My boyfriend (20) and I (18) have been living together for 2 years in an urban apartment. For us, it usually goes like this:
- Delivery
- Eating out
- Cooking at home
We visit our parents (and they visit us) often, and they give us lots of home-cooked food. We mostly cook at home just for fun.
I’m curious what it’s like for other people, especially in different age groups or family setups!
My partner and I are mid-40s, and our meals go like this:
- Cooking at home
- Delivery
- Pick-up/take-away that we pick up from the place ourselves and then eat at home
- Eat out at restaurant
Reason being for all this:
I enjoy cooking
Partner and I both have no issue eating the same thing for dinner ever day for a week or more, so I make a huge portion and then we eat it for an entire week/until it’s totally gone
Delivery costs are expensive, even before tip
Partner and I both have dietary restrictions that make ordering from somewhere difficult when they’re not clear about what ingredients they’re using
We save a ton of money by cooking at home
- Cooking at home
- Take out (not delivery)
- Eating out (sit down)
I live alone and I get meal kits delivered so I can cook at home
Keep track of your spending. Don’t just eyeball it. Dining out and delivery are very expensive.
Like a couple weeks ago I ordered dinner to eat with a friend realized the bill was like a whole week’s food budget all at once.
Rice, beans, vegetables, cheese, wraps? Like $5. Ordering two similar burritos? $30. That savings adds up.
Anyway, to answer your question and stop giving unsolicited advice: I almost always cook at home. I don’t have the income to do otherwise. When I had a high paying job I would order more food delivered.
Cooking at home
getting cooked food from home
Eating out (usually due to work)I have always cooked at home more. At this point I can make food as good or better than what we get at restaurants so only go out to have a good time. Once every two weeks or so we do get takeout (or more precisely, husband gets takeout) because I won’t have time to cook, and about once a month we go out to a restaurant.
Work lunches half leftovers and half restaurant, there is a Panera across the street from work and a cafe in the building that has a grill, a fully cooked meal, and a sandwich line, so not like fast food.
ETA: Mid 50s, work full time and then some, husband and still 2 kids at home plus usually the girlfriend of one or the other of them (the kids not husband, lol)
Haha I wish I could afford that! I live alone and I’m in my mid twenties. Instead it’s more like:
-
Quick meal (requires little prep and little cooking time, maybe some garlic spaghetti)
-
Big meal (a big stew I made a few days ago and put in the fridge)
-
Porridge (super reliable, very cheap, incredibly fast to prepare, add frozen blueberries)
And then:
-
Eating out (a good treat for a special occasion)
-
Delivery (it always ends badly)
Pad with rice if ever possible. Eat some beans. Frozen vegetables with seasoning salt.
-
95% cooking at home. It can be like simple meal to more complex. I love cooking so I don’t mind. And we are saving up so such that way. Eating out is getting more and more expensive and what I am getting in my plate is just shrinking. Delivery? When we want something very specifics. It happens once or twice a month.
We would go out once in awhile when back when but that sorta transitioned to pickup as we found our home just much more comfortable. We were doing it pretty often but inflation has us almost always cooking now.
We tend to do pickup 1-2 times a week, and 1-2 times dine out. Occasionally somethibg fast for breakfast or lunch.
85+% cooking at home. Cooking is often a little generous - sandwiches, something premade from the grocery, simple things like cereals are maybe as much as half of that.
Eating at a restaurant easily costs 4x+ what I can make at home, even fast food.
I’ve done the math many times. My average plate at home costs no more than $2 (and I eat pretty much whatever I want).
Let that sink in. Calculate the difference over a week, a month, a year.
A lot of the younger generation has been convinced to live above their means, or at least in such a way that they are not preparing at all financially for their future.
Since most of them can’t cook and are afraid to try new things, they just eat fast food for most of their meals because it’s embarrassing for them to prepare their own meals.
Pride has much do with it, although it’s undeserved.
Holy moley, the expense of that
Delivery: never, too expensive when we can just take the car and get what we want.
Eating out: mostly me on her, oh you mean food, nah, only ever on date nights, which with two kids is maybe once a month if we’re lucky.
Cooking at home: probably 345 days of the year. Cheaper, tastes better, more healthy, setting a good example for the kids.
I envy your financial situation that you can afford to do that.
My weekly grocery budget (single person household) is £25 (~US$34), which is about the price of a decent meal for one person in a low-end restaurant here. Seven days food and other household supplies for the price of one meal. Stop and think on that for a bit, maybe.
Family do help me out from time to time, but they’re not exactly rolling in money either, so what they provide would otherwise be covered by that budget. They just help me stretch things a bit further.
Could I afford to spend a bit more? Possibly. But I like to keep a little extra put by for that inevitable disaster where I have to hire someone to fix what neither I nor my family can handle.
Perhaps importantly here, I like to know that I could get by without family help, and I’m pretty sure I could. Can you say the same?
Would you be willing to discuss your grocery list on that budget? I recently allotted myself $175 per 2 week pay period for groceries for me, a single man living alone. I find myself going over. I think my biggest weakness is snacks, which are extremely difficult for me to not have on hand.
Cans of soup, microwaved, for the occasional hot meal. Cold meals most of the time. For various reasons, that I won’t get into, I don’t cook.
Breakfast is toast (2 slices) or cereal (1 small bowl). Soy milk. Cow’s milk would be way cheaper, but I’m intolerant. Tea. What can I say, I’m British. I do like a cup of tea.
Lunch is mixed nuts (~30g) - technically a luxury, but I figure they have minerals I need - mixed dried fruit (~50g) and a slice of multi-seed bread. Another luxury, but again, this is mostly about nutrition. Apple juice half and half with hot water (~450ml total). Dilution makes it go further and the heat raises the flavour profile a bit from cold diluted.
Yes, I know apple juice isn’t very nutritious.
Evening meal is usually a sandwich. Plain white bread. A slice of some pre-packaged meat or another. Sometimes processed meat, sometimes an actual slice. Those are more expensive. Salad also in the sandwich. Sometimes I have the aforementioned soup instead. Tea, of course.
An extra cup of tea here and there. I do have biscuits (cookies) in the house and I get through a handful of those a day. I should do without tbh, but they’re pretty much my only food vice. If things get really tight, those would be the first to go. (I’ve already had to stop buying the “budget” chocolate bar I liked because it’s three times the price it was three years ago.)
I have a few other canned goods (beans, meats, fruit) that I buy when I can and then break into occasionally. Sometimes I buy noodles when they’re on offer for a treat.
Most of the above comes in two or three levels of quality versus price, and I get the highest quality I can of each while remaining in budget. If I have to buy toothpaste or toilet paper or whatever, I drop the quality of something else in order to fit it in.
If there’s any general advice I can give here, it’s substitute your snacks with a drink you really like instead. Preferably a cheap, low calorie one that’s mostly water. Yes, it means you pee more, but you’re full for a while, and you’re hydrated.
I should probably also note that my BMI is, and has been, fairly steady around 25, which is the heavy end of healthy on the above diet for a good while now. If I became less sedentary, I’d probably lose weight at first and then level out around 20 or so.
No one should have to do without tea. That would be inhuman. The cooking thing is the serious rub for you I think. Beans and rice would be a terrific addition to this diet. You have your reasons though, as you said, which I’m sure are very valid.
Some thoughts:
- Buy in bulk - if you compare unit prices, you’ll see the bulk version is usually cheaper
- Make your own snacks - e.g., granola is pretty quick and easy to make at home
- Try Aldi or Lidl
- Give generic versions of things a try - a lot of the time they’re pretty close to the ‘real’ thing
- Things that are convenient are usually more expensive. Just looking online quickly, I see the big tub of old-fashioned oats is $6.39 for 30 servings (=21¢/serving), vs a box of instant oatmeal at $3 for 8 servings (=38¢/serving). So to save money, choose the less convenient version.
- Plan your meals before you shop, and pick up only what you need - this helps avoid impulse purchases
And on buying in bulk - if funds are limited you can ease into this by budgeting for ONE bulk item each weekly shopping trip. It will build your pantry, you don’t have to make a big immediate outlay.
👑
Snacks are an incredible waste of money and they have some of the largest profit margins of all grocery items. $5 for a bag of chips that isn’t even a pound is disgusting, but they charge it because people pay it. It only makes sense to buy snacks if you’re wealthy from screwing other people over, or you’re on welfare.
If you want to eat cheap, you need to swallow your pride. Probably one of the best meals that just about anyone can make is a microwave meatball sub with raw broccoli and carrots on the side. Extremely easy, very cheap, filling, and it’s always going to be delicious if you’re actually hungry.
Get used to eating the same things over and over again, and stop treating food like entertainment.
It only makes sense to buy snacks if you’re wealthy from screwing other people over, or you’re on welfare.
Hmm… It is easy to hate the rich, but are you brave enough to despise the poor
What are you talking about?
or you’re on welfare.
If you are asking in earnest. You should really give some thought where the conditioning to repeat this trope is coming from.
I am not even going to dispute that some poors have bad spending habits but that ain’t what this comment is about.
You can eat cheap and still enjoy it, without so much repetition.
I agree with cutting out mindless snacking though, that’s not good for you.
A lot of people don’t understand is that food out is a luxury.
The entire premise of the OP assumes that people have this choice lol
£25 (~US$34), which is about the price of a decent meal for one person in a low-end restaurant here.
Bullshit.
Maybe I could have been clearer about the number of courses I was talking about.
The last meal I went out for was a family outing paid for by a relative. There were five of us (one a child) and we all had a two course meal and drinks. The bill was well in excess of £100. This was not an upscale restaurant.
Yes there were cheaper options on the menu. The starters, and maybe a couple of the mains were under £10, but that’s just one course.
Why are you being so unpleasant?
I’m curious where you live that dining out is so cheap and welfare pays so much.
You don’t have to be curious. Just about everywhere there is civilization, you can eat at a restaurant for under THIRTY-FOUR FUCKING DOLLARS. The fact this needs to be spelled out to you should be a wake up call to anyone who isn’t living in your privileged bubble.
A better question would be, where are you living where you can’t find a meal for under that price? I’d love to know so we can do some internet searching and see if you’re telling the truth.
Dude
Original comment was a bit hyperbolic.
More realistic number for anything that requires 20% tipping, 20usd in any tier 1 and tier 2 us cities. That’s like very basic one dish, nothing else.
Always cook at home, eating out as a treat once in a while and never use delivery.
Same here. Except pizza. I’ll get that delivered, because it doesn’t involve a third party.
Id like to go out more often, but nowadays, I can’t take my family out to eat for under $100.
I have a different point of view. Pizza is one of those things that’s easy and cheap to make myself, so I make that myself.
On the rare occasion I do order or go out to eat, I prefer food I can’t cook myself very well, like persian or asian food.
Yeah, pizza is more cheap shit with insane profit margins.
True, and we do this as well, but pizza is the answer to not wanting to cook or put on pants.
On the rare occasion I do order or go out to eat, I prefer food I can’t cook myself very well, like persian or asian food.
This is the way. I don’t have the means or qualifications to handle a rotating shawarma spit. Some things are best left to the experts.
For me, that’s sushi. I do not have the fine dexterity and patience required to put that together myself.
Neither do I but we still do it with my partner and friends. We don’t do normal sushi and instead make sushi burritos. The sushi burritos are faster and easier.
You don’t have a shawarma spit in your kitchen?
It’s just for show
Just like my sex dungeon.
because it doesn’t involve a third party.
Man, the rationales some people have for why they let some people rip them off but not others is mind-boggling.
Really reinforces my opinion of the average person.
I can’t take my family out to eat for under $100.
Are you in fucking Belize? Do you have a family of at least 8? Are you horrible with money?
Or maybe this is just hyperbole.
It’s about $75, plus tip for two people to eat anywhere that’s not “fast casual” where I am- California Bay Area. A “nice” restaurant it would be considerably more.
So it’s hyperbole.
You’re literally ignoring the restaurants that don’t help you support your argument.
Shit is insanely overpriced, especially in the entitled and privileged area that you live. You don’t need to lie about costs.
I’m not really sure what your point is, but we are a blended family, so yeah, there’s a lot of us.
Sure, I could get $5 Biggie Bags at Wendy’s for everyone for under $100, but if we’re going out it’s because we WANT to, not because we need to shovel the cheapest food we can find into our mouths. We got Chinese on Friday. After tip it was a little over $100, and we didn’t even have all the kids with us. Which is why we only go out once or twice a month. The rest of the time, were cooking at home, or in case of emergencies, order $40 worth of pizza.
Ok well, the point was that you can eat at a restaurant as a family for under $100.
Exactly, eating out is crazy expensive compared to making your own food. I like to have a few bigger dishes with easy meals to fill in the gaps, and rarely eat out so I can save that money.
