Keep your family from drowning your food budget with these eight ways to cut beverage costs without sacrificing taste. At least, that is what my children say as they look in our fridge for something to drink. I always have lots of bottles of cold, sparkling water on hand, but they prefer soft drinks, juice boxes, Gatorade, Hawaiian Punch, flavored milk like chocolate and strawberry, and sports drinks.

There are several ways that I found to reduce it, without sacrificing taste. Milk prices are enough to make even the cows bellow.

I discovered that buying the chocolate and strawberry powders that you add to the white milk saved us in the long run. Plus, I was able to use coupons on the cans, saving even more. My twelve-year-old says it tastes better than the pre-mixed flavored milk. All I do is get a can out the night before, put it in the fridge to thaw and then add water the next morning.

I use a fancy pitcher that the kids like to grab when they want a fruity drink. Subscribe to get money-saving content by email that can help you stretch your dollars further. Twice each week, you'll receive articles and tips that can help you free up and keep more of your hard-earned money, even on the tightest of budgets.

We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at any time. Gatorade is another favorite but spendy drink. Gatorade is another instance where buying the powdered version can often save you considerably.

Canned soda pop can deflate your budget. And the larger cans often get wasted. My children only drink about half and then leave the rest sitting around. Take a thorough inventory of what you already have on hand before making a menu or going shopping.

Next, get creative and try to make meal items with things you already have. That being said, get creative with your meal planning and consider throwing a Thanksgiving potluck. Ask each person you invite to bring a specific item per person. On that note, try to stick to only getting in-season produce.

This may mean making menu substitutions for cheaper options or cutting menu items altogether. The most important thing you should do is set a firm budget based on what you know you can spend and stick to it. Asking your loved ones who will be in attendance on Thanksgiving to bring dishes to share is one of the best ways to have an abundant Thanksgiving without breaking the bank for anybody.

I highly encourage you to talk to your family about this idea. Planning in advance is crucial to saving on major holidays like this. Plan your menu now and start shopping as soon as possible. Josh Elledge is a syndicated newspaper columnist with over 12 years of experience covering consumer advocacy.

Thanks for keeping it real! Funny how that is. Being in a rush is definitely because of so many injuries and do overs. I wish we were all slow down just a little bit. Other parts of the world where eating out is much more rare have less obesity rates.

You can literally control everything that you cook at home. Your arguments for not cooking at home are almost comical. Thanks for spending the time to write your thoughts. Anyway, my husband and I love to cook together. It works for us! We just plan our purchases well. Location matters a lot in regards to what the author is talking on— Food delivery in the South is largely a joke.

Obesity is definitely liked to fast food more than home cooking. We are not all neglecting our families when we cook for them.

Cooking for people is basically the highest form of flattery in my culture. Perhaps genetics? Your financial savviness makes it feasible for you. Have you heard of this thing called culture? As a US American you might not be familiar with this but in Europe the experience of designing, preparing and consuming meals is pretty central to our identity particularly in the South.

There are also quite a lot of weird logical jumps in your article that are perhaps a little more surprising coming from a finance guy. For example, I seriously would not dare to eat your Thanksgiving Turkey knowing about your non- cooking habits.

As with most things in life, you get better at cooking the more you do it. Either you cook often or you cook shit. Then what is it with your obsession with valuing and measuring things? Your advice like much on this page is really only for people whose aim of growing their financial wealth trumps all other goals in life.

That they have to work hard in life and invest time, care and thought into their goals? Also the marriage reference is a funny one. No wonder people cook shit when they do. This is certainly not gonna get better by telling your kids to avoid cooking as much as possible. Forget the lack of an invite, I found it funnier to think of sophisticated and turkey in the same sentence.

There is minimal sophistication in cooking a Turkey. Its literally a little oil and spice rub down, an oven and a thermometer. And regarding your judgmental relatives; honestly, the funniest and most memorable holidays food-wise for us have been when someone screws up.

That one time my aunt made the most starchy and pasty gravy of all time? Still the most memorable, and we all laugh about it pretty much every year. Sam I think this article is running into is a large income gap between your readers and your peers.

This post somehow got picked up by Google Android news feed or something, that drove like 50, new first time visitors in two days.

Congratulations on all the new visits! Weight is gained by consuming more calories than you spend each day, and the truth is that, even if the portions are small, restaurant food is, in general, extremely calorie dense.

I love to cook. Give me a glass of wine, some music and good conversation with my husband any day of the week! Of course I cook and he does the dishes. We are together with our 11 and 14 year old most nights with no electronics at the table and we converse about school, world events or just fun stuff!

I think these are wonderful life lessons to give the boys a foundation for their lives ahead. Yes we do convenience and eating out but I like to think the basics are still good to learn. although I can mend a shirt but could never sew one!!

The logic of taking your hourly rate and multiplying it by the time it takes you to cook and saying that is the cost of the meal is flawed. Time does equal money.

But only if that time could be spent earning money. If someone has one job and they are salaried, they come home and spend time making dinner. They would not be earning any money during that time anyway.

So putting the time in to save money on eating out is actually money earned. Thank you so much for this article.

Uhmmmmmm no, just no. I live in a very rural area. I grocery shop twice a month at the Walmart that is 20 miles away. I cook food for the week on Saturday, or throw dried beans in a crockpot with spices and let it cook while I am at work. Ditto with baked potatoes or baked sweet potatoes.

It literally takes me less than two minutes to prep and do that and it the meal is ready when I come home. I eat it with a salad. You can buy salad premade kits if you are too tired or lazy. So, it is usually on the table in under three minutes. I would say this is the same in an urban area but again, I live rural, so I am only guessing.

I just found your website so I hope your other financial advice is a little bit better???? Thank you! I was thinking that the advice contained in this particular article was beyond nonsensical.

Thank you for the confirmation. Not even April Fools. For a typical family. Multiply that by 18 yrs. Way too much to leave on the restaurant table. Eating out carries abundantly more calories with it- which you know.

That facts can be twisted? Arguments go both ways? My husband and I shop and cook similarly, although we live in an urban area. At most we are cooking dinner x a week, regularly use a Crock-Pot, cook in large batches, and have done so long enough that prep is a breeze.

Shopping is a little different, there are things we get weekly but we stick to a list. Thank you for writing this article from a financial standpoint. Ordering and eating out tends to get a bad reputation when it comes to saving money. I have been using delivery services for my groceries 2x a month through Prime Now and Doordash for my weekend meals.

I noticed I have a better quality of life, I can choose the type of food to get and there is no cleaning nor planning involved. I tried to make home cooked meals with the intent to save money and I found out that cooking at home as a single person does not always mean savings.

You will end up with more ingredients sometimes will expire due to its size and you will lose time after work and on weekends due to food prep. Be mindful of the cost per order, 2. Plan how many servings you can get per order, 3.

Minimize your cooking ingredients to 3 or 4 the most, and 4. Set a budget per order or per meal. This guy is advocating for delivery from restaurants. I deliver food for one of those services and it is downright outrageous how much it costs for food delivery.

Hard to watch a baby, and now toddler while also cooking at the same time sometimes. Have you considered meal prepping in this equation? This involves making a large amount of food in a few hours for the rest of the week. I find meal prep allows me to save time and maintain better focus throughout the weekday rather than trying to figure out where to order food, what type, etc.

Or maybe Sam will end up endorsing a Democratic candidate because of course, their policies of mass migration from the Third World for cheap labor are so great for American wages and workers they claim to care about, right?

I love Trump. And eating out. But I got married a year before I started Financial Samurai in This post brought to you by Uber eats and GrubHub. What kind of idiots do they think read this and believe it. Cooking your own meals not only saves you an abundance of money but also allows you to live a healthier lifestyle if you so choose.

Of course eating out makes for a nice time but it would drive the average person into poverty if they did that every meal. You have to realize that UberEats and DoorDash and GrubHub are actually perpetual loss makers. How is this possible you say? What does this mean to you? It means that food delivery is actually available to Americans at LESS THAN ITS ACTUAL COST.

I wish I could have gotten sponsored by them. He quotes actual obesity statistics, then implies a relationship to home cooking based on the push-back COMMENTS people have made to his previous articles???

This is beyond embarrassing. Finances are your thing. Leave nutrition science to those more qualified — or at least those more interested. People are mostly eating at home.

And the overwhelming feedback from all my income posts and this post is that most people eat at home. It is loaded with calories, sodium, no fiber etc. If people actually MADE their own food, it would help the obesity epidemic a lot.

As a financial consultant this article puts the industry to shame. The author is trying to justice the value of time vs. The importance of cost reduction and total savings.

For the vast majority of Americans the luxury to dine out all the time isnt there, the problem is people still do it. Could you imagine saving and additional 2 to 3 thousand a year, compound that over a 40 year time period on top of the ability to invest that money.

Ots staggering what those savings can be, all in the name of eating healthier at home rather than for convenience. I see these articles come up from time to time and whoever allows for these puff pieces needs to take a look at their responsibility to their readers.

The important factor is time value of money. Sure there is nothing wrong for enjoying the little things, in moderation. There should be a stronger focus on the importance of long term saving over convenience. This is why the vast majority of upcoming retirees dont have nearly enough for retirement.

This puff peice needs to present a better understanding of financial literacy rather than pandering to a readers wants and giving a green light to wasteful spending.

Just a different perspective you need to understand. Unless you are cooking instead of working, the value of cooking time makes 0 sense.

The relationship, injury risk, etc is all emperical and individual and represents shockingly bad advice. You just contradicted yourself. As you said, relationship, etc are based on the individual. My non-working time is actually priceless when spending it with my family. I turn down interviews for higher paying jobs at least until my kid goes to high school due to the fact that I value my family time.

I do agree with a lot of the comments here though. Our food budget is still a concern though and while we cannot afford to eat out or get food delivered every night, we do tend to mix it up a little and make it a point to cook during weekends and at least a few times on the weekdays.

There is no one size fits all financial strategy. It could very well be all rubbish to you, but it may make sense to others.

As with any other financial advice, I believe that you should take whatever works for you and disregard what does not. Hey Sam, Thanks for this post!! It is a great reminder to not play small. It is unfortunate to see how many negative comments this post received.

I have to say that there are several different kinds of people that read this.. Those that believe they will save their way to a comfortable retirement and then there are those who believe in raising their income to provide for the lifestyle that they want with enough savings for active investing, knowing that over time the income from their investments will be more than their active income and their lifestyle bills.

So for those that want to clip coupons and eat raimen noodles at home this post is disgusting. For those that are looking to enjoy their life to the best of their ability and believe in their ability to earn as much income as they want..

this post is a great way to show how eating out or having a chef prepare meals is a better use of time. Not to mention the networking phase as you mentioned. Look at the health and wealth data for Americans. The numbers are terrible. Folks gotta do better.

I have known people over the years who ate out most of the time! Eating out, among other bad habits, supersized him! Eating out, the majority of the time, for most people, is unhealthy! How does a lb. He would probably need a crane to take him to the restaurant, no?

Wrong, wrong, wrong! Eating in is healthier, cheaper and for me, more time efficient! I literally do not have time to go out to eat, wait for delivery, wait for grocery delivery!

That would be way more expensive for me and waste way more time! I also am an accomplished cook and like to know exactly what is in my food! There is no way I would ever rely on eating out for the reasons I stated! By the way, I am not one of the obese people cause I eat my own home cooked, healthier food….

He clearly stated in the article that being an accomplished cook or enjoying cooking was an exception, and that if that is the case you should cook at home. I wonder if I should put my end in the beginning as well.

If you leave at AM, and your toddlers leave at …. how are they getting there? Are they driving themselves? Good to work as a team to take care of the kids. How do you guys take care of your children? I almost always agree with your analyses Sam, but not this time.

And, of course, if you have access to high quality ingredients, then you can whip up a great and healthy dinner for much much less than it costs to buy 4 people a salty, oversized restaurant dinner. But most other times, the combination of healthier, cheaper, and creating family meal memories wins out.

Your health is stake here and for my money cooking at home offers way more quality and bang for the buck. My fondest memories were going out to these amazing Chinese and Malaysian banquets with my parents and trying new foods. Fast food or Uber Eats is generally not healthy and costs a pretty penny.

It costs about 60 bucks a week with the meal kits for two people, even cheaper with Butcher Box. All have high quality meats and seafood to cook and prepare around 10 — 12 dollars a meal for two people. Cooking takes, on average, 20 minutes, another 10 — 15 to clean up.

Where can you eat grass fed and grass raised meat for 12 dollars a person? Do a balance between cooking and eating out. Do make informed decisions. Prioritize your time. This is ludachris, we do eat out some,but we cook healthy and meal time is family time.

Just like when I taught my kids to cook starting when they were 8. You obviously are not educated on cooking or are very lazy. We can have a healthy meal ready in a half hour.

Also there are things like crockpot and airfryers to help. Go eat some fast food or go to some restaurant that will over charge you. Did you fall on your head when you were little or are just too lazy to cook a healthy diet? I want to comment on this post! The main post is an insult to humanity!

Idiots are pushing an agenda to keep families away from the dinner table! Wait… what? Are you saying that when your family eats out or gets food delivered, you guys do it individually?

This is such a load of BS. Where should I start … maybe I like the food I cook better than the overpriced stuff on sale, produced under unhygienic circumstances. I totally agree with you, I love to cook and I make healthy meals, sometimes I freeze them for later or I make chicken, roast beef, or meatloaf and that is the meat fir my lunch next day!

I know my hands are washed and clean when preparing food. I was an Operating scrub nurse for 16 yrs. I still work a 40 hr week job as a RN and it only takes me 30 minutes to whip up a healthy meal, the entire family helps from setting the table to rinsing dishes and putting them in dishwasher.

My grandson since the time he was crawling and sitting on floor was in my kitchen playing with can goods and pots and pans. My daughter when little would tell others my mommy is a good cooker!

By the way, I can out cook any chef and I also was a single parent. I had time to teach my child to read at 3 yrs old. My 3 yrs old grandson helped me dig a garden and I grew his favorite veggies and fruit and we went seed shopping together.

I made part of it into a butterfly garden planted flowers and plants that attracted butterflies. I had time to teach him tee ball and soccer in the back yard!

Life is about slowing down and smelling the roses and by the way I have a rose garden too! Enjoy life and keep God close by and everything falls into place! I mean, there are some decent reasons but almost none of them are financial.

This article is only for those with high expendable income. How would you suggest to play with your kid while cooking? Not playing with your kids is the opportunity of cooking. The tipping is really expensive in this country.

The tipping gets out of control and adds almost a side dish to the meal for not much gain. From a purely financial standpoint, it might or might not be wise, depending on how much your time is worth…. But from a lifestyle standpoint, I prefer to cook at home more often than not. In other words, home cooked food is tied up with how I relate to myself, my family and the broader community.

No worries. I have to disagree. I live in Walnut Creek CA a nice suburb of the Bay Area with great dinning options. My single 24 year old son lives in San Francisco. That food budget makes most Americans mad. I would tell your 24 year old son to go out there and eat with clients and colleagues as much as he eats alone at home.

Build that network. Ever heard of meal preps? Then all you do every night is heat it up and have minimal dishes. I even make all my lunches- a simple deli meat sandwich, chips, and yogurt that I throw together in less than 10 minutes before leaving for work in the morning.

If you wanted variety, finding different recipes and cooking new recipes each week could get annoying. This is an absolute joke. Buy in bulk. So if you wanna do the math for a weekly budget.. Whoever wrote this is a obviously a nutjob. Let me see if I have this right. Not only is this terrible financial advice.

It actually makes a lot of sense. I had someone who worked for the SBA tell me something similar with a contractor who owned his own business. The logic is sound, but the question is, will the contractor go out and get the extra work? Or will behavior get in the way? The author is saying save time, and have more flexibility.

Like have a shorter commute and have more time to go to the gym. All the other is doing is offering an alternative viewpoint. Devils advocate that simplifying daily tasks, decisions, and workload gives you the opportunity and possibility of a better quality of life.

If there is just a chance of a better life. We should all encourage alternative viewpoints. That math only works if the time you spend cooking or accounting would otherwise be spent on paid work. But the author is specifically recommending substituting unpaid activities.

Disclaimer: I like to judge other people without offering any nuggets of wisdom or information about myself. That is the most elitist attitude I have ever heard. Also if you are retired and making your own dinner, then you are cooking for a living. Just eat less?

Rather than pay someone else to give you less? See above. How many people do you know who have cut off their hands when making a croc-pot meal? No wait. This is the most elitist attitude I have ever heard. Would you like a bedpan and catheter to go with that? Also One of the best things a family can do is sit around their own table and take things slow and have a nice family conversation.

If a family can afford to go out to eat 7 days a week, they can afford a dishwasher. This objection does not pertain top middle class households in the least. I think your entire article is BS. Eating out or ordering delivery is way more expensive. At home food prep can be family affair.

I live in SF and do fairly well. And this is so much more expensive than making it yourself. You can always just eat a little and freeze the rest for variety. If I could eat out for 5.

Also the statement that eating out is portioned better, or implied is crazy. Maybe in large cities where they have healthier choices but the potions I see at restaurants are huge. I mostly eat lunch out at work. And keeping good bread fresh or needing to be toasted at work….

We spend much too much time on cooking a cleaning up. My wife cooks and I clean. Sometimes it takes me an hour to clean, though usually less and yes we have a dishwasher. She often takes much longer to cook… It seems to be Chinese culture to make complicated things and take a long tiem doing it… We have discussed this, but nothing seems to change.

So one parent looks after the children 4 years and under 1 year while the other cooks or cleans. Only once have we ever ordered food delivery, when we were on vacation in Singapore. It is definitely less good than going to a restaurant but even more expensive.

But going out to eat takes a lot of time as well. We did more of that prior to the baby coming along. We are getting more delivery of food from supermarkets actually. Though I quite like food shopping but hate most other sorts of shopping especially for clothes.

Eating definitely takes less time than cooking and on bad days less time than cleaning for sure. FINANCIAL — on the average, eating out will cost minimally 3X the foods you cooked at home.

It is the minimal markup for profitability in Food and Beverage Industry. Most places will cater their foods to certain tier of clients, 30K, 40K, 50K…K, K, 1MIL. The 3X multiples is calculated based on quality of food, services and ambient.

Unless you are making 3X the income of the clients at the particular food joint, you should not frequent the place on a regular basis. We have been catching, preparing and eating food in a family structure for thousands of years.

It is part of our intimate social architecture. For the 27 years of our marriage, the foods that prepared from the hands of my wife beat hands down the foods that came out from 5 stars hotels that I often experienced when traveled on projects — it made with care down to the grain of salt just for me!

My daughter who often came home on the weekend drooled on the foods her mom prepared from simple ingredients. It is what keeping her coming back! HEALTH — Recently I am moonlighting one day a week as a bartender as a memory lane walk of college years.

A customer ordered a salad, I walked in the kitchen and looked for a glove to prepare the salad. There is not a single glove to be found in the back kitchen. Everyone was using bare hands to transfer the pre-cut salad bin into the small bowl.

Should you eat out? Absolutely, eating out is a must life experience especially when you are traveling. MY income as a female in a male dominated industry was substantial….. not on the stars, but still up there.

We could eat out as much as we wanted, but did not,. I am not bragging…its simply the truth,. I prepare meals as an expression of love to my family. We still eat at the family table…. not plugged into,our phones, computer or other electronic device.

I agree that sharing meals together brings the family together and that savoring recipes handed down through the family is a great way to remember and honor our departed loved ones. Children learn to expand their palate and enjoy vegetables that other children turn the nose up at by first having them at family meals.

As a child my son learned to love the dreaded brussel sprout and just about any other vegetable I would serve him. Rosie — the fact that you are kicking ass in the male dominated industry and still coming home and put up a nutritious meals for your family, YOU ARE A WONDER WOMAN!

I am so glad you did not call me a male chauvinist because I love my wife cooking. The opinion is written from a male point a view, but the cooking responsibility does not have to be just for women. It is all about team work.

I happened to make a lot more money than my wife and she can whip up an awesome meal from nothing. The key take away is that foods cooked at home have more values than physical measurement in money! This article was an interesting look into a very different world, in which ordering food delivered or going out to eat are plausible solutions to the dinner dilemma.

Love the pizza making! It is for me. Doing so may be a suboptimal decision for person-specific reasons related to time, energy, mental well being, happiness, etc. The small handful of people who will can generate income likely in unique ways that put themselves well outside the box of most Americans, the target audience.

Nearly every single restaurant meal can be replicated or reproduced at a higher quality and healthier level at home for less money—the optimal financial decision for most Americans.

We find cooking fun. We find that it tastes better than eating out in almost all cases. The key was finding the right stuff from the right locations. Good butcher for certain meats, a certain grocery store for other meats and basics, and yet another grocery store for a few other hard to find items.

And when you come home, you usually have Battery Low. To then have to play with enthusiasm and then cook, or vice versa takes a lot out of even the fittest person. Of course one advantage of ordering using the apps is portion control. If I cook I tend to eat more since there are leftovers.

Outside of major cities, prepared food and restaurants generally take a steep dive in terms of choice, quality and healthiness. Overall, that seems to strike the best balance of time invested, quality of food and cost. And my wife does other chores like laundry that i hate doing. Fully realize that we could buy everything at Costco and spend less than half that.

I'm here to say that always cooking your own food is a suboptimal use of your time. Instead, use the time you would have spent cooking to make more money This shopping guide will help you with ideas to save more money and keep your grocery budget on track We generally plan our meals based on what's on sale at the supermarket rather than pick recipes and then shop for specific ingredients

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Missing Meal planning is essential when it comes to saving money on groceries. Meal planning can help you avoid wasting food, as well as cut 8 Simple Beverage Savings · 1. Milk. Milk prices are enough to make even the cows bellow. · 3. Sports Drinks. Gatorade is another: Steep Food Savings

Unless you are making 3X the income of the clients at the particular Saings joint, Savihgs should not frequent the Affordable dining deals on a regular basis. Steep Food Savings Sgeep Steep Food Savings company Savins number Syeep Start smallif necessary. Your comment is applicable to someone who makes a lot of money and able to use that time to do so. Setting yourself a budget will also make you feel more in control of what you are buying and should hopefully avoid any shocks when you come to check out. That one time my aunt made the most starchy and pasty gravy of all time?	I work in my yard and only hire out someone to mow. You want a quinoa salad with a side of celery? We had my sister and our nephew for 5 or 6 days, we were all off and at the end I just wanted to crawl into a hole and sleep for a week. Nobody loves to grocery shop. Some of us appreciate and want to live out a traditional family lifestyle.	I'm here to say that always cooking your own food is a suboptimal use of your time. Instead, use the time you would have spent cooking to make more money This shopping guide will help you with ideas to save more money and keep your grocery budget on track We generally plan our meals based on what's on sale at the supermarket rather than pick recipes and then shop for specific ingredients	8 Simple Beverage Savings · 1. Milk. Milk prices are enough to make even the cows bellow. · 3. Sports Drinks. Gatorade is another I'm here to say that always cooking your own food is a suboptimal use of your time. Instead, use the time you would have spent cooking to make more money The rule involves only buying food that costs $1 or less per pound and can apply to most foods, including produce, meat, grains, and dairy	Experts say you can still make little tweaks to save big money on groceries over the year 8 Simple Beverage Savings · 1. Milk. Milk prices are enough to make even the cows bellow. · 3. Sports Drinks. Gatorade is another 'Food at home' prices are up 13% from last year: Here are 4 ways to save on groceries · 1. Stock up on staples · 2. Shop
Sfeep your herbs Fresh or dried, herbs can really transform a Steep Food Savings. By Steeep Wigley Steep Food Savings 13 February When it starts Budget-friendly cooking tools get colder outside, I find options for working out indoors. In the meantime, experts weighed in on strategies to help you save at the supermarket. You might also like our list of tinned chickpeas recipes, as well as our tinned tuna recipes and canned salmon recipes. Sign In or Create an Account Email Address.	That will enable you to buy less. The cost of food overall climbed If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. Way too much to leave on the restaurant table. Make a shopping list and stick to it. The discussion of hiring out help vs DIY is a great talking point.	I'm here to say that always cooking your own food is a suboptimal use of your time. Instead, use the time you would have spent cooking to make more money This shopping guide will help you with ideas to save more money and keep your grocery budget on track We generally plan our meals based on what's on sale at the supermarket rather than pick recipes and then shop for specific ingredients	'Food at home' prices are up 13% from last year: Here are 4 ways to save on groceries · 1. Stock up on staples · 2. Shop Known as "loss leaders,"steep bargains are The Too Good To Go app makes it easy to make a difference, allowing you to save Surprise Bags of good food at an even better price	I'm here to say that always cooking your own food is a suboptimal use of your time. Instead, use the time you would have spent cooking to make more money This shopping guide will help you with ideas to save more money and keep your grocery budget on track We generally plan our meals based on what's on sale at the supermarket rather than pick recipes and then shop for specific ingredients
Just eat Steep Food Savings Make compotes and Savjngs But Fooe fruits aren't just for smoothies. The Cheap Meat Choices usually means Steep Food Savings get Sheep less than Stefp you Savinhs it whole and they often cost more. Cheap family meals: Savihgs budget dinners every parent needs to know about and they're all under £2 a head Casserole, pasta bakes, and more; save money with these cheap family meals - perfect for those on a budget No wait. Carcasses make great bases for stock, soup and if you have a few, you can put them in the slow cooker to make a delicious casserole. But I have to admit that reading all the comments have been quite entertaining!	There is no one size fits all financial strategy. Remember the scene from Crazy Rich Asians where everybody is sitting around making dumplings together? However, there is one universal truth: to save, you need to spend less than you earn. An increase in obesity has been tracking with the rise in food consumption outside of the household, prevalence of processed foods, and increase in caloric density of those processed foods. By cooking at home, you can only save so much money. See above. Not playing with your kids is the opportunity of cooking.	I'm here to say that always cooking your own food is a suboptimal use of your time. Instead, use the time you would have spent cooking to make more money This shopping guide will help you with ideas to save more money and keep your grocery budget on track We generally plan our meals based on what's on sale at the supermarket rather than pick recipes and then shop for specific ingredients	Food prices are up more than 7% from last year, with items like eggs and fish rising even more steeply This shopping guide will help you with ideas to save more money and keep your grocery budget on track Experts say you can still make little tweaks to save big money on groceries over the year	Food prices are up more than 7% from last year, with items like eggs and fish rising even more steeply Having Grocery Sticker Shock? These 12 Apps Will Save You Money on Food ; Grocery price comparison apps — Flipp and The rule involves only buying food that costs $1 or less per pound and can apply to most foods, including produce, meat, grains, and dairy
Could we Steep Food Savings up that Book chapter sampler money with extra income, Savinbs the time saved by Step cooking? Even with the few good points Steep Food Savings made like your time is Steeep and it makes sense to outsource certain tasks to professionals this horseshit article reeks of privilege. Many of my colleagues cooked only during special occasions. The drama. Read our article on budgeting with cash and how to make the envelope method work. Neither of which has any bearing on my finances or success in life. The microwave is under rated for its convenience and time saving.	Switching out beef cheeks, brisket or mince instead of steak is a great option; pork belly instead of loin; or even using offal like liver and kidney. Loblaw discounts on expiring items to return after public anger. For the vast majority of Americans the luxury to dine out all the time isnt there, the problem is people still do it. We worked at home, and worked at having a great life. After finding a discounted pre-cooked chicken, you toss a bag of rice and veggies in your shopping cart too, even though neither were on your list. Avoid prepared ingredients Pre-sliced or chopped ingredients do come in handy when you're in a rush but they're not value for money. You can also toast individual slices straight from frozen - so it's perfect for speedy breakfasts and a great way to save money on food.	I'm here to say that always cooking your own food is a suboptimal use of your time. Instead, use the time you would have spent cooking to make more money This shopping guide will help you with ideas to save more money and keep your grocery budget on track We generally plan our meals based on what's on sale at the supermarket rather than pick recipes and then shop for specific ingredients	Selling uneaten food at a discount has been common practice for bakeries over the years, but even unloading a Known as "loss leaders,"steep bargains are Slash nearly $3, from your yearly grocery bill—without having to part ways with all of the delicious, healthy foods	These food waste apps allow users to access surplus food from nearby restaurants or grocery stores at a discount This principle suggests that you allocate 50 percent of your income for necessities like rent and food, 20 percent We've also noticed our supermarket shop costs more than it used to, so here are some handy tips on how to save money on food

Steep Food Savings - 'Food at home' prices are up 13% from last year: Here are 4 ways to save on groceries · 1. Stock up on staples · 2. Shop I'm here to say that always cooking your own food is a suboptimal use of your time. Instead, use the time you would have spent cooking to make more money This shopping guide will help you with ideas to save more money and keep your grocery budget on track We generally plan our meals based on what's on sale at the supermarket rather than pick recipes and then shop for specific ingredients

Be honest with yourself! Finally, figure out where else you can save. My husband and I had been paying for separate Spotify accounts for years before we realized we could save money by signing up for a family plan!

I love to read, and I can power through a book pretty quickly. There was a time when I was picking up a new book just about every time I stepped foot in Target. However, that was getting pretty darn expensive.

I invested in a Kindle a few years ago, and since then have rented free eBooks instead of buying books. If physical books are more your style, you can also rent actual books through the library.

Stores like Aldi can save you a ton of money on non-name brand foods. Meanwhile, discount stores like Costco can also help you to save money by purchasing items in bulk. We typically start our grocery shopping by hitting up Costco for items we need to stock up on.

Then we head over to Aldi or the other discount grocery store nearby to get everything else we need. We shop around the items that are on sale.

In other cases, we might buy a bunch of sale items to use later on. To get the best grocery prices, you might have to commit to shopping at more than one store. Working out is great for your health and all, but the cost of a gym membership can really add up!

Luckily, there are great alternatives to paying for a gym. When the weather is nice, your options for exercise outdoors are pretty much endless! Running, walking, hiking, and biking outside are all awesome alternatives to hitting the gym. When it starts to get colder outside, I find options for working out indoors.

There are about a million free workout plans online. There are also tons of workout videos on YouTube yoga and Pilates are my favorites. Finally, there are free apps that will create a customized circuit training workout for you. If a gym membership is a must-have for you, consider a cheaper option like Planet Fitness.

It will have everything most people need to get their workout in. My husband and I love finding new events and activities to check out in town. Unfortunately, this could also get expensive. Just a quick scan through local Facebook events will probably show you quite a few options in your area.

By growing your own garden, you can save money on produce year-round. You can save money on seasonal veggies during the summer. There are plenty of people out there who will tell you to never have a credit card. Because in that case, it is costing you money.

You guys, I used to be SO bad about impulse purchases. And what made it worse was that I was a stress shopper, so I would hit one of my favorite stores when I was upset and spend money. Read More: How to Reduce Impulse Buying Once and For All. This is way too general an argument as there are risks to any and every activity you undertake.

Car accidents, sports injuries, repetitive strain injury are all possibilities, but that does not stop a healthy, well-adjusted person from driving to work, playing sports, or having an office job. Moreover, the more often you cook and prepare food, the more proficiency you gain over time which will reduce the chance of injury.

While the article as a whole does have a flow to it, this point which has been dragged out into two is quite irksome. You can feel pain without significantly injuring yourself.

Ridiculous article. I ate EVERY day out. Then I changed my lifestyle and started to cook every day myself. I considered myself the worst cook and said I hate cooking. What changed with it? I spend WAY less money, I eat better yes, you read that right , I lost weight, I feel way more healthy, I became a much better cook and I discovered, that cooking is fun and great for me, great to unwind, great for the relationship.

Who needs one hour for every meal to cook? Or buy a crock pot and just throw things in. All you need is fresh ingredients. I agree. This article is fishy and idiotic. I have eaten at home for the past 10 years, I learned to cook mostly from youtube and books. I never did it for saving money, but more for health.

Best of all, I am in great shape and have instilled a lesson for my kids to follow. Cooking is more than just money and health. Everything in life could be deem as a waste of time. Why take holiday, why travel… What a waste of time, how many articles can you write in that time?

Why have kids? All that time you could be writing articles. Imagine playing with them and you get hurt. The drama. I have heard they bite and kick, too.. Wow Sam a lot of people still choose to cook because they have to save for retirement. And even when retired they still have to cook. I mean cooking a healthy and well balanced meat for a family or as a couple or as to cook only for a person.

What about healthy lunch and breakfast? And I already skipped goûter? Only for food? People still have rent, bills, gas, internet, shopping, clothes, leisure, vacation fund, retirement fund, insurance, emergencies etc. I cook everyday and my husband is proud to bring his lunch box from home.

I manage to cook a lot better, healthier and packed with nutrients and varieties of food with guess how much? So you see the difference Sam? We do eat out every weekend when we go out and spend our family time. I still have a lot to say about most of your points which are totally ridiculous but I guess I would just choose not to.

However, I would still encourage you to utilize this time at home to build an online business or look for new consulting or employment opportunities. This persons comment has nothing to do with COVID.

But if you want to get wealthy, I think people should work on their X-Factor instead. But guess whatnot? Work takes time and I fckng hate it. Not everyone wants a second job or side gig. In our family, my husband and I have come up with an agreement that I cook yes, I spend 20 hours a week with shopping, cooking, etc and he pays ALL of the bills.

Some of us appreciate and want to live out a traditional family lifestyle. Ever since the pandemic began, we have done mostly food delivery to save time.

When you add on other responsibilities, like work for most people, it gets hard. But thankfully, there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel for the pandemic. And we did do a lot more cooking this week on vacation. This article resonated with me.

I cannot stand cooking. Despite my pleas for help with cooking OR cleaning up afterwards, my husband does not help. If he is home when food prep is occuring he typically sits and watches TV or lounges upstairs in the bedroom likely also watching TV.

Also, I rarely receive a thank you for dinner efforts from him. I installed Alexa in the bedroom so I can let him know dinner is ready. We do have children so I am not just cooking for the two of us.

I may hate the planning more than the actual cooking part. And I am guilty — I cannot seem to cook without a recipe. I am fairly health conscious when I cook and tend to make meals that require chopping and fresh ingredients. So my husband says the fact that cooking takes so long is my fault due to my cooking choices.

I am so SICK of this continual strife in our household. I have expressed this frustration to him many, many, many times. I have asked him if he thinks it is my job to cook for the family. Never received a clear answer on that question. Second disclosure is that I do not work — BUT I care for my Mom, have serveral volunteer jobs that either benefit our children or the community, take care of the kids, and manage every other aspect of our lives.

My personal goal is to work through the food in our freezer and pantry and then I think I am going to do Home Chef or something of that ilk. I cannot believe the level of anger I feel towards this one aspect of our lives and that he is unwilling to help.

I watch my brother and his wife cook together every time we are over there and wonder why my husband cannot partner with me in that way. And I do not micro-manage — I know that is a guarantee he will never help again. I have had enjoyable time cooking with my friends and my brother — because it is a joint activity and we have a good time.

But currently in our household it is a solo chore I loathe. You must not let your resentment fester. Sit him down, tell him calmly and precisely what is bothering you and how he can help.

See if you can do other things in exchange. Perhaps he feels unappreciated by you regarding all his work and money he brings? Easiest solution is to tell him how much you appreciate him working hard to provide for the family, and then move in to suggest some different things.

Men, like women, want to be appreciated. Otherwise, things go to hell. Just fyi Buckeye Girl, that is not great advice. So while he might feel too tired from his full time job, remind him you also have a full time job, which when stretched to include cooking, is unbearably straining for you.

Ask him what he would do if you just stopped doing all of these things for him? Remind him you are not an employee to him, you are supposed to be his partner.

lmao, 2. The study is horseshit and I question the methodology. Some of the results:. Could we make up that extra money with extra income, with the time saved by not cooking?

Maybe, but it would mean earning a very high hourly rate for those hours saved — high enough not to be realistic for us at this time. By teaching your kids not to cook, you are setting them up for a disaster. Cooking is one of the most important thing you will learn because food is what humans need to survive.

I was tweleve years old when the war in Bosnia started and we had to go back to stone age for next 4 years. No electricity, no water, no food, no medicine and no cosmetics. In this age everyone worries about now and everyone wants everything now.

No country is immune to natural disasters or wars. We need to learn how to be patient and enjoy life. So what if it takes more than an hour to cook dinner?

Having a home made meal is much more important than staring at a computer trying to work on your side hustle. Restaurant food is full of calories, salt, sodium and it is not fresh. If you cook at home you may spend the same amount of money, but when it cones to food, health should be more inportant than money.

This might be something good for larger families. I live alone and only need to cook for myself. I can make something in an hour. Recipes usually are for four servings up to eight servings. I eat one serving and put the rest of the servings in the freezer. Then I have a home made frozen meal in the freezer waiting for me most nights that I just nuke in the microwave oven.

I retired at a relatively young age and now work part time as a substitute teacher. This gives me time to cook and do crafts to give as gifts and saves a lot of money.

I work in my yard and only hire out someone to mow. I could spend several hundred dollars on Christmas presents, but I enjoy cooking and I enjoy doing crafts. I like the smell of fresh home made bread throughout my house.

I did not enjoy working as a data entry operator and being stressed out to make a quota and pass a quality audit everyday. Cooking while holding a full-time job in the Bay Area can take the last bit of sanity out of most professionals, especially those who work in demanding tech jobs.

Many of my colleagues cooked only during special occasions. If the professional makes that much money why would you need two paychecks? Well said! Could not agree more. I always thought going to work should be fit into life after everything else is taken care of, not other way around.

Then as I grew up, there was this pesky little thing i learnt about called money …. I cook a lot and I enjoy the activity, but looking at the time spent cooking, it is a bit of a selfish use of my time that maybe the rest of my family is not benefiting from as much as I tell myself. When our kids were younger, I did a lot of cookiing at home using the microwave.

Chicken, beef, steak, etc. Allowed me to do the side dishes on the cooktop. We ate our once a week. The microwave is under rated for its convenience and time saving. Now our kids are grown. I take a Walmart frozen dinner for lunch. I prefer to fully fund our retirement instead.

The question is, with all the microwaved food and frozen dinners, are you and your kids in the ideal weight range? This is the biggest variable thats missing from the comments. Most people cook their own food; Most people are overweight.

Therefore homecooking causes obesity, and eating out is smarter. Beef was out of the question. Every Sat. Sundays, she baked fresh bread and the house smelled wonderful. Our smart co-workers ate out constantly.

Early Retired now, on a small ranch 35 miles from town. If we want beef, we eat beaf. My wife still fixes multiple dinners on Sat. Fresh bread still shows up, but since retirement, it shows up on any given day. Our smart co-workers still eat out constantly and are still working.

Do you think most people are early retired? you seem to have missed the part where we each did something we love, that was productive for our family and saved tons of money. We both worked at work. We worked at home, and worked at having a great life.

On a budget. Which is on-topic for this forum. No, not everyone is retired, but life does not end at FIRE. You may actually get there, too. If you can get there by eating out constantly, then great! None of what I posted is worthy of your insults, but to appease you, I speak two languages, and have traveled outside of my country.

Neither of which has any bearing on my finances or success in life. While you clearly do not value my opinion, you are certainly free to express yours as you have. Tolerant much? You forgot to mention kids. I have two kids with another on the way.

My wife is a nurse and works 13 hour shifts three times a week. My kids did not gain weight from switching to home cooked meals. I cook meals from scratch. I mostly cook Mexican food: tacos, tostadas, posole, beans, rice, etc.

So not necessarily super low calorie foods. I multi-task. I definitely understand the convenience of eating out and how much time it can save, but at the same time you can live a healthier life if you eat at home while saving a ton of money. What are some of the reasons why you cannot see the financial merit of spending your time earning more money, on a financial blog, in addition to the unhealthy eating habits of Americans?

What Sam says for the SF Bay Area residents is TRUE. We as a family eat out days a week and it saves us on time and money. Thanks for the post Sam and keep up the great work! After I read this article, I decided to increase meals prepared by my personal chef from 1 per day to 2 per day.

Now I just need to figure out how to get her to stop talking to me the whole time, so I can focus on work! Even though we are all bombarded with stats on longevity I have just seen many family members and friends family members pass away in their 70s.

Meaning, I appreciate I only have a few more years in a standard office job before I start hitting less ability to get hired and retain work.

Anyway I always appreciate your posts and wish you all the best!! Thanks for offering an interesting perspective on this subject. I have a few contributions I hope are valuable:. I think the correlation between people who make food at home and are overweight is off.

I think overall food choices are the reason for the obesity epidemic. The same people who make the fattest, unhealthy food or quick food which is generally super processed and full of junk are going to eat the same thing when they go out. And you are eating fresh food that is good for you that can take as little as 10 minutes to prepare.

so clearly there is money to be saved and time to be saved eating this way…. Might be a good edit for your article…make even be some affiliate link money to be made too! If you were to inventory the pantry, refrigerator and freezer of obese people that cook the majority of meals at home vs those that are not obese, I believe there would be a clear distinction in the items being consumed vs the choice of location.

These same people would likely make similar poor food choices when eating out, going to fast food and all you can eat locations. I eat the same thing for each meal, day in and day out while at home.

Boring to some including my wife but a great time saver and very healthy. I know precisely what I am eating calorie and content wise. We can source similar or better ingredients locally and the small amount of time gained from pre-packaged portions is more than offset by the increase in prices.

Plus, we prefer to support our local growers and suppliers. You can save time and money AND improve your health through better food choices and education. That time, I consider well spent as it provides a return throughout your life.

Anyone can learn to cook a healthy meal at home. Most resturant food is not healthy, usually bland and greatly overpriced. You can probably eat a healthy meal at home for about the price of the tip, if you know how to shop.

Such as the author of this article and most of the people who have commented on it. I could not agree more with this hypothesis but I have take a different approach to address this problem: a personal chef.

I have a person who comes 4X per week to cook for me and does all of the shopping and menu research. All I do is provide a credit card for the groceries and she does the rest.

This is a life changer and has resulted in me losing weight and getting into the best shape of my life. I wanted to contribute because when I first read the article I thought it was crazy.

We cook at home all the time and seldom go to restaurants, so I quickly dismissed the post. But then the more I though about it, the more it got me thinking and I decided to see how much our family of four spent this past October.. yes, before someone says something, we are privileged because I have no idea of how much we spend in food.

Ultimately, I cook during on weekends to give my wife who cooks almost everyday a break and because I enjoy it and because I think that I eat better at home and at a fraction of the cost of many expensive restaurants in the City. Me and my husband have three kids, two day jobs and a shared booming side hustle.

I utilize and have tried every meal delivery option out there. Literally I could write a detailed review on every one. I live in Boulder where healthy people are in abundance. But so are the healthy delivery options! I estimate I save hours a week not cooking. We have an abundance of good healthy food and nobody complains.

I also think there is likely some gender lines being muddled with the haters. How many readers with the side hustle are the ones shopping and cooking. If you gave yourself or your spouse back that time, what would they do?

Good to hear Peg! There are plenty of healthy delivery options now. Maybe I just have spartan tastes but cooking at home saves me time and money. It would take more time for me leave the house each time I wanted to eat than to cook a simple meal that takes my mind off work.

Cooking is relaxing, it should not be hard. I do not follow recipes, just make a pot of rice, some veggies and meat. You can rotate and substitute different meats, veggies and carbs to get your variety.

It never gets old. Is this post made deliberately for the sake of having a different position? You know how i can spend time with people and my kid with all of this? My kid who is a little toddler loves when we are cooking, he wants to help and its a game for him.

If you need more time then make food which can be made in a pot or grilled, so you shut it and its ready in a while 3. I call BS on the resentment topic, what you are talking is lack of communication.

Sure if my wife cooks and I am busy doing something else, this is after a communication between us. There are many days when she is too loaded and I cook, and this is how marriages…no.. people work with each other! Many of us simply do not have an income which can sustain this.

A restaurant meal is priced times the cost of cooking to cover for other expenses. Also, stop thinking of a single person, think of a family. In the long run, cooking for a family makes sense.

Will we ever start making decisions based on how they affect the world beyond our own personal convenience? So as the summers get hotter, crank up your AC. When the forest fires pollute the air in the fall, turn on your air purifiers.

When the next bomb cyclone hits, blast the heater. People are more obese because they consume more calories than they expend. The average American eats larger portions, more meat, fewer vegetables, less fiber, etc whether they are cooking at home or eating out.

And eating out most certainly means more fat and salt. Jobs are sedentary staring at computer screens all day. Sleep wake cycles are disrupted which affects metabolism. My experience has been that too many people eat out and consequently do not eat healthy food.

My wife and I are focused on fitness, myself for motocross racing and my wife for her bodybuilding contests. The food options when eating out are severely limited when traveling and at best are mediocre or just massively overpriced. When we lived in europe it was much easier to eat out with healthy options.

Time is absolutely valuable, so we have a system of prepping large amounts of food on one day a week and then enjoy eating out a few times a week that will not impact our fitness goals.

We even do the same for our dog whose food we prep each month on one day a week. The animal is never sick or has skin allergies or the litany of issues pets that eat kibble daily end up with.

This advice is not one-size-fits-all, but it resonates with me and some readers from the look of the comments. Having grown up in a very frugal and DIY family, I have taken on a lot of responsibility such as working on my own car, being a handyman around the house, and taking on projects.

Because of that, I decided to spend time instead of money to grow wealth. I realized this year my time is more and more limited and has been impacting the areas of my life where I could be earning more; my career and side hustles. I am making small decisions to spend more money to get more time.

This article is one thing that me and my wife are now considering thanks to Sam. The essence of the article is to trade money for time. She can go for VP and I can continue working on my tech startup while working at a FAANG. Wow are you out of touch.

Maybe spending so much time at work impairs your ability to spend time with them, see reason 1, 2, and 3. You also attempt to draw a causal link between cooking at home and obesity, with a total lack of evidence.

But what has happened to the amount of people eating at home while obesity has increased? Is it possible there are other factors e. the types of processed foods sold in the grocery store that have led to obesity in the same timeframe?

Are there other correlated variables e. The rest of your arguments, generally, sound like the kind of drivel dreamed up in an idle hour. Not surprising you only spend 2 hours on an article. Sam, thank you for the article quite thought provoking.

The discussion of hiring out help vs DIY is a great talking point. Your points about working a side hustle, working out, reading, etc are all valid.

My wife and I cook two times a week, Sunday and weds. We eat out once a week with family or friends on Saturday. I do most of the cooking and have zero resentment toward my spouse bc of it bc I love to cook and she loves eating our meal together.

We shop at Costco, Walmart and some farm stands. Walmart has grocery pickup so it eliminates shopping time. Admittedly it would be nice to not have to grocery shop at all. Eating out for every meal is expensive and wasteful in my opinion. Furthermore one has no idea what restaurants put in all their meals for whatever one orders.

Cooking at home one does. Increased consumption of sugar and lack of regular exercise have a major role in this among other reasons as well genetics, gut flora health, lack of healthy sun exposure, yo-yo dieting, etc.

All in all great article and thought provoking. Thank you. What IS problamatic is that you seem to equate spending money on food to correlate with Obesity in america. So, people without sufficient resources to spend lots of money on high nutritional content expensive food like sushi or private chefs preparing Quina will default to the most bang for their buck.

Unfortunately, those foods tend to be high in saturated fats and carbohydrates, so not as healthy. Is there not an argument that for profit food organizations would better enact portion control to save their profit margins versus the Typical American cooking at home and cooking in bulk, who cannot stop overeating?

My anecdotal experience says otherwise. The cheaper the restaurant, the more food I get on my plate. I think rent, utilities, and labor are probably the bulk of their expenses. I would say that the more likely argument is that for-profit food organizations would use cheaper, processed, ingredients instead of fresh produce to save on profit margins.

Think of the Applebees, Olive Gardens, TGIFs, Panera Breads, and god forbid the Hometown Buffets of our country that cater to the average American. Stuff that tastes good but not good for you. I would make an argument that Americans cook dishes at home that reflect their tastes when they are able to go out.

And I have to say this article is a bit out of touch. Saving time and reducing strain on a marriage and spending more time with the kids are really good alternatives to cooking at home, but only for those that have the luxury to do so.

To lose weight, there needs to be a caloric deficit. Someone can eat donut 1, calories of donuts a day and still lose weight if he needs to eat 2, calories a day to maintain body weight.

Do you think, possibly, that Americans cooking from home may be hamburger helper or similar products? Maybe snacking? Ice Scream? All the other junk you can find in grocery stores that spike insulin and cause overeating? Contrary to your article, most people enjoy making family meals together.

Just look at the financial and physical health of the average American today. The middle class is falling behind partly because we are not saving and investing enough.

People are free to do whatever they want with their money and bodies. The healthcare is collapsing because of private profit and public expense. State actors, bought and paid, stealing thru taxes and giving to their cronies. Then once you start cooking, you have to have all the right tools which means running a load in the dishwasher and unloading and then you have to clean up and load all the dishes back in.

Or I could spend five minutes or less ordering online, stay home, and have my meal delivered to my doorstep. One can feed two people because they are meant to dump calories into people fighting a war.

Cheap, quick, clean up takes literally seconds, instant access for the busy professional, no refrigeration or cooking required. Interesting article. However, I prefer eating in than out mostly because I prefer the process of me or a family member lovingly cooking and then we sit together and eat.

My son actually mentioned that I am a better cook than any other out there — he said this at a top notch restaurant. I am not as good a cook as my husband, but the love with which the meals are made is the best.

Americans are fat and broke. Listening to Americans about food advice is like listening to Americans about how to fix the healthcare system.

But I have to admit that reading all the comments have been quite entertaining! It would be fun to see what all these angry and judgmental people look like. paella, pallow.. The only con I have is that you cant see the raw ingredients they use at restaurants… did they drop that before they plated?

Did he sneeze on it..? Otherwise bravo, great article and agree with your logic! Sam, with your luck, your kid is going to be like me, a picky eater and will insist on home food. That said, if you can afford to buy prepared meals instead of making it at home, I say go ahead.

The only caveat is you have to watch the calories with prepared meals and your weight unless you choose to buy healthy prepared meals prepared by professional.

All I get from this article is the idea that you suck at cooking, and you resent those who actually can cook. Will they taste the same? Will it probably have fewer calories? Almost certainly. I portion smaller at home because I get the choice on how much to make.

I plan to hire a personal chef to come to my home to cook several dishes once a week. We will plan menus together and use top quality, organic, in-season healthy ingredients.

She will do the shopping, cooking, and cleaning up. Sounds like heaven to me! In response, aim to make more meals that don't rely on them as the central ingredient, Brown said. Consuming less meat also helps you to lower your environmental footprint, she added.

Buying foods with a longer shelf life can cut your trips to the supermarket altogether. Even certain produce may last for more time than others, especially if you store it properly. Delaying your return is always good for your wallet, she said: "Every time you walk into the store, that's an opportunity for impulse purchases to drive up the bill.

Skip Navigation. CNBC TV. Investing Club. Key Points. Still, there are a number of strategies you can use at the supermarket to walk out with a smaller bill, experts say.

A woman shops for chicken at a supermarket in Santa Monica, California, on Sept. watch now. VIDEO