Hire a personal chef for Friday-Sunday.

Call restaurant, place order, drive there and pick up. I do this on Fridays and pick up on my way home from work.

I found out about a woman who cooks my family's ethnic cuisine from a friend; I order it once a week and she has her husband deliver it to me directly. It is an affordable option for me and lots of leftovers, cheaper than most restaurants since she is more of a home cook.

If you live close to a Balducci's, their bistro meals are good and a decent price point. My DH and I share one.

We do take out one a week with 2 elementary schoolers and we spend $200 a month ...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So just for Friday nights? Ordering direct from restaurant and picking up does help.

We have tried several options but always resort to just delivery on our nights off from cooking. It's actually easier and more pleasant to find cost savings elsewhere.

Most restaurants don't have a direct way to order and divert to other sites. Where possible we do pick ups thanks

Pick up the phone and call. I’ve yet to have a restaurant refuse to take my order over the phone.

Feast & Fettle meal delivery, every now and again (I have the 4-person family plan where you get three entrees and five sides; it always yields not only several nights of dinners, but several lunches, too)

It’s either you cook yourself or pay someone to cook for you - could be someone who cooks at a restaurant, or at their house and delivers or you pick up, or at your house. There really isn’t any creative solutions to this as someone needs to cook the food.

Anonymous wrote:How about simply ordering online, directly on the restaurant's site, drive over, pick up food, and drive home. We've never used Uber Eats--always joking that I am the household uber eats delivery person!

Me too!

I agree with Wegmans premade meals, they have a lot of choices. I think they’re expensive but definitely not as expensive as getting delivery.

I have not found any rotisserie chickens that aren’t super salty.

But I do like the premade chicken breast with veg and rice at Trader joes where all you have to do is put it in the oven for a while or microwave it for a few minutes. I think they also sell a lasagna but I haven’t tried it.

I do frozen pasta dishes from Vignola. They run around 15 a piece and go from freezer to oven. I cook most nights but this is what we do when I can't. Not overly salty and seem more homemade than restauranty.

Cook unity has decent premade meals. Don't think you can order less than 2 per week though.

Why does dining out and food delivery suddenly make everyone absurdly self-righteous and judgmental?

I would be really surprised if whatever you’re Uber Eating has less salt than Costco premade (which I say as someone who also prefers healthier food).

Most not-homemade stuff has a ton of salt.