How To Reduce Your Food Spending When You Hate To Cook

“Take your lunch to work every day.”

“Save $5 a day and make your coffee at home.”

“It’s so much cheaper to eat at home.”

You’ve heard it all before, one surefire way to get your budget under control is to eat at home more and to eat out less. And, unfortunately, it’s true. It’s less convenient and less fun, but it’s better on your budget to eat at home.

According to the Commerce Department sales at restaurants and bars overtook grocery spending in March of 2015, for the first time ever (Bloomberg). Not surprisingly millennials are a significant contributing factor to this shifting dynamic. It’s easy to understand why when you consider that millennials view eating out as a social event and a way to connect with others. And some people just really don’t enjoy cooking or eating at home.

Monitoring your food spending may be a bit more challenging than other areas of your budget because unlike your monthly phone bill your food spending will likely change from week to week. When you consider that food spending should include one off snacks and coffee purchases it can quickly become more time consuming to track than just your weekly trip to the grocery or the occasional meal out. However, neglecting this area of your budget can have serious repercussions.

As with all your budgeting categories you have to start by being honest with yourself on what you’re spending. This includes not just trips to the grocery store but also that morning smoothie on your daily commute and your mid-afternoon coffee and muffin pick me up. Once you have a true picture of what you’re spending it will be easier to determine how much, if any, you need to cut back.

If you’ve decided to reduce your food spending by eating in more often then there are a lot of ways to work around the lack of love for cooking. Casseroles or pasta dishes (think lasagna or chili) are a great way to maximize your cooking efforts and cover multiple meals. Another option might be to make use of the ‘ready to eat’ sections of your local grocery store. For example, most grocery stores offer a prepared whole roasted chicken, adding in a russet potato (baked or mashed) and a quick salad might be an option that covers multiple meals without a lot of skill or effort required.

If dinners at home just won’t work another option to help reduce your food spending is to consider altering your lunching and snacking habits. If the average lunch is approximately $7-$10 per day then monthly costs could easily top $140 to $200. Lunches can be much easier to prepare than dinner as they’re usually smaller and can be a fraction of the cost of eating out (and can be healthier as well). Even bringing a lunch to work half the time can positively impact your budget.

As with any of your budgeting categories, your success in reducing your expenses is heavily reliant on your ability to make and sustain a change in behavior. If the idea of cooking at home or packing a lunch doesn’t sound feasible in the long term then be honest with yourself and with your budget. I truly believe that budgets that require you to fundamentally change how you live are likely to fail. Instead, if you want to prioritize eating out in your budget you should do so. However, this means that some other area of the budget will have to be cut to offset the expense. Review your expenses and decide what is less important than eating out and reduce those expenses instead. The best budgeters will look at their whole budget in addition to the sum of its parts. As long as the whole budget works and helps you achieve your financial goals then spending less in one area and more in another is what makes your budget unique.

Bon Appetit

Daysha Carter is a personal financial coach based in Seattle, WA. If you’re struggling with your finances and want assistance getting to the next level schedule a free consultation at www.everydaybudgeting.com.