Food inflation has been growing out of control for a while, and it’s unlikely to go back to pre-2020 levels again. In February, whole chickens saw a price increase of 43.8%, and that’s just the raw ingredient, making convenience foods using it and restaurant chicken cost even more.
Managing food costs is an important skill for any family, and a crucial capability to pass on to the next generation. The most complex issue with food costs for modern Canadians is balancing time and money. Often, convenience foods start at a much higher price than the ingredients to make the same thing from scratch. Sometimes we need quick options for meals and snacks, but when we don’t balance that with cooking whenever possible, our grocery costs will be that much higher. To control food costs, build meal planning, time management, and cooking abilities within our children. And this requires us to lead by example.
You don’t have to start from scratch
Lots of people talk themselves out of cooking because they don’t have time to make the recipe from scratch. But there are plenty of happy mediums between totally from scratch and prepared meals or fast food. Using a boxed pasta meal that requires you to only add a few things, like water and ground meat, is a good example. You can even throw in some veggies for a balanced meal. This is faster and far less costly than buying fully prepared meals from the supermarket, or swinging through the drive-through. Other short cuts like dehydrated onions, garlic paste in a tube, and biscuit mix can make quicker work of a turkey cobbler, for example. Don’t let yourself off the hook just because you don’t have time to cook from scratch.
Experiment with make-ahead dishes
Lots of meals or components of meals can be made ahead. You can even prepare for more than one meal at once by chopping all the veggies you’ll need for various meals for a few days at a time, saving you precious time when it’s time to put your meal together. Some meals freeze well, and some don’t. If you’re not sure, you can test freezing and thawing a single serving so you’ll know for next time. Various baked items can be frozen in a raw state and either thawed in the fridge or popped directly into the oven to get a nice homemade meal on the table quickly.
There are also free recipes online, many of which include make-ahead options and directions to store for later. Reviewing comments could also contain helpful tips so you can make the most of a recipe. Most of us are staring at our phones all the time anyway, so why not make it useful?
A bigger impact with dietary restrictions
If anyone in your household has dietary restrictions like avoiding gluten or dairy, some of their foods could be quite expensive. It’s especially worth the time it takes to cook or bake when you’re navigating issues with common ingredients that are more difficult to avoid. Many gluten-free prepared items cost so much more than regular wheat bread. Learning to make gluten-free bread is probably one of the most cost-effective skills anyone that has to avoid it could invest in. There are lots of go-to experts in this space too. Carve out some time and give it a try.
Bulk buys can save you more than ever
Look for options to buy ingredients you use frequently in bulk. But be careful because not all bulk buys are a deal. Also, some stores known for their great prices on some bulk items trade on that reputation, and hope you don’t actually do the math. Not only do these stores litter your path to the cheap chicken on the back wall with expensive temptations that aren’t on your list, but some of their great deals don’t actually work out to a better price per use or per 100g, so they aren’t actually cheaper.
Cooking more at home is easier said than done, but you can make consistent progress on managing food costs and grow your family bond at the same time. Get everyone involved in making the most of your groceries by meal planning that incorporates cost per meal. And hand off some of the meal-prep tasks to the kids, which helps build their food skills and frees up some of your time. You can’t control inflation, but you can control the choices you make with your time and money.
About CacheFlo
CacheFlo is a financial education company that builds eLearning and tools to help financial professionals and individuals make behaviour-based changes, which allow them to get more life from their money. We want to make it easier for people to predict the impact of their financial choices before they make them.
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