Reply to Spending on Takeout/Delivery

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't understand how people eat out so much.

Eating out 2-3x a month, ok. But getting takeout constantly? Just cook something simple at home. Make a lot. Eat leftovers.

The internet makes it seem like you need to eat a new/fun meal all the time, but you really don't. That shit is also terrible for your health, as well as your wallet. 
[/quote]

When you and your spouse work 60+ hours a week, every minute not spent working is precious. And if you have a job where you're always on call, it can be really challenging to even make the weekly plan where you take inventory of what you have, build a shopping list, and procure the groceries.

I cook only 1-2 days per week. On Sunday, I do a big batch recipe that serves as lunches during the week. I also often cook on Friday night. The other nights are takeout or the healthy meal service I use.

Food prep is hard. Even simple, balanced meals require a good amount of labor. Making my own food is very low on my priority list when I have so much else going on. [/quote]

Making pasta with meat sauce takes not that much longer than entering a door dash order and throwing away the massive pile of packaging. Or something like baked potato and pork loin is even faster.

But more importantly that much takeout is really unhealthy. If my spouse and I both worked that much I would use the money to hire cook. [/quote]

a) Pasta with meat sauce isn't very healthy. 
b) They take a hell of a lot longer and require more planning than order DD. 
c) I will do some of these "quick cook" meals occasionally, but, often, premartinated meat isn't great health wise and still ends up requiring cooking a veggies, which often requires chopping, pots and pans, and sufficient advanced planning if you want to use fresh veggies. 
d) You can order healthy DoorDash? You can also cook crap at home. 
e) The 3x a week meal service is paying for cooking at home. We don't make private chef money (I priced it out), even with long hours, but we can swing this healthy meal service that's $25/meal. [/quote]

Most takeaways and Uber eats is unhealthier than cooking a typical meal at home. It's not difficult to make basic simple meals. People just crave sugar and fat and salt. It's glorified junk food. Yes, you can order a salad but that is not what most people are doing.

When people say they are too busy to cook, that isn't true. Many people work full time, raise kids, and still cook every night. You just chose not to cook probably because you don't like cooking or can't be bothered to be disciplined about it. That’s fine. I am not judging you. But it is a conscious choice to spend money on takeaways and deliveries, and the vast majority will not be as healthy as what you can make at home. Restaurants amp up the salt/sugar/fat versus the equivalent you could make at home. Including pastas. [/quote]

You’re not a morally superior person for preferring to cook (and yes, you’re acting that way despite claiming you’re “not judging”). I could absolutely eat only home cooked food if I wanted. It would also mean approximately 25-50% of my time spent not working during the week would be taken up by cooking. No, that’s not worth it to me. My free time is precious.

I can and do prioritize eating healthy foods and exercising (a good chunk of my non working time is devoted to exercise). I am selective about where I order delivery from. Sweetgreen, CAVA, and other Mediterranean spots are big contenders. Restaurants are as variable in quality as the food we make at home. And for the meal service I use, I get full nutritional info. I specifically chose this local service because the sodium content is not elevated like with Factor or similar national services.

And to your point that most people work full-time, raise kids, and cook at home, that’s absolutely not true in dual big law attorney households. The hours are extreme, and very few people with kids are devoting their free time to daily scratch cooking. Most rely on take out, hired help, meal delivery, or a combination. [/quote]

I also exercise 5 days a week, too. I probably spend as much time at the gym as I do cooking altogether. I'm just disciplined about it. The difference is that I enjoy cooking, and you don't, so you don't prioritize it. I do understand, I come from a family that employed cooks in previous generations. It is very easy and in many cases, quick to cook healthily at home. Simple roast chicken with a green salad, easy easy. What amused me was some of the implications in your posts. Most people who order takeaways regularly are eating more unhealthy than a family who cooks every night. We can twist it and show the exceptions, and, sure they exist. But whatever strategy you managed to make work for yourself isn't going to be applicable to most people who rely on Uber eats or doordash.[/quote]

It’s literally not easy. You need to procure the food, manage expiration, season, monitor while in the oven. Chop all the veggies for the salad. Make the dressing (unless you want to buy premade dressing with extra sugar and salt). When you don’t get home from the office until 7:30 and are on call until 10:30 or 11, roasting a chicken is not something you can reliably do while eating at a remotely reasonable hour.

For me, cooking is a chore, and it’s one of the harder chores for me to do because of time restrictions and the advanced planning required. I can clean my toilet at 10:30 pm.

Maybe instead of deciding that I’m some sort of edge case, you recognize that your personal experience isn’t universal. Not everyone has the time at home that you have. Not everyone who cooks at home eats healthfully. Not everyone who orders takeout gets garbage food.

We all have different constraints. Most people can be happy and healthy within those.

You aren’t morally superior, “more disciplined,” or healthier just because you cook at home (though you definitely spend less on food). You have a different set of circumstances than others.[/quote]

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