7 Reasons You're Eating Out So Much
2021 update: I'm running a bit behind today, so please enjoy this goodie from the archives.
Takeout food can certainly be a godsend on a crazy day, and eating in a restaurant is an awful lot of fun.
But oh man, it's so expensive.
And the more people in your family, the more you feel the financial sting.
Even a fast food meal can run our family $35 or more, and that's not something I want to do every night of the week!
So.
If you're wanting to cut back on your extraneous spending, eating at home is a super place to start.
The problem is, getting dinner on the table every night is a bit of a challenge, which is why the takeout/restaurant industry sucks in so many of our dollars every year.
So, here are some reasons you're probably having resisting the siren call of a restaurant, plus suggestions for avoiding the temptation.
(I'm able to make this list because, um, personal experience...)
1) You don't have a plan.
While some people are able to poke through a nearly-empty fridge and concoct a delicious meal, the vast majority of us need a plan.
It doesn't have to be anything fancy, and you can plan for just a few days at a time if a week is too overwhelming.
A big benefit to having a plan?
When you shop, you'll be able to buy the proper ingredients for the meals you want to make, and that's a huge help in sticking to your cook-at-home plans.
(How many times have you ordered pizza because you were missing a key ingredient for your meal??)
2) You aim too high.
If you are an idealist, you might be trying to bite off more than you can chew when it comes to dinner prep. If you plan a dinner menu with four fancy items on it, you might get so overwhelmed, you decide you don't feel like cooking at all.
A simple meal that you actually cook is way better than a fancy meal you don't get around to cooking!
3) Your idea of what makes a dinner meal is too narrow.
If you get past the idea that dinner has to be a large cut of meat with two sides, lots of quick and easy possibilities open up.
Breakfast for dinner, sandwiches, soups, and salads are all great options that don't require many hours in the kitchen.
4) You don't let anyone else help.
If you shoulder all of the cooking responsibility in your home/dorm/apartment, you'll probably burn out. Let a roommate/spouse/kid take some of the load off.
I'm pretty guilty of this one, but this summer, I'm kicking off the Teach My Children To Cook initiative which means that (hopefully!) in a few months I'll have some competent chefs in my house.
5) You don't think about dinner until 5 pm.
Even if you do have a plan in place, it's good to review it early in the day.
If it's 5:00 before you realize that you need to thaw or marinate something, you're going to be awfully tempted to call in some takeout.
6) You don't look at your schedule/the weather when you plan.
If you've planned a pizza meal (which requires a 500 ° oven) for a 95 ° day, you're unlikely to actually follow through.
Same goes for a grilled meal on a rainy day (although I do stubbornly grill in the rain sometimes!).
In the same vein, if you plan a more elaborate meal for a night when you get home 20 minutes before dinnertime, you're going to be in trouble.
I try to always look at the weather forecast and our weekly schedule when I choose meals. I plan a make-ahead meal if we'll be at the pool all afternoon, a portable meal if we're eating somewhere else, a cool meal for a hot day, and so on.
Things come up and weather can change, but this still ends up being a helpful habit.
7) You don't have a repertoire of fallback meals.
When your best-laid plans go awry, it's super helpful to have a mental list of quick meals you can assemble from ingredients you usually have on hand.
Here are some fallback meals I use:
-bacon and cheese quesadillas (I keep bacon and tortillas in the freezer and cheese in the fridge)
-pancakes or waffles (I pretty much always have buttermilk in the fridge)
-grilled shrimp with veggies (shrimp cook super fast and require no marinating)
-pizza bagels or pizza subs
These quick, unfancy types of meals have saved us from a $50 takeout bill many a time.
_____________________________
So, how about you? When you break down and get takeout, what's usually the reason? Let me know in the comments!
(And help out the FG community by sharing your best tips for takeout avoidance!)
I think you hit most of my reasons for getting take out. The biggest one for me is planning several new or complicated meals during the week, and then not having a simple fall-back plan available if making that new or complicated meal is not going to happen.
Another big one for me is an unpredictable schedule. My kids will unexpectedly have friends over a few hours later than I had thought; my husband will be home from work 90 minutes. I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with last-minute disruptions to my plans without just throwing up my hands and ordering a pizza.
When I worked and had kids at home, we just didn't go out much. I used tacos, spaghetti, chicken cutlets (that I pre-breaded, cooked, and froze) for emergencies. Microwaves are great for pre-cooked (by yourself) items in a hurry. My emergencies were usually meetings that ran late at my school or my kids' activities after their school.
Now as a retired grandma, the two of us eat our main meal at noon, when my energy level is high and so that if we overindulge, our eve. meal can be light to compensate. We feel and sleep better with a lunch or snack meal in the evening anyway. With only two of us, we do eat out more, but it is a social thing with us. Eating lunch rather than dinner out is cheaper, too.
Great post! As a family of four with two toddlers, I am guilty of eating out way too much. I also don't like cooking so it makes the whole process painful. These are some great tips for me to start cooking more. I do wait till the last minute to figure out our menu so now know what I am doing wrong 🙂 We've been spending about $1400 a month on food and a lot of it is fast food. I want to really cut that down.love your blog!
Last minute works for some people, but ugh, if I wait until the last minute, I cannot think of ANYTHING to cook! It's like my brain just shuts down.
The weather this year here in New England has been such that 500 degree ovens aren't so bad but grilling is often out of the question.
Having a plan is probably the best thing for me. When we don't have a plan we often end up with having a "whatever" night which unfortunately usually leads to some unhealthy choices. Lately though, the baked potato and tossed salad combination has been that nice combination of easy, cheap and somewhat healthy that we're looking for.
I actually grill out in the cold too. I guess I'm kind of a diehard griller!
I am laughing at the New England comment because in Cape Breton we could have that 500 degree oven going pretty much everyday! There aren't too many fast food choices in our very rural town but we can get preroasted chicken and I make wraps or salad. Also, I do keep some fresh frozen pasta and other quick and healthy options like canned beans and soups for nights when it is hard to have time for a lot of meal preparation. They are a little more expensive than homemade but a lot cheaper than eating out.
Wow. There are just SO many summer days here where turning on the oven is a horrible idea! I'm a little jealous of your cool summers!
For me it boils down to:
1. Laziness (I don't like cooking at all)
2. Boredom (I get bored of eating the same thing over and over, and with a hubby lactose and gluten intolerant, the repertoire of easy recipes is narrowed down quite a lot!)
3. I need some fun (too me, eating out is fun)
4. I want to relax (see #1-2 and add 2 toddlers), not have to clean up after, do the dishes, etc,
And your reasons too.
I don't know if this would help, but if entertainment is a big factor, why not make a game out of trying to see how much you can cut your food bill? Or see if you can duplicate some of your most loved takeout meals.
If you can cook in bulk and freeze some for later, it won't be all last minute. Also, it really does take a lot of practice to get good at cooking. The better you are at it, the more fun it is, the more fun it is, the more you'll do it. If you dislike it now, you just have to slog through for a while to be able to get yourself into that fun/improvement cycle.
This is true...the more you do it, the faster you are at it too, which is helpful even if you never do end up enjoying it at all.
My daughter is gluten and dairy free, and it does rule out a lot of the more popular quick dinners. I cook a fair amount of gf pasta. I keep tomato sauce in the pantry all the time. So many different things taste good cooked in tomato sauce - beans, meat (fresh or leftover), peppers, kale.... I have a rice cooker which makes stir fries and beans and rice type meals much quicker. I can make what is going on the rice in the time it takes the rice cooker to cook the rice. Thin cuts of meat tend to be more expensive, but I try to keep some in the freezer wrapped in tin foil, because they defrost so fast. Good luck. I'm sorry you don't like to cook. I have my toddlers pretty well trained to go play while I cook (or I sit them down with playdough) and cooking dinner is my "alone" time during the day and I enjoy it.
It helped me when I was younger, working fulltime, and had 3 children, to get a cookbook with recipes that called for a few ingredients and a fast prep/cook time. I believe ATK offers one. Back in the day . . . Mine was called 5 Ingredients and 15 Minutes Or Less (can't remember the publisher and I lent it out).
I'm with you. I hate cooking, which 20 years of being the sole family cook will do. I also have a husband and three sons, two of whom are adult size, so we go through a ton of food every day. They eat a lot of meat and will generally not be satisfied with a meatless meal (as in, an hour later they're rummaging through the fridge or snacking on junk). Husband and youngest son can't have dairy, while middle son has a peanut allergy (also soy and peas, which are related to peanuts). Between the large amounts of food I need to purchase then prep and thermally process, the restrictions, and everyone's preferences and pickiness, cooking is the bane of my existence.
I read this tip a few years ago and it has worked great for us. On a whiteboard do a one week menu. When Monday comes around, erase Monday's dinner option and pick next Monday's meal. I was often overwhelmed with a WHOLE week of ideas? However coming up with one meal idea a day isn't so bad. It lets us add items to a grocery list or check a calendar for things going on that day.
Oh, that's a great tip for people who feel overwhelmed with a week at a time! Thanks for sharing.
I am guilty of often not having a plan but that does not drive us to eat out or take out. Breakfast for dinner is always great: pancakes, waffles, french toast, eggs, frittatas.
I usually have meat in the freezer that has been cooked and frozen: ground beef and turkey, sausages, leftover shredded beef, ham, and sometime chicken breast meat..
I keep cheese and tortillas in the refrigerator.
Quick meals include make your burrito or nachos, pasta with jarred sauce (and some form of meat added). Sometimes I'll make a white sauce and add spices, meat and vegetable(s) and combine it with cooked pasta. The other thing I do if I'm thinking ahead is make bread dough and use it to make individual calzones (everything from meatball to a combination of meats, cheeses, and vegetables).
I believe it is a huge money saver to eat at home but I also think the health benefits are enormous.
We adhere to these principles as well, and it does keep us from eating out. I would add one more: maybe it goes without saying, but you have to have your spouse on board. If I'm sort of not feeling pulling together supper, the hint of a mention of take out usually gets my husband all excited and then I want sushi and it's all over. Recently we've decided to tighten the belt a bit more. Last night I said, "we could do this or we could do this or we could get take out . . ." My wonderful husband said, "yeah let's do this. You do the potatoes, and I'll do the sandwiches." We had a cheap and satisfying dinner and avoided takeout. He's the best.
That is a very good point. Props to your spouse for pitching to make your goals happen.
Planning is key for me,too. When I make something that requires a lot of prep, I almost always make 3-4x the amount we need and freeze it.
Quick solutions include:
I'll buy a rotisserie chicken and make quick meals out of that for two days, at least. Certain stores have them for $5 bucks on different days, so if I can get 3 or so meals out of it, that's a good deal.
I also keep frozen fish around. It will thaw quickly and cooks in no time, especially with steamed veg. No, its not as good as fresh fish, being from a coastal state, I get that, but way cheaper and I don't feel bad when I just do something really boring (but nutrious and satisfying) with it.
Scrambled eggs is another go-to, especially to use the last bits of veggies and herbs. For fun, we might do burritos or egg sandwiches with it, too, if we are feeling "carby".
In the philophy of incremental changes, I keep a number of semi-prepped meals at home. Two of my go-tos are:
- Bags o' dinner, such as Contessa or Birds Eye steamer meals, which are frozen meals you cook on stovetop. They have a lot of sauce (especially the Contessa) so I can add a lot more veggies and usually more meat to both bulk up the servings and increase the health factor.
- Frozen pizza. It's not ideal but it's quick and easy and cheaper than delivery. There are always coupons and sales available so you can stock up when they're cheaper. An increasing number of manufacturers are reducing the artificial ingredients, too - check the ingredients list because it's not always what you expect. Frex, California Pizza Kitchen and Paul Newman pizzas have many more artificial ingredients than Tombstone or Digiorno.
It helps that for us, there is no delivery, so if we want to takeout, we actually have to go there, pick it up and schlep it home. Not a lot of food is still tasty at that point in styrofoam containers, plus that's like an hour and I can make virtually anything in an hour.
Two things I do to keep our takeout numbers down:
-build up a repertoire of egg dishes and bean dishes. I think we do "Meatless Monday" five days a week, not because we're vegetarian, but because I never ever remember to take the meat out of the freezer in time to thaw.
-pre-prepare meal "components". I'm not the most successful meal planner in the world, because I inevitably decide halfway through the day that I'm not in the mood for that days dish, but I do pre-prepare components.
That means that when I get a chance, I bake or boil some potatoes, rinse and cook some beans, fry bacon, etc. etc. all of those things keep in the fridge well throughout the week. That way I have items that I can easily throw together without throwing up my hands. In frustration at the work in front of me.
For me, the biggest differnce has been learning how to prep. I know how to quickly defrost meat in water and can now chop like a pro. I took some prep classes at William Sonoma and at my local JC. I can chop quickly and uniformly, I know basic, classic combinations that have ingredients I always have on hand. This makes it so much easier to make dinner at home. I did mine as GNOs, that were usually weekend afternoons, so my husband watched the kids. I got out and made our life at home better. It was worth every penny and minute of time.
We try to be very conscious of our restaurant spending -- it's something we both enjoy a lot but want to make our dollars count! For us, the biggest time dinner plans fail is when I'm too sick to cook. If we don't have something in the freezer my husband can quickly make (like a frozen pizza or frozen Chinese food) then we'll likely wind up with take-out. It's not often, but it's worth it for us to keep some "expensive" convenience foods around for these occasions! They may be expensive compared to cooking from scratch, but they are much cheaper than take-out.
We need to come up with more fall back meals. That is our main problem. We just get lazy and can't seem to think of what to make.
My favorite fall back meal is sausages, mashed potatoes from a box (the real potato kind), and a frozen or canned veggie. The sausages thaw fast and the rest take just minutes. Pasta and jarred sauce is a standard stand by, too. Hope this helps.
All of these and this: craving. Some days, I just really want Indian, or Thai, or Sushi. I'm working on creating my own home versions, but Sushi is one I doubt I will tackle. It's super expensive, too, so it's been years since I've had it. Spent a lot on food when I was younger and less responsible though.
Actually... if you're content to skip the raw part, California rolls are ridiculously easy to make at home. I just keep some nori on hand (it keeps forever) and the only trick to the rice is mixing some rice vinegar and sugar in with it (to make it sticky.) Smoked salmon, cucumber, red peppers & avocados are my favorite fillings, along with the oh-so-traditional cream cheese! Seriously, you should try it!
Yes Kate, try making your own sushi hand rolls. We had it for dinner tonight. I have 3 kids 5 and under, and they all actually love it! My husband grew up in Japan, so I learned this from his family. I wanted to add that we always have egg (mix 4 eggs, a tad of soy sauce, and a little sugar (technically you could use mirin, a sweet wine, but sugar works fine), a tad of milk (if you want). Flip it like an omelet. Then cut it into thin strips. You can prep beforehand, as the egg is good cold. Cook the rice a little early, so it cools, as you don't want it to be hot at all :). You set out all the toppings, and then every makes their own "sushi." If you are really on a budget, you can use canned tuna mixed with mayo or onion, as the fish topping. But we love smoked salmon or shrimp, and cucumber. It will keep for leftovers the next day.
Try sushi bowls...sticky rice, sesame seeds, avocado and cucumber mixed in a bowl with soy sauce and wasabi on the side. Super simple
The best way to avoid takeout? Live twenty miles from the nearest fast food place. Totally works. 🙂
(Also, I've gotten to the point that any restaurant food is so salty and just not that good that I would rather eat cheese omelets at home than go anywhere. So we do.)
I find that days like today lead to the majority of my eating out. I have an appointment at 2 and will be doing ALL THE THINGS on the way home. It is highly likely that I will be right next to Chipotle as I finish my to do list. It will be dinner time, I will be tired, and I will have exactly 0 motivation to go home and make a meal. To combat this I have made tomorrow's food at work dependent upon me cooking tonight. We'll see if this helps...
Chipotle is hard to resist after running errands all day!
Sadly, reason number 8. Severe pregnancy sickness. We've been eating out at least once a day for 6 weeks because I can't handle the smell of food cooking. Even frozen pizza is out of the question bc I can't smell the oven heating up or I toss my cookies =(. And poor hubs can barely work a toaster. So for a hot meal we head out when we are sick of cereal and bagels. Can't wait for this to be over, I miss cooking =(
Aww, I feel your pain! I had that pretty bad with all four of my pregnancies, and it was just awful.
For some reason, it was much easier to eat food that someone else had prepared. But preparing food myself? Nope. That wasn't going to happen!
I think I've been given a great gift in the form of multiple severe food allergies. I used to LOVE eating out, but once I got diagnosed, that came to a rather abrupt end. Seriously, it's a real ordeal to find something I can eat at most restaurants. Went out for Italian food with my parents last week and the only thing I could have was pasta with butter or olive oil on it, since all the sauces contained things I was allergic to!
Anyhow, I'm sure meal planning is essential if you've got a family to feed, but I also think there is great merit in learning how to improvise. I don't usually think "what am I gonna make for dinner?" I usually just turn on a skillet and start tossing stuff in. I generally have a vague idea which direction I'm heading, but for me it's just soooo much easier if I don't constrain myself by trying to stick to some pre-set idea of how it's supposed to turn out.
So last night I started with sweet Vidalia onions & mushrooms (both purchased on deep discount) I had a pound of ground bison meat (long story) that the butcher convinced me to try, and I thought I was heading for something in the stir-fry vein... but then I opened the fridge to rummage through the veggie drawer and saw a container of sour cream that was also bought on sale, and half a bottle of white wine leftover from a fancy meal last week, so I quickly veered off in the direction of Stroganoff. I didn't have any egg noodles, but quinoa worked just fine and was really quick.
Maybe I'm just crazy, but giving myself the freedom to just "go with it" makes cooking much more fun for me, and helps to keep me sane.
Having "cupboard meals" on hand helps. My MIL had two main cupboard meals. Spam with egg noodles covered in crushed saltine crackers and melted butter served with applesauce. Creamed hardboiled eggs over Chinese noodles served with lime Jell-o with canned pineapple in it. Both quick and easy so they were some of the first meals her kids learned to cook.
I plan 4 meals/week, since that's generally what DH and I can commit to being home for. I have fall-back meals, but if I can't get home (e.g. working an unplanned 12-hour day or longer), I'll almost certainly get delivery with my co-workers. I need to start keeping some backup meals in the office freezer, now that I think about it...
I don't love to cook, but my family does like to eat. We have plenty of options to eat out, but the older I get, the less I like restaurant food. I find a lot of it expensive and it often doesn't taste as good as something I can fix. I'm a fan of Pinterest for finding new recipes. I look through the sale flyers to decide what my main course might be and go from there. I also ask my family what sounds good for the upcoming week. I plan 4-5 meals and keep some flexibility. I also try to cook bigger meals on the weekend so we can get by with leftovers a couple of days. If I'm desperate not to cook, I can swing by Aldi for a ready-made pizza. Often we'll get cheese, add black olives and pepperoni. Yum! Before reading your blog, I had a plan in my head but was less than consistent in pulling it together. Now I have a written plan but don't assign days. This seems to work for me.
Sadly, I live alone now. Since I lost my husband last year, I found fast food/take out to be handy as it is difficult to cook for one. Too much money!
So I came up with menus that I like: spaghetti, chili, egg dishes, pancakes/waffles, etc, tacos, burgers, wraps, casseroles, chicken, soups, and stir fry.
I make up most of this ahead, label it with date and content, and freeze it. All I have to do is add a salad/vegetable, and some cheese and I have a good, cheap meal in minutes.
I'm so sorry about your husband! Much love to you.
Oh I am sorry about your husband.
We don't go out to eat that much but I sure do get tired of cooking. At least one night a week I make a large meal that can easily be split into a couple and freeze it, at least when you are tired it can be thrown in the oven or microwave.
Your list is spot on!! And the later it gets, the more frustrated I tend to get and have trouble coming up with an idea. I do meal plan (I do it by the month), but there are nights when it just isn't going as planned! I try to always have a package of hot dogs and buns in the freezer, spaghetti and a jar of marinara and something frozen that is easy like fish sticks. Not always the most gourmet meals, but a good fall back if need be. I do freezer meals with a few friends twice a year, and end up with 12-15 meals for the freezer. They all can be thawed and put in the slow cooker, so I try to do one per week, which gives me a "night off" and I just have to cook rice or pasta to go with it.
#2 and #3 are spot-on! Your photos of meals give people an "aha". It doesn't have to be meat and three!
Until the economy took a downturn, we used to eat out all the time. Once things got tight financially I started planning ahead and we rarely eat out now. The funny thing is that I never appreciated eating out when we did it all the time. Now its a 'treat' and I study the menu like I'm going to be tested on it.
I've also embraced a no food waste policy which results in some great things (an apple pie) and some disasters (baked onions as an appetizer...don't ask). 🙂
I'm adding those quesadillas to my meal plan for next week!
We try not to eat out too much either, and we've gotten better but there is still more room for improvement. My problem is, at the end of the day, I have decision fatigue, and it just feels easier to get some carry-out.
I plan meals each Thursday for the following week. My son and I came up with a "menu" of about 30 dishes our family likes, and I just pick off of those. I have heard of other people making a 3 week meal rotation to make dinners easier.
We also use the slow cooker about 2-3 times per week. Our favorite meals are BBQ chicken (just put your chicken and BBQ sauce in the slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours), chicken tacos, chicken teriyaki, and ham and hash brown casserole.
Yes! The decision fatigue is the worst part...which is why it is SO helpful for me to decide ahead of time what I'm going to make. Then I just have to execute, which is the easier part.
So I'd like to share the reason we have gone out to eat/gotten take out around five times in the last week in a half when I normally am the most frugal person and only do that for the occasional date night! It actually is none of the 7 reasons you have listed. It is because I am early pregnant and cravings and food aversions are in full force!!! It's rather comical how much different this is than the normal me. My will power is usually so much better. Hopefully I will start feeling better once I get past the rest of the first trimester here and will be able to eat more 'normally' and spend less money. Haha
I am about to make many of you envious. At home, it's just wife and me...no kids (except two chicken-loving cats). We both have good jobs, and since she works some strange hours (overnights, four nights per week), we eat out at least once per week. I tend to do most of the cooking, and she is happy with that. She does help occasionally, and she does like it when I grill (she smells the grill in her dreams!). Meal planning? Just pull out whatever is in the freezer (she does a majority of the grocery purchasing) and we almost always have just a meat-only meal (we live in San Antonio, Texas...). Our idea of veggies is anything that involves a potato...yes, I know, not healthy. I am honing my BBQ skills on a new Weber and so far, so good. Our heritage: she is a Massachusetts native. I am a mutt, having been born in Wisconsin, grown up in the Deep South, and now living in south Texas. I have prepared meals including cuisines from all three areas. The one I miss most is the Deep South...I have to frequently prepare my own fried chicken and iced SWEEEEEEEET tea because no one here in SAT knows how to do sweet tea the way I like it. Also, if I want REAL Wisconsin cheese and meat, I have to order it online (www.nueskes.com, http://www.marscheese.com). And Tex-Mex/Mexican every...single...day won't cut it (not with a wife with a cilantro allergy, which is way overused here in SAT).
But there are lots of good ideas in this article. Thanks for letting me vent!
Tonight I knew I needed a quick plan, so I picked up pizza dough at the store on the way home to make grilled pizza. I do make dough a lot, but buying it in a pinch is still so much cheaper than ordering takeout. We have spent so much money on eating out, but we have tightened it up and are eating at home now. It can be hard, but menu planning is a big help too.
Exactly. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good!
"A simple meal that you actually cook is way better than a fancy meal you don’t get around to cooking!" Truer words were never spoken, Kristen! Though I strive for simplicity in my life, I often get complicated in the kitchen!
What do you have cooking in the large pot? It looks like a yummy chicken dinner! Will you share the recipe?
That's Chicken Pomodoro. It's super easy, and the recipe is from America's Test Kitchen. I've got it on my to-share list!
Hey Kristen,
Love your blog! What is the dish pictured at the very top, next to the watermelon and mashed potatoes? It looks amazing! Care to share the recipe?
Thanks so much!
-Amanda
That's Chicken Pomodoro, from America's Test Kitchen's Quick Family Cookbook. Several people asked for the recipe, so it's on my to-share list.
Wow, I am kind of blown away by how frequently people eat out or do take out. We only ever go out for birthdays, so that is 4x a year unless we are traveling. I guess I just get in the habit of cooking everyday and like to try new recipes or styles of cooking instead of new places to eat.
Omelets are super fast, super easy and can be filled with anything you happen to have at home. Onions, cheese, ham, turkey, bacon, scallions, dried herbs, tomatoes, pesto, pasta sauce, olives, peppers. I always sauté everything first and then set it aside, start the eggs in the pan and add the sautéed ingredients and the cheese. Add a salad or a piece of bread or homemade French fries and you are all set!
We try to cook and eat at home 5-6 times per week. I love to cook, but many times the evenings in our home are busy with 2 kids in sports and after school activities. I’ve learned through the years that even when I don’t feel like cooking I always feel better after feeding myself and my family. For me it’s kind of like exercise, it doesn’t always sound like a good idea before, but I rarely regret doing it after.
I was remarried in October 2019. At the time there were 12 people in our house. Meal planning was essential! When I started posting the weekly menu in the kitchen, my step kids thought I was just being “extra.” They have come to love knowing what to expect for the week. We are down to six humans now, but I still post the weekly menu.
Your archival post is still spot-on! Many good points. While I enjoy cooking, I can get burned out on it. My husband and I fell into a pattern (because I used to work weekends and he worked weekdays) of having me cook dinner Monday-Friday and he does the weekend cooking. We have continued that for years, even though our work schedules have since altered, and it's super helpful for me.
Something that I have found works for me is to plan ahead for busy seasons. If I know my/our family schedule is going to be wacky for a couple of weeks, I do a combination of freezing extra meals for a heat-and-serve style supper as well as backup easy peasy meals (baked potatoes in the crockpot for a baked potato bar is mind-numbingly simple and customizable to lots of different dietary styles--top with whatever protein/veggies/toppings appeal to you and boom, you're done). Budgetbytes.com is a great resource for affordable, tasty meals and the information is laid out in a very user-friendly manner.
I enjoyed reading through the archival comments.
Love this!
I'd also add: you don't count the time it takes to get takeout.
I figured out about a year ago that it actually takes me LONGER to stop for a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks or McDonald's on the way to work than it takes me to make some scrambled eggs with cheese and sit down at the table to eat it.
Meal at home: 5 minutes
Going through the drive-through: at least 7 minutes, including the time to leave my route, order, wait in line, etc. Even with Startbuck's order-ahead option, it's still longer than 5 minutes to park and run in to grab my sandwich.
Dinner is even more dramatic, honestly. It took me and my 10-year-old daughter 25 minutes to make Fall Dinner (box mac-and-cheese made with extra milk so it's nice and creamy, turkey kielbasa sausage browned in a pan, then a bag of coleslaw mix cooked in the same pan after the sausage comes out). It takes at least 25 minutes for us to place an order, drive somewhere to pick up the takeout, then bring it home to eat, and I have a lot less control over the quality and content.
The only way I can justify takeout any more is if I really, really don't want to do dishes, and even that's not much justification when there are 3 other people living in my house who are all perfectly capable of doing the dishes.
It's so funny that you posted this again. I was looking through your meal planning archives a few weeks ago, after we looked at our bank statements and realized we were spending WAY too much money on takeout and delivery, and I read this post then. I'm happy to say that we've dramatically reduced our takeout/delivery spending over the last few weeks.
I've been much more diligent about planning, whether that's defrosting, starting something in the crock pot, or putting something in marinade. I'm much more likely to cook if any part of the meal is already done. I've been trying to be more realistic about how long it takes to make things too. I think another commenter mentioned it, but takeout/delivery isn't necessarily faster. I also highly recommend the website Budget Bytes. It has tons of recipes. There's a quick category, and there's a search by ingredient feature for when you're feeling especially uninspired.
Although I make menus and grocery lists every week, there are days when it just makes sense for me to eat out. Not all that often, but still. In one regard, I feel like I am helping a local business during this insane time with the pandemic. But also, I work full-time and when Hubby was here, there were nights that what I planned didn't seem quite as appetizing at the end of a long day. Now that he has passed, I will have to come up with a new plan and I have yet to figure that out.
Wait, what did I miss? Did you lose your husband? If so, I am so, so, so very sorry!
The one thing I am thankful for with the pandemic is that my husband became a permanent remote worker and was no longer eating out for lunch. We did not eat supper out very often, but his lunch and vending machine snacks were keeping us broke! Now I cook him something nice to have for lunch for Monday through Thursday and he has sandwiches on the other days. Saves us a ton of money.
I am the only person in the house who can cook. I leave home first in the morning and get home last, so I no longer feel like cooking when I get there. We have something very light for supper, such as fruit, cheese, nuts or crackers, except on Sundays when I make pancakes, eggs and bacon for everyone.
Well, like Kristin @ Going Country, I find that if you don't live where there are many places with take out or dining-in available, it sure cuts down on eating out or getting pick up. And most restaurants here are, to be honest, not really all that good. So eating out wasn't a real temptation for me before I started eating a more restricted diet and it sure isn't now. Avoiding gluten, potatoes, peppers and tomatoes automatically cuts out most of what I could buy prepared.
But you are absolutely right about why people eat out/get take out. I have extended family members who eat out frequently, and I swear they could recite your list as to why they need to eat out. I want to say that there certainly are times when grabbing food out is just going to be the best answer, or maybe it's a treat or a celebration and that's all fine. I'm not anti-eating out and I enjoy eating a meal someone else cooked and cleaned up as much as anyone. But so many times, not cooking at home is just because... see the above list in this post :).
That is totally true; I live in a place where there are dozens of takeout options within five miles of my house. A way more tempting scenario!
@Kristen, I have to admit that there are days I am very jealous of anyone who has any appetizing option to get food other than cooking it themselves. Because, of course, since 2015, we have moved even farther from those options and so it literally NEVER happens now. It helps when I'm scrambling eggs and feeling sorry for myself to realize how much I save on my (non-existent) eating out budget without even trying. 🙂
These are so true! I tend to plan a chicken, a meat, a fish, and a pasta meal. But then my plan goes out the window when I see something delicious on FB or Pinterest lol. We have a very well stocked pantry so I don't usually have to run out for anything, or I can sub kale for spinach, etc. And I always check the weather to see if I need to sneak a salad night (for hot nights) or soup night (for cold) in there!
When my husbands aunt died, it was a whirlwind of a week and we were out most every day of the week leading up to the wake/funeral, and we ate out almost every day. I could not believe how much we spent on food, and then because I had just shopped the day we found out she had an accident, all the fresh produce went bad and I had to throw most of it away. Talk about a double (well...triple...) whammy!! Such a bummer.
We eat out a few times a year at most. Usually for birthdays and our anniversary--and then we save up so we can eat at very nice places. But no fast food (except traveling by car long distances), and we rarely went out to eat even before Covid. We cook from scratch at home almost all the time. I'm even surprised how much the Frugal Family eats out, although I understand that you use coupons and other money saving tricks ;o)
My observation is that so many people don't cook at all anymore. And we are raising generations of kids who have no clue how to cook. Families might pick up takeout or pre-made meals (pizza, rotisserie chicken, frozen foods to cook in the microwave or air fryer). Even at breakfast, a very simple meal, they are more likely to pour a bowl of cereal or heat up a pastry than cook an egg, which takes about the same amount of time. I understand the time crunch--we were a two career family with kids in ballet and performing arts, but it's doable if you follow the steps Kristen has outlined. We plan a menu every week and shop based on our menu. Things are more relaxed now that my husband is retired and does the shopping and cooking, but we managed even before.
I think lack of home cooking is having a profoundly negative effect on people's health, as well as their budgets. Another consideration is the packaging, especially now with Covid. So much plastic, and there is really not a good recycling stream for plastics. They are clogging our waterways, oceans and landfills. Plastic is leaching into our drinking water.
I was watching a video blog of a family teaching their eldest son to cook (using one of those pre-packaged meal in a box things). It's such a simple thing to follow a recipe if you understand a few basic cooking terms. One gift you can give your children is to teach them these basic skills and give them a repertoire of simple meals they will know how to make so they can choose a healthier way to eat if they are ever motivated to do so. Just like teaching your child to swim, drive, and do laundry, cooking is an essential skill.
I always keep a french bread Loaf in freezer for emergency pizza and eggs and toast with fruit is another quick emergency supper!
This is so timely, now that summer is drawing to an end - thank you!
I adore you. Now, if you would just post what I should buy and my meal plan that would great... I have actually started making dinner thanks to your inspiration! Yay me, finally momming!!! It helps to have a kitchen and not work past 6pm which I am mostly doing lately. Again, yay me!
Yay you for cooking dinner!!