Stock it with: Salt, black pepper, sugar, vinegar, canola oil, hot sauce, mustard, fake bacon bits, butter-flavored pan spray — none of these ever go bad.
In your fridge or cool spot, keep a bottle of chocolate syrup (like Hershey’s), margarine, cocoa powder (unsweetened, in a tin); Velveeta, and a box of instant dry milk. Ketchup or barbecue sauce goes here. Eggs are a very good deal all around, if you like them. Fry ‘em and sprinkle with the fake-bacon bits.
Don’t buy “herb blends” or “spice blends”; they are sure to be stale and disappoint you.
Other groceries:
Rice (in the largest bag you can afford; look in an Asian grocery)
Jiffy or Bisquick baking mix
boxed Jiffy cornbread mix
macaroni or spaghetti, and boxed macaroni and cheese.
ramen noodles by the case.
You can get a stack of 36 corn tortillas for $1-$2 in the Mexican section of your store if you like Tex-Mex.
Buy one onion a week.
Canned things: Beans of your choice, tomatoes, tuna, fruit such as pineapple or peaches.
Don’t buy canned chicken. It is “hydraulically” obtained, which means pitiful scraps were sprayed off the carcasses with hard jets of water, and then scraped up, and canned.
Frozen chopped green pepper saves you time, effort, and money; there is no waste.
