Gearing Down

One of the most difficult things in an economic downturn is having to quickly learn to live in straitened financial circumstances. Curiously enough, food waste often actually goes up immediately after such a downturn, as people try to economize and purchase unfamiliar items, particularly cuts of meat that they don't know how to cook properly.

So one of the most important skills to learn if you have reason to anticipate a sudden reduction of income is how to cook less expensive foods in tasty ways. Buying food that just goes in the garbage is a false economy, whether it spoils because of uncertainty about how to cook it or the family flatly refuses to eat it.

In fact, even if you haven't been hit yet by economic reverses, it might well be the time to get the family used to eating a wider variety of foods, and especially less expensive ones. Find a way to make it an adventure instead of a deprivation, so there'll be less resistance when it becomes a necessity.