Part 2: How I Cut My Food Budget by 40%, Meat Consumption by 50%, and Food Waste by 99%, Without Giving Up A Thing

I wrote this guide to NoAusterity meal planning a few months ago to illustrate how I was using weekly meal planning to lower my food costs, reduce waste, and eat less meat without feeling like I was eating less meat.

After those few months implementing this plan with my family of four, two roadblocks came up. So I want to share with you what those roadblocks were and what we did to get around them.

Problem #1: Differing Tastes and Tolerances

My wife and I have very different tastes. Annie’s big into heavy comfort foods: shepherds pie, beef stews, chilis, casseroles of all kinds, that sorta thing. With the exception of my love for handmade pasta, I’m much more into non-European cooking, especially Vietnamese and Szechuan.

I’m also a lot happier than Annie is eating the same thing over and over again. I can eat pho for dinner pretty much indefinitely; after the third or fourth pho dinner, Annie’s ready for something else.

As a result, Annie and I are basically running two kitchens in the same house. We’re still bulk cooking and planning meals and doing our grocery shopping based exclusively on those meals, and still sharing…