Getting out of debt and frugal living is a process, especially if you have been spending freely with little introspection. It will take time to learn the skills to become a frugal person and getting debt free will take time regardless of how much of your take-home pay is lost to debt and interest.
You can learn to cook
One skill that is absolutely well worth investing in is learning how to cook. I’m very lucky that when I was in high school I took home economics. I’m unsure if they offer this class any longer at high school for students. I think that is a shame. My home economics class was one of the best life courses I took in high school, and my teacher understood that she had to communicate the purpose of the ingredients we used in the dishes we made. That basic understanding of yeast bread versus quick bread, savory versus sweet, liquid ingredients, and their purpose stuck with me, and I’m grateful.
We can serve our young adults better if we offer home economics course work to include household management, budgeting, cooking, and basic mechanical skills. Most of us will be confronted as adults with household challenges at some point and having a basic understanding of our cars, bill paying, shopping, cooking, appliances, and more gives our young adults a leg up when navigating adulthood. If you are having a conversation with a mechanic about an issue with your car, it’s good to speak the same language. If you have a plumber come to your apartment, being able to concisely describe the issue will save time, and likely avoid issues with your landlord when you get a call about your failed garbage disposal.
Americans spend roughly half of their meal budget on eating out. That adds up to about $3,500.00 per year on average. Honestly spending $7,000.00 per year on meals seems low to me. I consider myself to be quite frugal and I spend about $7,200.00 per year on groceries for two people. Perhaps the internet search I referred to only considered the spending of a single individual. Sadly the numbers were not clear in the article I read. I’ll continue my research until I can find more data, but in the meantime, my personal experience shows that meals from takeout or in restaurants are more expensive than meals prepared at home.
Restaurants are expensive
Eating restaurant meals can be delightful, but often the ingredients are designed for pleasure versus health, and maximum profitability. I’ll be honest; I’m consistently surprised by the cost of even simple menu items when my spouse and I head out for a treat. How can spaghetti with marinara sauce (no meat) cost $15.00 or more? Duplicating a similar meal at home would come in at about $2.00 or less per serving. I understand they have overhead in the form of staff, facilities, and more, but $15.00? Yikes.
Understanding how much you typically spend on takeout meals and in-restaurant meals is a great place to start when beginning a frugal lifestyle. For example, you will find that if you’ve been purchasing coffee at a coffee shop regularly, the savings add up very quickly. If you’ve been purchasing coffee and a breakfast sandwich five days per week then you switch to making coffee and a sandwich at home you see dramatic savings.
Even small changes add up
At Starbucks for example a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich in my area is about $7.00. If I did that five days per week I would spend $140.00 per month or $1,680.00 per year. That’s just one expensive habit, all the lunches out, take-out pizzas for dinner, and weekend date nights add up as well. I make coffee with freshly ground beans in my kitchen for about fifty cents per cup. Breakfast is normally half a double fiber English muffin ($.70) with a bit of peanut butter ($.35) and half an apple ($.32) and a cup of coffee with cashew milk ($.62). My breakfast costs about $2.00 each day. Most of my meals cost about $2.00. Now of course I’m older, 57 years old, and I’m not super active so I don’t need too many calories compared to some, but I can assure you that you will save money if you commit to cooking most of your meals at home.
I used to work in an office and would bring my lunch daily. Typically I would bring soup and salad. I brought my soup in a mini crock pot that I could plug in when I arrived and it would be hot by the time I was ready to eat my lunch. It worked well to reheat pasta, soup, beans, savory rice, roasted root vegetables, and more.
Tips for success
If you’ve never cooked before I want you to know cooking is accessible and fun. I believe strongly that cooking your own meals is one of the best ways to start a frugal lifestyle. Here are some tips to get you started.
· Begin with meal assembly. Most of us know how to put together a sandwich or salad. As you gain skills and develop your palate you can expand on ingredients.
· The internet is your friend, learn about flavor combinations, like salt, fat, acid, and heat.
· Consider pasta dishes, they are typically fast, easy and affordable. Pasta can make really great leftovers which saves time and money. Select whole grain pasta for a healthier option.
· Big salads make great main courses and don’t require cooking. Couple it with crusty bread and you’ll have a satisfying meal.
· Hot cereal like oatmeal or cream of wheat is affordable and delicious and in the case of oatmeal, especially steel cut, old-fashioned rolled, or oat bran are high in fiber and will keep you full longer.
· Consider eating more beans. A half pound of beans will make four one-cup servings. Beans are healthy and full of fiber and very cheap, about $1.00-$2.00 per pound. Beans are a regular part of my diet and most of my meals are under $2.00 per serving.
· Invest in a couple of appliances to make meal preparation easy. I own a pressure cooker and use it regularly. I own a waffle iron and use it occasionally.
I own a toaster. I own a blender. These appliances are an investment, but time is money too and saving time is important to me. Having a crock pot is great if you work, there’s nothing like arriving home from work and having soup, chili, or spaghetti sauce ready to eat when you arrive.
You can learn to cook by practicing, and watching YouTube. Learn the basics. Learn to chop vegetables in the different ways cooks demonstrate so that when you read a recipe you’ll know the difference between diced and julienned. I just learned about a website called Supercook. You can use this site to add ingredients you have on hand and it will search the internet for recipes. Learn to create sauces. Sauces make a plain meal a treat.
Don’t try to create a French beef stew on your first try. It’s hard. Instead, make a great burger. Or if you really want to save, make lentils sloppy Joes, meat is expensive and beans are not. I never make Asian food. It’s hard for me to get right. My skill set isn’t up to the challenge. Bread is hard to get right, it takes practice. I have tried to make pizza many times. I fail every time. But I keep practicing.
Soups are usually a great place to start. Most of us can make soup with patience. The nice thing about soup is that you will normally have leftovers. One less meal to cook that week or later in the month if you have a freezer.
Embrace your freezer, and know how much you will truly consume, and freeze what you can for a meal later in the month. Not everything is freezable, but many soups, sauces, loaves of bread, and more can be frozen.
I find that the time I spend in the kitchen can be meditative. I like chopping vegetables. I like sautéing onions. I like it when I serve a big salad that is delicious, healthy, and affordable. But I didn’t always feel that way. When I was a young mother and didn’t have great kitchen skills, I didn’t like it. I don’t like it when I have time pressure. But as my skill set has grown it becomes easier and I’ve become more efficient.
An example of efficiency is that when I make salmon, broccoli, and rice, I steam the broccoli in a large frying pan, set it aside, and use the same pan to fry the salmon filets. That means I have one pan, and one lid to wash instead of a pan, a pot, a steamer, and a lid. Timing and efficiency can make the process feel better. If I planned well and made a large batch of rice earlier in the week I only need to microwave my rice to reheat it.
I hope you will consider adding cooking to your skill set. You’ll save money and control the ingredients for a healthier meal. If you find your kids are interrupting you, ask your partner to take care of them while you work in the kitchen. That time can be a nice creative break if you approach it with the right mindset. If you are a single parent this is a great time to have your kids help. They can wash and chop vegetables, assemble a salad, measure rice and water, and more. You’ll teach them a skill that will last a lifetime.
Keep checking in with my website for more ideas about cooking, recipes, and frugal living. I have a podcast, it’s linked below, check it out if you have time. You can buy my book “Never Worry About Money Again: Gain Financial Freedom by Becoming Better at Managing the Money You Have.”
