In the late 90's leading up to the millennium I took care of my grandmother who came of age during the heights of the depression. In doing so, she taught me a lot about how to save a buck when you can, something that, at the time, seemed almost unnecessary.
But now we live in a time where inflation is impacting almost everybody.
While the reasons and causes for this is a political debate we're not going to get into in this forum, the reality of it is something we CAN begin to tackle here.
There are several things she taught me that have helped tremendously over the years, not the least of which inadvertently taught me to overcome the limitations of dealing with a corn allergy, and that was to learn how to cook.
If you're new to cooking, having just discovered acorn allergy yourself, it can be intimidating to start out.
You'll be making a lot of “rookie” mistakes in your learning process, it simply does not come easy, it's hard work, a lot of hard work, but does get easierover time as you gain experience and how flavors can match.
But it also takes money as you invest in all of your cooking equipment.
Some items you'll find essential, using them practically everyday, while other you'll find almost unnecessary, or worse, a waste of time and space.
The same thing can be said for the food itself, something you just can't avoid having to purchase on a weekly basis, but that's where the title of this article comes in.
One of the main ways you can save money, is to look at the cost of what you're purchasing as a per broken down unit, or weight, cost, rather than a whole package cost because you'll usually have leftovers from what you use today.
Some items keep a lot longer than others and you can benefit from having them on hand in the future.
For example, if you're at the store looking at 2 different packages at two different prices, comparing which package has the lowest cost per unit (ounces in the U.S., grams elsewhere) you can determine which is the better deal, sometimes producing jaw dropping moments.
For example, I was at the store looking for a bottle of mustard because I was running out, and I found a bottle of it going for $3.99 for around 16 ounces. But a few shelves over I saw the same brand in a 120 ounce jug being sold for $5.99! You do the math on how much was saved that day, even though I purchased more for more money.
Now this principle cannot be translated for anything or everything, you need to remember that the purchase started out as something that I went to the store to purchase, not something I saw a sale on and picked it up.
That's how most people end up wasting their money, they purchase something they'll never use just because the sign says “Save 50%".”
But if it's something you DO use, take advantage of the cheaper cost per unit and buy in bulk now rather than by piecemeal as you go along.
You'll find the number of purchases goes way down, even when resupply time becomes more expensive.
For example, my Grandmother kept a shelf out in the garage where she always kept backstock on the shelf, and when a recipe called for it she knew she had some already purchased on sale in the garage.
She kept a list of things she went through with her every time she went to the store and replaced them when she found the item on sale, saving her money and knowing she had it on hand when she needed it.
There are many other ways to deal with inflation, and we will be going into those in future articles.