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At first it was just something I thought of doing when I got too tied up with school to cook. Now we eat out at least once a day. I was told to try diets and whatnot but they wouid only suffice a few days and we'd relapse. This is bad, we could use the food money spent for other things. Plus there are stories that you can actually get food poisoning. I guess my body is particularly strong, I ate a lot of different things outside including raw and weird mixtures and never been taken.
A classmate of mine said he had the same issue but he just learned how to cook and then he had to downgrade to lower offerings (ex. rather than $200 restaurants, he went to Chipotle). I'm trying to do the former but it's harder to stay focused.
Planning! Including planning for your own laziness. Some people have had great success keeping up with home cooked meals by planning their meals for the week (or even the month) on one day and prepping everything that can be prepped ahead of time. Generally, this means assembling meals and freezing them so that when you want them you can either toss them in a pot to finish or into a crockpot in the morning so they're ready for dinner.
And you might check out Pinterest, I'm obsessed. On a regular basis I find links to blogs about how to prep easy, healthy meals as well as a multitude of tantalizing recipe. It's a great place for inspiration.
One thing that I think will help a lot is to set aside the money you save for something special, especially if you keep a running tally.
Restaurants typically price their food about 3 - 3 1/2 times what the ingredients cost, and tax and tip add more. So in very round numbers, if you spend say $6 or 7 for lunch, you might figure a lunch from home would cost about $2, for a savings of, say, $5.
So let's say that your "prize" for not eating out so much will be something specific you really want that costs $500. And when you hit that goal you'll buy it. Get something like a coffee can that you can drop money in, and put a pad of paper next to it, and every time you eat a lunch from home drop $5 in the can and add it to the running tally on the pad. As you see the total rising it will become more and more motivating.
Same with dinner... figure what you spend, on average, then calculate 2/3 of that is your reward to yourself for eating at home. If you miss a day, no big deal, you just don't get the kick of adding to the total that day.
And don't forget about any other regular spendy habits you have, like buying coffee instead of making it yourself. If you spend $5 on coffee every day, as a lot of people I know do, that's $1,825.00 a year. Making it yourself might cost50 cents a day, a savings of $1,642.50. I don't know about you, but I can think of a lot of fun things to do with $1,642.50
Now, one rule about doing this... no suffering! Suffering is a demotivator. You don't have to give up eating out completely to get the benefit from cutting down substantially. If you are going crazy for a restaurant meal, go get one. But by rewarding yourself every time you do avoid a meal out you'll give yourself a powerful motivation to change your habits.
Another tip... get interested in cooking, especially cooking from scratch. It's a basic life skill that every adult should master. Restaurant food is not oriented around good health, it's oriented around getting you to spend money, so it has a lot of stuff in it that are not so great for one's health. #1 among them being salt. You wouldn't believe the amount of salt in a typical restaurant meal. Prepared frozen foods are not much better (and are expensive, compared to raw ingredients), so try to work "real food" into your diet as much as possible.
I am just done with cooking. I feel like it is beyond me to mess with it. I cooked when I had kids, now, it is just such an overwhelming chore. Buying food, bringing it home, messing with it, cleaning up. Too much.
Yes, it is healthier and cheaper to eat at home. But I work 60 hours a week, plus go to the gym every day.
No solutions from me, I am in the same boat. My BF would like me to cook more often, the other day I made pancakes. From a mix. That was it. He wisely said nothing.
I used to spend all weekend in my kitchen, baking, prepping food, I wonder if it is an age thing? I just don't feel like I have the energy or motivation.
My BF would like me to cook more often, the other day I made pancakes. From a mix. That was it. He wisely said nothing.
How much of the cooking does he do? And does he work 60 hours and go to the gym too? I think the cooking chores should be proportional, and nobody gets a free ride in my house. EVERYBODY cooks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by jasper12
I used to spend all weekend in my kitchen, baking, prepping food, I wonder if it is an age thing? I just don't feel like I have the energy or motivation.
Heavens, no excuses necessary. Working 60 hours plus going to the gym is going to wear anybody out. Not to mention chewing up your schedule.
The key thing is to simplify, simplify, simplify. Eliminate complicated, time consuming dishes and go for quick stir fry dishes and other skillet recipes. Get convenience items, like pre-washed and tossed salads, and the "ready to cook" dishes that most supermarkets are carrying now.
But... dare i say it?... look for ways to cut down that work load. Life is too short for that kind of schedule, and most people can cut down their work hours by becoming more organized and more efficient.
I know that on the weekend when we are running around and eating out, I gain weight. I have a hard time finding lower calorie, lower fat items when we eat out. Plus it gets expensive to eat out a lot. To me it's healthier and cheaper to eat at home. My opinion only.
I am just done with cooking. I feel like it is beyond me to mess with it. I cooked when I had kids, now, it is just such an overwhelming chore. Buying food, bringing it home, messing with it, cleaning up. Too much.
Yes, it is healthier and cheaper to eat at home. But I work 60 hours a week, plus go to the gym every day.
No solutions from me, I am in the same boat. My BF would like me to cook more often, the other day I made pancakes. From a mix. That was it. He wisely said nothing.
I used to spend all weekend in my kitchen, baking, prepping food, I wonder if it is an age thing? I just don't feel like I have the energy or motivation.
Sounds like your BF needs to step up to the skillet a few times a week.
60 hours, gym and moderator? Calling all type A's. LOL
OP go simple, eggs, noddles, rice, frozen veggies in the micro excetra..
I am somewhere in between about cooking. I don't make complicated meals anymore, and I do very often buy frozen meals (organic or natural) and have those with a salad for dinner. If not that, I prepare something very simple like baked fish with a salad. Breakfasts are often grilled cheese of BLT. We do eat out once or twice per week. I just don't want to make everything from scratch anymore, and with the wide availability now of more wholesome frozen or prepared meals out there now, it's just easier for me. I think for me it is an age thing, I used to cook from scratch a lot more, just don't really have the motivation for all the prepping/cooking/cleaning anymore.
But to the OP - you can do some of what I do, it's still FAR cheaper than eating out, and you have received good advice about planning your meals for the week. You might try a few simple cookbooks, Rachel Ray has some good ones with the 30-minute meals (lots of easy, simple and inexpensive recipes in there).
I love to cook and the prep part of it for me is like therapy especially when making pie crust, pizza dough, pasta things like that. In this house though I cook and he cleans up and helps prep if I ask him to so nothing is a chore. When I cook though I usually cook for the entire weekend on Friday afternoon/evening. That way already prepared in my kitchen food and a variety of it can be taken from the fridge and heated in the microwave with very little time and effort. I always have fresh fruit and raw vegetables available as well.
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