Shelf Cooking? (10 Reasons Why)

Shelf cooking is a term coined by the fabulous Mrs. Jordan Page! Her challenge and group of freebs have created a truly inspiring atmosphere for success!

The shelf cooking mindset was the way that Homemakers did it before the age of media and marketing filled our minds with possibility and products and confusion. My mom taught me to budget, shop, and cook very similarly to the fair Mrs. Jordans method. While I saw the gains in my pocketbook, I hadn’t registered the ways it was benefiting my health and lifestyle. When life got busier, and money was less scarce, I veered away from this method. My pantry became a cluttered stressful mess of useless items (that I probably nabbed on sale, feeling very proud of myself) and I wasn't sure where I had gone wrong. Then, in comes Mrs. Pages shelftember challenge! The lights came on, and I could see the mess. So without further or due: Here are the ten reasons that you should start shelf cooking today!

  1. Shelf cooking allows me to check my spending habits. Do I need to budget that much?

  2. Shelf cooking helps me to assess my decision making. Was it a good choice to buy that boxed meal that has been sitting in my pantry for four months? Then I can adjust accordingly and stop wasting my money and space and time!

  3. Shelf cooking helps me to save money on tight months.

  4. Shelf cooking helps me to purge items that we don’t actually like!

  5. Shelf cooking cleans out my pantry without waste. It is so freeing to restock your space with things you enjoy, so that when you open your fridge full of food you don’t say, “ugh… there's nothing to eat.”

  6. Shelf cooking forces creativity. It gives me the opportunity to get out of those cooking ruts we so often experience.

  7. Shelf cooking ends up giving me the clarity to see things in our diet I would like to change, and then at the end of the month, I have the funding left over to do that.

  8. Shelf cooking also lets me see how I want/need to organize. With the funding I save, I can buy those glass storage containers or matching canisters.

  9. Shelf cooking gets me into meal planning mode, which saves me a lot of mental stress during the week.

  10. Also, its super fun to challenge yourself.

So there you have it! Ten reasons why.

Jennifer Myers