How to Save Money and Avoid Waste While Cooking

It’s hard enough to cook dinner or bake a batch of cookies with kids running around, plus knowing you have laundry that needs folding, lunches that need packing, and dishes that need doing — never mind if you’re trying to follow a recipe that’s written with metric measurements. 

The last thing you want to have to do is break out a pen and paper and do some math problems just to figure out how much heavy cream you should stir into your pasta sauce. 

That’s where this grams to cups converter comes in handy. Simply input the ingredient you’re working with, the measurement you need to convert, and the quantity, and you’re done! The calculator can quickly convert over 50 ingredients to ensure you have the perfect measurement every time — including butter, flour, sugar, and more. 

Or if you need a quick reference for liquid or dry measurements, check out the printable below. Hang it on the fridge or inside your pantry door for easy access in the kitchen! 

Not only is this convenient, but it can even help you save money by reducing waste from wrong measurements. For example, have you ever baked a cake only to realize you accidentally used too much flour or not enough oil and had to throw the whole thing away? If not, count yourself lucky. For those of us who know this feeling of devastation, it can be hard to muster up the energy and courage to try again.

As you get started, keep these additional kitchen hacks in mind:

• Develop a “menu” for the week. Knowing what you want to make before you make it will reduce stress and make the cooking process go faster. Plus, it builds excitement for what meals are to come.
• Make grocery lists. The best way to avoid wasting money is to prepare a grocery list in advance. It takes a little planning, but you’ll be glad you avoided impulse purchases on ingredients you don’t end up using.
• Know when to be precise. Some recipes require ingredient precision while others allow you to play around a bit. If you’re making fried chicken, a little extra oil and flour never hurt anybody! If you’re baking cookies, using too little butter can result in a dry and chalky final product. 

Now, you can get it right the first time and avoid wasting time and food in the process. Whether you’re testing out a new after-school treat for the kids or you’re meal planning for the week ahead, these tools are here to help. That’s what you call a win-win!