Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Plugging those value leakages

Part of my job at work is to ensure that there are no value leakages in our JV Cos. By doing so, I ensure that whatever we put in… we get back, plus more.

At home, I try to practice the same. Well, not literally. Its more like, whatever we put in…. it better be worth it!

Our biggest value leakage at home, where expenditure is concern, is food. We eat out A LOT!! And the stuff we eat outside, I probably can make it myself at home. But being the lazy bum that I am busy, I hardly have any time to cook at home at all.

So I’ve decided to turn over a new leaf. I have started cooking at home…. Finally I am fully utilizing the stove which I paid an arm an a leg for. Now, though it sounds straight forward, there is an art to it to make this work! Some of you may be able to relate to it.

I go to the market every Sunday morning. I LOVE going to the TTDI market, I dunno why. I’ll get the stuff that I need to cook for the week, which really is not that much. Before that, I would first come up with the menu… then buy what I need. Am I sounding neurotic? Not really. Read on.

I will not buy leafy vegetables, as this will not last the week. Everything else is fine. For chicken, I’d buy a whole chicken, but ask the butcher to chop it up and divided into 3 portions, so I can store and defrost the portion we will need. Right now, we only buy rice in 1kg bags. Yup I do. And it goes into the fridge.

Then I will cook everything on that Sunday, enough to last the week. I will also cook all the rice that we need, to last the week. So when we come home from work, all we need to do is microwave everything, and we will have dinner ready in about 15 minutes!

Now why you might ask, do I plan my cooking so carefully. Well in the past, we have thrown away so much food, due to it going bad and us not eating them fast enough, cos we are like busy all week and end up not eating at home most of the time. Now I cook smaller portions so it is eaten up in 2 meals or so. So there would be no wastage. As for the rice, I’ve thrown away so much beras, it’s a SIN. I used to keep it in the cupboard together with my other dry food stuff, but those black little bugs keep attacking it! So now, we buy 1kg bags and we keep it in the fridge. Works like a charm! More expensive, but at least it does not end up in the bin.

Ok so how much many do we save?

I spend typically RM50 ringgit for food at the market for 2 weeks supply.
Everytime we go out for dinner we spend around RM70.

You do the maths!

While this may sound obvious, I was fooled to think that cooking for 2 persons was more expensive than eating out. Though it was true at the beginning, what made it economical was cooking everything in one day for the week, rather than cooking everyday.

Yes I have successfully plugged value leakages at home.
BTW: at the TTDI market, there is one guy who sells dim sum stuff like siu mai and wan tan and things like that. He also sells all sorts of noodles including wan tan noodles. We tried his wan tan and it is really sedap! His little stall is on the first floor of the market, where all the food stalls are. Try it! I am yet to defrost and try his dim sum stuff which I bought a while back

3 comments:

citykoos said...

waaah!! u cook now beb? caya lah! ;> eh, nasi can freeze huh? that i never try.. but to plan a menu for a week? uuurrrgghh... u beginning to sound OCD! hehehe... am going to sydney tomorrow!! well, tonite actually.. so excited!!!

Lin said...

have to lor. Its not that hard raelly. Surprisingly easy to do. alaaa.... just cook 3 lauk for the week cukup ler. Am no gourmet chef!!

Have fun at Sydney!! Bring me back a fridge magnet.... if u sempat read this that is hehe....

citykoos said...

oh dunnit! tak sempat baca lah.. i bought u a kangaroo though.. mebe u can cellotape it to one of ur many fridge magnets already! hahaha.. oh man, am so dreading to go to work tomorrow..