Question about the "no eating out ever" rule: my $60 a week takeout budget saves me more than it costs | Budgeting Wins

Casey Ward · 2026-10-08T14:35:04.899873+00:00

Everyone in this community loves to say cut every restaurant meal and you'll get rich, but I think that advice breaks down for some of us. I live in a small place with a terrible kitchen, like one burner and a mini fridge, so cooking real food at home means fighting my setup every single night. Two summers back I tried the full no-takeout thing for 8 weeks and my grocery bill actually went up because I was buying stuff that went bad before I could use it in that tiny fridge. Plus I was so wiped from trying to meal prep in that space that I started ordering delivery anyway, which costs way more than my normal spots. Now I just set aside $60 a week and hit the same three cheap places near me, and my total food spending is lower than when I was "saving money" at home. The people who push the zero takeout rule usually have full kitchens and a car, and they don't seem to get that my setup makes home cooking the expensive option. Has anybody else found that a small takeout budget actually beats trying to cook in a bad kitchen?

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Question about the "no eating out ever" rule: my $60 a week takeout budget saves me more than it costs | Budgeting Wins - The Design Community Hub