My new way to save money: Cook dinner, then listen to music | Canada Voices

Here’s my resolution for 2026: Cut back on dinners ordered to the house.

It won’t be easy because inertia is a powerful force. But I have a proven approach that should help.

I’m paying myself to cook.

I took a similar approach last year when I reduced my alcohol consumption to something below two drinks a week. I paid myself $2 for every day of abstinence. Each drink cost me a full day.

It’s a twist on the old swear jar, which I’ve mentioned here before.

It worked wonderfully. At the end of the year, I had several hundred dollars in savings in a virtual account I like to call Discretionary Plus. I can – and should – blow this money on something fun as a reward.

I tracked everything on a calendar on my phone. I got a bit obsessive about it.

New year, new plan, new obsession: I’m paying myself $5 for every meal I make at home. Or to be precise, $5 for every dinner we – my family and I – don’t order to the house.

According to these rules, if I make an elaborate dinner from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking (yeah, right), I move five bucks into the Discretionary Plus account.

Leftovers the next day? That’s another five bucks. And if I take it easy and throw a frozen pizza into the oven on a Friday night, that’s another five bucks.

If my partner or daughter cooks dinner, I still get $5 – my resolution, my rules – but let’s keep that between us.

I figure that even if this approach removes just one meal ordered to the house each week, we can cut the cost of our food orders by $50 a week, net of groceries, for total savings of $2,600 a year.

Sorry, restaurateurs and Uber Eats delivery people!

If I add $5 a day, five days a week, to my Discretionary Plus account, I’ll have $1,300 at the end of the year to do what I want (more on that in a bit).

My family saves money, I spend money, we eat healthier. Win, win, win.

The snag here is that if I cooked just two meals a week, I’d still make money. But I’m hoping that the $5 provides sufficient incentive to get ambitious.

I’m only five days into this resolution but I’m encouraged with the results so far. I’ve made four meals in a row and there’s leftover chili in the fridge as I write, bringing the total payoff to $25. I’m totally psyched to hit the grocery store.

The money saved is only half of the motivation.

What’s equally important is the spending part. Keeping a goal in mind is what should encourage me to tie on an apron.

This year, I’m focused on buying vinyl records. I grew up with records, then abandoned them for CDs and, later, streaming.

Now I’m going backward: I reacquainted myself with CDs a couple of years ago. And over the past month, I’ve returned to vinyl, attracted to the beauty of turntables and cover art, as well as the delightful ritual of dropping the needle.

New vinyl records aren’t cheap, though – do you see where this is going? – running anywhere from $30 to $40 and more.

I find that hard to justify, when I have tons of music already. But with a Discretionary Plus account, fed regularly by healthy homecooked meals, my guilt disappears. (Let’s just forget about the cost of a new turntable, which kicked off 2026….)

Can this approach to saving money work for anyone?

I think so. The trick is picking a dollar amount that will provide sufficient motivation, without robbing yourself (or your family).

You can target an unwanted expense. You can pay yourself to cut an unwanted activity, such as smoking, drinking or doomscrolling.

Or, you can encourage yourself to walk more, learn a new language or – note to self – read more fiction.

As for the spending part, pick any guilty pleasure. Save for a vacation, pay down debt or increase your charitable donations. Anything that gives purpose to the money you are saving.

Do you have a savings goal for 2026? Let me know at [email protected].

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