It’s time to revisit those household-management lessons from high school — or get ready to take notes if you never had that essential course. You might not have appreciated it back then, but the things taught in home economics can seriously help your finances.
Below are five home-ec skills you can use to cut costs or bring in extra income.
1. Cooking
Dining out or grabbing takeout multiple times a week adds up fast. That’s why sharpening those kitchen skills from home-ec is worthwhile.
If you prepare several meals in advance, you’ll save time and be less tempted to stop at the nearest drive-thru on hectic evenings. Just watch out for meal-prep traps that can raise costs, such as buying pricey containers or using too many specialty ingredients.
With some cooking know-how, you’ll also have cheaper options for socializing — instead of spending a paycheck on a restaurant outing, host a potluck with friends.
Cooking well doesn’t only trim your expenses. It can be monetized. If you’re talented in the kitchen, think about launching a home-based food venture — for instance, baking celebration cakes or selling homemade preserves on Etsy.
Read about how one woman turned a baking pastime into a thriving enterprise.
2. Sewing
A ripped seam, a loose belt loop or a lost button aren’t reasons to buy new clothes or pay for tailoring — not if you know basic sewing.
If you missed those home-ec lessons, check out this article for easy sewing tips aimed at beginners.
Simple sewing skills are handy for making cloth face masks on a budget or throwing together a last-minute Halloween outfit for your child. If you keep refining your abilities, you could embrace slow fashion and craft your own garments.
You can also earn money from handmade pieces. Take a look at this guide on selling fabric face coverings.
3. Gardening
Growing fruits and vegetables at home lets you enjoy organic produce without the premium price.
Gardening isn’t necessarily free — startup and upkeep can cost something — but there are low-cost ways to get started. Stretch your gardening budget by using fallen leaves for mulch, composting kitchen waste, and repurposing containers as planters. Instead of buying seeds, try regrowing vegetables from kitchen scraps.
4. Child care
If your home-ec course included basics of caring for infants and children, use that foundation to start a babysitting side hustle.
Babysitting can be an occasional gig or developed into consistent earnings as a part-time or full-time nanny. Watching multiple children at once will increase your hourly return on time.
5. Budgeting
Unfortunately, personal finance isn’t taught in enough classrooms. If you were fortunate enough to learn how to write a check and reconcile a register — good for you. Use that knowledge to manage monthly bills and expenses.
If you didn’t learn money-management in school, a beginner’s budgeting guide is a helpful place to start. You might begin by tracking your spending for a few months before drafting a budget — or examine past bank statements to set realistic spending limits for each category.
Budgeting helps keep day-to-day expenses under control, and it’s especially useful during major (and often pricey) life events like planning a wedding or buying your first house. When you actively monitor where your money goes, you’re more likely to save more of it.
Alex Martinez is a senior writer at Savinly.
