The $20/$20 Challenge: Evelyn Shows Us Her European-Mediterranean Pantry

Because my readers are far and wide, I’m getting to see some fun international  $20/$20 Challenge submissions! My first submission from Germany was awesome. And check out her price comparisons for some pantry staples. Wow. Here’s Evelyn’s story:

Hi Mavis! Greetings from Germany.

My name’s Evelyn, and I live together with my boyfriend in a 45-square-metre {that’s roughly 490 sq ft} apartment in a large city in Germany. He’s a grad student; I recently graduated and will start work soon. We moved in together about 18 months ago, and as we’re poor students, everything had to be very low-budget. Actually, the pantry furniture is mostly from the streets {there’s a free pick-up service for bulky garbage items in our city, so before pick-up, people put their throw-away furniture on the streets}, or bought as second-hand.

We strive to eat healthy on a budget; for us, it means eating ‘real food’ {a mostly plants-based diet} and cooking from scratch, and also, not eating in a cafeteria. We hardly eat out. We’re lucky to LOVE cooking and baking! We often cook together in the weekends, and usually take turns cooking on work days. We’ve recently started to read to each other; so the one who’s cooking gets read to. It’s great for both sides, especially if you’re already hungry before you start cooking!

I believe grocery prices are lower here than they are in the US, mainly due to a ‘price war’ of discount stores {like ALDI}. We’re trying to spend under 200€ a month on groceries and related items {that’s 231US$}. That’s a lot less than other people spend, I believe.

If you like to compare some pantry items {discount stores}:

1 litre of milk, 1.5% fat: 0,55€ {$.62}

500g of whole-grain toast: 0,55€ {$.62}

400g can of tomatoes: 0,39€ {$.44}

1kg of white flour: 0,45€  {$.50}

1 kg of apples is about 1,50€ {$1.70}

Also, our pantry is probably more diverse because I am of Japanese descent, so we basically maintain a twofold pantry: A standard European-Mediterranean pantry {we don’t exactly eat “German”} and an Asian-with-heavy-influence-on-Japanese one.

Good-quality, fresh and affordable vegetables are hard to come by in the winter. We often shop at around 9pm on Saturdays, when left-over veggies and fruits are sold at ridiculously low prices {shops are closed on Sundays}.

We buy coffee, peanut butter {the good kind}, fish and cheese in the Netherlands to save money, but shopping abroad is probably not a feasible thing for most of you! For us, it’s a 10-minute bus ride, and there isn’t any visible border – thanks to the European Union.

Our ‘not-mounted’ wall unit houses tea {Tee is German for tea in case anyone wondered}, coffee, and baking supplies. Not very exciting.

Yes, the poster on our fridge says ‘I want cookies!’ On top of our fridge, right now there are only empty boxes. Cookie boxes, to be exact. Also, coffee beans in a wine bottle. Is that weird?

We eat meat maybe once a month, so having meat in the fridge is unusual for us! It has been converted into a delicious lasagna 🙂 I have the feeling that the only truly German thing in our fridge is Sauerkraut! We only eat it in the winter, in an effort to up our veggie intake.

Our freezer is stocked with fish, veggies, some berries, puff pastry, and a bit of chocolate with coffee beans {an experiment of my boyfriend}.

This is our main pantry-shelf. It’s constantly on the verge of collapsing… but it still works for us. We like open shelving because it’s easier to keep track of everything, but we still hide the mess with a Japanese ‘noren’ 😉

You can see we love baking – and true to German tradition, in addition to wheat, we also commonly use Dinkel {spelt} and Roggen {rye}. The ugly white box on top is filled with chocolate. Or other sweets that are better hidden because I want to eat them when I see them. In the bottom, there’s a wine crate filled with potatoes.

This is our beloved, sturdy second pantry shelf. We suppose it was originally used as a cupboard for a record player. On top, we store fruits. Right now, the selection is scarce. In the bottom, behind the cabinet door, we store {Asian} rice, pasta and seldom-used items.

This is our ‘show-off’ cupboard. The elephant on top is made of Lebkuchen, a kind of German gingerbread. He feels good next to the nuts.

Cookbooks, heavily used dry items, and a bottom filled with Japanese broth and instant food {about the only instant food we eat. Dry and plastic-wrapped, it’s very convenient to send by mail or take home after a trip to Japan}.

Our last pantry shelf is the bottom to our DIY countertop solution. We store our (extensively used) spices in the clear plastic box.

Our oils are right next to the stove. We are both scientists and have a thing about oils. So we only buy oils in dark glass bottles, and we never heat olive oil. We have, for now, settled on safflower oil for any high-temperature cooking technique and cold-pressed rapeseed {canola} oil for medium-heat cooking. Olive oil is used for seasoning. Are we nerds?!

Actually, I would have loved to enclose a picture of our potted herbs, but the only ones that survived the winter look much too sorry. They really do, so I’ve already planted the next batch.

I love this challenge! Thanks for donating, and it’s so exciting to see other people’s pantries!!

Have a nice day
Evelyn

Are you getting your pantries camera ready? You can participate in the $20/$20 Challenge by simply sending in pictures of your pantry. Find out more about the $20/$20 Challenge: Show Your Pantry – Fill a Pantry!