Which is more important:  How you spend your money…or your time?

Over the past decade and around the world, people are increasingly eating out, ordering in, and picking up their edibles.  Such habits may save time, but they typically cost much more than making your own meals.

One upside of this relentless recession is that folks may be getting more finicky about how they spend both time and money–including regarding food.  Even the French are changing their ways!  To wit:

• 66% of Americans say they have changed their food consumption patterns as a result of the economy.
• 72% of Americans now pack lunch for themselves or their children.
• The French now spend an average of 31 minutes eating lunch, down from an hour and 38 minutes in 1975.  (Which likely saves time AND money.)

As usual, such symbolic stats suggest both good news and bad news.

Bad: What’s Paris without leisurely lunches?  What happens to all those restaurant artisans and traditions?  What are the French doing with that extra hour—working?  Zut alors!

Good: If Americans are changing their eating ways, maybe (just maybe) we’ll save on both money AND calories, since packing lunch may whisper “apple” instead of bellowing “Big Mac.”  Bottom line: Growing (or at least cooking) your own is good soul food–time well spent that typically costs less.

The balance battle of money versus time wages on for each of us.  But for most folks, it’s the shortage of jingle that keeps them from dancing away on a Sabbatical dream.  Perhaps simply taking charge of your own food–rather than constantly saying “charge it”–will help people create money-saving habits that someday, someday, will lead them to a BreakAway.

And then they can go out for a long, classy lunch in Paris!    :  )