Secret to Eating More at Home and Saving Money?

Does your grocery/eating budget look impossible, but cooking at home feels like a chore? This ONE tip will save time, money, and your sanity!

“Britt…ONE tip will help me out this much?”…yes…yes it will. For loving my kitchen so much, I am sad to say that this is one of my least favorite things to do. I hate it actually. Always have and probably always will. Unfortunately, we have to do things we don’t want to do, or don’t like doing all of the time, right?! So what is it???

It’s the dishes, y’all. Doing your dishes will work wonders for your home, your budget, and your meals. Do you remember in my Tips for Decluttering Your Home post, I referenced this lovely lady named Dana K White and one of her books Decluttering at the Speed of Life? This whole book revolves around her number one tip for keeping a neater home…doing the dishes. I love Dana and this book because she writes it as a messy person that had to get it together somehow. If you are messy start with her as a resource and with this one task. If you have tons of things still to declutter…just start doing the dishes. Do them every day and without fail.

Thank goodness I ran across Dana and was able to listen to her book on audio! If doing the dishes is a duh, no brainer for you…let me say that I am truly happy that you have a good housekeeping foundation! I will also say that when I cooked more processed food instead of cooking things from scratch, I would have said this was a no-brainer as well. I only had to run the dishwasher once every few days. But then I began cooking from scratch which can make more dirty dishes at first. I also stopped buying paper goods which creates more dirty dishes. Fast food was not an option anymore since we now live 15 minutes from even the closest gas station! I found myself needing this no brainer, tough love advice of washing your dishes every day.

The Sink of Dirty Dishes Scenario

When you commit to doing the dishes on a daily basis, you are more inclined to cook from home. A simple statement, but let me really paint the picture for you. You have been at work all day, working in your home on some project, or just get back from running a kid to some practice. The whole family rolls in the door and the first question out of everyone’s mouth is, “What are we having for supper?”.

You might even have a meat thawed out and in the fridge awaiting it’s final destiny in your favorite quick and easy weeknight meal, but it needs to be cooked tonight or it will go bad. You go to start preparing the meal, but the skillet you need is in the sink. Your second choice cooking vessel is dirty beside the sink because the sink is completely full. Then you might even have a third pan still sitting dirty on the stove.

Not only those are dirty, but so are your cooking utensils. You stand there looking at the dishes. You are doing math in your head of how many minutes it will take to wash a pan and utensils that are at the very bottom of the sink pile. That sink is so full that you will also have to wash some of the dishes to even be able to wash the pan and other utensils you need.

The dishwasher is full of…you guessed it…more dirty dishes because you forgot to run it the past 2 days. It will be 15 or more minutes before you can even get the dishes clean that you need. If you are a recovering perfectionist, you then think you might as well wash them all if you just wash a few. Then you hear the question from one of your sweet family members again, “What’s for supper? I’m hungry.” One of 3 options pop into your mind.

• Let’s just go pick up something from Whataburger
• I guess I can cook a frozen meal…that will be ready in an hour, because your sheet pan for a pizza or chicken strips is also dirty. Everyone is hungry now…I guess they will just have to wait or get a snack
• Sandwiches on paper plates, a microwavable meal, or sandwiches

The Clean Dishes Scenario

Let me paint you another picture. You walk in the door from your day and everyone is still hungry and asking what’s for dinner. You walk into the kitchen. Pull out the thawed meat from the fridge that needs to be cooked tonight. Respond with “spaghetti for dinner in 20 minutes!”.

You pull the clean stock pot from the cabinet and put it down in your empty sink to fill it with water to boil your noodles. You then pull down the clean skillet from your pot rack and put in the ground meat you pulled from the fridge. But where is that meat chopping thing I always use to break up my meat? You open up the dishwasher that is full of clean dishes that you ran last night, grab the meat chopper, and get on with your cooking. 20 minutes later you have a dinner on the table that your family loves. You didn’t waste the meat you intended to use. You also only have tonight’s dinner worth of dishes to do.

Now, you can either hand wash those dishes in about 5-10ish minutes because there are so few to do, or put them in the dishwasher. And you only had last night’s dinners worth of dishes to put away from the dishwasher because you do the dishes every day.

How Does Doing the Dishes Make Such an Impact?

Thank goodness…it’s been a while since the first scenario has played out in my home. I can’t say that it never happened. In reality it happened way more often than I would like to admit! It’s pretty embarrassing to air my dirty laundry…or dirty dishes in this case, but I am willing to if it will help someone else out!

When you do the dishes daily like in the second scenario, you don’t have to go get fast food. You don’t have to waste other food you have good intentions on cooking. You also get to eat a good home cooked meal that everyone enjoys.

When you do the dishes daily, you also can more easily declutter your kitchen of things you never use. It is fresh on your mind which dishes use daily because, well…you’re using them. If you are using what you like and what you cook with all the time, then there is no reason to keep spare items around that you really don’t like to use or need!

How Our Life of Doing the Dishes Daily Looks

Since I am in the habit of doing the dishes daily…

• I am prepared to cook whatever I want daily
• I save time overall
• Cooking is more enjoyable in a cleaned-up kitchen
• Our meals are better and better for us
• Even a “fast food” meal like frozen pizza or chicken strips are less of a chore than hitting a drive thru
• We don’t waste food
• There is more money in our bank account because we don’t eat out all of the time
• Our eating out budget is used for a nicer “special” treat at a sit down restaurant vs being wasted on drive through junk
• I only keep and use the dishes that I actually love

Final Thoughts

You might be wondering, “Why should I take any advice from this lady who gives simple tips like doing the dishes daily?” Number one…I might give simple tips, but they work. And number two…if anyone has screwed something up or had to learn the hard way, then had to figure out how to fix it and not let it happen again…it would definitely be me. I’m not revolutionary for sure…I’ve just been there overwhelmed by my own home that I am supposed to love, but didn’t. And you don’t have to be where I was either.

Take your home back. Cook more for your family. Enjoy cooking in your kitchen. Save money. All of it is possible by just doing the dishes!

Other Farmhouse 181 Recommendations

If you enjoyed this blog post on doing the dishes, you might enjoy these other Farmhouse 181 posts as well!

• 10 Lower Budget Everyday Kitchen Workhorses at Farmhouse 181
• Tips for Decluttering Your Home…for the Messy People
• Kitchen Cleaner DIY All-Purpose (SIMPLE Make it for Pennies)