Meal Prepping with Talia Koren
Meal Prepping with Talia Koren
I have been helping people get financially fit for over seven years now. People ask me all the time about the quickest way to get financially healthy and the first place I tell them to look is their food spending. After your mortgage or rent, and possibly your student loan payment, the next largest monthly expense in almost everyone’s budget is food. Food was a huge problem area for me before I got financially healthy, and I made a number of excuses as to why I couldn’t change my ways. Well, we’re heading into a new year and a new decade so let’s stop the excuses.
Joining me today to help you make smarter food spending choices is Talia Koren, founder of work week lunch. She’s going to share lots of important tips and tricks to help you save money in one of your largest spending areas.
What Are We Drinking?
Talia — Seasonal Sam Adams
Shannon — Bota Box Nighthawk Black
Podcast Notes
Talia graduated college and got a job at a talent agency. She was making very little money and was living in Manhattan. Life got really expensive and she needed to find a way to save money.
At the time, she didn’t know that meal prepping existed, she decided to just cook a bunch of food and take it to work. It made sense to her and she noticed results very quickly. After starting she became more comfortable with her spending.
She was one of the only ones bringing her lunch to work and she was labeled as “the healthy one”.
After a year or two, people started pulling Talia aside and asking questions, because her cooking improved and her lunches looked good.
Her coworkers got curious and that’s when she decided to start a blog. She also wanted to make passive income, and she knew an online business would do that.
Talia started her blog Work Week Lunch. She took a course that taught her how to start an online business, built her audience, and figured out the first few products she wanted to sell.
The products she sold paid the rent, but it wasn’t a business at that point.
Talia had been let go from her job and was freelancing at the same time. A year after that, her mom sat her down and said that she needed to do something with the Work Week Lunch. She told Talia to start a subscription service.
That is where she is now. She works full time, and she gets to teach people all over the world how to meal prep to save money, eat healthier, and save time.
Talia is very interested in personal finance and being financially smart. When Talia was let go from her full-time job, she made a plan to freelance for three months and try to match her full-time salary. If she couldn’t do that, she was going to get another full-time job, but she was able to match her monthly take home pay, so she kept going.
Work Week Lunch is a monthly subscription that includes a weekly meal plan with five meal prep recipes. It ends up being about 15 meals for the week. It is customizable on the website and subscribers get grocery lists and tested meal prep specific recipes that are made for vegan, vegetarian, omnivores, and gluten free diets.
Talia loves cooking. It is her creative expression. When she started, she didn’t know how to cook and her food wasn’t that good.
The number one expense is usually rent/mortgage and sometimes student loan debt. Number two is usually food. The number one expense is difficult to change, but food is variable. This is the expense people have the most control over.
Shannon meal preps. She was doing her meal plan for the week at the Gym and Emily was surprised when she was done 15 minutes later. Shannon started meal prepping when she decided to get financially healthy and when she was building the Gym.
For Shannon, it is a weekly thing and she goes to the store on the weekend. Maximum is two weeks, but she prefers to prep for one week.
The more you do it, the easier it becomes and the less time it takes.
Shannon typically works from home on Mondays, but she has less time due to scheduled calls, so she uses the crockpot.
Tuesday and Wednesday, Shannon works in the city and has her son. Those dinners need to be really quick. It is usually a protein and a vegetable.
Shannon was at a wedding recently, missed her weekend grocery shopping, and they ate out for two weeks.
Now that Shannon is busier, it works better. When she was eating out, she shamed herself. You have control when you cook it yourself and it is better for you.
She found that she was missing the food she was making. For Shannon, she feels good knowing she has a plan.
The number one barrier for meal prep is people say they don’t have time for it. Many people don’t, because they have two or three jobs and they have kids. It can be difficult.
Talia has to get real with people sometimes and tell them to do what they can do. Prep breakfast or snacks. Those things really made a big difference. When Talia started, she only made four lunches for the week with one recipe, but she still saved at least $10 a day.
When Talia first started meal prepping, she was an assistant and she worked from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm. She was really busy, but she knew those meals made a big impact. Do what you can.
Another barrier is “I hate leftovers” or “I don’t want to eat the same thing everyday”. There are so many ways to meal prep and make it work and accommodate that preference.
Talia makes three different main meal recipes and between her and her boyfriend, they switch it off and she only ends up eating one or two times from the same recipe. She never eats anything more than three times.
The benefit of saving money outweighs the fact that you are eating something a couple of times a week. Not every meal is going to be the best meal of your life, and you have to accept that when you start meal prepping.
The way to switch it up is to add a sauce to it, like a hot sauce. Throw a salad with it or a different side.
Talia’s boyfriend puts the dinner in a tortilla shell and makes a burrito out of any meal. Change the shape and it feels like a different meal. It is a mind game.
We like what we are good at and cooking takes practice. To make cooking more enjoyable, get out your favorite drink or boxed wine and listen to a podcast or some music. It makes it feel like self care when you add these different elements.
Shannon has a speaker in her kitchen and she plays her favorite play list, drinks her favorite drink, and it is her alone time. Let it be self care.
Break up the cooking and cleaning. Take a break and let the dishes sit there for an hour or two and then come back to it. That helps with the process if you hate cooking, or employ someone in your house to help you.
Not every recipe works with meal prepping. Talia got frustrated and started creating her own recipes. It isn’t gourmet and it doesn’t have to be complicated.
Talia is a minimalist, so when it comes to cooking she likes the bare minimum. If you are a busy mom or dad, get a slow cooker and start with that. You don’t need to drop $80 on an Instant Pot.
If you already have the standard kitchen gear, invest in some meal prep containers. Talia recommends glass containers, because they are more enjoyable to eat out of than plastic. The trade off is they are heavier, so Talia uses both plastic and glass.
It is a one-time investment, because they last a long time. Talia likes Pyrex and Snapware, and Rubbermaid and IKEA are also good. Look for snap lids so they don’t leak.
Talia has not had any container with a snap lid spill. She puts it in her bag next to her laptop.
It is a nicer experience eating out of glass, but it does cost a little more. If you are just starting out and have never meal prepped, buy the cheaper Ziplock containers to see if you want to continue.
When Talia first started, she didn’t have containers. She would make a big stir fry, put it on a big plate, and cover it with Saran Wrap. She doesn’t recommend doing that.
If you are the type of person who doesn’t like the idea of leftovers, another type of meal prep is called a buffet prep. This is where you make a bunch of sweet potatoes, quinoa, chicken, and greens, and then you build the meal throughout the week. This can help it feel fresh everyday. However, you have to clean more dishes.
If you portion things out in containers and grab it every morning, it is easier.
Invest in a good knife. Talia’s favorite knifes are Misen. They are good knives for under $100. You only need to buy a good chef’s knife. The cooking schools she teaches at uses these knives.
Talia started cooking in a kitchen that didn’t have a working oven and it was so small, she needed to buy a rolling counter. You don’t need a big space. Talia uses her kitchen table.
The best practice is to fill in the gaps of your schedule. Look at your schedule, fill in the gaps, and prep less than that. If you prep more, you are going to end up throwing food away and wasting money.
Talia grocery shops once a week. She preps on Sundays to last from Monday to Wednesday. On Wednesday night, she does whatever she needs to do to get through Friday. She always leaves Friday and Saturday open, because she will go out with her mom or have a date night.
If she is feeling crazy, she will prep desserts and snacks on Monday nights.
Have meals that are quick and easy to make and also have quick back up meals, in case you don’t want to eat what you planned. Talia’s back up is breakfast burritos. For Shannon, it is always pasta and sauce or a frozen pizza.
What is the thing you would make that would prevent you from ordering takeout? It is faster to make your back up meal than order and wait for takeout. Don’t give yourself an excuse to spend money on food. Meal fatigue is real and will happen.
The Work Week Lunch subscription is helpful, because it provides five new recipes every week. You don’t repeat meals, only that one week.
Each week, Talia makes sure there is a different collection of protein, carbs, and flavor. If one week it is an Indian flavor, the next week will be Thai or Italian to balance it out.
Look to other cuisines. You can do chicken, broccoli, and rice 17 different ways. This is the easiest thing to do if you have meal fatigue.
Initially, Talia’s inspiration came from what she would order from takeout. She used to go to a place where she would spend $12 on salmon, broccoli, and a sweet potato and she knew she could make it at home in a size appropriate for her.
She started looking at popular takeout menus and recreating them at home simply and more affordably.
Now her inspiration comes from her audience. They have thousands of suggestions, recommendations, and ideas.
Talia doesn’t make sushi at home, but she goes to the neighborhood restaurant on a date night. When she eats out, she orders the things she can’t or doesn’t make at home.
Shannon has clients that make sushi at home. For Talia, it is intimidating to buy the right kind of fish. For Shannon, it is intimidating to get the right consistency for the rice.
Don’t assume you can make everything at home.
With cooking, there is a large margin of error. You cannot mess it up. You can revive a lot of meals with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, etc.
Not every meal you make is going to be a winner. Some are utility meals. When you are scarfing down your lunch while working, do you really taste it?
Talia’s favorite meals are her curries. They are cozy, spicy, and flavorful. She also likes her stir frys, because that is what she started making and she has improved.
To make her curries spicier, she will add more curry paste, cayenne, or Sriracha.
Talia has used Instacart. She only uses it now if the weather is terrible, because she lives in the city and she has to walk to the store. She avoids it, because they may get it wrong and you don’t get to pick the produce yourself. If it does help and you have good experience with it, use it.
Talia spends about $100 a month at Costco. This is where she will pick up meat and dry goods/pantry items. She spends $200 a month on her weekly grocery shopping for two people. This includes all produce, dairy, and random items she needs for one recipe.
Keeping their groceries low has helped them. Going to Costco saves them a lot of money on the things she uses the most.
If you buy produce at a warehouse store, you need to have a large family to go through it within two to three days or it will go bad.
Many people think impulse buys are the reason their grocery bills are so high. It is actually the lack of planning that makes grocery bills high.
If you are standing in the grocery aisle trying to plan, you are going to buy stuff that you won’t end up using and it will go in the trash.
If you are wondering how to keep your grocery bill down, it is all about the work you do before you go to the store.
If something is on sale that you aren’t planning, buy it and freeze it.
If you make extra trips to the store, outside of the weekly grocery trip, you are going to end up buying more than just one thing.
Shop your pantry. What can you eat that you already have?
Cans of beans are typically in Shannon’s pantry graveyard. There was a period of time when it was instant oatmeal, because she doesn’t eat it that much.
If you are not going to eat something that week, don’t put it in your shopping cart. One challenge Shannon gave a couple was to eat out of their pantry for a month, and only go to the store for perishables. They saved about $800 that month, because they always went to Costco.
Shannon calls another one the chopped challenge. You have to figure out what you can make with what is in your house. Take inventory and Google it. If you have shrimp, black beans, and oatmeal, figure out something to make.
When was the last time you did a pantry clean out? What do you have at home? What is in your freezer? Talia keeps a whiteboard on her fridge that is an inventory of her freezer. Know what you have on hand.
Before you leave the house, do a quick scan so you don’t buy stuff you don’t need.
The joke in Shannon’s house used to be that the crisper was actually called the rotter, because her produce would go bad before she would use it.
If you are eating out multiple times a day, even prepping one or two meals will save you money.
It keeps Talia excited, because she gets to travel with the money she saves from meal prepping. It fuels the funds for snowboarding.
Food is rarely a sacred cow of clients at the Gym. Talia saved $250 a month when she started meal planning and she was able to go to Colorado at the end of that year with the savings.
Too many people make food a need. Do we need to consume it in the ways we are consuming it? If you love Chipotle, make it part of your meal plan. Take away some of the expense from going out.
Meal prepping is an easy way to control expenses.
Doing a little bit at a time adds up.
Shannon used to go out to dinner and order out all the time. She has converted and now she goes out for the things she can’t make at home and for the experience.
TAKEAWAY: My biggest takeaway is the importance of planning your food. Just like in all areas of personal finance, a plan is the secret success and meal planning will not only save you money, but it actually takes away work week stress as well.
Random Three Questions
What is a meal prep fail?
Where is the next destination you want to travel?
If you won a million dollars, what would you do with it?
Connect with Talia
Website: www.workweeklunch.com
Instagram: @workweeklunch
If you’d like to talk to my team at the Financial Gym to help you get financially fit, I hope you’ll reach out to us. We work with clients on anything from budget and expense management (including managing food costs) to salary negotiation and making more money. The great news is that Martinis and Your Money listeners get 15% off Financial Gym services. So head over to, or send friends to, financialgym.com to get signed up today.