I started this while in gradschool---left gradschool about six months ago, after seven years. It is so funny how this particular habit has stuck on me. I have found I actually enjoy cooking now [...]
Yes! I've been doing it for 3 years and I found another benefit which is improvement to my "skill" in cooking. I have a lot more intuition on cooking times, required temps for recipes, and general choice of ingredients. Doesn't sound like much but it's nice to be able to _quickly_ put together a good tasting meal
It saves me around $50 per week. If I funnel that into my student loan, I'll save about $15,000 in interest from making the extra repayments.
That's the magic of compounding interest.