Various Advantages of Cooking at Home

Many times people avoid cooking at home. They rather prefer to eat out because it is convenient and less stressful due to their busy schedules. The common mindset is that cooking at home is more time consuming, stressful and expensive than eating out. You need to buy groceries, need to have the right utensils, pay for gas and not forgetting the time, skills and energy it requires. However, this is actually is not true. Cooking at home is more easy, affordable, therapeutic and fun than eating out regularly.
Debunking the mindset
Time is extremely valuable and with our jobs, it often gets hard to manage all the other household chores with our busy schedules. Hence, a lot of people depend on office cafeterias, restaurants or tiffin services for their breakfast, lunch, and dinner. According to the general statistics, people are spending approx. ₹ 5000 to ₹ 6000 on an average per person every month on their daily food requirements. So, if there are two people, one could imagine the amount of money spent (approx. ₹ 12,000) i.e. on just eating out. Apart from being expensive, eating out on daily basis takes a toll on one’s health as well. As a result of eating out a lot of people are facing health issues due to this simple reason. This also adds to the budget troubles because medical expenses are skyrocketing day by day.
So, if you are looking to have some quality time with your family, improve your budget and saving some time and money, it’s time that you start cooking at home. It will not only improve your budget but will also help in preventing health problems.
Learn the new skills
A person who is not fond of cooking and thinks of it as a tedious task needs to realize that cooking is not such a big deal and fun if really enjoyed, its soothing to cook and therapeutic. One can actually learn simple cooking by watching videos on television and YouTube. With new techniques and tools, cooking has become a simpler these days. Rather than spending an entire evening cooking a meal, look for simple recipes that take less time and ingredients to cook. Today there are so many blogs and online youtube channels available that shows recipes that can be made with less than 10 ingredients. This way you are not only eating healthy and delicious home-cooked meals, but also saving money.
Use the right tools
Many usually think that you need expensive gadgets and ingredients if you want to cook delicious meals at home. But that is not true! You don’t need expensive gadgets to cook food, but you definitely need some kitchen essentials to make your life simpler. Invest in some right tools and utensils like a good knife, a pot, a pan etc. by using credit cards that have tie-ups with online stores. This can also help you earn reward points or cash back on your purchases. You not only save money by using these cards, but you are also investing in good quality items that do not require quick replacements.
Few tips that can help you for life
Go through these few tips and tricks of cooking home cooked meals
- Invest some time to prepare a meal plan – this might sound time-consuming but, spending some time right now will only make your life simpler. Without having proper meal plans, you would have to run to grocery store, every time you think of preparing something new. This will cost you both, time and money. But by preparing a meal plan, you know what you would be preparing for a week and you can do grocery shopping accordingly. Use apps or websites to find meal plans that fit in your budget and taste, which are abundant nowadays.
- Avoid processed foods – Nowadays, grocery stores are filled with processed and pre-cooked meal items for the convenience of the consumer. However, these products are not only bad in taste, but are also bad for health. Always buy fresh produce. It is a lot cheaper and nutritious than packed food and also helps the local farming community.
- Don’t get enticed to branded and imported products – the reason why the retailers have these items on shelves is that consumers are brand conscious these days. A common consumer belief is that the higher the price of an item, the better the quality. In some cases, it might be true, but not in all cases. Avoid buying branded imported products because they look beautiful in your kitchen. Rather go for generic brands that are less expensive and taste as good as branded or imported products. It helps you save big time on your grocery bills.
- Make use of cash back or rewards – If you own a credit card and spend frequently, then in all probabilities, you would have earned cash back or reward points. You can use them for cash discounts on your grocery shopping or buying kitchen essentials.
- Grow your own food if possible – If you have space and time, you can actually grow certain food products such as coriander, basil, rosemary, chillies, and some veggies too, at home only like herbs or veggies. This will keep you away from frozen and canned food items.
- Look for affordable and easy to prepare cuisines – For people who are venturing in the field of cooking, preparing new cuisines is often exciting. There are many cuisines like Indian, Italian, Chinese and Mediterranean those are healthy, affordable and easy to prepare.
Using these tips and tricks in the kitchen will definitely help you to manage efficiently and effectively your time and budget while cooking at home.
You can also visit 10 BENEFITS OF NEEM TEA, Neem – Bitter is Better, Mushroom Biryani – Dum Style
Author: Shipra Aggarwal
Bio: A personal finance writer and Sub-Editor in Mudranomy, a social media community, with 3 years of experience in BSFI. Also, have worked with prominent News Daily in Chandigarh.
I would love to make my granddaughter’s baby food when she’s old enough for solid foods!
I really enjoyed this post! It’s not always easy to cook but my husband and I try to cook 6 days a week and just get take out one day
Love this article! I cook at home at least 5 days a week and totally agree! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
I agree with you, I have found that cooking at home has saved our family a ton of money! We try to avoid take out as much as possible.
This post is a much needed one for our current busy schedules. I have a very demanding job and will be out most of the day but still I prefer home cooking since I know what ingredients I am consuming at the end of the day. I really liked your tip of growing veggies at home since it is organic too!! Great write up!!
A meal plan is a huge time saver for a busy family. It makes grocery shopping so efficient too. Another benefit is controlling factors if you have risks such as a lower salt diet.
i love the meal plan. i use my erin condren life planner for it!
Cooking at home is one of the Favorite things I do when free. You can try out anything you feel is the right one for your diet. Thanks for sharing these great tips.
I totally agree with you. Meal plan is a time saver and help families in saving cost.
I have a post here how to save money by cooking often: https://www.healthphreaks.com/2018/06/13/save-money-stay-healthy-cooking-often/
Thanks, will go through the post.:-)