Hungry with Jean Chatzky

"When people look at the thing that is ruining their budget, it's always food."

One of the first questions you have to ask yourself if you want to save money is: Where am I spending my money now? According to finance expert Jean Chatzky, the answer almost always surprises people.

“When people look at the thing that is ruining their budget, it's always food. It's always food,” she said. “It's either a lot of eating out or just over-buying at the grocery store — buying ingredients multiple times that you don't need.”

This is especially true today, when food prices are historically high and President Trump is promising tariffs that could push them higher. So for this week’s “Hungry With” interview, we talked to Jean from her home in Philadelphia. You may know her from her 25 years as financial editor of the Today show, or from her many books, or her excellent website and podcast, Her Money, which she founded — sorry men! — to inspire women to better manage their personal finances and develop long-term security and confidence.

And it turns out that Jean has advice on more than just how to manage your finances. She has tricks to avoid eating too much of the candy she loves, thoughts on how to avoid that sad desk salad, plus three grocery store finds. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Before we dive in, I discovered deep in your bio that before you found your place in the financial world, you went to cooking school! Tell us about that, and what, if any, skills you learned there are still indispensable.

JC: When I was in my 20s and trying to gain a foothold as a financial writer, I got stuck. I was having trouble getting that next job, and I decided that maybe I should be [food writer] Molly O’Neill. And so I enrolled in a six-month course in cooking at the New School, started writing some food stories, and gained 10 pounds.

I loved it. But spending all day cooking was not for me. So I got another job in finance. But what I learned, what has stuck with me, is the pleasure of entertaining.

I don’t understand why it stresses people out. If you're feeding people, they appreciate it. It can be terrible and they appreciate it! You are opening your home and setting the table and creating an environment where they don't have to think about what's for dinner. And that's a huge gift.

Do you go to an office or work from home? How does that dictate breakfast?

I work from home. One go-to is a half a bagel with butter and American Spoon Preserves. I order it by the case — especially the sour cherry spoon fruit. I also make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which is more spoon fruit than it is peanut butter.

The other is oatmeal — Quaker, old-fashioned, not quick-cooking. It goes in the microwave with a packet of Sweet’N Low, and a lot of cinnamon, and a bunch of raisins for three minutes on high.

Oh, and it's coffee all morning. We make Starbucks at home in a Mr. Coffee, half-caf, because I want to be able to drink it all morning. If I make full-caf, then I'm going to be shaking.

You know, working from home impacts how I eat a lot. I snack. I find myself going to the kitchen the way you would get up and go talk to someone. I find my way to the kitchen, and I eat nonpareils or whatever other things we have there that I should not eat.

Oh, so you’re a snacker? Any faves?

I have a sweet tooth and I keep candy in the house. I didn’t used to. When I lived in the suburbs I would only keep candy in the car; it was my way of restricting my candy eating. I love Sour Patch Kids and Twizzlers — and I don't like the nibs, I actually like the pieces that have a little more heft to them. I also like Necco Wafers.

Wow. That’s old school. Do they still exist?

Yeah, they exist. You have to seek them out, but when I find them, I buy them.

For people who do go to an office, eating out for lunch can get expensive really fast. Any hints on how not to blow your food budget on those sad desk salads?

I think if you're going to have a sad desk salad, you should make that sad desk salad at home. If you're going to actually spend money on lunch, I think it should be a great salad or a sandwich. Or I love the idea of going to a Japanese restaurant for lunch. There's a Japanese restaurant around the corner from me called Zama that just has the best lunch deals. And I can go with a friend and we can sit for an hour and we can have some conversation and I feel like I get out of my apartment and I eat something I wouldn't make for myself.

Do you put your cooking skills to work at dinner?

My biggest struggle with dinner at home is that I don't like to decide what's for dinner. I can cook it. But deciding is a huge amount of pressure.

So that's the deal that I struck with my husband. He decides what's for dinner. And every day — almost every day — he sends me recipes from The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal or whatever he's coming across, and I make it.

So this week he sent me a recipe in The Wall Street Journal for a sweet potato and mushroom hash with a fried egg on top. It was supposed to be a poached egg, but I tried to poach the egg and I failed miserably … so I fried eggs — all the recipe wanted was a runny yolk — and it was great.

If we are uninspired, it's something with chicken thighs on a sheet pan because you can't really mess it up. If I want to do something special, maybe it's some fish other than salmon or it's spaghetti and clams. We really love that.

The big news of 2023 and 2024 was rising food prices. Inflation has slowed but many prices haven’t fallen back to previous levels. A lot of us have sticker shock at the grocery store. In a time when “good” food costs more, what advice do you have to lower your grocery bill?

Don't freak out about having every ingredient.

This is something that I learned from Sohla El-Waylly when I had her on my podcast. Think about what happens when you’re making a recipe. It says you need sage. You don't have sage. And so instead of substituting something that you actually do have, you go to the store and you not only buy sage, you buy five other things. And then you come home, and you spent $30! You can substitute so much more than you think that you can.

So yes, the advice that you've gotten many times before that you should plan your meals in advance, that you should load up on chicken and salmon and other things when they're on sale and put them in your freezer, that you should make sure that you actually use what's in your freezer, that’s true.

But if you can get yourself into the mindset where if you don't have thyme, you use sage, or if you don't have sage, use oregano, you can save money. They all add flavor. If you can allow yourself that sort of freedom, you really can use much more of what you have in your house.

We love a good recommendation: What are your top grocery store finds?

I love prepped butternut squash, because I hate chopping butternut squash more than I hate chopping most things. And I find butternut squash is really versatile, right? It can be a side dish, but it can also be just a base for a soup or a stew.

I also love the fact that you can sometimes, although not always, get Graeters ice cream from Cincinnati in grocery stores, which means I don't have to mail order it. (And yes, sometimes I mail order it.) I went to summer camp outside of Cincinnati and so I think Graeters is better than Jeni’s, better than Van Leeuwens. My flavor is chocolate-chocolate chip.

Oh, and my other favorite grocery store product lately is Grapeade Spindrift. It tastes like grape soda to me.

Finally, what’s the last great piece of food advice you received?

I read a series of articles that expiration dates are a lie. I've been having this battle with my husband for a long time about throwing things out if they’re not eaten by the best-by date. But he showed me the stories from The New York Times and other places, and now I'm more willing to trust.