Lindsey Updyke
The author, pictured above, saved $106 by cooking all of her meals for a week.
- My weekly food budget is $200, but most of that is spent eating at restaurants, ordering takeout, and buying coffee - I typically spend just $32 a week on groceries.
- I decided to cook all my meals for an entire week to see how much money I would save.
- I managed to save $106 in one week alone by cooking every meal.
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I love going out to eat. Ordering takeout and eating it on my couch is one of my favorite things to do. And whenever a friend is coming to town, I'm usually suggesting we go out to fun restaurant.
Unfortunately for me, I eat out too much. Even when trying to budget restaurant spending, I almost always overspend. Living in Manhattan certainly has its perks, but not when it comes to my wallet.
At the same time, although I love cooking, I know I don't cook at home as much as I should. Instead of spending my time and energy making a meal, I tend to spend money instead.
As a consequence, my weekly food budget has risen to about $200 a week. And just $32 of that is spent on groceries.
Read more: My family of 4 spends $946 a month on groceries and eats at home for almost every meal - here's exactly what we buy
Between the Starbucks coffee runs, takeout lunch deals, and dinners with friends, I end up spending way more than I bargained for on restaurants, and way less on groceries and home-cooked meals. I've been trying to make an honest change for a while, but it's never actually happened.
That's why I recently challenged myself to cook all of my meals for an entire week.
And by the end of the week, I had managed to save more than $100 on food.
Here's what my spending and saving looked like.