Episode: 308 - Empower Your Kids and Your Wallet: The Benefits of Cooking at Home
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Cooking at home offers numerous benefits, including building essential life skills for children and promoting financial well-being for the entire family. Involving kids in the kitchen can foster confidence, encourage healthier eating habits, and contribute to long-term financial stability.
Developing Lifelong Skills and Confidence
Cooking is a valuable life skill that empowers children with independence and self-sufficiency. By teaching kids to prepare meals, parents equip them with the ability to contribute meaningfully to their families and future households. As children become more comfortable in the kitchen, they gain confidence in their abilities and develop a sense of accomplishment.
Financial Benefits of Home Cooking
With the rising cost of dining out and convenience foods, home cooking offers significant financial advantages. Engaging children in meal preparation not only teaches them essential culinary skills but also presents an opportunity to discuss budgeting, cost-saving strategies, and the importance of nutritious food choices.
Families can save considerably by choosing homemade meals over restaurant dining or pre-packaged options. This habit, instilled in children from a young age, fosters financial awareness and responsibility. Preparing meals from scratch allows family members to participate in various aspects of meal planning, from grocery shopping to managing leftovers effectively.
Immediate and Long-Term Family Benefits
Cooking together as a family provides immediate and lasting benefits beyond financial savings. It fosters connection and communication, creating opportunities for meaningful conversations and shared experiences. Working together in the kitchen encourages children to open up about their day and feelings, strengthening family bonds.
Research indicates that regular family meals are associated with better academic performance in children and a reduced likelihood of engaging in risky behaviors during adolescence. Shared mealtimes also contribute to lower rates of depression and anxiety.
Encouraging Culinary Interest and Overcoming Picky Eating
Involving children in meal planning and preparation can help overcome picky eating habits. Allowing kids to choose and prepare dishes gives them a sense of ownership, making them more likely to try new foods and appreciate the final product. This approach gradually cultivates a willingness to experiment with different flavors and ingredients.
Practical Tips for Getting Started
- Start Simple: Begin by teaching young children basic kitchen skills like measuring ingredients and gradually introduce them to more complex tasks.
- Responsibility Increment: As children grow older, assign them specific days to prepare family meals, allowing them to build confidence and independence.
- Promote Autonomy: Encourage older children to take the lead in meal planning and preparation, enhancing their understanding of meal budgeting and nutritional balance.
- Cultivate a Supportive Environment: Emphasize enjoyment and effort in cooking rather than perfection, creating a positive and encouraging atmosphere.
By incorporating cooking as a shared family activity, parents can cultivate a wide range of skills, promote well-being, and enhance financial health for both children and themselves. Cooking at home is an investment in the family's future, fostering valuable skills, creating lasting memories, and strengthening family bonds.
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Transcript:
Brad Nelson:
Hey. So how can inviting your kids into the kitchen today lay the foundation for a lifetime of confidence, connection and healthy habits, including reducing financial stress, even Now? Today's guest, katie Kimball, is here to share her journey of teaching her kids to cook, a choice sparked by personal family experience. Now Katie explains why empowering your kids with cooking skills from a young age helps not only to curb picky eating, but also to give them the lifelong foundation for healthy habits. And Katie's insights are sure to inspire you to invite your kids into the kitchen and transform your family meals into meaningful but also budget-friendly traditions. Stay tuned.
Announcer:
You're listening to the Debt-Free Dad podcast with Brad Nelson. Brad and his co-hosts experienced the anxiety of living paycheck to paycheck before learning the fundamentals of financial success. They are now on a mission to empower regular people to pay off their debt for good and enjoy happier, less stressful lives. Keep listening for inspirational interviews, tips, tricks and practical advice to less stressful lives. Keep listening for inspirational interviews, tips, tricks and practical advice to gain financial freedom.
Brad Nelson:
Hey guys, I am Brett Nelson, founder of Debt Free Dad. Welcome to today's show. I have personally paid off $45,000 in debt, have been debt free now for more than 11 years, outside of my mortgage. I've also helped thousands of other people save and pay off tens of millions of dollars with the work that we do here at Debt-Free Dad. Now, after listening to this episode, if you want to take this a step further and you'd like to get better results with your finances in as little as 30 to 60 days, guys, I'll be sharing some details about how you can get started on that later on in today's show. So hey, katie, welcome to the Debt-Free Dad podcast. So glad that you could join us today.
Katie Kimball:
Same here. I actually always talk about cooking, but I love talking about money too, so this will be fun.
Brad Nelson:
Yeah, it's going to be good and I really am interested to have you on because I think as a financial coach, I've been doing this now almost 10 years and helping lots of people and hearing their struggles and it's interesting it's not always money related, but it's other things that cause money stress, right, and I think one of those areas that I see is a lot of families struggle with is like things like their food budget obviously spending too much on going out to eat, food preparation, cooking at home, and so I think what's cool is that, obviously, with what you guys do is you are taking this information and you're saying to parents like, hey, how can you start teaching these methods and some of the values and benefits of cooking at home with your kids? And but I think some of the stuff you're going to share today is also going to help us as parents too.
Katie Kimball:
Well, there's such an immediate benefit to sharing the mental and physical load of cooking Right. So, yes, we want our kids to live lives as healthy, independent adults like there's that future casting goal. But also, if you can have 10 minutes of your dinner prep time done by a child, you've got 10 minutes freed up to spend time with your children. It can be that simple. So there are definitely immediate family benefits to time and money as well.
Brad Nelson:
Yeah, I love that. So were you always good at this, or how did you get into this whole idea of helping people with this?
Katie Kimball:
I'm a teacher by heart. I mean, I was trained as a teacher, but it's because the way my brain works is just teaching other people, so I used to teach third grade left that to start my family and I was sort of thrown down the gauntlet personally, as like trying to raise a baby and thinking everything he eats is so important, ounce for ounce, right Like every bite and the ratio to the number of pounds that he is like. This is really important and it was very stressful to me and and so I was figuring out a lot. I was figuring out how to cook from scratch and making all the mistakes, but as I'm spending time in the kitchen in silence because I would just, you know, there was a lot of media 20 years ago. Boring times makes for good thinking and I kept thinking how can I help other moms like me shortcut this process? How can I help prevent them from making all these mistakes just in the healthy cooking?
Katie Kimball:
And then it was when that first baby was about 10 years old that I sort of was hit in the face. He actually he was doing a how-to speech at the end of fourth grade and I had to come because I had to bring the chef's knife for the guacamole. They don't let you put chef's knives in 10-year-olds' backpacks. It's just a thing, it's just a school thing. And so I got to be there watching him and I was so proud of him, like he's using a knife and he's whacking the pit out of the avocado. But I also had sort of a come to Jesus moment and I thought, oh, this is the only recipe he knows how to make.
Katie Kimball:
And I'm over the halfway point of the 18 launch time, you know, and I'm like I I gotta get cracking. Like I've been helping parents learn how to cook. That was my first blog, was kitchen stewardship, and so I've been helping parents learn how to cook for about six years and I thought I might. I don't want to run out of time with my own kids, because if I only teach them how to eat healthy but they don't have the skills to unlock the produce section, they're going to be in the ramen noodles and frozen pizza section. Like, I've got to pass these skills onto them. So that was where I got started. So, no, I did not always do it perfectly, but I always have this heart to help people and to be a good steward of everything I've got, whether that's time, money, nutrition, the environment, all of it yeah.
Brad Nelson:
Yeah, I definitely want to get into the big conversation of how can you start number one doing this for yourself, but also, how do you start passing this down to your kids? Because there's amazing benefits and it's not just the cooking part that we can get into it. I'm sure you can share a lot about that Now. You mentioned the word. When you got started, there was a lot of mistakes that you were making. You mentioned you used to teach adults and now you're helping them teach their kids.
Katie Kimball:
Like what do you find that people I think mistakes with cooking is just like trying a recipe that's not going to work for your family. Or like me, like when I say mistakes, brad, I'm not talking like philosophical problems, I'm talking that I would open the can of biscuits, put them on the cookie sheet and burn them Like I was not good, we would, we, we all talk all the time about burnt biscuit bottoms because we would have, we'd like eat the top of the biscuit because they're so cheap and we would throw the bottoms off of our apartment deck to the ducks. So yeah, like the mistakes are not pretty, but I think, I think when it comes to eating, people make a lot bigger philosophical mistakes, right, they choose convenience over budget, they choose speed over nutrition and that's a much more tangly web. Yeah, yeah.
Brad Nelson:
So can you share a little bit about some of the benefits? Because again, I feel like we can get into a lot of things with this because I've heard all the excuses. Like Brad, I could save more money on groceries if I could coupon more, I would meal prep more if I had more time in the kitchen to be able to do some of that stuff. But can you share what are the benefits of doing this at home, and especially with getting your kids involved? Because sometimes I think people it kind of goes over their head. Like on the surface level, yes, I'm eating at home, I'm saving money, but there are other underlying benefits. There's statistics about what it means to eat around the table as a family and what that can mean for the whole family. There's a lot involved in this. Can you share a little bit about that?
Katie Kimball:
It was a delightful surprise for me because I told I entered in it very practically like, oh my gosh, my kids will need to know how to cook when they're old, and also I have four kids and I just need a little help, right. So there's those practical benefits. But but the more I started, you know, working with my kids in the kitchen and then working with thousands of families around the world too, we see the families just connect, like when you are working shoulder to shoulder on dinner. First of all, that's where the great conversations happen, because you're not making eye contact and freaking out your kid, you know. You actually get to hear their heart and their day in their lives. And then we see confidence for kids to know I get on this soapbox a little bit, brad, so stop me if I get too crazy, but we live in this participation medal society. That really makes me mad. You get a low award for everything, which means the awards mean nothing and praise is diluted. And so for a child to learn an authentic skill that adults do, not just any authentic skill, but the skill we need to stay alive. Right, they can nourish another human's body, and to see the way they feel about that is incredible and I sensed it for years and I actually said it for years, that the confidence built in the kitchen like it spills out into other areas of life. They're more confident in academics and social situations, et cetera.
Katie Kimball:
And I interviewed a sociologist not too long ago and she confirmed that. She said, yeah, absolutely. Like we have one sort of personal success self-esteem bucket, and if you build self-esteem anywhere, it applies everywhere. So that is that is so powerful. Our kids need it.
Katie Kimball:
Yeah, confidence, we know statistically that you know one third of teens are depressed or anxious clinically and that number has been going up and up and up and up. The second leading cause of death for 10 to 24 year olds is suicide, like what it's not cutting your fingers in the kitchen. And so for people who are like that's scary, there's knives, there's fire no, no, no, no. Like the world is a lot scarier place. So we've got to give our kids these protective factors like self-esteem. And you mentioned the family dinner. It's one of my favorite topics. You know, when you're cooking together, of course you're eating together, and family dinners are protective against really dangerous, risky behaviors like drug and alcohol abuse, like depression and suicidal tendencies, and in fact, eating family dinner is a higher predictor of academic success than time spent in school and time spent on homework.
Brad Nelson:
That is insane.
Katie Kimball:
It's so good.
Brad Nelson:
You can't ignore that. Like it is just, and I agree, I agree that now we're a family of seven of us and so do we always get around the dinner table every night? No, we don't, because we got kids everywhere, different schedules and things. But I can tell you the times that we do, yes, it's chaotic, it's crazy. There's definitely much more connection between everybody than, say, if we all just quickly get something and one person's eating over here, one person's eating over there.
Brad Nelson:
And even my own personal experience, like as a child, I love cooking. As an adult I love it, and I remember getting that enthusiasm because my mom cooked and she would show me, not everything, but she would show me the basics of how to just measure things out and just baking and things like that. And I began. I remember I used to play chef when my mom was at work. We used to stay home from school all summer.
Brad Nelson:
I used to play chef, I used to make up my own creations and all this stuff in the kitchen and then she'd come home and yell at me and say, where's all my stuff? But you know, that's where my joy of cooking came from. And you're right. As an adult now, it's so cool to be able to show and share that with my kids now and show them how to cook and show them how to make things and see how excited that they are that it actually tastes good. It's pretty cool. So where do we start? As a parent maybe who didn't cook or didn't have a joy for cooking, and now I have to kind of share you know and teach my kids some of these basic things and cooking skills Like where, as parents, do we start with this?
Katie Kimball:
Part of it is just getting your mindset in the right place and getting over the psychological roadblocks. So I think a lot of parents are like, oh, kids are so slow, kids are so messy. It's going to be really annoying. So make sure you keep your own motivating factors top of mind, that I really want this for my kids. I know it'll be good connection. I always tell parents that it's much more productive to cook with them in the kitchen and you end up with a meal or a snack than to make crafts and you end up with glitter all over the house, right Like we crave quality time with our kids, so it might as well be productive.
Brad Nelson:
Gosh, that's so good, it's so true too.
Katie Kimball:
And then break it down, like again, psychological blocks. If someone's listening to this and thinking, oh great, katie's saying teach your kids to cook, add that to your to-do list. No, like it's so overwhelming. So just start. Start with one simple skill like measuring a teaspoon of salt flat, that's it. I mean, if you, especially if you, have like little kids, what do they do? They love repetition. You watch a little kid in a sandbox they're, you know, they're scooping, they're pouring, they're scooping, they're pouring, and you're like man, that looks boring. Then they are building their brain, though, and so why not give them a little bowl of salt or sugar or something easy that won't even make that much of a mess, and just teach them to use the flat part of a butter knife and scrape flat the little teaspoon and the little quarter cup, and they'll enjoy practicing.
Katie Kimball:
They can be hanging out in the kitchen, but not in your elbow room, and they feel like they're doing something. And then so here's the power of that. You got a three-year-old, five-year-old, seven-year-old, whatever, who can measure a flat teaspoon. Now you can say, oh, mom's cooking, dad's cooking, I need two teaspoons of oregano and one teaspoon of basil in my spaghetti, or whatever right. You can set them up at the table. Again, space in the kitchen is a big roadblock too. Like at the kids at the table. It's a better height for them anyway.
Brad Nelson:
Right.
Katie Kimball:
Give them the basil, give them a little spill bowl, give them the teaspoon, right, say, can you measure one flat teaspoon of this? They bring you the bowl and you can check it, if you want, surreptitiously, don't let them see. You check it and you add it, then at it. Then you set them up with the two teaspoons of oregano, whatever it is, and then at dinner you say, oh, this tastes so good. Who put the good smelling, good tasting stuff in here? Yeah Right, and that's positive self-esteem building for these little ones. So that's you asked first. So I thought little, little little kids don't do that with your 12 year old. Yeah Right, they'll be on to you in a second. It's not going to go well for the bigger kids. Knives and fire. It's fun, it's motivating to teach them how to use the stove safely and if they're afraid of it, do everything with it off. Yeah, it's cold, you know. Talk about it.
Brad Nelson:
Can you talk a little bit about like you mentioned and you read a little bit about you. You have a lot of stuff for picky eaters too, so I'm interested. That's one of the hardest parts that we have as a family is finding like one thing to make that everybody likes. You'll have like five of us that are like and then two of them like nah, I don't really want that. So what do you do in your family to come up with one idea? How do you get your kids involved in some of those decisions?
Katie Kimball:
Because every suggestions we don't want that that's what we hear so super important for parents to stay in your lane that if we ask kids what they want to eat, we're giving them way too much responsibility. It's actually stressful for them Like we think we're doing. You think you're doing a nice thing there, but the analogy is that it's kind of like if you were on a plane to go somewhere and the pilot came back and said hey, anybody want to fly this thing today?
Brad Nelson:
you'd be like I think that's your job dude.
Katie Kimball:
So when you say to your kids what do you want to eat, they're like their heart is going. I think that's your job, like I'm pretty sure I'm the kid in this situation. So don't flip it, don't ask them what they want to eat, just serve it. I mean it's a fun motivating factor to help kids want to learn to cook. To say, you know, when you cook, you do get to choose the meal and that's cool. But in general, the parents should be choosing the meal. And what to do to make sure that everyone has something to eat is that the meal is never just one thing, right, like it's not just the casserole and there's no sides, no salads, no apps. You know what I'm saying.
Katie Kimball:
So, like in our family we always have cut lettuce, we always have like this tray of carrots and cucumbers and stuff like that, and so if I know that my main course is something that one or more of my kids are not super fond of, I'm going to get out more salad toppings that are heartier and more satiating. So the jar of walnuts is going to come out, the sunflower seeds Maybe I'll open a can of chickpeas. I'm not short order cooking, okay, this is all stuff. That's just like constant rotation for dinner. But if I know they want to eat the main course, then I'm going to think like so, perfect example. We love a bunch of us in the family. We love the egg roll in a bowl.
Brad Nelson:
Oh yeah.
Announcer:
Spicy mayo on top of it so good.
Katie Kimball:
And my youngest. It's just not his jam Like. He's like mom, you know, I don't like this one. I said I know, but there's rice, you know. So he can just put a little soy sauce on his plain rice and he'll make a really, really dense salad. So there's always something without someone having to break the family unity of the table and go get their own food. That's what I teach is. I think it's really important for families to eat all the same stuff. You just have multiple options, yeah.
Brad Nelson:
So have you always been doing that? Or what do you suggest for parents Like I have? Okay, Admittedly, my son's a picky eater, so the other night I made chicken fried rice. I have a Blackstone, I love cooking on my Blackstone and made chicken fried rice. Everybody else in the house loves chicken fried rice, but my son, Noah. He's going to be 15. So I've been and I probably shouldn't have, but I have made him separate meals when I know he ain't going to like it. Or I'll let him choose, or now he's getting to the age it's like well, dude, if you don't like this, well then you're welcome to make your own thing if you would like. But now that I've screwed that up, probably, what can I do to get him involved with some of those things when it hasn't been like that? Because I'm sure there's a lot of parents who are out there who are like me, who have kind of probably let their kids choose. So what do we do?
Katie Kimball:
I recommend to parents to play team one meal, that the whole family eats one meal. Sometimes that's a multi-step shift. So, like the fried rice for you it'd be, you could either deconstruct the meal for Noah. Would he eat the chicken by itself or the rice by itself? Yeah, so that could be like one way to still have that family unity of. Hey man, before I mixed it all together on my awesome Blackstone, too bad, you're missing out. Yeah, you pull out a little bit of the egg or a little bit of the chicken, a little bit of the rice and let him choose how he mixes it together. Experience bites or taster bites are also a really important habit to start to get into. So we always require that a bite goes on the plate of everything. We never require that a bite goes in the mouth, because that's you can't follow through on that, like if I said, brad, you have to eat that and you were like, no, yeah, right, what am I going to do? Am I?
Brad Nelson:
going to put it in your mouth and make you do.
Katie Kimball:
Like parents, don't say things you can't win.
Brad Nelson:
Right.
Katie Kimball:
Right, if you can't follow through, don't say it, because you're just, you're opening up problems. So we just call it an experience bite or a taster bite your plate. But man, you don't have to eat it, don't worry about it. And that builds exposure, like scientifically. The more times that we're exposed to the sights and smells and maybe taste but maybe not of a food, the more our body gets used to it and we get closer to accepting it. So for some kids, especially kids who have like sensory sensitivities, who are on the autism spectrum, this is really a big deal. Anyone who's picky, maybe they need like 150 exposures to broccoli before you know, before they're going to accept it and so they don't want 150. Serve like full servings, but just one bite at a time.
Katie Kimball:
And this brings us back to cooking, because this is really cool 150 bites of broccoli on a plate sounds exhausting for a parent. You're yeah, I can see you doing the math. You're like, how many years is it going to take for 150 bites of broccoli to go on the plate and get thrown away for exposure? But any exposure counts. So if Noah goes to the store with you and he picks up the broccoli, puts it in the bag, that's an exposure. If he washes it, that's an exposure. If he cuts it with the knife, which is very motivating for a 15-year-old boy, that's an exposure. If he cuts it with the knife, which is very motivating for a 15 year old boy, that's it. And then he's cooking it. So you can have a lot of exposures without any pressure to eat, which I think are even more helpful exposures. So that's another good reason to get the kids in the kitchen, because they're learning to make friends with food without that thought of like oh somebody is going to make me put this in my mouth.
Brad Nelson:
Yeah, can you give any suggestions, especially for, I mean, with little kids? Probably, obviously we have younger kids and they're always excited to do stuff right. It's the older ones that are like you know they're on their video games or watching a movie, or they're on their phone or their tablets or talking to friends or doing. It's those ones that probably are a little bit harder to get excited about cooking. Now, that's boring, I don't want to do that. Any suggestions on how to get kids even excited about doing it?
Katie Kimball:
When people actually use my course and make it sort of a little bit of a more formal thing where there's a time, like we're doing cooking now. Inviting friends is great. It adds to the chaos a little but as you know, with a big family a little chaos can have big reward as far as fun and motivation factor, and so letting them invite a friend or cousin or something over is awesome. This, um, this idea of positive praise forming a loop psychologist call it the confidence competence loop. So you raise your competence in something you know how to do it, it feels really good. You're like oh, then your confidence goes up and it turns into a loop and you want to come back.
Katie Kimball:
So as parents, we just got to get kids into the loop the first time. So for older kids, if you can plan it so that you're going to a party or a potluck or grandparents are coming over some situation where you're bringing food and there are other adults who are going to eat it, and it'll just happen If you can get them to help in that situation, then you tell the other adults like, oh no, I made this, you know. Or the seven-year-old made this, whoever. Immediately the other adults pile praise warranted on the kid. The kid's like, hmm, well, that felt pretty good. And then hopefully that confidence, competence loop takes over and the next thing you say, hey, do you want to do? You want to learn something else in the kitchen? You've got. You've got a little bit of a snowball rolling and hopefully you can just push it down the hill.
Brad Nelson:
Yeah, these are such great tips. Now, as they get older, do you ever with your kids, or do you ever suggest to your students that go through your course, that, like, at some point the teens take over? At some, you know, do they have responsibilities, like to do the whole meal, and how does that look?
Katie Kimball:
So my life right now. My kids are 19, 16, 13, and 10.
Brad Nelson:
We're all about to be very jealous, I bet right now.
Katie Kimball:
Yes, but remember, don't compare your beginning to anyone else's end. That's right. That's right, but I'm just saying the three older kids each have one full meal a week where I'm in here working and it starts smelling good in the house.
Brad Nelson:
Oh my gosh.
Katie Kimball:
So and my husband takes one or two, so I only have three or four dinners a week that I'm even responsible for at all. So, yes, and you said how do you do it? First of all, this is debt-free dad. So let's talk about the fact that if you could swap one going out to eat a month with a kid's cooking night, how much are you saving? Yeah, you know, depending on where you live and what kind of bougie restaurants you like to go to, yeah, you could begin to really save a lot just by giving one a month to the kids, and one a week is a great goal. Kids cooking night one is a great goal. How to do that? Here's how I did.
Katie Kimball:
It Is we chose a recipe that everyone in the family loves, so you got to figure that out first. Obviously, we talked about how that's hard. For my two big kids, it was homemade pizza, okay, every Sunday for one full school year, and they worked together. They were nine and 12 at the time, so nine's maybe a little young. You know to do it yourself. Although my nine year old was my girl, she could have done it. The boys need needed the girl to like tell them what to do.
Katie Kimball:
So the nine and 12 year olds. They made homemade pizza every Sunday for a year. They got so good at it. They were like we got to walk in the kitchen at 417 to be done, you know, for five 30 dinner. Like they knew, in this nine minutes when, like the crust is baking, we play cards, it was we had a playlist. It was so cute and awesome and delicious and, actually, speaking of time freedom, that freed me up to volunteer at church. That's how it all happened.
Katie Kimball:
Right, I said I really want to help with high school youth group. My husband said that's at dinnertime. No, because you are going to hand us a half finished dinner and stress out and freak out and you're going to leave and I'm going to be like great. So I asked the kids tacos? So they build mastery. There's a million ways to do this right, but I love that they can build mastery on a family favorite recipe.
Katie Kimball:
And then the second year you start switching it up and you say, all right, every other week let's try something new. And it doesn't have to be new. They've never made it or never even seen it. They're on Pinterest or whatever. It can just be new to them, but still a family favorite. And so now the two older ones like they plan and cook their own meals. Number three we're just in the point. He doesn't even know it yet, but I'm about to tell him you can't only make tacos again this year. We're going to switch it up a little bit, because he was in a sport for the first two months and so that just ended a couple of weeks. So I'm like, okay, it's time, it's go time. Katie, I got a step two, you know.
Brad Nelson:
I got to step two. You know I love that and I love that. I love how simple it is because we might, as parents might, think like well, they have to make a different meal every time. I love that. It's just one thing you make them do all year round. I would have never even thought about that, but how genius. Like you said, with the mastery side of it, they'll probably open up their own pizza place one day. I'm sure there's a lot of parents who are like man, three nights not having to cook that's amazing. So how do you? You just mentioned like this is every day. So I'm just curious, now that they're responsible for some of that, do you get them involved with the grocery shopping and the food selection? Like how does that all work? And or even the budget for how much you spend on that stuff?
Katie Kimball:
had them at the store. But my 19 year old is a year and a half out of high school and so he's starting. He still lives at home because he started his own business. He decided college debt was not for him Yay, awesome. But he just did a hiking trip with friends and so he made his meal plan. They did not eat out once in four days a bunch of 19 year old kids and he made his shopping list and I gave him a few like tips and hints and then we went to Costco and he saw his bill after and he knew it was only like half the stuff he needed, cause the rest was at Aldi, and he went what I? Why? Why is this already in the three figures, you know? So it was very eyeopening for him.
Katie Kimball:
But I do. I try to talk to my kids about money and I'll tell you something a conversation I just had with my eighth grader on Monday is I'm a huge proponent that convenience food has its place and it's when you really need it, right. So we have a subscription to some quite expensive grass-fed meat sticks, but there's a rule Like you only can use that if you really need it. If you need your emergency snack that's in your backpack for two months, or we take him hiking, whatever. Well, my 13-year-old, he's a very what is the nice word for lazy, time-assessing individual? He's an energy conservationist. That's a nice word for me. He conserves his energy.
Brad Nelson:
I love that.
Katie Kimball:
So when he's packing his own lunch and I'm not in the room, he tends to grab two meat sticks, two cheese sticks and some assorted things from the fridge. And so we had to institute a rule. I say, listen, man, you can only rely on those meat sticks a max of once a week. And I told him I said they're $2 a piece I'm rounding up a little bit, but you know they're $2 a piece. I said cheese sticks are 50 cents to a dollar a piece, depending on quality. And I could see him doing the math and his eyes got a little big. I said yeah, we have leftovers. You know we have hard boiled eggs.
Katie Kimball:
This is a really important rule because it doesn't make sense for you to sit on the couch for 10 minutes and read a book before school because you packed a super quick, energy-conserving lunch. So I try to talk to them about why we make some of the decisions we make and for me, sometimes we prioritize health over budget. So I'll spend more on something that's maybe organic or grass fed or a little bit higher quality, because I see that as an investment in staying out of doctor's offices and being on prescriptions later. But we conserve a lot of our money by making from scratch Even something. I mean this is almost silly, but something as simple as cutting the carrots instead of buying baby carrots. It's like 50 cents a pound savings. But if you got your kids who are cutting the carrot sticks every week, I mean we, I don't know, we go through pounds of carrots a week.
Announcer:
I don't know how your kids do it.
Katie Kimball:
But that's, that's the favorite like, just grab it vegetable. So you know a buck or two a week you're saving. It starts to add up and so all those little things. If you are doing the labor instead of paying someone else to do the labor and package it up, it matters.
Brad Nelson:
Yeah, that was one thing I was going to ask you. A lot of people will opt for, you know, convenience or speed, and you're paying a price for that. But then people will also use the excuse eating healthy is like really expensive, you know, it's just that general kind of excuse. So are there things in your family that you guys do to cut costs or save? You had mentioned Aldi. I'm a big fan of Aldi too. I think that's one of the best things that you can do, but are there things that you have found within your family that have been really helpful when it comes to just keeping healthy food on the table?
Katie Kimball:
Love me some Aldi. Yes, I buy in massive bulk. I buy 25, 50 pound bags of oats. We go to our local farmer and we get hundreds of pounds of apples and they last in Michigan and I know you're in Wisconsin. You could do this too. We put them in our garage in the winter and they'll last from September to January.
Katie Kimball:
And we're making homemade applesauce, we dry homemade apple chips, so a ton of stuff like that. My trifecta ever since I started kitchen stewardship back in 2009 is homemade chicken broth, homemade yogurt and using dry beans. Ok, beans are always a savings over meat. Everybody knows that dry beans are even more of a savings over canned beans, so I buy those in 25 pound bags too, and so that's a that's a big one. Homemade yogurt I figure I save a thousand dollars a year, wow, wow, yep, versus buying it, because we go through about three quarts a week and homemade is much, much less expensive. $1,000 a year, I mean, that's almost like $80 a month.
Brad Nelson:
You're saving just right there. Crazy, right. I mean, we talked about it, you were gracious enough to let me come on your podcast and we had said you know, a big part of obviously being successful with improve your finances is just making it a priority and being intentional. It sounds like this is kind of the same thing. It's just making it a priority, right.
Katie Kimball:
It really is. It really is Like I could. The third thing, that was his homemade broth or stock, and so I could go buy soup right, or I could go buy broth, or I could buy really fancy, expensive broth that's healthier the broth at the quality I make it. They sell it now. They didn't sell it back when I started online. You can buy it now made from real bones et cetera. It's about five to $6 a cup and it costs me about a dollar to make three gallons.
Brad Nelson:
Wow.
Katie Kimball:
Start doing the math. If you're doing a convenience food and you're grabbing that rotisserie chicken at Costco, save them bones.
Announcer:
Yeah.
Katie Kimball:
You throw some water on them and some garbage, literally like carrot ends, celery ends, onion skins, the stuff you throw away, you throw that in there. I have some going right now in my Instant Pot. I'm on the second batch of broth with the same bones, and so I made a huge batch of homemade soup yesterday. It didn't cost very much and so those, I mean that's huge. We're not talking about couponing. It's not a 55 cent coupon. Yeah Right, it's like tens of dollars and multiple tens of dollars for one batch.
Brad Nelson:
Yeah, that's incredible, katie. This information has been so good, so many great tips and, just again, a lot, of, a lot of hey. Maybe we need to start doing some more of this stuff in the house, and not only just the benefit of healthy eating, but being more connected as a family. So for those of you who are of you especially me who are jealous that your kids cook three meals a week, how can you teach our listeners? What do you have to offer? I know you mentioned a course Like how can people learn more about you?
Katie Kimball:
Well, I like starting kids with knives. I do. I believe knives belong in the hands of all children. Don't quote that out of context, it doesn't go well. But your listeners can go to kidscookforallfoodcom, slash free knife and get access to my 10 minute knife skills and safety class. It's for ages two to teen, because I think teaching the same way to hold the knife in the food with a butter knife and a banana for a two year old, very similar to the chef's knife and the onion for the 12 year old. So we just we teach those real basics in with some fun language that families can share, and it's a great place to start, or just start with that teaspoon of salt, like whatever you will do this week. That's where you start.
Brad Nelson:
Awesome, Katie. I love your passion for this. It's been awesome to have you on. Thank you so much.
Katie Kimball:
You're so welcome, it was fun.
Brad Nelson:
All right, guys. So if you want to pay off more debt, you want to save money, you want to take control of your finance, you want to reduce financial stress and you want to start seeing way better results than you've ever seen? No-transcript, all right. That's all means. It's time for the celebrations of the show, and today we are kicking off with Paige. Paige says, since starting Roots, I've paid off $15,746.92 as of today. Which, guys? That's in about a 15 month period. I can remember when Paige started and she said I don't know how I'm ever going to be able to get through this, but check out how far she's come. That's averaging, guys, a little over $1,000 a month in extra debt payoff, which is incredible, paige, congratulations to youne. I've been with Debt Free Dad and Roots for one year now and I've paid off $9,133.15. Claudianne, I know you've been working hard too. Huge congratulations. I got to think that that just feels amazing when you see that number.
Brad Nelson:
And Jess, last but not least, for today, sharing a good old, faithful tip. She says have a light snack or meal before going grocery shopping oh my gosh, jess, so good. Or even out to run errands, so you're not stopping for snacks. Also, make a list. It helps reduce unnecessary and duplicate purchases, as well as saves on gas. Jess, thanks for those tips. I appreciate the reminders. Hey guys, as always, congratulations to all of you guys who are taking a stand for your financial life and are wanting better. Hey, we get that. Getting out of debt isn't easy, but with our help and with your consistency and discipline, hey, we promise you guys, this will be some of the best work that you guys do in your entire life. Thanks for joining us on today's show and we will see you guys on the next episode.
Announcer:
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