should do a trial of one service, cancel it when the discount runs out, do a trial of another service, cancel it when the discount runs out, repeat the process until the original service says “WE MISS YOU, PLEASE COME BACK FOR A DISCOUNT,” and then start the whole process over again?

Nope, definitely not saying that. No way. Pretty sure that was your idea.

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