Is it just me, or are there TONS of resources out there for saving money? *Cough cough* Real Food on a Real Budget ad on your right. Frugal blogs galore. And, there are lots of “how to cook” e-courses floating around. Yet my biggest stumbling block is TIME. I’m not alone. When I was on an Alice Waters webinar a few months ago, they polled the audience to find out what the biggest obstacle to cooking at home is and the winner by a long shot was lack of time.
But Wendy, you’re probably saying, you have no kids. You should have oodles and oodles of time. Maybe, but after working 8-5 and then going to exercise class or meeting up with friends for various clubs or driving out to pick up my milk, there are days I just don’t feel like waiting to eat dinner until 8 PM. I normally try to do my baking and dairying on the weekend, but there’s also cleaning and gardening and yardwork to do. If we go to the camper for the weekend none of the above get done.
- Meal planning has really helped, when I carve out the time to do it. (I LOVE Living Cookbook Recipe Management Software for that). But if the recipe I’ve planned takes an hour and something comes up after work, that sort of throws a monkey wrench into the whole business.
- Prepping as soon as I get home from the CSA pickup or farmer’s market also helps. Not so much last night, as I picked up my share on the way home from work and we had to rush to the American Brew Trail taping, but usually.
- Enlisting DH to pick up things on the way home from work (whether it be Thai food takeout or ingredients for last minute dinners ha ha)
So, dear readers and fellow Fight Back Friday participants. Please share your time saving tips.
I loathe when people pull the “you don’t have kids!!1!11!” card on me. If I were to say, “You don’t have to get up and go to work everyday, drive in traffic, put up with bullshit, drive home” to a woman who is a housewife, I would get my ass handed to me. My point is, your life circumstances are what they are to YOU–everyone is different. I’ve known women who stay home and don’t make dinner (cough, my sister in law, cough) and those who do. I’ve known women with jobs and with kids who do make dinner. It just depends on what is happening in life at any given time. Right now, with everyone hanging onto their jobs for dear life, it is unrealistic to expect someone to modify work hours, ask for a reduction in hours, ask to telecommute or whatever. So we have to figure out some other way. I think your ideas are great–plan ahead, cook ahead on the weekends or the nights where you are free, enlist help from family, neighbors whatever. Maybe if the economy ever improves, and there is a labor shortage, the idea of work and work hours can be changed, but that’s a long way off and The Man won’t want it, so it will be an uphill struggle to say the least.
OH I would be so rich if I could come up with five tips that actually worked for everyone! 😉 Here is what works for me (on good days):
Planning and combining meals. So Mondays I work from home and have a little extra time. That is our “good dinner” night! I usually make something fairly involved and double part of it. Whether it is cooking extra meat, rice, or lentils, or chopping extra veggies, I try to do something that will help me on a crazy night like Tuesday or Wednesday. I also try to double at least one meal to stick in the freezer so I have something to pull out other than frozen pizza on those nights when cooking a full meal just isn’t happening.
Now that summer is here (it’s hot & humid enough to be here anyways!), we can’t use our stove/oven much (that things heats the whole house) so it gives me an excuse for more easy dinners like salad, grilled cheese, sandwiches, pita pockets, etc.
I also agree with Patti…everyone (whether you’re a mom or not, working FT in an office or at home with the kids or dogs…) has reasons that finding time is diff-i-cult.
For me, the number one thing is having a plan and including those nights when things don’t go as planned in my plan. plan. ok? 🙂