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  • Americans should spend about 14% of their income on food, according to Melanie Pinola at Lifehacker.com. In actuality, they spend about 12%. That is a huge chunk of income that could be reduced by half to two-thirds using the Fix It Forward Method.

  • “From 2015 to 2016, for the first time in history, Americans spent more money at bars and restaurants ($54.857 billion) than they did on groceries ($52.503 billion). And while data from previous years still show grocery sales edging out restaurants and takeout, that shrinking margin points to a serious spending problem among consumers “

  • “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2014, the average American household spent $2,787 on restaurant meals and takeout, compared to $3,971 on groceries”.

  • Most food establishments charge a 300% markup on the items they serve. This means that any time you spend $15 on an entree, the food you're eating only costs $5 to make. The fact that the average American family spends just over $3,000 a year on prepared food means we're all cheating ourselves out of an annual $2,000 -- money that could be instrumental in padding our emergency funds, getting out of debt, or saving for the future.  Maurie Backman

  • https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/01/01/heres-what-the-average-american-spends-on-restaura.aspx

  • With that 300% markup, your month of meals would cost you $300 at a restaurant. That’s a savings of $200 for two and one-half hours of work involved. In other words, if you were to get paid

  • to fix your gourmet meals, you’d make $80 per hour for doing it, tax free. Would you agree to this rate at a job? I would. Of course, what about shopping time, you say? Assuming you are going to haul yourself to the grocery store once per month to get your goods, you’d spend sixty, or maybe ninety minutes per month, at most, shopping. Let’s add that into the equation. Then, you’d be making $57 per hour. Still not too bad, more than twice the average hourly wage of Americans: $22 per hour. 

  • Once you have streamlined your system, shopping should take less and less time on each trip. You can cut the shopping and buy online, but I’ve discovered that not only do you pay a delivery charge, but the ingredients are limited and the price is higher.  If you really want to save time, try Wal Mart’s grocery pickup service.

  • Shopping once per month reduces impulse buys.  “Over 90% of people who shop today make occasional impulse purchases that they didn’t intend to buy initially.” Up to 20% of the average household’s grocery bill comes from items that were purchased on impulse alone. Feelings of anger, guilt, or boredom drive impulse buying behavior. Impulse buying decreases by 13% on planned shopping trips. Brandon Gaille http://brandongaille.com/18-dramatic-impulse-buying-statistics/  So, keep yourself out of the grocery store! Shopping once per month decreases impulse buying.

  • Shopping, cooking and storing food without a plan increases wasted food. According to  Maurie Backman “76% of Americans admit to throwing out leftovers on a monthly basis.”  And “we're throwing away almost 16% of the food we buy.” While Backman says, “ 53% of respondents say they waste more food when they buy in bulk.”, the author includes the caveat that buying in bulk without a plan increases waste. https://www.fool.com/retirement/2016/11/03/heres-how-much-the-average-american-wastes-on-food.aspx

  • Next, let’s look at the time saved in cooking all these meals from scratch, at five minutes per meal, instead of thirty. Let’s also not forget that ordering take out and driving to pick it up takes at least twenty minutes. So, a savings of twenty-five minutes per night is equivalent to twelve and a half hours of time saved per month!

  • Eating at home is healthier in two ways. First, the ingredients are higher quality and you control what goes in. Secondly,

  • “Large numbers of people are affected by food-borne diseases each year. In the US the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there are 76 million illnesses each year from both known and unknown causes.”

  • “Poor personal hygiene by people who are ill, especially not washing hands properly

  • People who are ill touching food or surfaces where food will be placed, or coughing and sneezing nearby” Harry Wood, http://www.rentokil.com/blog/how-to-avoid-food-poisoning/#.WYcQKIjytPY

  •  “Buffets are popular for being self-serve and all you can eat. You can even rummage through each serving platter to select your favorite parts. Unfortunately, the spoon or tong you are using to help yourself is the same spoon hundreds of other hungry people used to get their food. Some of these people just went to the bathroom in the restaurant and did not wash their hands. Others just coughed or sneezed into their hand or blew their noses because of a cold or flu. And few, if any, washed their hands before grabbing the same serving spoon you just grabbed. Then you use your hands to eat, introducing buffet-borne bacteria and viruses into your body.

  • It’s enough to make you sick, and it often does.”  SYDNEY ROSS SINGER http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2015/04/bacterial-buffet-all-you-can-eat-illness/#.WYcQ4ojytPY

  • While you may lose some of the inherent nutrients in your food by cooking and reheating it, you also reduce the risk of developing a foodborne illness. According to the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse, about 75 million people get sick in the United States from contaminated food and about 5,000 die. LINDA RAY http://www.livestrong.com/article/505377-how-reheating-food-destroys-much-of-its-nutritional-content

 

Additional Benefits:

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