Feeding your family can be accomplished in myriad ways ranging from ridiculously expensive to really cheap. But expensive isn’t always better and cheap isn’t always bad. Beyond the cost, you’ve got to consider the time involved.
We think nothing beats a home-cooked meal or just eating at home (that is unless someone else does the cleanup). But if you think cooking from scratch takes too much time and effort, we’ve got a few other options for you. In reality, there are a few times each month when either our schedule is so hectic or we’re just plain so tuckered out that we choose other options rather than cooking from scratch. But because we usually have prepared meals in the freezer (thanks to Once-A-Month cooking), the other options are seldom exercised.
Here is our Top Ten list from most expensive to most economical ways to calm your growling tummy.
1) Sit-down Restaurants
Call for a reservation and pay full price plus tip.
2) Sit-down Restaurants With a Two-for-one Coupon
Cuts the price a bit, but still includes a tip. (Or find a place where kids eat free with an adult-purchased meal.) Try the Entertainment Book or Restaurants.com — we’ve used both and have saved a huge amount.
3) Carry-out From a Restaurant
Chinese is our favorite but we’ve heard of other options.
4) Carry-out Fast Food
Pick it up and bring it home. For us, this includes pizza (with a coupon) or fried chicken from a grocery store deli counter.
5) Fast Food
Get dinner from places like McDonalds, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Burger King, Chik-Fil-A, Subway etc. We usually order from the dollar menu and skip the drinks and fries.
6) Frozen-food-section / Prepared Meals
This is the largest and fastest growing section in the grocery store. They do the cooking; you just heat it up. TV dinners, frozen pizza, stuffed pockets, sandwiches, and the list goes on forever.
7) Easy-to-cook Prepared Meals
These meals require a little more work but are basically prepared for you, including stir-fry in a bag, chicken Kiev, Chicken Cordon Bleu, etc.
8) Canned You-do Dinner
SpaghettiOs, canned beef stew, soups or chili — these aren’t our first choice (because of their high sodium and preservative content), but stock a few cans in your pantry for those crazy days to avoid the drive-through.
9) Easy Throw-together Meals
Now you’re cooking, but this is easy stuff. We’re talking about roasted chicken breasts, a bag of frozen corn and a bag of green salad—voilà—an instantly delicious meal. Or how about grilled steak or chops, baked potatoes and a bag of frozen green beans? Easy enough, scrumptious and cost-effective.
10) Cook From Scratch
Sure it takes some time to prepare, but ohhh the variety it adds to life! Think about these examples:
- Beef stroganoff with rice or noodles and salad or green vegetable.
- Chicken cashew with rice (lots of veggies are included in the recipe).
- Ham and scalloped potatoes with baked apples on the side or creamed spinach.
- Don’t forget one-pot meals like soup or chili. Once the cutting and chopping are done, these can be left on the stove or in the slow cooker and life can go on until dinner time. Plus, soup is inexpensive and always delicious on a cold winter’s day.
We eat out at restaurants on our date nights and a couple of times each year when we have a weekend alone or on Annette’s birthday. To be honest, the food is OK, service ranges from laughable to fair, but nothing compares to the comforts of home and Annette’s good cooking.
We’ve purposely kept this article short and sweet. We just want to give you food for thought. People often overspend because they’re too stressed to think up other options. So post this hierarchy on your refrigerator, and next time you don’t feel like cooking, take a minute and read down the list. You might just find a less expensive option that tastes great and is easy on your wallet.