Why Cook at Home?

It’s a funny question, actually? Cook at home? Where else would you cook?

If we said “eat at home,” that’s also weird, because even when we get a frozen pizza or fast food, we’re often eating at home.

So, honestly, the topic of this post is really: Why Cook?

Why Cook?

It tastes good. When you cook at home, you get to make it exactly how you like it. May picky eaters rejoice! Extra cheese, no cheese, or anything in between, cooking at home allows you the freedom to suit yourself.

It can be more healthful. While it’s not a sure-fire guarantee, studies have shown that cooking at home can help reduce health issues and promote good nutrition. It could be that there are fewer preservatives when you cook from scratch or simply that you’re not supersizing it. Regardless, home cooked meals can lead to better health outcomes.

It can boost your confidence. The things that our grammas could do with their eyes closed, like bake a pie or carve a chicken, are now considered lost arts. Learning how to make more foods homemade can boost your confidence and give you a sense of accomplishment. Teaching kids to cook is likewise beneficial to them as well.

It feeds our sense of nostalgia. Who doesn’t have a favorite family recipe that takes them back in a Proustian moment? It might be the Ratatouille that Ego’s mom made him or the classic English pickle that you remember from home. For me, it’s probably the Kringle my four siblings and I made for every Norwegian heritage project we ever did in school. Cooking at home gives you the opportunity to savor sweet memories.

It’s cheaper. And of course, when we get down to the bottom line, we know we will save money when we cook at home. With a regular meal costing around $10, there’s never been a better time to break up with fast food than now.

Make It Easier to Cook at Home

It’s one thing to say, “I’ll cook at home.” It’s altogether another to actually do it.

If you’re not already in the habit of cooking at home, it may feel a bit overwhelming at the start. That’s when I lean on the wisdom from Atomic Habits, one of my must-read books for adulting:

Here’s how I propose to make cooking at home a habit:

1. Make it obvious – decide not to buy food out, but to cook at home instead.
2. Make it attractive – choose foods you know you love and can afford.
3. Make it easy – learn strategies for simplifying meal prep so that it’s second nature.
4. Make it satisfying – create a savings goal to reward yourself of this change in behavior.

Make Cooking at Home Obvious

The meaning behind making it obvious isn’t always, well, obvious. But consider these steps:

• Figure out exactly what you want to cook and post the plan where you can’t miss it. Remember you don’t have to cook every day. You can cook meal components to mix and match in different ways.
• Schedule a specific time to cook each day or each week. Block it out on your calendar.
• Stack meal prep with something you already do on a regular basis. If there’s a weekly show that you always watch, do your meal prep at the same time.
• Make it harder to get take out by changing your route home and/or deleting the apps from your phone.

Cook Meals You Love

Make cooking at home attractive by making meals you love. This is a key step in the Good Cheap Eats System and for good reason!

When you cook meals you love, you won’t want to eat out or settle for frozen pizza because you know the home cooked meal is so much better.

Keep in mind to make meals that the regulars at your table also love. Making all meals happy meals for the people sitting there will reduce wasted food, wasted money, and grumpy faces.

Knowing your eating habits and those of your household will help you meal plan more effectively.

Make It Easy to Cook at Home

Easy is relative. What seems simple to one person may feel insurmountable to someone else.

Think about the things that get in your way when it comes time to make dinner. Common stumbling blocks include:

• “I’m not in the mood for the meal plan.”
• “I forgot to thaw.”

If this is you, plan several different options or have some go-to back ups on hand so that you can pivot when you need to.

But honestly, if you’ve already worked in the obvious by scheduling a time to prep and organizing your meal prep, it’s more a question of just putting in the work.

Some things that can generally help in the actual work:

• Organize your workspace so that it’s easy to find things and put them away.
• Tool up with the best kitchen equipment.
• Simplify your meal plans if they are too cumbersome.

Tip –> Be sure to read Home Cooked Meals: Recipes & Tips to Make Them Easily

Make Cooking at Home Satisfying

A good eat is already satisfying, but a good cheap eat? That’s next level satisfaction. Cooking at home allows you to save money so that you can meet your financial goals.

Whether you’re paying down debt or saving for something special, when you set a financial goal, you give extra fuel to your efforts to cook at home.

This is what I did when we were paying off debt: cooking at home made a huge difference in our debt-free journey.

If money doesn’t do it for you, set another worthy goal like mastering sourdough, learning to prepare all the French classics, or cooking through a favorite cookbook. Whatever you do, decide what makes cooking at home satisfying to you.

DIY Dinners Help You Cook at Home

This month on sale in our store is the DIY Dinners Kit. Make it easier to make dinner!

These six resources will equip you to plan the very best meals for your family, build your pantry on a budget, and give you the tools you need to make easy homemade classics, from pie to party fare.

Included in this bundle:

• A Month of Easy Homemade Meals
• A Month of Meals: Back to Basics
• How to Cook Meals You Love
• Budget Pantry Builder
• Fall Party Planning Kit
• Easy as Pie Guide

This resource is FREE to members of the Good Cheap Eats Club in October 2025. Join now to save even more.