Ask Lemmy

Cooking at home
getting cooked food from home
Eating out (usually due to work)

85% cook at home, 15% eat out or take out (around once a week), 0% delivery. What we save from eating out and delivery goes into buying more stuff at the grocery store to make various dishes at home.

95% cooking at home. It can be like simple meal to more complex. I love cooking so I don't mind. And we are saving up so such that way. Eating out is getting more and more expensive and what I am getting in my plate is just shrinking. Delivery? When we want something very specifics. It happens once or twice a month.

Delivery isn’t worth it a lot of the time. Even eating out costs too much. I can cook, so I’d rather just do it myself. If restaurants start to fold, I will have no sympathy. They priced out the working man, and if the rich man doesn’t support them, well, they gotta lay in the bed they made.

Making a burger was easy before. Air fryers mean anyone can make a burger that beats any fast food place and most sit down restaurants. What separates a burger made by a pro chef from mine is, the pro chef uses better meat, that is freshly sourced and ground that day. They also mix two or more kinds and grind them together. They use American cheese and pickles for chemistry reasons and they’re good enough for most people. I use pepper jack because it’s higher quality and tastes better.

I’m working on my taco game. Tacos are so hard to get right, but when you do, when you get on par with local Mexican places with Mexicans cooking it, it’s so rewarding. (Getting over Taco Bell is child’s play.) I will not say I’ve done better than authentic. I’ve gotten close to their level though. A local taqueria is hard to beat!

Pasta is too easy. There are a couple tips. Learn al dente and stop cooking pasta just before that stage. Drain but leave a little of the starchy water. With pasta sauce, check the ingredients for sugar! If they’ve included it, fine. If not, add some! So tomatoes are super acidic. They will upset your stomach. Sugar counters that. I also add crushed red pepper, cayenne powder, Abe either Texas Pete or Tabasco — basically a red hot sauce. Frank’s is another one. So basically I make something called arrabiata — that’s Italian for angry pasta. Not too hot but a bit of a kick. With meatballs and penne pasta.

Cooking at home was the default for us even when we lived downtown with eating out / delivery accounting for at most 2-3 meals per month, even when we've first met in our early 20s. 20 years later we live outside of the delivery area of everything and we grow most of what we eat.

When my now-husband and I first moved in together we ate out more than we do now and when we did make food we “cheated” a lot. We had some frozen meals and premade stuff. Over the years we have refined a lot of our cooking skills. We go out maybe once or twice a month, delivery in rare circumstances (we’re much more likely to do carry out) and eat at home most nights. Our grocery bill is around $400 a month for 2 adults and 1 preschooler. That gets us breakfast, lunches, and dinners. My husband will probably go out to eat for lunch once a week. Going out to eat is at least $30 if not $60+ for us and that’s not sustainable for every meal.

51 and 46 here. We eat at home by default. I go out for lunch once a week, and we might eat out or order in for dinner or brunch once or twice a week.

I usualluly cook a bunch of protein for the week and pair that with frozen veggies and/or fruit and pasta, oats, or rice. I'll eat that and/or dinner leftovers.

We tend to do pickup 1-2 times a week, and 1-2 times dine out. Occasionally somethibg fast for breakfast or lunch.

85+% cooking at home. Cooking is often a little generous - sandwiches, something premade from the grocery, simple things like cereals are maybe as much as half of that.

Used to almost always order delivery. I was super unhealthy. Now it's almost completely home cooking at least for the last few months.

Delivery: Never. I live far away from any options for such.

Eating out: Sometimes.

Cooking at home: The norm

We're 47 and 43, living in an exurb of Philly, and we cook at home 95% of the time (=20/21 meals weekly) and eat out once a week. Since it's summer, we grill a bunch of protein and veggies - chicken, turkey burgers, and salmon, plus squash from our garden - every 5 days or so, and use that as a base for our lunches and dinners. That way each individual meal is quick to throw together and we're not spending a bunch of time cooking every night.

When we were young we did a lot of eating out and delivery, and I wish we hadn't. Not to harsh your mellow, but restaurant food is mostly terrible for you. Loads of fat, sodium, and sugar, and often doesn't meet your micronutrient needs (depending on what kind of food you're getting). Cooking at home can be way healthier. And also better for your wallet!

Exclusively homecooking. I'm not that good at it and a lot of it is deepfrozen pizza, fish sticks, baked fries etc., but even convenience food like that is just so much cheaper than restaurants. If you live with a partner, cooking is even more time-efficient than for one person alone! Meal preparation in advance goes a long way, too, though for me that kinda falls flat because my fridge doesn't have enough space.

Back when I was in university, I often went to the uni cafeteria, which was a lot cheaper than a restaurant. If your city has one, look into whether it's open for outsiders - ours had higher prices for non-students, but it was still cheaper than restaurants.

Living alone, I have cooked at home since I was 18. Delivery only on very rare special occasions, same as eating out.

The two big reasons are all the money I save (I spend around 200€ on food each month), and I like cooking food my own way.

Sure, many times I don't have the energy to cook, but I usually make food for 2-4 days, so I only have to microwave it. Maybe I'll make some veggies with an onion and garlic sauté, save it on the fridge, and cook some chicken breast on the day, so I don't have to do all the cooking at once, and it's still fresh and good.

I couldn't afford ordering delivery or eating out every day, but I work part-time so I have more time than money.

Me and my girlfriend usually cook at home. Nothing beats take away on a lazy day though, when you just wanna kick back on the couch.

I generally cook at home and maybe 1-3 times a week I go out to eat or pick up food. I’m anosmic (no sense of smell, very limited sense of taste), so I struggle to cook whole meals for myself and pretty much can’t cook anything other people can eat. That means what I “cook” at home is almost exclusively simple food like sandwiches, pasta, and frozen/premade stuff. I never get delivery, but I live in an area where I’m a 10-20 mins drive away from like 100 places selling all kinds of food.

I have almost always exclusively cooked at home, both for myself and family. There is a very small selection of restaurants and cuisines where I live and I can make most things cheaper, healthier, and just as good or better than what I get from eating out. The only real benefit I get from it is not having to cook or clean up afterwards when I need a break.

Groceries delivered, make my own meals.

I haven't eaten at a restaurant in years and I don't plan on that changing any time soon.

I cook the vast majority of my meals. Wife and I eat out a couple times a week to mix it up a bit. My lunches are probably 90% cooked.

We (58m 67f) cook at home 95% of the time. We are an ingredient-only house. This means there are no packaged things, and we (I ) cook everything from nothing. We eat out 1-3x per month but are too often disappointed in the quality and shocked buy the cost. We eat in places that make their food, not those that reheat it. I'm a good cook. I try new things regularly and expirement freely. I have go-to meals. Every meal is at least a salad, a veggie or 2, and a meat. No bread and few grains except rice when appropriate for the meal. My largest investments are good pots (Calphalon and Le Creuset), good cooking surfaces (Tru infrared grill and dual fuel range) , and spices (literally hundreds from everywhere in the world). We never order for delivery.

One additional suggestion- buy meat in quantity. Get a vaccum sealer. Portion for your meals.

There are 4 people in my household and no one eats the same thing. I have celiac and food intolerances. One kid has avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. My husband eats low carb. And while the other kid is picky, no one else is eating the same thing, so we just make him whatever he likes. Also, we free feed them like animals. Restaurants are difficult, there are like 2 we will all will eat at. Delivery works ok for my husband and the kids sometimes, but not for me.

Dinner is like 90+% homecooking 10% Döner. Other than that it's bread and other cold stuff straight from the supermarket.

I(mid30 male) mostly cook at home, sometime eating out but never did delivery as none of those thing looks appetising.

My stuff can ranging from struggle meal(hotdog on sliced bread, instant noodle), to grilled chicken or stir fry if i have the time. It's really just depend on whether i have the time and effort or not.