Money saved by cooking (or not)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really don't understand the number of people claiming take out is cheaper. It's simply not true. It's not hard to make a decent, healthy meal, that will provide leftovers for lunch. Heck, compare just making french toast to buying frozen at Trader Joes, home made is way cheaper. Sure, frozen shrimp stir fry is pretty cheap, but it's a light meal and there certainly aren't any leftovers.

Folks - learn to cook, it's o e of the best things you can do for your family!

Great example. Like pancakes. A 5lb bag of flour and a dozen eggs and milk is under $5. IHOP for 4 is over $25 not including breakfast meat or coffee/juice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family of 6--2 teenagers and 2 elem. Going out is 5 adult meals-- the elem kids split one. The bill for salad, entree, dessert, tax and tip is usually $100+ for something silly like eggplant parm. Constrast that with me making it at home. Salad for 6 is about $10. I add chicken to the teen salad to bulk it up. Eggplant is in abundance at the moment. Let's say $10 for 5 or 6 eggplants. Cheese I buy in quantity when on sale--same for breadcrumbs, sauce, and pasta. Let's say another $10 for 2lbs pasta, sauce and cheese.

Ice cream for dessert --1/2 gallon--$6

So let's say $35 (and that is generous) for me to make the same meal that would cost $100 going out. Oh and then I have leftovers for the teens second dinner. Multiple a $65 saving by 7 days and all of a sudden we're talking real money.

Kids have to help cook and clean. These are skills that they will need as adults. How many times are there threads on here where someone says they don't know how to cook. They don't know how to cook because no one taught them.

This. I have no idea why people are thinking it isn't cheaper to eat at home or it is comparable. Perhaps those people are shopping organic, buying more expensively prepared foods (pre-chopped onions, for example), or going to more expensive stores than I am. I go to cheaper stores and I make an effort to keep costs down. Most times I have food in the freezer or pantry I can use on the fly.

Yesterday, we went out for lunch and got takeout. No drinks, nothing extravagant, and since it was take out, there was no tip. It was $35+ for four. Today for lunch we had grilled cheese sandwiches and soup and some in the family had pretzels with it and then we had carrots and doughnut peaches from a farm stand. Today's lunch was: less than $1 for the bread (whole loaf was $2), $2 for soup (2 cans that were $1 each - Healthy Choice Chicken Noodle), bag of pretzels $.15 (whole bag was $1), bunch of fresh carrots $1/bunch and $4 for peaches (kids ate them all - 2 pounds, at $2/lb). So less than $8.15 for 4 people, including really fresh fruit and carrots. We also have soup leftover AND my husband repeatedly said he didn't like last night's dinner and liked today's lunch. (I liked it too, since he made the sandwiches!)

[Anonymous]

I would save a lot, but I'm just too lazy. I grew up on potatoes, eggs and black bread. We also ate a lot of grains like buckwheat and barley. Porridge or black-bread open face sandwiches were for breakfast. Now it's mostly cereal with all that sugar because it's easy. I 'd love to cook oatmeal or barley porridge, but it takes so long and I haven't dared to try barley flour in US yet.
I think you all call them hot cereals while we call any grain cooked in milk porridge. Can be semolina, barley, oatmeal and there are bunch of others I don't know how to translate.
My latest favorite is buckwheat. It's so good, just with some butter. Can't believe I didn't like it growing up.
I also like my split pea soups. Add carrots, bacon or smoked ham and corn and eat it for lunch several days.
I'm so tired of all the trash and recyclable I have to take out every day. Here you have a package inside a package and then more packages. I might go back to my childhood Soviet Union days just because of all the waste.