SAVE money! Contrary to popular belief, you can REDUCE food expenses.
In this series of articles, we will be discussing your food choices. I need you to critically examine each bite of food you and your family eats. Think about the foods in your planned menus plus snacks. Next, stop and consider the entire process from shopping, storage, food prep, cooking, serving, to clean-up. My goal is to educate you on the many advantages of planning healthy menus and incorporating freeze-dried foods into your meals.
In the first article, we covered the time-saving advantages of choosing freeze-dried foods when meal planning. This will be a multi-part series, including a wide range of time saving, money-saving, and nutritional topics – as follows.
Top TEN Reasons You Need to Be Eating Freeze-Dried Foods
Number 1: Reduce meal preparation time.
Number 2: Reduce food waste by 32% or MORE.
Number 3: Reduce meal clean-up time.
Number 4: Enjoy better tasting food.
Number 5: Eat more nutritious food.
Number 6: Eat less JUNK food.
Number 7: Store more food in less space.
Number 8: Store food without freezing, canning, or refrigeration.
Number 9: Eat “home-cooked meals” when camping and traveling.
Number 10: Store food for up to 25 years in case of emergency.
For this article, I want to skip directly to the end. I want to answer your MAIN objection:
“I can’t afford to buy freeze-dried foods! They are TOO expensive!”
Let’s look objectively at the PRICE of freeze-dried foods compared to the COST of the “fresh” foods that you buy at your local grocery. You will discover that it is possible to save money! Contrary to popular belief, freeze-dried foods can help you REDUCE food expenses and your TOTAL MEAL COSTS.
We need to consider the FIVE measurable costs of each food ingredient, and then your TOTAL MEAL COST.
Every meal that you serve (and every snack you consume) has a series of costs:
1. The cost of your time for shopping.
2. The cost of the actual food item.
3. The cost of your time for food prep.
4. The cost of your time for meal preparation.
5. The cost of your time for clean-up.
Beyond these five direct costs, we can also include the indirect costs of storage of ingredients and leftovers, food prep space and appliances, as well as the energy costs for food storage and meal preparation.
This may seem impossibly detailed. But each of these costs needs to be considered since they will vary greatly depending on your circumstances. For example:
1. An apartment dweller may only have limited pantry space, a small refrigerator, and an even smaller freezer compartment. Buying a stockpile of fresh produce or meat on sale is not a viable possibility.
2. The suburban commuter may live miles away from the nearest grocery store. Stopping for a few menu ingredients after work may require an extra 30 to 60 minutes of time, plus the added wear and tear on her vehicle.
3. In contrast, the urban shopper may be within walking distance of a market, but it may have a very limited selection and all at premium prices. The shopper can only buy what they can comfortably carry home or to the subway.
4. The single person may have a hard time adapting family-size recipes that call for one pound of ground beef or a whole chicken.
5. The large family may rely heavily on low-nutrition canned foods to stretch their food budget.
6. The busy family may knowingly substitute fast food meals or frozen prepackaged entrees as a concession to a jam-packed schedule after supper.
7. RV dwellers and backcountry campers may plan their menu with limited fuel reserves in mind. They will likely also need to conserve water both for food prep and clean-up.
8. No one would trade food prep time and clean-up time for any of one thousand preferred activities!
Do you agree that it is necessary to look beyond ONLY the price of each type of food: fresh, frozen, or canned foods versus freeze-dried foods? We continually make value judgments. It is necessary to be honest when making comparisons.
The suburban shopper will pay a higher cost for their food when you add in shopping time, the cost and maintenance on the vehicle that makes commuting possible, and the likelihood that they will be shopping at a more expensive store.
The single person will pay more per serving than a family that prepares larger recipes.
Any prepackaged menu item will cost more than a made-from-scratch recipe since you have outsourced the food prep.
“Fast food” is both the most expensive per serving and the least nutritious. We pay for convenience and accept the added cost/lower quality as a “necessary evil”.
Snack foods consumed between meals -- including sodas and coffees – are both an indicator of the insufficient nutrition of our menus and a direct contributor to the present epidemics of heart disease and diabetes.
How do freeze-dried foods compare? Let’s look at a few specific examples, starting with ground beef, a staple of many family recipes.
When you buy food at the store you bring home much more than edible fruit, vegetables, and meat.
First, you need to wash off any dirt, fertilizer, and pesticides. Then you need to slice, core, peel, chop, and trim the raw foods. In many cases, the pile of peelings and trimmings outweigh the food that you will prepare and eat. Pounds of waste go in the garbage, then get hauled to the landfill.
In the case of ground beef, you begin every recipe by browning the raw meat. Add to the cost of the raw meat the time it takes for you to precook the beef.
(Again, NOTHING is “free”. What is your hourly wage? At that cost per hour, what would you charge to fry a hamburger? What do you pay for one-quarter pound of uncooked ground beef from the store versus a Quarter Pounder at McDonald’s? The difference is mostly the cost of the high school kid that flipped your burger – and he is now paid $15.00 per hour!)
Next, reduce the finished meat by 25% to 39% based on the grease that you drain off – unless you paid DOUBLE for ground chuck! If you don’t need the full pound, wrap and store the remainder – and try to remember to use it in a few days.
Compare the total cost of preparing ground beef for a recipe to opening a can of precooked, freeze-dried ground beef. Thrive Foods has already cooked and seasoned the meat, then drained off the fat. You get 100% beef with NO waste. If you need one-half a pound for a recipe, you simply measure ONE CUP of beef and mix with the other ingredients. Only one-quarter cup of water will be required to rehydrate the fresh ground beef in 10 to 15 minutes. You will enjoy the same taste and texture as freshly prepared ground beef!
In the meantime, you place the Thrive can back on the shelf. There are still six more servings remaining, and no refrigeration is required.
Being able to measure the exact quantity of food – meat, vegetables, and fruit – is very important to reduce food waste. Really hungry, add more Thrive Foods. Did a friend stop by? Double the recipe. Is a family member away from home? Cut the recipe back. All can be accomplished easily when measuring the freeze-dried ingredients.
According to a study by the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, the AVERAGE household wastes 32% of the fresh food they purchase due to spoilage. We either don’t use all the fresh food before it spoils, or we cook too much and then waste both our time and the uneaten leftovers.
Compare all this waste to Thrive Foods. You open the can and measure out exactly what you need for your recipe or snack. The food is ready to eat or to add to your recipe without any further preparation. Not only do you ELIMINATE food waste, but also the cumulative hours spent each week preparing raw foods, shopping, and then cleaning spoiled food out of the refrigerator.
The time savings and reduction in food waste are UNIVERSAL for fruits, vegetables, and meat. EVERY freeze-dried Thrive Food is ready to use, has ZERO food waste, requires NO prep time, requires little or NO cooking time, and much less clean-up time.
You get 100% of what you paid for. In addition, you save all the cumulative time shopping because Thrive Foods are DELIVERED to your door.
And we haven’t even discussed the ADDED nutrition of non-GMO, fresh-picked, fully-ripened produce versus the stale produce available in your stores or soggy canned vegetables. You can enjoy BETTER food at a lower cost. PLUS, because Thrive Foods are shelf-stable, you can afford to have a full pantry with many ingredients that would spoil otherwise. Everything is at your reach.
With better nutrition, you can expect less snacking between meals. Junk food snacks are both the least healthy and most expensive food items. Better meal planning means less snack cravings. But – when a snack is needed – Thrive freeze-dried foods are also the answer.
Stop Snacking on Candy, Chips, and Soda! Snack on HEALTHY 100% Fruits and Vegetables!
Premium fresh fruits and vegetables make the PERFECT snacks. Thrive Foods are single ingredients: strawberries, pineapple, bananas, peas, beans, etc. Not only are these foods FREE of artificial additives, colors, and preservatives but they contain all the vitamins and minerals of fresh foods. The flash freezing process removes only the water content, NOT the nutrients – as opposed to canning and even slow dehydration.
Flash frozen, then freeze-dried Thrive vegetables are snacking favorites. Many children will happily switch from candy to super-sweet Thrive peas and sweet corn!
Freeze-dried fruits and vegetables are processed at the PEAK of freshness and maximum nutrition. Most freeze-dried fruits and vegetables have a shelf life of more than 10 years, many up to 25 YEARS! Your snack is just as fresh and nutritious in the middle of winter as it is on the day of harvest. There is no loss in storage or transportation, unlike EVERY fresh fruit or vegetable once it leaves the farm, travels to a distribution warehouse, then your local store months later. Freeze-dried foods also have more nutrition than dehydrated foods at the “convenience store”.
If nutrition is a concern, Thrive Foods is the answer.
If reducing food waste is a priority, Thrive Foods is the answer.
If gaining flexibility and convenience in menu planning, maximizing your food storage, and freeing up shelf space are all important, then Thrive Foods will provide the solutions.
Now, we don’t predict that you will try to live 100% on Thrive Foods. We all need to eat as many garden-fresh foods as possible. We need to reduce the farm-to-table distance when we can. (Did you know that the AVERAGE distance from the field to the store in the U.S. is 1,500 MILES!) But for a large percentage of your meals, substituting a few frozen, canned, or stale foods with Thrive freeze-dried foods will save BOTH time and money. With better meal planning and reduced waste, it is possible to significantly REDUCE your grocery bills with Thrive Foods!
Your BONUS for reading this far: Follow this link for a 15% discount! CLICK HERE.
Would you like to sample Thrive Foods? Just follow this link to view all the products and save 15% on your order. Note that most items are available in “pantry cans” (roughly 1-quart) or #10 cans (roughly 1-gallon) for the best value per ounce. Some foods are also available at a discount for multiple can case lots. Remember, the shelf life of most unopened cans is 25-YEARS*
SPECIAL OFFER: order $99.00 and receive a 27% Discount! Follow this LINK: CLICK HERE.
If you order over $99.00 you will receive BOTH a 15% discount on the foods purchased, AND free shipping – which is normally charged at a flat rate of 12% for each order. (Canadian readers – FIRST switch the location/pricing at the top right of the website. Canadian customers ALSO receive FREE shipping on orders over $99.00 USD.)
When you take advantage of the $99.00 special pricing you are placing a “monthly order” but there is NO obligation to order next month or EVER again! Just cancel the repeat order for the following month – until you are ready. The next time you would like to order, you will receive the same 27% discount for every order over $99.00 and can order exactly what you need. Order as often as you like, and only when you want to.
In addition, every customer is automatically provided a referral link like the one above. You can share this with your friends, and THEY can save 15% on their first order. PLUS, you will receive a 10% referral credit that can be applied to your future orders! Your friends will also be offered the option to increase their order to $99.00 or more and receive the combined 27% discount. They will LOVE you!
Thrive Foods is the largest food freeze-drying company in the U.S. – and yet you’ve probably never heard of them! Why? They don’t advertise, and they don’t need to! Instead of wasting money on expensive ads, Thrive Foods rewards their customers for telling friends and neighbors about the full selection of freeze-dried foods. EVERYONE wins with low prices and monthly specials.
If you would like to enjoy the many benefits of preparing healthy and hearty meals, just go to Thrive Foods by following this LINK. CLICK HERE.
If you would like to enjoy the many benefits of building a cost-saving, time-saving pantry of premium freeze-dried foods at home, just go to Thrive Foods by following this LINK. CLICK HERE.
In BOTH cases, you will enjoy the best tasting, most economical, most nutritious foods available!
*The long, 25-year shelf life of Thrive Foods has also made freeze-dried foods the choice of “preppers”. Today, more than ever, freeze-dried foods are a smart investment! ANYTHING you buy today is going to cost less than next month or next year. For that reason, many people who first became Thrive Foods customers in order to prepare delicious home menus and camping meals have continued to order monthly to accumulate 3, 6, or 12-months of staple foods for the peace-of-mind.
Follow this link and you can purchase Thrive Foods at any time and receive a MINIMUM 27% savings. That is, a 15% discount on the food plus free shipping equal to 12% of the order when you order $99.00 or more. You are not required to make monthly purchases or limited to only buying once per month. In addition, every month Thrive Foods advertises special offers on selected products, typically at a 25% discount. Twice a year there are also major discounts of up to 50%.
Don’t forget, as a customer you will be provided with a referral link. Thrive Foods does no mass advertising but relies on referrals between friends – in person or online. When you share this link with your friends, and THEY can save 15% on their first order - PLUS you will receive a 10% credit that can be applied to your future orders!
The Great Out There wants to help you eat HEALTHIER and SAVE MONEY – both at home and on the trail. Contact us with any questions. Follow this link to check out the Thrive Food selections. CLICK HERE.
