My boyfriend (20) and I (18) have been living together for 2 years in an urban apartment. For us, it usually goes like this:
- Delivery
- Eating out
- Cooking at home
We visit our parents (and they visit us) often, and they give us lots of home-cooked food. We mostly cook at home just for fun.
I’m curious what it’s like for other people, especially in different age groups or family setups!
If somebody else is cooking most of your food, you probably live somewhere that a landlord has convinced you a kitchen is like a sink and a microwave. Maybe space for an air fryer if you’re lucky.
Cooking at home. The wife cooks “everyday” meals because somehow she is much faster than I am, I cook for special occasions (e.g. when we have guests),but she became so good over the years she also does that often.
We rarely (like twice a year) use convenience food due to allergies and quality and most of the time cook “from zero”, so that’s a bit more time consuming but still manageable.
Mealie or Tandoor help a lot here, as you can better plan your cooking and build a menu for the week. (E.g. “If I do this on Monday, I have ingredients B and broth left over/can easily do more so I will do something with B on Tuesday and Soup on Wednesday. Oh, when I do noodles for soup I can also do a bit more and make pasta for Thursday”) Additionally it makes it easier to adapt new recipes - we do various European dishes,from Portugal to Romania, some African and Arabian ones, some Indian, some South-East Asian ones and some Japanese and a lot of Korean ones. (We both lived abroad for a long time when we were younger). Especially for these rather “unusual” dishes planning is required as we sometimes need to order things online. (As getting some things is hard in rural central Europe). Grocy helps with that.
Delivery or Take Away is a rare choice,not only because it’s often inferior quality, it’s also fucking expensive. I can literally cook for a workweek for the money greek takeaway costs here. While we would have the financial means it’s simply, well, wasteful. In all aspects.
Eating out is something we rarely do. We both do have probably four times the “eating out” occasions due to our jobs than private ones. But when we do it, we plan it very carefully. It can be everything from a “hole-in-the-wall” in a sketchy backyard to a Michelin three star restaurant,but when we do it, it’s never out of “we are hungry, let’s go” and more a “we are interested in this and this, let’s find a restaurant that serves this.”(E.g. the last time we went out it was a Persian/Iranian restaurant that various Persian/Iranian friends recommended. It was absolutely worth it)
The funny side effect? The kiddo(s) have been to three Michelin star restaurants before they were three. They know how to behave in a restaurant. They only sometimes used to get angry when someone handed them the kids menu. K1 cooks African, Georgian, Romanian, etc. dishes on the same level as my wife and went to shop alone at the African store in town when they cooked for us. Which is run by a few very scary looking (but in reality very nice and very correct - they saved two girls from sexual assault a few years ago) Nigerian dudes that half the town js scared off. They drag their grandparents - which on one side were born behind the iron curtain and rarely eat out- into hole-in-the-wall backalley restaurants in Berlin, etc. This is one of the achievements I am really proud of.
People: Learn to cook. Seriously.
Prices where I live. Cooking at come cost like 2 bucks. Delivery cost 20. Eating out cost 50.
I’m cooking at home.
Cooking at home almost all the time. Sometimes though when im already out i want to treat me and my boyfriend to a nice date at a restaurant
eating out is pretty expensive, if you are doing it everyday, at a restaurant.
Usually delivery and eating out ends up being much more expensive in the long run than cooking at home where you can buy things in bulk when on sale and store Ina fridge or freezer until you need it, but you need the space to store a lot of food which many apartments don’t have.
So you’re saying you’re constantly broke. Getting delivery all the time is hella expensive
Or that they’re very wealthy
3 kid family. Food is expensive. Wife learned to cook very well by her mother when growing up. She cooks most nights. We only go out to eat or have it delivered/takeout for 3 reasons: 1) she’s exhausted, 2) we’re traveling, 3) special occasions. Unfortunately, she’s such a good cook that we rarely eat at a place that made the dish better and it leaves the kids wishing she just made it at home which is awesome for me since it’s a hell of a lot cheaper.
So:
- Cooking at Home
- Eating Out
- Delivery/Takeout
Single guy, single family home with two teens just leaving for college
- Cook at home
- Takeout (because chipotle exists)
- Eat out
I essentially never do delivery, it’s too expensive. You’re paying extra for eat out food but don’t even get to eat out.
Chipotle has an excellent group order function in their app! I can send an invite to my kids while they’re out so they can add to the family order and have them grab it on their way home.
Plus I love cooking. I need to find some sort of group for sharing meals. In fact I have a 12 lb pork shoulder ready to go on the smoker tomorrow but it’s just me. Who wants some pulled pork?
Edit for the folks at !fuckcars@lemmy.world , as the last breakfast before my little one left for college, we walked about a mile, half on trail, to an old-style diner for breakfast.
Cook at home every time, I could happily never have fast food again. The only reason I ever eat it is when in a group and someone else decides that is what we are doing.
I’m poor. I rarely eat out and I think I ordered delivery once in college.
Keep track of your spending. Don’t just eyeball it. Dining out and delivery are very expensive.
Like a couple weeks ago I ordered dinner to eat with a friend realized the bill was like a whole week’s food budget all at once.
Rice, beans, vegetables, cheese, wraps? Like $5. Ordering two similar burritos? $30. That savings adds up.
Anyway, to answer your question and stop giving unsolicited advice: I almost always cook at home. I don’t have the income to do otherwise. When I had a high paying job I would order more food delivered.
deleted by creator
Always cook at home, eating out as a treat once in a while and never use delivery.
Same here. Except pizza. I’ll get that delivered, because it doesn’t involve a third party.
Id like to go out more often, but nowadays, I can’t take my family out to eat for under $100.
I have a different point of view. Pizza is one of those things that’s easy and cheap to make myself, so I make that myself.
On the rare occasion I do order or go out to eat, I prefer food I can’t cook myself very well, like persian or asian food.
On the rare occasion I do order or go out to eat, I prefer food I can’t cook myself very well, like persian or asian food.
This is the way. I don’t have the means or qualifications to handle a rotating shawarma spit. Some things are best left to the experts.
For me, that’s sushi. I do not have the fine dexterity and patience required to put that together myself.
Neither do I but we still do it with my partner and friends. We don’t do normal sushi and instead make sushi burritos. The sushi burritos are faster and easier.
You don’t have a shawarma spit in your kitchen?
It’s just for show
Just like my sex dungeon.
Yeah, pizza is more cheap shit with insane profit margins.
True, and we do this as well, but pizza is the answer to not wanting to cook or put on pants.
because it doesn’t involve a third party.
Man, the rationales some people have for why they let some people rip them off but not others is mind-boggling.
Really reinforces my opinion of the average person.
I can’t take my family out to eat for under $100.
Are you in fucking Belize? Do you have a family of at least 8? Are you horrible with money?
Or maybe this is just hyperbole.
It’s about $75, plus tip for two people to eat anywhere that’s not “fast casual” where I am- California Bay Area. A “nice” restaurant it would be considerably more.
So it’s hyperbole.
You’re literally ignoring the restaurants that don’t help you support your argument.
Shit is insanely overpriced, especially in the entitled and privileged area that you live. You don’t need to lie about costs.
I live in iowa and its the same here. Sit down mexican restaurant is at least 75 bucks after tipping (for two peope). I’m actually shocked that the price is so close in cali, i would expect it to be higher than here.
There are cheaper restaurants than the one you mention.
If you choose not to acknowledge them, that’s on you. But claiming that you can’t eat out for significantly lower than the prices you people mention is objectively wrong.
I’m not really sure what your point is, but we are a blended family, so yeah, there’s a lot of us.
Sure, I could get $5 Biggie Bags at Wendy’s for everyone for under $100, but if we’re going out it’s because we WANT to, not because we need to shovel the cheapest food we can find into our mouths. We got Chinese on Friday. After tip it was a little over $100, and we didn’t even have all the kids with us. Which is why we only go out once or twice a month. The rest of the time, were cooking at home, or in case of emergencies, order $40 worth of pizza.
Ok well, the point was that you can eat at a restaurant as a family for under $100.
Exactly, eating out is crazy expensive compared to making your own food. I like to have a few bigger dishes with easy meals to fill in the gaps, and rarely eat out so I can save that money.
My partner and I are mid-40s, and our meals go like this:
- Cooking at home
- Delivery
- Pick-up/take-away that we pick up from the place ourselves and then eat at home
- Eat out at restaurant
Reason being for all this:
I enjoy cooking
Partner and I both have no issue eating the same thing for dinner ever day for a week or more, so I make a huge portion and then we eat it for an entire week/until it’s totally gone
Delivery costs are expensive, even before tip
Partner and I both have dietary restrictions that make ordering from somewhere difficult when they’re not clear about what ingredients they’re using
We save a ton of money by cooking at home
