Looking to boost your personal finances and up your savings rate? Start in the kitchen by learning to cook or improving your existing skills!
In this blog post, expertly seasoned with images of some of my dishes, I’ll share how learning to cook can boost your personal finances and how I’m using my love of cooking to help my family save money without feeling like we are missing out on eating great food.
There are so many reasons to learn basic cooking skills that go well beyond the realm of personal finance. Cooking has potential health benefits and also teaches you valuable skills that could even form the basis of a side hustle or entrepreneurial venture if you are passionate enough about it!
A lot of people find cooking to be a chore (and it is) but I also enjoy it greatly. It’s an incredibly rewarding skill to learn and one that can be worth the time you put in if you enjoy it too.
How I grew to love cooking
It’s fun and fulfilling to take a collection of raw ingredients and transform them into a cohesive whole. I find it therapeutic and relaxing cooking in my home kitchen or getting outside and cooking with the outdoor kitchen setup.
Part science, part art, I’ve had a love of cooking since my elementary school days and playing Old School Runescape–where I spent an entire summer of my childhood working toward mastering the in-game cooking skill and progressing to level 99. I learned to cook simple dishes in real life from there.
I honed my skills by working in Market Street’s Italian Kitchen the summer of my Junior year of Highschool, earning $7.52 an hour. I learned how to cook many different pastas & brick-fired pizzas, and toss a fresh Caesar salad.
My mentor, Cedrick, taught me how to use unconventional ingredients in my pasta and delight customers with ‘off-menu’ creations. Cedrick had a love of creativity in the kitchen and helped inspire me to take risks in my dishes–sometimes finding incredible & delicious payoffs from the chaos. Passion in cooking tends to shine through.
Why learning to cook will significantly boost your personal finances
Food is one of three major expense categories for most Americans, ahead of transportation and behind housing.
Learning to cook delicious, healthy, and cost-effective meals will go a long way in boosting your savings rate.
Each time you go out to eat, get take out or delivery, you are paying a premium on the ingredients and labor used to create your food. The restaurant (even with slim profit margins), earns a little on two different fronts. Grocery stores still earn a premium on the food you buy as well, but it’s much less.
By taking direct control of your ingredients and the meals you create, you have the power to create delicious healthy meals at a very low cost-per-serving. Or go fancy and buy high-end ingredients and cook a special occasion meal for loved ones. I’ve created super premium meals that would cost $75+ a plate at a fancy restaurant for less than half the cost. There’s a ton of value in the flexibility you have working in your own kitchen.
Healthy cooking made easy
By taking control of your ingredients and shopping, it’s entirely possible to cook delicious, healthy meals using fresh ingredients, lean proteins, and lots of veggies without breaking the bank. Substitute butter with olive oil, and you’ve got a recipe for success.
Control as much as you want
You can get as granular as you want with the nutrition–even going down to the macro level of nutrients in each dish you create by purchasing a food scale and measuring by the gram.
Go Wholesale with Costco
It’s no secret that I love Costco and have written about it in quite a few of my blog posts. Costco is a fantastic place to buy kitchen staples like oil & spices, meat & seafood, veggies, and fruits at a great price. You’ll get more for less when you buy in bulk. Shop Kirkland Signature brand to amplify your savings without sacrificing quality.
Delight your family and friends with delicious meals
It won’t feel like a sacrifice once you can create restaurant-quality meals at a fraction of the price. I love to entertain, and being able to create a wide variety of dishes while hosting friends and family is my idea of a great time.
I never ask my friends or family to chip in for groceries when I’m hosting (it brings me a lot of joy) because I’m happy spending my money sharing a good meal with them. It’s still economical and much cheaper than catering to cook at home, even for 10+ people at times.
To offset cost sometimes, I’ll make our hosted events BYOB.
Avoid Tipflation
Dine-in, takeout, and food delivery can be a huge source of tipping costs associated with eating. You can avoid them all by cooking at home! As a baseline, we try to only go out to eat once (or less) per week as a treat. Even as someone who has decent cooking skills, it’s still nice to sit and relax and enjoy a change of scenery while eating every once in a while.
Skip the sales tax by cooking at home
In my state of Texas, there is no sales tax on the majority of groceries. That means by cooking at home, you’re skipping out on the 8.25% tax that will be charged on all take out and dine-in restaurant purchases.
Saving almost 10% as a baseline on meals is a fantastic reason to try to cook more at home. Your mileage may vary in other locations depending on what sales tax your state has and how it applies to groceries.
💳Sign up for the Blue Cash Preferred with my link and you’ll get a $250 welcome bonus offer and get 6% back on all your supermarket purchases–perfect for home chefs! This card requires good-excellent credit. (690-850)
Simple ways to learn to cook
YouTube is a fantastic resource to learn basic cooking skills. I suggest learning some knifework basics and simple cooking methods. You’ll learn the baseline skills that will help you build confidence in any recipe you choose to tackle.
Easy recipes with video instructions can also be a great resource. Start simple, and work your way to up more challenging dishes if you enjoy it. Technique is everything, and as you learn, you will learn to cook well in anything you make.
If you’re willing to spend a little bit of money–local cooking classes taught by professional instructors can be a great option. I’m currently attending some lessons, especially ones around cultural cuisines I have less experience in cooking. With no formal culinary education, I find a ton of value in classes and videos covering more advanced topics I haven’t encountered in my own cooking, cookbooks, or the videos I watch. I love improving and seeing how I can apply new concepts and skills in my own recipes.
I love Vietnamese and Thai cuisine–and it makes up a bulk of the takeout and dining out my wife and I do. By better learning how to use and master these flavors and ingredients, I’m hoping to master restaurant-quality dishes like Pho and Pad Thai without the dine-in or takeout sticker price.
Cooking classes at my local Central Market run for $50-75 each and include the meal you cook and get to eat + a glass of wine. Not bad for a great experience and social event!
Bonus tip: you can borrow cookbooks from your local library! YouTube is also a fantastic resource to learn technique. I recommend Josh Weissman, Ethan Chelbowski, and Jessica Gavin as great starting points.
Invest in decent kitchen equipment
There’s a huge difference between using beaten-up hand-me-down cookware and a decent set of equipment. You can take your cooking to the next level without dropping a ton of cash. If you can use this as a way to break or otherwise reduce a deeply ingrained takeout habit, consider it an investment with an insane upside for ROI.
I recommend starting with:
- An air fryer & pressure cooker (Ninja Foodi is great)
- A couple good baking sheets and a baking tin.
- A simple cutting board set.
- A nice knife block ($100-300 range, german steel). Hand wash your knives, don’t run them through the dishwasher and use the honing rode before each use.
- A nice set of stainless steel cookware and at least one nonstick frying pan.
- A dutch oven and/or cast iron skillet.
- A simple set of measuring cups, pyrex, & spoons.
- Deli containers – trusted & loved by chefs everywhere. (keep these if you get them with your takeout, etc.)
- A kitchen whisk.
- A set of spatulas and mixing spoons, etc.
- a colander.
- Mesh Strainers.
- A hand grater & Zester.
- A food scale that can display in grams if you want greater control over your calories/macros.
With this equipment, you’ll be able to cook the vast majority of recipes you will encounter and employ a vast array of cooking techniques in your dishes.
Scale from there and look for meaningful incremental upgrades in your kitchen if you really enjoy cooking and want to take it to the next level!
One of my New Favorites: The Bear Spaghetti Recipe
Over the past month, I binged both seasons of the Bear on Hulu. With a young baby, it’s good to have something to watch or read during feeding time or when the baby just needs to take a nap in my arms. One of my new favorite recipes in general is derived from the show!
Update from June 2024: I’m hyped that the Bear is back for Season 3! I’m currently watching through the new season.
The term ‘recipe’ is a little generous since it’s simply a list of three ingredients, but I was able to recreate an INCREDIBLE dish from the show notes using cooking techniques I’ve learned over the years. The basil/garlic infused olive oil that goes into the sauce is beyond incredible and will be my go-to marinara sauce for years to come. Plus, it’s cheaper and infinitely better than store-bought pasta sauce.
As a baseline, I used this recreation recipe and modified from there, trying to get it as close to the show’s version as possible while also adding some extra technique and my own personal flair.
My recreation of the Friends & Family spaghetti meal–served with protein pasta, freshly grated parmesan, and homemade super-lean 93/7% meatballs:
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- You don’t have to go to culinary school to learn to be a great home chef–there are plenty of free and low-cost options to learn the skillset.
- Cooking can be as simple or involved as you want to make it. There are plenty of delicious recipes that cook from prep to plating in 30 minutes or less.
- If you love entertaining like I do, you will build confidence in serving delicious food to your guests.
- Learning to cook has benefits that extend well beyond personal finance.
- Save time at the store by looking into low-cost grocery store delivery. Many supermarkets have their own delivery vans and no-tip delivery services that can save you a TON of time.
- Build enough confidence in your cooking skills, and you can experiment and create your own delicious recipes!
💬 Reader suggestions for discussion
- Do you enjoy cooking meals at home?
- How do you stay frugal in the kitchen?
- Have any questions or comments? Join the discussion in the comments sections below!
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