When I started to chart my expenses last year, I didn’t expect to see so much of my money going to eating out all of my meals everyday.
- I was spending close to $40 each day between meals and coffee, which is roughly how much I spent each week when I was broke in college and at ramen noodles constantly.
Since I am a decent cook, I realized I could completely change my financial situation if I could just cook all of my meals instead of eating restaurant food each day. I started watching cooking videos on Youtube and was soon investing in new knives, pots and pans, and appliances like an electric mixer, a bread maker, and a blender. I love the healthy food that is coming out of my kitchen, as well as the money in my bank account that isn’t being spent on carry-out food everyday. Unfortunately, there has been one side effect of my constant cooking that hasn’t been so great. I have to keep replacing my air conditioner filters every three weeks because they’re full of grease and smoke residue from the perpetual cooking. It has an off-yellow color and smells like the burnt residue you find at the bottom of an oven. Since I use odor absorbing filters, they need to be replaced more often as they retain the odors that they absorb. Before you know it you’ll be smelling the dirty filter over anything else in your house whenever the air conditioner is cycling. I keep several on hand because I get them in bulk on the internet. This way I can replace them more often than I would normally.