4 min read Books

Cooking: The Most Underrated Financial Skill

Everyone needs food from the moment they are born until the moment they die. In the last 60–70 years, we’ve seen a huge rise in processed foods and ready-to-eat or partially prepared meals. In the 2010s, meal-kit delivery services became the next wave of convenience.

While these innovations save time, they don’t eliminate effort — they simply shift it from you onto a machine or another person. And that shift costs money. Every step that removes your effort adds a layer of cost that gets passed to you, the consumer. This is a cost you can avoid by learning basic cooking techniques and mastering a few foundational recipes.

The True Cost of Convenience

Let’s break down what “convenience” actually costs.

When you buy groceries, you’re typically paying for:

  • Farm-level and production costs
  • Processing and packaging
  • Transportation and distribution
  • Store mark-up
  • Some taxes

When you buy prepared or restaurant food, you’re also paying for:

  • Kitchen and staff labor
  • Rent and utilities
  • Overhead (insurance, licenses, marketing, delivery platforms)
  • Taxes and tips

Depending on your province, groceries may have minimal or no tax, while prepared foods almost always do. Ordering through platforms like Uber Eats or DoorDash adds even more markup through delivery fees and hidden service charges.

In short: every time you choose convenience, you pay a premium not for the food itself, but for the effort you didn’t make.

A Real-Life Example: Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce

Let’s look at one of the simplest dishes anyone can learn — spaghetti with tomato sauce. Here’s what it costs in three versions:

Homemade from scratch (using the absolute cheapest ingredients at Walmart):

  • Spaghetti – $0.97 (1 lb)
  • Canned tomatoes – $0.98 (798 mL)
  • Onion – $0.30 (my yellow onions weigh an average of 135 grams and the bulk cost is $0.99/lb)
  • Garlic – $0.23 (the heads I have weigh an average of 52 grams and the bulk cost is $1.99/lb)
  • Salt – $0.02 (Bulk Barn to the rescue where you can get only 5 grams of salt at a cost of $2.67/kg)
  • Sugar – $0.02 (Bulk Barn once again!)
  • Olive oil – $0.42 ($6.99 for a 1L bottle and I use around 60 mL)
  • Basil – $0.97 (for a bunch but I will include the entire cost since I don’t use this for anything else)

Total: $3.91 (Makes 1 lb of pasta plus 400–500 mL of leftover sauce)

But I will be completely honest with you. When I was a student and wanted to save money, the oil and basil are the two things I usually omitted. That made the sauce a little thin but some pasta water thickened it up a little.

Semi-prepared (store-bought sauce):

  • Spaghetti – $0.97
  • Marinara sauce – $3.67 (absolute cheapest one at the moment for a 600 mL jar)

Total: $4.64 (also makes 1 lb of pasta but with minimal leftover sauce)

Take-out restaurant version:

  • Local Italian restaurant (simple spaghetti with tomato sauce without meat): $18 + tax + tip ≈ $22 total

That’s over 5 times the cost of homemade.

Even comparing the homemade to the store-bought sauce version, your sauce from scratch gives nearly double the quantity. You can freeze leftovers and use them again for another meal - effectively cutting the per-meal cost in half. You also control the flavor and can adjust it to your liking. Yes, you can adjust the jarred sauce but then you will need some additional ingredients.

💡 Cooking in batches is one of the most efficient ways to save money. The cost of ingredients doesn’t double just because you double the quantity.

Here’s a great beginner video for mastering tomato sauce: 👉 Simple Tomato Sauce by Internet Shaquille

Why Cooking Is a Financial Skill

Cooking at home is more than just about saving money - it’s about control and independence. When you cook:

  • You control the ingredients (less sodium, sugar, and processed oils).
  • You control portion sizes, avoiding food waste and overeating.
  • You develop a valuable life skill that saves you thousands per year.
  • You can turn $20 of groceries into 4–6 meals instead of one.

According to Statistics Canada, the average household spent over $3,800 on restaurant food in 2024. Even cutting that by half would free up nearly $160 per month - enough to boost savings, pay down debt, or invest.

How to Get Started

When I was younger, I learned from my grandmother’s and mother’s cookbooks. Later, I started borrowing from the library. During university, I discovered SOSCuisine, a Canadian meal-planning site that used grocery flyers to build cheap weekly meal plans. Back then, their budget plan was free, and by sticking to it, my wife and I fed ourselves for about $25/week (mid to late 2000s).

After a year, I had memorized enough recipes and grocery patterns that I didn’t need the plans anymore. Today, there are countless free resources online - YouTube, blogs, and even grocery store apps that feature budget-friendly recipes.

If you need a structured start, use a paid meal-planning service for a few months until you get comfortable. But remember, your goal is to learn enough to ditch the training wheels and create your own system.

My Favorite Beginner-Friendly Cookbooks

  • Larousse Gastronomique - foundational culinary encyclopedia
  • How to Boil an Egg - simple, protein-based meals
  • I Know How to Cook - classic French home cooking
  • Vefa’s Kitchen - wholesome Greek family food
  • The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt - science-driven recipes and techniques
  • Bonus: Cook’s Illustrated Kitchen Hacks - practical tips and time-savers

Most of these can be borrowed from a library or found second-hand for under $20. Always try before you buy - libraries are a great way to “test drive” a cookbook before adding it to your shelf.

Final Thoughts

Cooking is one of the few life skills that pays financial, physical, and emotional dividends. Once you learn the basics, you’ll eat better, spend less, and feel more in control of your finances.

Good luck with your culinary and budgeting journey - your wallet (and your stomach) will thank you.

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