One financial problem area

[o2bnocn]

What's your biggest financial item or other that you have problems cutting back on? Mine would be ordering food such as pizza and subs. It's just so easy and it tastes so good. However I know that cooking is healthier and cheaper. I'm not saying I do it all the time but I'd like to start cutting back on it for financial and health reasons. I'm trying to limit how much I order food. Any thoughts?

[demaina]

Same.  I love going to Panera and getting a Greek Salad and Mediterranean Veggie sandwich.  However, the cost just bugs me.  I realize that it's salad and probably really good for me, but $9 is really high for me right now especially since I don't have a job at the moment. 

I've been working on losing weight recently and I realize that if I started cooking my own food, I'd spend more time standing and cooking it and it'd be way better in the long run.  I also don't like drinking water cause it just doesn't taste good, so I've been trying to drink it more cause I know it will help with weight loss as well.  However, it really hard when everyone else is drinking soda or something and I have to drink this water. 


If you'd like advice, I'd recommend buying ingredients to make the food you like in your home.  Pillbury pizza dough is really good and can be used in many different ways.  I made pizza, I made small cazones, I made something like the tortina pizza rolls.  Depending on the type of pizza you like, it might be fine just to make that, or consider adding some veggies to your meal.  I normally get supreme pizza which is loaded with veggies.  However, if I get just a pepperoni pizza, I make sure to have a salad or something with it to sorta balance out my meal.  Same thing for subs, just try to incorporate more veggies.  Even if you just add one new veggie the next time you get one, it will start helping. 

Now, granted, I'm probably not the best person to take advice from, seeing as I'm trying to get healthier as well, but it's something to try.  Making sure you have stuff at home that you like makes it far more likely you'll stay in instead of ordering food. 

The other thing to try is giving yourself a weekly or monthly eating out allowance.  That way, you can limit your bills by that.  Or keep track over the next month how many times you eat out and see if you need to cut back.  You may be within your budget to eat out that much and instead of cutting it back a lot, you can cut out one trip next month to save some money.

[shepherdchik]

I definitely spend too much on convenience foods and take out. I know I need to make more stuff at home and it's better for me. I did just start a saving money though so I'm proud that I started that

[Penwoir]

Why don't you, instead of buying subs or pizza, put the money you would have spent to one side and save it up for something nice. Eating out is expensive but more than that, these foods can be loaded with salt which is not good for your health. You might be surprised how cheap and easy cooking with fresh food is.