Take on feeding the family as another household do-it-yourself project. That line from our earlier post on Stretching Food Budget tickled something I learned years ago from Andrew Tobias‘ The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need: a penny saved is worth two pennies earned.
Tobias’s point is that in order to have an extra dollar (let’s round up from pennies to dollars for modernity’s sake) to spend, you may have to earn two dollars, by the time you pay income taxes and other expenses incurred on the additional dollar. If you save a dollar on which you’ve already paid tax, you’re money ahead and the government is not in the picture.
Spending less for what you need is the topic of the second chapter of The Only Investment Guide. Tobias reports that he is “long” on cases of Honest Tea; tissue paper, trash can liners, and ketchup. I’m “long” on pork loin, Cal-Rose rice, and Tanzanian coffee beans.
Financial gurus exhort those in debt to take on a second job to pay off their credit cards. While in theory that may be sound advice (and it may not, but that’s my piece for another day), in this economy hanging on to one job may be hard enough. But the DIY project to save money in the kitchen is a job that’s available today, in every household, for the undertaking and “earns” you tax free money.
As our piece points out, the most important ingredient for saving money on meals is planning.
- Eat what’s in season or on sale
- Plan portions to eliminate waste : cook only what you’ll eat now, if you’re not good about managing left overs
- Make a week’s menu: get home late and, without a plan, the idea cupboard is bare
When time is just as scarce as money, it helps to plan meals in pairs: roasted chicken tonight, chicken enchiladas with the left overs tomorrow. Baked ham tonight, ham hash tomorrow.
The financial return on your time invested in managing meals can be significant. And I won’t even start on how much healthier or eco friendly they can be. Bon appetit.
Image courtesy of Kevin.
More about saving money in the kitchen:
The Real Truth About Food Shelf Life
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A penny saved will lose value over time due to inflation. Keeping it in a sock it will devalue. Putting the penny into a bank savings account will help keep up some. A wise investment in an equity or a long term U S bond will normally help you keep up with inflation, but the earnings may be taxable. Save short term into the sock in the drawer, then take it out and put the stash into a growth investment…if you can identify one.