If you have tracked your expenses and determined that food is eating up your budget – there are ways to bring down your spending while still enjoying life.
When you eat out or order delivery, you are spending much more on food than if you prepared it at home. This is not news to anyone. So why do people do it? It comes down to a consideration of time, money, entertainment, and energy. When people eat out they are typically sacrificing money in exchange for another value.
Your food expenses outside of what you prepare at home can include delivery and eating in restaurants. You need to determine roughly how much you are spending per month on delivery, eating out with friends, and also cooking at home.
Using your current spending, you should seek to make adjustments. The first step is to make realistic targets. Also, to maximize the value for your money. In other words, try to invest your budget for eating out in ways that will give you maximum return whether that is in saved energy or entertainment.
You will likely not be able to bring your spending on prepared food down to zero in a month. Proclaiming your intention to never eat at a restaurant or order delivery might make you feel good- but you are setting yourself up for failure. Keep your motivation up by making it a gradual transition. You will need to slowly learn how to prepare food and adjust your diet gradually.
One of the easiest ways to save money with minimal effort is to start and pack food to bring to work. Also, find a way to make your own coffee at home or in the office.
Also, you can prevent yourself from spending money on food out by simply leaving your cash and cards at home. Once you get to your house it’s easier to simply prepare something than going out again. This might be hard for the first few weeks but you will quickly get in the habit.
To make preparing food at home easier you can meal prep. It takes roughly the same amount of time as cooking one meal but will produce multiple meals. It helps to maintain a basic list of kitchen supplies such as basic spices like onions, garlic, tomato paste, soy sauce, milk, butter, and eggs. With these, most recipes will only take a few extra ingredients. Find YouTube channels and books with recipes you enjoy and start from there.
When you are preparing meals at home make sure they will be tasty and there will be a good reward for your effort. You should not be afraid to add some salt and seasoning to make them yummy. It is likely that what you prepare at home will be much healthier than anything at a restaurant, no need to go crazy. You need to like your food enough to keep wanting to come back to it.
