My husband and I like to eat at this ONE pizza shop in town, it’s family owned business. It usually costs us around $50.
The other night I told him I think we should pay down our mortage more than we have been- and I told him how much money we’ve paid in interest in the past year (16k). He was floored.
Instead of going out to eat- we went to the grocery store and spent $24 on frozen pizza and wings and have leftovers for tomorrow.
Is it the same taste and quality? Not really, but it scratched the itch for pizza and in the future I do need to keep a better stocked fridge of prepared foods. The approaching holiday has me wiped out.
The current discourse online about how it’s ”cheaper to eat out versus at home” isn’t true. I still would have paid more if I got Dominos for the same quality.
Convinced my husband to eat at home tonight
byu/ThickFile inFrugal
Posted by ThickFile
26 Comments
The Costco pizzas (either from the snack bar or take and bake) are quite great for the price.
Who says it’s cheaper to eat out? That’s insane.
>The current discourse online about how it’s ”cheaper to eat out versus at home” isn’t true.
Haven’t seen that, but in the vast majority of the cases, that’s simply not true.
Where do those people live?! I wish it was cheaper lol
Where are you seeing the discourse? I haven’t had that come across my feeds at all.
Do you guys have a recent 30 year mortgage or something? Switching to a 15 year was a decision I made when the market was in the right place (which I know it hasn’t been for like 4 years) and its crazy how different the interest is. I know this is basic knowledge for anyone that has spent some time looking at houses, but when I first purchased a house, I was too scared to look at higher mortgage each month when I was dropping almost all of my savings into a down payment.
Getting takeout is my biggest weakness. I don’t buy clothes and items I don’t need, I don’t live lavishly, I save like crazy. But I still spend $300-$350/mo on eating out, and I want to cut down on that.
I think trying to cut it out completely (or even mostly) would backfire, but I’m going to try methods to cut back like only buying an appetizer or kids meal and supplementing with something at home. That way I still get the treat without such a big price tag.
Sounds like you’re doing similar. Pizza is still a treat, but getting it at the grocery store is much cheaper than ordering out. It’s not about depriving ourselves, but being smarter.
You can carry out at Domino’s for 10 bucks
def not cheaper to eat out esp with pizza. $20 of ingredients and I can make 10 pizzas easy.
Have you ever tried making your own pizzas? I don’t make my own dough, which is probably even cheaper, but buy the premade crusts. Maybe have a traditional pepperoni one night, then make a taco pizza or a buffalo chicken another night(3pack pizza crust). I find them to be as good as a pizza place, because I can load it up however I want. Wings are cheaper too
Next watch vito on YouTube and make his poolish pizza dough. Buy a pizza steel. Now you can make a pizza for $5.00. plenty of money left over for wings.
Anytime I go into the cooking at home numbers, it makes me double down on cooking.
Grow up and learn to make your own food
How you move forward with regard to your mortgage is up to you guys, but this is what I did…https://www.reddit.com/r/debtfree/s/fBGn5Yurzl
My interest rate was lower than what I would’ve made had i invested instead, but the peace of mind of owning and not giving your money away to interest can not be understated.
Kudos on taking the first step and looking where you can save some money to put towards your mortgage! What are your mortgage numbers?
*sorry- I thought this was r/personalfinance, not r/frugal. 🫠
haha same here, sometimes just making a simple meal at home feels way better than spending a ton eating out. plus leftovers are always a win for the next day
It’s definitely not cheaper to eat out, but I would def treat myself to a $50 pizza at a local business before allocating it to my mortgage. Depending on your interest rate, you’d be better off investing that money or putting it into a hysa. And if you itemize, your mortgage interest is deductible. That said, I’m happy for your family.
Big fan of homemade French bread pizza.
Can get a French bread at Walmart for $1.47 a jar of pizza sauce for a couple bucks and a bag of cheese for a couple bucks. Pepperoni or other toppings if you want. Feed 4 people with a cheap salad on the side.
We keep frozen pizzas stocked in the fridge specifically to help us scratch the takeout itch without the price tag. Costco has saved us so much money.
Pizza can be one of the most cost effective fast foods. It can also be illogically expensive at a nicer place ($30+ ea). Last I checked frozen pizzas are $6+ for a decent one. Medium dominos, Marcos, papa John’s are nearly the same price with a coupon with free pickup.
That being said I still keep frozen pizzas in the freezer for an easy last minute meal. I also like to keep a jar of cheap marinara in the fridge for extra sauce or dipping.
The Digiorno Wood Fired pizzas are surprisingly tasty!
I keep a heavily neglected sourdough starter. Pizza bases cost me about AUD $0.60, then cheese about $1/pizza. Chuck on some cheap passata, and a smattering of toppings (less is more), and I reckon it’s less than $4/pizza in total. Probably electrical cost as well.
We bought a cheap gas pizza oven earlier in the year, and it does an amazing job. With cooking an average of 5 pizzas a week (large family!), even the capital cost of that is down to about $1.60/pizza!
It’s such an easy, quick and cheap meal to make at home. Unfortunately we’ve got our system running so well that I like it better than takeaway haha.
Pizza is like sex!
When it’s great, it’s AMAZING!
And when it’s just ok, hey, it’s still Pizza! 😂💯
Being a Brit, I come from a culture that takeout isn’t what it is here and when I moved here in 2000 I mean I was shocked by the amount of time my friends were eating out every week. I still think of eating out at a restaurant as a treat and I don’t do it very often. Right now I’m trying to persuade my boyfriend to stop buying take out three or four times a week because it really adds up.
I used to be a chef and yes, I cook all the time but it doesn’t take much to realize that cooking your own food is way cheaper than eating out of a restaurant. Is it as much fun, not really, but it can be.!!
I think if you can change the mindset to thinking we’re gonna eat out this week or maybe once every two weeks and it becomes more of a treat, then that’s the way to go .
It’s really a cultural thing to be honest as eating out in the US is just way more common than it is in the UK. I haven’t been back there for a while so it may have changed, but I know it’s not like it is here.
I think if more people added up how much they spent every month on takeout, including fast food, sodas from the store, restaurant meals, etc. they would be shocked.
This is great! I always love to exult over the savings from not going out to eat. Laziness saves us a lot of impulse meals- it’s a 15-minute drive into town so we’ll talk a good game about really wanting Jack in the Box eggrolls or whatever but when the time comes to go, it’s dark, cold, and we’re old so we don’t see great at night, so the desire fizzles and we eat frozen nuggets instead and pocket the savings!
Buy frozen dough and add your own toppings. You’ll get restaurant quality for very minimal effort.
This isn’t frugal. You could’ve enjoyed the pizza and supported a local business, instead you had food that wasn’t as good, basically pretty expensive junk in and of itself, and saved a laughably trivial amount of money.
This sub really cannot see the forest for the trees when it comes to the real meaning of frugality. “I spent $24 on garbage frozen food instead of $50 on a nice dinner out at a local business” is not the point.
There was a time when you could go on wing night and they would be 10 cents etc…. That ship has sailed! Wings are so pricey now. I make my own still not cheap but waaay better than a restaurant.