I'm in my 20s and have since university, I've formed some bad financial habits including eating out for most of my meals. Once these habits led to me spending $36 on food delivery for 2 people, I realized something needed to change.
What started off as a Whopper at BK once in a week in 2012 turned into a habit of ordering medium combos 4x a week at the drive-thru and pizza delivery. Here the amounts would be around ~$25 if I was paying to feed two of us.
Then in 2017, I learned about food delivery apps like Skip the Dishes and Uber Eats and how convenient they were. It became a daily ritual of ordering a big meal, paying a $4 delivery fee as well as a tip on top of a $20-30 dollar meal. I had tried deleting the apps and often found myself easily reinstalling and the apps would remember my credit card info.
Some courage led to me finally taking a look at my numbers and it was shocking to learn that I was spending upwards of $900 a month on food. Groceries were included but those would often go to waste because ordering food from my phone was such a routine, I didn't need to open the fridge door.
After being self-aware of my spending, I set limits for myself. I would keep the apps, look at them if I needed to, but I would not order. Instead I would order Dominos if I had an intense craving and remind myself of how I would feel the next morning if I did just that.
Results:
In a 50-day period including today, I have only ordered Dominos twice, spending $40 in total.
Within the past 50 days, I've spent $0 on food delivery.
Takeout: $150 Groceries: $350
This gives me more $$ to save instead.
My SO never supported me ordering food delivery but I always fed him to be fair. Now he is very supportive of getting groceries as he knows they are not going to waste. We have made more meals together and are enjoying the time spent making them. We can improve by making salads and other healthy meals as we have been digging into ice cream at home (solving the problem of food delivery can lead to new problems when grocery shopping but that'a a different story).
If anyone can relate to this, just know that it is never too late to form better habits. I now have over $5000 in savings and there's potential for so much more if I can keep cutting food expenses.
If you're spending enormous amounts of $$ on takeout or delivery, focus on small improvements, like ordering a $20 meal instead of $30 or ordering three times a week instead of five times.
Believe that you can develop better habits, and get yourself back up again if you did slip. I'm restricting myself by not even ordering in, but it is okay if you do moderately.
Submitted December 28, 2018 at 10:35AM by Cottoncandyskylines http://bit.ly/2Th5fez
