(Thanks for reading! tl;dr at bottom)
A bit of background: I live in the NoVa area where rent and pretty much everything else is very expensive, including purchasing food. I don't have "discount" grocery shops near enough for me (e.g. Aldi, Korean market). The closest Aldi is about 40 minutes away (Idk why tbh); Korean market like H-mart and Lotte are about the same distance in another city. I tried to shop in these places but it is just too time-consuming and I often put in extra hours at work so I'm tired almost all the time. I try to cook at home as much as I can. I make simple meals for two of us: simple protein, veggies and some starch. I meal prep too but I do work out so I eat a lot lol.
The food here is expensive to buy in regular grocery: Chicken costs somewhere between 8-15 dollars for 3-4 breasts. Steak is more expensive if we crave red meat. My wife has an autoimmune disease so she can't eat certain things, especially food that is close to expiration dates - I know I know exp dates are debatable but we've gotten sick before so I've just developed an aversion I guess. Anyway, I've noticed that if I meal prep for multiple days for two, I have to buy more than just one pack of chicken (around 7-8 breasts for approx. $20+), veggies (probably around $10 total), starch (couscous - around $3-4) so total of one meal for two for about 3-4 days is, says, $35-$40. This is not counting things like milk and bread and eggs and other extra snacks/in-between meals like hummus or salsa and chips. So, conservatively, I say we spend around $40-$50 bucks for meals 4-5 days or weekly (for two), if we can stretch the meals. Some days, I just eat two meals (eggs and oat meals and/or hummus, and maybe if we have leftovers).
Like I said, I go to the gym too so I drink a protein shake a day to supplement my nutrients so we go through milk pretty quickly. But these are cheap and don't always have to be bought weekly.
So, let's just say, we spend about 60$ on grocery 4-5. That's a conservative estimate, depending on the price of items and what store I go to at the time and/or whatever else we may need.
Current situation: We live near several eateries that sell really good Asian foods for cheap. I can get 6 Vietnamese sandwiches for $20 and that will last us for around 2-3 days, if not more. I can also add 8 meat rolls for about $10. Additionally, I can get 2-lbs of pre-made tofu for $5. And these are huge rolls, so that will stretch us to maybe 5 days - I usually end up eating most of it since I'm not worried about eating "old/past due" food and my wife eats very small portions. So, let's say about 4-5 days, we spend around $35-$40 for eating out.
So, I save about $15 dollars and A LOT of prep time. Doesn't sound much but I'm running on a tight budget. Also, the food is really good and we can modify the tofu and make it tasty enough so we don't get tired of eating the same thing. Sure, hygiene may be a problem since we don't prep the food ourselves but sometimes I've gotten sick from cooking myself anyway lol for various reasons.
I've always thought that cooking at home will be cheaper, based on all the info I've read in magazines, Reddit, blogs, etc. but lately, I've found out that that's not the case. And I'm doubting myself, thinking that maybe I'm wrong and maybe I should spend more time simplifying my meals or something. I'm not asking for sympathy or anything, just hopefully some insights from others in the same situation or just objectively from an outsider's point of view.
Is this a sustainable approach when it comes to food and meal prep? What might be a long-term downfall?
tl;dr: Found out I'm spending less money eating out (for two) and less time cooking (and good food too!) so I'm worried I'm doing something wrong. Looking for insights from others in same situ or objective bystanders about whether this is a sustainable approach to food and budgeting in general.
December 05, 2018 at 09:27AM
