“You spend hours a day writing out all this information on saving money and securing a strong financial future and now you are advocating for a personal chef?”

Well, yes of course.

At the end of the day there is only one person in this world who can give you the best possible dietary plan completely individualized for you. That is you.

Why should I bother?

Living well has a fundamental link to eating well. Not only is learning to cook for yourself significantly healthier, you know exactly what you are putting into your body, and for the most part it can be cheaper. I have no doubt I could eat cheaper if I bought fast food everyday, but what does it say about food quality when a corporation can manage to make a profit and still come out cheaper than a home cooked meal?

It does not matter how much money you have in the bank, your body and physical wellbeing are more important than a dollar sign. You do not want to be the richest man in the graveyard.

So how do we go about learning to cook for ourselves? We are busy people who are constantly going nonstop, never a minute to just sit and relax. Between working and taking care of the children, and the chores, and the shopping, and the sitting in the drive through… Wait a minute.

It goes without saying, if you are already going out to eat more than once a week then you have time to cook for yourself. It is not a time issue, it is a habit issue. I went through this same dilemma with my family. We all are already going through the motions of cooking for ourselves, we just do not complete the course.

My general schedule for food goes like this: We go shopping on the weekends for groceries, we buy a bunch of food because we have good intentions, we let the food go bad sitting in the refrigerator and pantry, we repeat.

So how do we break this cycle?

Less is More

We make a list of what we throw out and make an effort to buy those items less. We are actively giving ourselves feedback on what we do and do not eat every time something is thrown out, so ignoring the garbage can is doing no one any good. Who knew a bag of trash could talk so much?

My wife and I constantly buy loaves of bread for some reason. But do you want to know how many sandwiches we make in a week normally? Maybe two or three at most, some weeks none. I have thrown out entire loaves of bread that have gone completely forgotten about for months. That is how little we use it, so why do we keep buying it? Because it is on the grocery list.

Take a minute or two and go down your grocery list with yourself and be honest. Do you use everything on that list 100% before it goes bad? Occasional waste is one thing, but if you are typically throwing out the majority of something then stop buying it for a few weeks. If your house doesn’t cave in around itself in chaos then maybe you do not actually need it.

More is Less

How exactly do you save money by buying more groceries? Good question!

We buy more of what we actually use to offset some of the things (fast food) we do not want. This does not go for just fast food of course, it goes for everything.

I have found that my family uses a lot of ground beef in our cooking, so we will occasionally buy it in bulk, split it into appropriate portions, and freeze the rest. This way we always have some on hand and will be encouraged to cook instead of eating out.

Take some time to write down what you are actively using in your household. If you find yourself running out of bread, then perhaps buy another loaf on your trips. If protein bars get you through the day, stock up on them. The key here is to only buy more when you know it will be used up. It is better to have slightly too much than not enough.

Buying Right

Obviously there are better alternatives to a lot of general grocery and food items.

I am on a nutty health kick where about all I drink is milk for protein and to bulk up. I could be spending hundreds of dollars on protein powders and dietary supplements every month, or I could just buy a couple gallons of milk for a few dollars with more or less the same result.

For the most part I know exactly what is in milk: it’s milk! Protein powders can be pricey and the process to make them is a bit murky. I have also learned I am very fortunate to be lactose tolerant as I had a family member do the same thing with much less favorable results.

Are you a big fan of chocolate or candy? Switch them out for protein bars or even fruit. Even the worst protein bars are likely better for you than the healthiest candy. Fruit is of course even better if you can make that jump. Ideally you would not buy anything processed at all; my mother used to make these wonderful protein balls that tasted basically like a snack food. They fixed my cravings for chocolate and were certainly better for the body and the wallet.

How about frozen dinners? I am not a fan of a lot of the preservatives you find in them, and honestly the ingredients they use will be the cheapest they can get ahold of. Why not find a recipe you really like and make it in bulk? Eat one serving the day you make it and freeze the rest. If you repeat this process a few times a week then you will easily have food for a month or more. Even once a week or once a month can significantly cut down on your frozen meals. This means money saved and you know exactly what you are eating.

Can you just not give up your fast food? There is nothing wrong with treating yourself occasionally, but why not learn how to mimic your favorite parts? I am a big fan of a nice hamburger on occasion, but as you can imagine I doubt the greasy fast food aftertaste is doing my body a lot of good. A few hamburger patties and accessories won’t set you back much more than a family sized meal at your local fast food joint, so switch it up a bit and even make it a family event to look forward to.

Finding Time to Cook

Well now what? I just shuffled through my grocery list several times but that still doesn’t fix anything!

Now that we know what we should and should not be buying, we need a plan of action. The key here is being honest with yourself. If you genuinely do not have much time at all to cook, then you need to meal prep on the weekends. A huge batch of two or three different meals will get you through the week without any heart ache in just an hour or two of prep at most. Throw in a “treat meal” at the end of the week and you have more than enough variety in your diet. If you do not think you have an hour or two to spare, I suggest taking a look at my plan of action article.

While I recommend meal prepping regardless, if you do have time to cook daily or every few days during the week then you can spice it up a little more with freshly made meals. The same steps apply as above: plan your weeks ahead and buy in bulk on your shopping trip. When you are ready to cook you will have everything already at home instead of panicking that you are missing something and caving into eating out.

If you typically go out for lunch during work, try to pack a lunch at least once a week. See if you can handle that. The goal is to not go out at all, but a small push in the right direction can lead to more progress. Maybe you will realize you like packing your food and will increase it to two or more days a week.

Chef in Training

As are all things, buying right and cooking well are both life long projects. One small step today can have a butterfly effect tomorrow. You do not need to jump on a diet of solely beans and potatoes in order to save money and eat healthier; quite honestly I think the damage to your mental state from pure food exhaustion would have you worse off.

You can easily save money and enjoy a rich abundance of delicious meals with a bit of practice.

So get practicing.