Should be obvious but.. skip the drinks!

A few thoughts.

First, we never do delivery. Always carryout. Avoid that mark-up and tipping twice (delivery person and the restaurant; I do tip restaurants for carryout).

Lunches are typically less expensive, and come with a fair amount of food. Order at lunch, spend less, and stretch the meals based on all the great suggestions of pps.

Some places may have happy hour pricing (weeknights, earlier than dinner time). Again, order early and pick up.

Look up your fav places on line and order carryout on the nights they have specials. Not to reopen the pizza carryout debates of a prior thread, but a favorite place of ours offers a "buy any large pizza and get a second large cheese pizza for just ¢99" on Tuesdays. Since it's someplace we like and go to anyways, this is a great Tues. night option. Weds. it's 25% off wings.

+1 on the suggestions to bulk up with vegetables or add a salad. Or if it's a noodle or rice dish, add more noodles or rice. These "hacks" help spread out saucy or potentially oily, high fat dishes to a more healthy meal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stretching takeout? How poor are you? I've never heard of anyone doing this before.

You are a terrible person who lacks empathy. These are terrific ideas and I’m so glad OP posted the question. I will definitely be using many of them

Op here! Thanks for the support.

To the pp. we have a HHI of $250k, so that may be poor for you or not, but we didn’t have money growing up so 1) I have education debt and 2) I would rather save some money for my kids than always blow it on takeout. You do you and I’ll do me.

Homemade fried rice from leftover rice. So easy, day old cold rice, oil, chopped onion, garlic (optional) frozen peas and carrots or any mixed veggies, egg and soy sauce. Whatever leftover protein you have.