Introducing Someone to Frugal Cooking

[somecobwebs]

I've gotten pretty good at frugal cooking in many ways. However, I am about to switch roommates.

My soon-to-be-roommate generally does not cook, preferring to eat out at restaurants or get take out. When I go to his house, his fridge often has food that has gone bad. He is not super frugal in general, and is often too tired to cook at night (he is comfortably self-employed, so there's no job he would ever want to quit).

I know he wants to cook more, though - he's very open to it, and cooks with me when we spend time together. He also signed up for one of those ingredient delivery boxes ($5/meal), which at least is teaching him to cook when I am not present. How can I make the transition to frugal cooking easier for him so that it isn't a shock to his system when we move in together?

Steps I have already taken - showing him that we can freeze chicken in marinade for easy and delicious defrosting (a move that got much acclaim, and the announcement that we should do this all the time); explaining how easy it would be to buy the delivery box ingredients in bulk so that we could make the tasty dishes all the time; offering the use of my slow-cooker so he could cook in the mornings when he is energized....

Does anyone else have tips and tricks for making the transition to frugal cooking easier for someone?

[4alpacas]

When I decided that I should learn to cook, I stumbled upon Budget Bytes (budgetbytes.com).  The recipes include step-by-step pictures.  Nothing is too complicated.  The recipes also don't have a ton of ingredients. 

I would work on finding a single recipe your soon-to-be-roommate likes and try bulk cooking.  Freeze single portions of the meal.  Packing your lunch takes 5 seconds.  Toss a frozen bag of food in the fridge for the next day. 

[Annamal]

When I decided that I should learn to cook, I stumbled upon Budget Bytes (budgetbytes.com).  The recipes include step-by-step pictures.  Nothing is too complicated.  The recipes also don't have a ton of ingredients. 

I would work on finding a single recipe your soon-to-be-roommate likes and try bulk cooking.  Freeze single portions of the meal.  Packing your lunch takes 5 seconds.  Toss a frozen bag of food in the fridge for the next day.

Seconding Budget Bytes rec and I would suggest maybe taking them through that site until they find something that catches their eye.

Maybe make a it a weekly thing?

[somecobwebs]

This site looks fantastic! Thank you! Definitely going through this with him. Already drooling at some of these recipes...

[Ms Independent]

I love Leanne Brown's Good and Cheap. She developed it as a scratch-cooking resource for low-income families. It's beautiful, simple, outstanding -- and I love the intent. http://www.leannebrown.com/

Without knowing much about your situation, sounds like you were in a good groove with communal cooking with your last roommate -- and that probably took some time to develop. You won't have that kind of situation with your new gentleman right away, and you should plan to do your own thing (i.e., take care of your own bulk cooking even if he doesn't want to participate, maybe maintain separate groceries) and take care of yourself for awhile to avoid any roommate resentment. But I bet if you leave the door open for him to participate, he'll start to come 'round. :-)

[CommonCents]

• Cook together so it becomes an enjoyable activity and not a chore.
• Select easy recipes in the beginning, so he doesn't associate cooking with complicated recipes and long waits for food.  Only gradually increase the difficulty.
• Find out what his favorite foods are and focus on whipping up some dishes he'll like. (And then share the price tag with him.)
• Don't stress about what he does in his off time w/o you - that's his choice - but let him know you're happy to: 1) suggest easy dishes for his off time to make, and/or 2) make larger portions of dishes together, so he can just heat up leftovers.

[2ndTimer]

Take a look at what he goes out for and focus the group efforts on learning to prepare that really well. I found that being able to make good pizza and dim sum at home really cut our trips out to satisfy those particular yearnings. 

[somecobwebs]

I love Leanne Brown's Good and Cheap. She developed it as a scratch-cooking resource for low-income families. It's beautiful, simple, outstanding -- and I love the intent. http://www.leannebrown.com/

Without knowing much about your situation, sounds like you were in a good groove with communal cooking with your last roommate -- and that probably took some time to develop. You won't have that kind of situation with your new gentleman right away, and you should plan to do your own thing (i.e., take care of your own bulk cooking even if he doesn't want to participate, maybe maintain separate groceries) and take care of yourself for awhile to avoid any roommate resentment. But I bet if you leave the door open for him to participate, he'll start to come 'round. :-)

I'll definitely look into that website! And yes, my current roommate and I are in a very good cooking groove, but she was motivated by financial necessity, so I didn't have to push her at all. I think I may have to do separate groceries for a while. I can just tell that it's going to be much more complicated than my current living situation food-wise :/ Still, there will be many other benefits! (For example, his garden is full of fruit trees. Believe me, I will not let those fresh figs keep going to waste.)

 

• Find out what his favorite foods are and focus on whipping up some dishes he'll like. (And then share the price tag with him.)

Take a look at what he goes out for and focus the group efforts on learning to prepare that really well. I found that being able to make good pizza and dim sum at home really cut our trips out to satisfy those particular yearnings. 

Both very good ideas! It turns out that he frequently goes out for fancy salads, which he has called "too complicated" to make at home. That's going to be easy to demonstrate. And I've showed him how to cook a giant batch of hot and sour soup, which went over extremely well in terms of ease and flavor. 

[JeffC]

I doubt it will be a shock to the system, because home-cooked meals (at whatever price range) are usually a lot better and more convenient than restaurant food at whatever price range except maybe the very highest price bracket.  I think it will not require any preparation and he will just see that cooking is a fun, relaxing and fulfilling activity once he sees it in action on a daily basis. 

Also, I want to throw this thought out there: good roommates generally are the ones that don't get all up in their roommates' business. Trying to change habits of someone is maybe not a super good idea, unless those habits directly have a negative effect on the you (like failing to wash dishes consistently or leaving messes in common areas).