How to Save Money in Your Kitchen

I feel there is a way to save money in the kitchen without sacrificing the quality of meals. Many years ago my profit margin was terrible so I paid a company to look at my restaurant operation to tell me what was wrong. The very first thing they asked me to do was weigh my garbage. You laugh and ask how is that going to help. Well if you are throwing food away you are wasting precious food money. Perhaps all you need is smaller portions to save money.

I have found that saving money in the kitchen is similar to saving calories in dieting. Everything needs to be measured and weighed. A good example is baking potatoes. Most restaurants serve a eight ounce potato and most folks eat 75% of it. If you serve a 6oz potato and the customer is satisfied you have saved money, and you don't have to pay to have the leftovers hauled away. In your kitchen at home the same principle applies. If you cook half a bag of tater tots for the gang and put 1/3 of it in the compost bin you have lost money. If you cook four hot dogs and only eat three, the dog may love ya but you have wasted food money.

Individual servings may save you money. Think of a half gallon of chocolate ice cream. You like chocolate ice cream. You eat it several times a month. But if the last ½ pint is put into the compost bin because it doesn't taste good where is the savings now. Now doesn't the single serving Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia sound like a better deal already.

If you buy your lunch in a restaurant or from a hot dog vendor everyday perhaps you could save buy packing your lunch just once a week. It doesn't take an executive chef to hard boil some eggs, buy individual servings of fruit and pudding and put it in a bag. Even something as simple as making a thermos of Columbian Coffee instead of the trip through McDonald's on your way to work can save you hundreds of dollars in a year.

Times are tough and this is when the tough get going. In the twenties our grandparents had the depression, in the forties our parents had rationing because of the war. Today we face a different challenge but yet it is strangely the same. We must get the value from every penny we spend. We must be creative in the kitchen, in the work place, everywhere... Mizpah. ;-}}>