4 Ways You Can Save Time And Money In The Kitchen
Are you forking out a fortune to eat well each month? Your sophisticated palette shouldn’t cost you an arm and leg to satisfy. You can eat delicious food — even on a budget. This list of food-friendly tips can help you save time and money in the kitchen.
1. Become a foodie
Step number one is easy on purpose. Like dipping your toe into the shallow end of a cold pool, becoming a foodie introduces you to the idea of saving in the kitchen.
But don’t mistake this advice for the wrong kind of foodie. You don’t want to be the person snapping pictures of their Michelin-star meal for their Instagram account. You want to be the person who’s caught scrolling through recipe pages and watching YouTube for cooking techniques.
When you make food an important part of your life, you’ll learn how to eat well without spending a lot. Flavour profiles, delicious meals, and savings will come naturally after you research your favourite thing in the world — good food!
2. Make a meal plan
No storming army invades an area without a strategy. In this case, the region under siege is your kitchen. If you expect to come out on top, you need to know how to divide and conquer like a chef.
Randomly grabbing vegetables and snacks that catch your eye leaves you with an odd assortment of food that doesn’t come together to make a cohesive meal. It means you’ll have to go out again and buy even more stuff to have enough for a recipe.
A meal plan forces you to think about recipes before you leave your house. You’ll know exactly what you need to buy and no more to make your weekly meals. This will help you avoid putting things you don’t need into your cart. It can also help you be prepared for work lunches. If you buy the right things at the start of the week, you’ll have enough for nutritious and cheap lunches without having to rely on takeout.
3. Eliminate food waste
Food waste in the Western world is a serious problem. One-third of all food production winds up in a landfill, and developed countries waste roughly 220 million tonnes of food each year.
We’re all guilty of buying a pack of pre-washed lettuce and forgetting about it. It’s when you always forget it that it becomes a problem. If you notice you throw out a lot of unused food, some simple changes to your habits can help you eat better and save more, including:
- Buy only what you need — meaning things you know you’ll actually eat
- Make sure you incorporate leftovers into your meal plan
- Leave yourself reminders about perishable items in your fridge
- Learn how to preserve food
4. Reconsider your food subscriptions
After a long day at work, you don’t want to spend time slaving over the oven. You want something fast, simple, and delicious practically waiting for you when you get home.
Unless you have a butler, food subscriptions are the next best thing. Food lovers without precious spare time love to use services like HelloFresh, Blue Apron, and Marley Spoon. The convenient and delicious ways to vary your diet without a lot of effort.
The only drawback is they’re a lot more expensive than if you researched these meals on your own and purchased the ingredients at the grocery store. You’re paying for the convenience of having everything delivered to your front door, so you don’t have to think about anything more than turning on the oven.
Weigh the pros and cons carefully. Though it saves time in the kitchen, it may be too expensive for your budget.
After housing costs and utilities, groceries may be one of the biggest expenses you have to make every month. It can feel like you’re throwing money at your oven, where hot elements burn through bills faster than you can blink. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Organization is the key to unlocking good food for less. You can eat well on any budget as long as you’re willing to put in some time thinking about the food you eat. If you’re ready to save money in the kitchen, get ready to subvert your relationship with food and learn how to be a frugal foodie.
