I’m poor. I rarely eat out and I think I ordered delivery once in college.

Me and my girlfriend usually cook at home. Nothing beats take away on a lazy day though, when you just wanna kick back on the couch.

I generally cook at home and maybe 1-3 times a week I go out to eat or pick up food. I’m anosmic (no sense of smell, very limited sense of taste), so I struggle to cook whole meals for myself and pretty much can’t cook anything other people can eat. That means what I “cook” at home is almost exclusively simple food like sandwiches, pasta, and frozen/premade stuff. I never get delivery, but I live in an area where I’m a 10-20 mins drive away from like 100 places selling all kinds of food.

There are 4 people in my household and no one eats the same thing. I have celiac and food intolerances. One kid has avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. My husband eats low carb. And while the other kid is picky, no one else is eating the same thing, so we just make him whatever he likes. Also, we free feed them like animals. Restaurants are difficult, there are like 2 we will all will eat at. Delivery works ok for my husband and the kids sometimes, but not for me.

Eating at a restaurant easily costs 4x+ what I can make at home, even fast food.

I’ve done the math many times. My average plate at home costs no more than $2 (and I eat pretty much whatever I want).

Let that sink in. Calculate the difference over a week, a month, a year.

Holy moley, the expense of that

95% cooking at home. It can be like simple meal to more complex. I love cooking so I don’t mind. And we are saving up so such that way. Eating out is getting more and more expensive and what I am getting in my plate is just shrinking. Delivery? When we want something very specifics. It happens once or twice a month.

So you’re saying you’re constantly broke. Getting delivery all the time is hella expensive

Delivery isn’t worth it a lot of the time. Even eating out costs too much. I can cook, so I’d rather just do it myself. If restaurants start to fold, I will have no sympathy. They priced out the working man, and if the rich man doesn’t support them, well, they gotta lay in the bed they made.

Making a burger was easy before. Air fryers mean anyone can make a burger that beats any fast food place and most sit down restaurants. What separates a burger made by a pro chef from mine is, the pro chef uses better meat, that is freshly sourced and ground that day. They also mix two or more kinds and grind them together. They use American cheese and pickles for chemistry reasons and they’re good enough for most people. I use pepper jack because it’s higher quality and tastes better.

I’m working on my taco game. Tacos are so hard to get right, but when you do, when you get on par with local Mexican places with Mexicans cooking it, it’s so rewarding. (Getting over Taco Bell is child’s play.) I will not say I’ve done better than authentic. I’ve gotten close to their level though. A local taqueria is hard to beat!

Pasta is too easy. There are a couple tips. Learn al dente and stop cooking pasta just before that stage. Drain but leave a little of the starchy water. With pasta sauce, check the ingredients for sugar! If they’ve included it, fine. If not, add some! So tomatoes are super acidic. They will upset your stomach. Sugar counters that. I also add crushed red pepper, cayenne powder, Abe either Texas Pete or Tabasco — basically a red hot sauce. Frank’s is another one. So basically I make something called arrabiata — that’s Italian for angry pasta. Not too hot but a bit of a kick. With meatballs and penne pasta.

Single guy, single family home with two teens just leaving for college

1. Cook at home
2. Takeout (because chipotle exists)
3. Eat out

I essentially never do delivery, it’s too expensive. You’re paying extra for eat out food but don’t even get to eat out.

Chipotle has an excellent group order function in their app! I can send an invite to my kids while they’re out so they can add to the family order and have them grab it on their way home.

Plus I love cooking. I need to find some sort of group for sharing meals. In fact I have a 12 lb pork shoulder ready to go on the smoker tomorrow but it’s just me. Who wants some pulled pork?

Edit for the folks at !fuckcars@lemmy.world , as the last breakfast before my little one left for college, we walked about a mile, half on trail, to an old-style diner for breakfast.

We would go out once in awhile when back when but that sorta transitioned to pickup as we found our home just much more comfortable. We were doing it pretty often but inflation has us almost always cooking now.

3 kid family. Food is expensive. Wife learned to cook very well by her mother when growing up. She cooks most nights. We only go out to eat or have it delivered/takeout for 3 reasons: 1) she’s exhausted, 2) we’re traveling, 3) special occasions. Unfortunately, she’s such a good cook that we rarely eat at a place that made the dish better and it leaves the kids wishing she just made it at home which is awesome for me since it’s a hell of a lot cheaper.

So:

1. Cooking at Home
2. Eating Out
3. Delivery/Takeout

Haha I wish I could afford that! I live alone and I’m in my mid twenties. Instead it’s more like:

1. Quick meal (requires little prep and little cooking time, maybe some garlic spaghetti)

2. Big meal (a big stew I made a few days ago and put in the fridge)

3. Porridge (super reliable, very cheap, incredibly fast to prepare, add frozen blueberries)

And then:

5. Eating out (a good treat for a special occasion)

6. Delivery (it always ends badly)

Pad with rice if ever possible. Eat some beans. Frozen vegetables with seasoning salt.

My partner and I are mid-40s, and our meals go like this:

1. Cooking at home
2. Delivery
3. Pick-up/take-away that we pick up from the place ourselves and then eat at home
4. Eat out at restaurant

Reason being for all this:

I enjoy cooking

Partner and I both have no issue eating the same thing for dinner ever day for a week or more, so I make a huge portion and then we eat it for an entire week/until it’s totally gone

Delivery costs are expensive, even before tip

Partner and I both have dietary restrictions that make ordering from somewhere difficult when they’re not clear about what ingredients they’re using

We save a ton of money by cooking at home

I have always cooked at home more. At this point I can make food as good or better than what we get at restaurants so only go out to have a good time. Once every two weeks or so we do get takeout (or more precisely, husband gets takeout) because I won’t have time to cook, and about once a month we go out to a restaurant.

Work lunches half leftovers and half restaurant, there is a Panera across the street from work and a cafe in the building that has a grill, a fully cooked meal, and a sandwich line, so not like fast food.

ETA: Mid 50s, work full time and then some, husband and still 2 kids at home plus usually the girlfriend of one or the other of them (the kids not husband, lol)