What is the Fastest Way to Save Money?

Stop eating out!  Seriously, stop it, or cut way back.  I know you don’t want to hear it.  No one does.  Eating out can be the biggest waste of your hard-earned money and your precious time.  Allow me to explain it. 

Eating Out is Silently Costing You Thousands of Dollars a Year in:

• Money
• Time
• Health

Money – Eating Out Costs 5 X’s More

Eating out is draining your bank account 5 times faster than if you cooked at home.  You can grocery shop and cook at home and save yourself up to 80% of what you are currently spending. 

There was research done by Forbes in 2018 that analyzed data from Priceonomics customer Wellio, they found some very interesting facts about the costs of eating out:

• It is 5 times more expensive to order delivery from a restaurant than it is to cook at home.
• Meal kits are 3 times more expensive than cooking from scratch.
• When cooking at home, you’ll save most money on carb-based meals (vs eating them at a restaurant).

This research was done pre-Covid before all of the inflation we’ve experienced the past several years.  Can you image the cost differences today?

You can save even more money if you meal plan and comparison shop.  Shopping multiple grocery stores is no longer physical trips to each store wasting your time and gas.  Shopping online, and using the different store apps, allows you to compare prices and special sale offers without leaving home.

Time – Time is Money, Money is Time

How does eating out cost you in time?  It’s simple, most of us put in hours of work each week in exchange for our incomes.  So, we’re essentially paying to eat out twice, once with our hard-earned cash and then with the precious hours of time we put in to make the cash.  Once you start thinking of time as money, your spending mindset changes drastically.  How many hours are you willing to work to sit and eat at a particular restaurant? Um, do you really want to work to eat at McDonalds? Think about it. This will change you.

Health – The Cost of Not Knowing What’s in Your Food

Healthcare is expensive in terms of premiums, copays, medical procedures, and medications.  Your diet, along with your genetics, is the best indicator of your overall health.  Genetics you have no control over.  You have control over the foods and beverages you put in your mouth.

When you eat out someone else is preparing and handling your food.  Leaving you in the dark with what is actually in your food that can potentially be harmful to you.  Eating foods prepared with MSG, excess salt, food additives, and added/hidden sugars impacts your health long term.  Health conditions due to a poor diet can lead to more doctor visits.  Not to mention, the expensive medications for diet related health conditions such as Type II diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.  I am aware that these medical conditions can be caused by other factors beyond diet, but the majority of these conditions in the Unites States caused by poor eating habits. 

So Now What?  I Can’t Eat Out?

Sure, you can still eat out.  Think first before you pick up the phone to order food in, or pile the kids in the car to grab a quick bite from a fast-food joint.  Eating out is perfectly good and fine, if it’s in your budget and part of your financial plan. 

I need to have a budget and financial plan to eat out? 

Yes, you should have a budget and financial plan to live well in general.  Know where your money goes.  It creates a less stressful and enjoyable life.  All of those dollars spent eating out add up.  Can those dollars better serve your family elsewhere?  It’s food for thought.

Once you really start considering the expense of eating out, the amount of time you put in to earn that money, and the overall preparing and quality of the food health wise, you will see a shift in your eating out habits, and hopefully an increase of funds available in your budget.

For Those Who Lack Cooking Skills

We live in a time where food cooking tips and tricks are available at your fingertips.  You can type in what ingredients you have and recipe options will just pop up.  I recommend All Recipes if you are new to cooking.  A lot of the recipes have videos with step-by-step instructions.  There is always YouTube!  There are millions of recipes and cooking tutorials to learn from on YouTube.  Chef John was my favorite when I first started.

Jaylee – My Personal Experience

Thank you for reading my thus far.  I practice what I preach.  I’ve learned things the hard way.  Before we had a budget in place, our family was spending over $1400 a month on eating out.  This didn’t include our weekly groceries; this was in addition to that.  Our food spending, and wasting, was out of control.  It was shocking to review our bank and credit card statements to see just how much money we spent.  We created our first budget in January of 2015, after spending a decade not paying attention to every dollar that came into our household.

We now have funds for eating out allocated in our weekly budget.   Sometimes our family builds up those funds over several weeks and we go to restaurants we see on the Food Network, or Diner’s Drive Inns and Dives.  We’ve even traveled to different states to eat at certain restaurants.  When our family goes out to eat now, it is for the experience and not convenience.