Thursday, October 20, 2011

Thrifty Thursday - Cooking vs. eating out



One way Jeff and I save money is by cooking our meals at home. About once a week we’ll order pizza or go out with friends, but most nights, we’ll cook.

On average, I’d say we spend about $100 a week in groceries. That includes extra items on sale that are canned or we can freeze and keep on hand. If we went out to eat every night, we’d probably spend about $30 a night – $210 a week! And, that doesn’t include breakfast or lunch!

Cooking at home is more affordable when we plan meals, make grocery lists based on weekly ads, and buy generic brands whenever possible. As hard as we can, we try to stick to our grocery list (occasionally ice cream or an extra bottle of booze will end up in the cart. It's OK. We enjoy both enough to justify it). I also take any extra canned or frozen items into consideration while making the list. We spend way less if I actually have a plan for everything we buy. Also, it reduces waste when I don’t throw out a head of broccoli or some other produce I thought we would eat.

An added bonus of cooking dinner ourselves is making it together. Jeff probably doesn’t love that I ask him to help sometimes, but it makes the time so much more enjoyable. It’s fun being in the kitchen as a couple and laughing when we do silly things – kind of like the couple above who for some reason are super happy about their ridiculously large pile of vegetables.

What are ways you save money?

(Photo via Google images)

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