Definitions
Well we dodged the January 1st. bullets. I say “dodged” not “missed” because the Farm Bill is only postponed until September, so milk may still be an issue this year, and the Fiscal Cliff “save” carries some unpleasant results. This was made very clear to me during a conversation I had with a younger friend last weekend.
I have known this girl all her life, and always admired her level headedness. She and her husband are executives of large corporations, one a financial institution, and they are two of the most economically responsible people I ever met. Their focus is in providing for their young family, planning for the future and being able to face any emergencies that might arise. Their combined daily commute is more than 5hrs., so gas prices presented a problem requiring some adjustment this past year, and will this year too, since they are expected to go up again. They were prepared for the food price hikes due to the drought. What they weren’t prepared for was the difference the payroll tax would make in their incomes .As my friend explained, despite a raise in December and a Christmas Bonus, her first paycheck this year was 3 digits lower than her last one. Her husband had a similar shock, as did most of the people in their respective offices. As I suspect did many working Americans.
The total loss of annual income for my friend’s family will be significant and necessitate unforeseen adjustments. Although always careful about spending, she is now contemplating a food budget and has asked for help in setting one up and following it. The first thing I have to make her understand that there is nothing to fear. Food budgets shouldn’t be iron clad contracts set in stone. They should be highly individualized tools to help one reach and maintain certain goals. Their rigidity depends entirely on the budgeter’s finances and need for regulation.
This seems a good time for me to redefine my purpose in writing this blog and explain what I’m trying to do. Unfortunately, I’ve learned that I don’t fit into the Google descriptive vocabulary. I am not a source of budget recipes, nor are food budgets my main concern and I don’t probe into finances. I am about helping people learn to create restaurant quality meals, while saving money by developing good sense about all phases of the food preparation process.
I learned through training to become a personal chef, and then setting up and operating a personal chef service that the key to it all is information. The well informed shopper knows market prices, the best sources to find the things they want and how to choose an item or select an alternative if necessary. The informed cook knows how to plan menus that are healthy and affordable, to write concise shopping lists to use their supplies efficiently and creatively to make the most of the products they are working with. Behind it all is the informed person who has developed the good sense to take the time to recognize the wisest choices and make them. In other words the person who has learned enough about the whole culinary process to have acquired sound kitchen sense and the key to it all is information.
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This is the information that I hope to relay through this blog, which I hope will enable you to save money, without compromising your culinary standards, by making smart choices . It really isn’t all that hard and can be very rewarding, both to your wallet and your ego. Nor is it that confining, because you aren’t trying to meet objective standards. You set the limits according to your own requirements. Above all, you can learn to devise ways to make meals less expensive other than adding another potato to the pot, or using larger beds of carbs, like rice or pasta, while keeping them tasty and nutritious.
You can also learn to evaluate advice. Nothing irks me more than some well paid anchor person, who admittedly can’t cook, usually eats out, and lives in a big city hanging on the buying advice of a celebrity who hasn’t been in a supermarket in years, especially a non-urban one. If the celebrity is a chef, they will give advice about alternative cuts, but their pricing will still be off. Chefs rely on vendors and deal with wholesale pricing. The information aired is usually a product of the script department, and there again, geared to the prices in that city. How many times have I heard a cut recommended as bargain alternative at “only $ 5 or 6.99 per lb. rather than $12.99”? THAT does a lot of good for the working mother of 3 in suburbia!!
I’m also irked by recipes on T.V. and in magazines that recommend using exotic ingredients, saying you can find them in your local supermarket or order them online. Most supermarkets, catering to the local taste, don’t carry a wide range of exotic items, and online adds shipping charges raising the price often to double. The informed person knows which advice has value and which is empty, and how to convert a suggested idea into something useful using the ingredients they have on hand.
So join me as I help my friend to become better informed about food and to use that information to reduce her food bills, while still keeping her family happy to sit down to dinner.
