If you don't mind sharing, do you prepare any meals at home? How much do you budget for this?

I think there are probably other people on this forum who do the same thing.

We do pho, sushi, ramen, bibimbap, hibachi, rare occasion pizza.

Sometimes I feel like takeout is just a lot of hassle and money. If we order delivery, it gets expensive with fees and tips, plus I've had a few times where we got the wrong order, it was delivered to the wrong house, or things were missing so I had to cook anyway. I've gone to pick up takeout myself and that's usually better, but the last time the restaurant gave me the wrong order and I had to go back. It took just as long as it would have to cook but I had to pay to park.

We get takeout about 2x a week. I like to use some frozen or prepared foods to help make cooking easier. Trader Joes' has some nice stir fry mixes and frozen sides.

No. We do pizza Friday and a restaurant meal probably every other week. Other take-out is usually an accidental confluence of poor planning and overlapping schedules. BUT, we do have a robust rotation of convenience foods in our freezer.

Anonymous wrote:

This I don't get. Why make fries when you're already buying stuff from McDonalds? Also why does DH get five guys and you McD? Why make 2 stops???

But whatever, yall do yall if it's working!

The fries are because i can do half sweet potato and half crinkle cut to suit everyone’s taste, the calories are a lot lower, and $2 gives everyone more starch than they can eat, both important when it’s a become a weekly thing.

the five guys thing works because McDonalds is rubbish for bunless burgers and they’re practically next door to each other. McDonalds wont start making a mobile order til you’re phone is on property, making you wait anyway, but five guys makes it for the time you specify. So he preorders both, gets close enough to trigger the mcdonalds app, picks up his burger salad, by which time the mcdonalds order is ready and he can just nip in and grab the bag.

I don’t care what anyone orders because I’m mainly subsisting on dry cornflakes, Costco Vegetable Barley soup and thin seedy toast anyway.

Anonymous wrote:We kind of do take out a lot, but not really I guess? Going through a difficult pregnancy and live way too near a Costco. So we do Caesar/Spinach salad, plus pizza or hot dogs or rotisserie chicken/baguette every couple days. We also do the salmon tray a lot.

Once a week its a sack of mcdoubles, with frozen French fries and carrots/baby peppers with dip. Husband gets a five guys burger. Another night we’ll do 3xChipotle bowls and use our own fajitas sized tortillas at home. Feeds five easy. These meals range between $3-6 a head so not to bad a trade off for minimal cooking.

This I don't get. Why make fries when you're already buying stuff from McDonalds? Also why does DH get five guys and you McD? Why make 2 stops???

But whatever, yall do yall if it's working!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been spending waaaay too much money on takeout, but some of the healthier meals are family meals where you control the sides. We’ll order the salmon dinner from Bonefish Grill and get steamed veggies and salad or mashed potatoes. Full disclosure: it also comes with chocolate chip cookies. 😔 We do takeout from salad places where we control the ingredients and dressing. Silver Diner has some under 600 calorie meals that are good. Some meals aren’t super healthy, but they’re not burgers and fries either; my kids like parfaits with Greek yogurt, granola and fresh fruit. I really need to get back to cooking, but my marriage imploded and I lost a parent, so life hasn’t been “normal.”

I'm so sorry for your loss. Sending your family my best wishes.

Thanks, that’s very kind of you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We kind of do take out a lot, but not really I guess? Going through a difficult pregnancy and live way too near a Costco. So we do Caesar/Spinach salad, plus pizza or hot dogs or rotisserie chicken/baguette every couple days. We also do the salmon tray a lot.

Once a week its a sack of mcdoubles, with frozen French fries and carrots/baby peppers with dip. Husband gets a five guys burger. Another night we’ll do 3xChipotle bowls and use our own fajitas sized tortillas at home. Feeds five easy. These meals range between $3-6 a head so not to bad a trade off for minimal cooking.

Are you overweight?

The daily vomiting has been taking care of that pretty well

Anonymous wrote:We kind of do take out a lot, but not really I guess? Going through a difficult pregnancy and live way too near a Costco. So we do Caesar/Spinach salad, plus pizza or hot dogs or rotisserie chicken/baguette every couple days. We also do the salmon tray a lot.

Once a week its a sack of mcdoubles, with frozen French fries and carrots/baby peppers with dip. Husband gets a five guys burger. Another night we’ll do 3xChipotle bowls and use our own fajitas sized tortillas at home. Feeds five easy. These meals range between $3-6 a head so not to bad a trade off for minimal cooking.

Are you overweight?

We kind of do take out a lot, but not really I guess? Going through a difficult pregnancy and live way too near a Costco. So we do Caesar/Spinach salad, plus pizza or hot dogs or rotisserie chicken/baguette every couple days. We also do the salmon tray a lot.

Once a week its a sack of mcdoubles, with frozen French fries and carrots/baby peppers with dip. Husband gets a five guys burger. Another night we’ll do 3xChipotle bowls and use our own fajitas sized tortillas at home. Feeds five easy. These meals range between $3-6 a head so not to bad a trade off for minimal cooking.

No, but I buy prepared foods to embellish healthy bases. I typically buy lettuce, Cole slaw mix, brown rice, wrap bread, and eggs, as well as a variety of vegetables and fruit. Then I might get a prepared protein from a restaurant and use it for salads, stir fries, wraps and omelettes or frittatas. I typically cook salmon or chicken each week as well.

The downside for me is that prepared foods are often higher in salt than I would like. The upside is that they are often seasoned much better than I would do at home, even using the famous Instant Pot Butter Chicken recipe or spice mixes.