Three Heroes in my Kitchen

A few weeks ago I wrote about the concept of hiring myself instead of paying someone to do a job for me.

Perhaps because I’ve been deliberately thinking about the value of my time I am recognizing several things that I’m doing that “liberates our money.” By reducing the costs of our routine expenses, I am able to free up money (liberate sounds cooler) to put towards other things — special house projects, savings accounts, vacations, entertaining.

The things that we want to do, but don’t need to do.

One of the simplest ways I’m saving relates to my food preparation. After all, why pay someone else to do work that I have the time or skills for?

As a consequence I’ve noticed that these three “heroes” keep showing up in my kitchen sink at the end of the day, and they are saving me a lot of money!

I’m using the cheese grater to shred cheese, butter, apples, and bread to make a quick batch bread crumbs.

I’m using the pizza cutter to easily create toddler size pieces of waffles, chicken nuggets, grilled cheese, quesadillas or anything else I need to cut quickly.

And of course, my hands down favorite, the kitchen shears for everything else! Dicing fruit or veggies, deboning a chicken (especially the thighs!), preparing green beans, and making raisins, grapes, or pot roast baby friendly… the list goes on.

By doing these very simple jobs myself, I’m avoiding paying the convenience premiums that go with sliced apples, Gerber Treats, chicken nuggets, or boneless chicken breast.

Effectively, I’m “liberating my money” from the grocery store. Nice to have friends like that, don’t you think?