There are times that even though I have plenty to cook at home but I just don't feel like doing anything because of tiredness and all I want to do is rest and relax. I will just simply get a take away food and eat at home because I also can't be bothered to sit at the restaurant. Do you often get a take away food or will you just cook anyway even though you are so tired?
I live alone and sometimes I just don't feel like making myself a meal. On such days, I can buy food at a diner, have them pack it up for me and it saves me the need of having to cook that day. It's somewhat more expensive though so I avoid doing that frequently.
I've cut way back on take-out. I love it, but I'm really trying to save money. Sometimes, I will splurge on take-out pizza or chicken wings, but otherwise I cook at home these days. I've actually gotten pretty good at making home-made pizza with refrigerated dough! It's kind of fun and saves money. Every once in a while, cravings get the best of me, though!
Honestly, I don't live close enough to places to do take out. In fact, that is one of my biggest dreams, somewhere close enough that I could actually get out more than once a day if I wanted! I would take just being even 10 miles closer to things! I have wanted to bring my Subway sandwich home tho, and have sometimes to put my own basil and other herbs on it, as the Subway is a bit closer. I do bring stuff home tho and don't try to eat it all when we go out.
I live alone too. Sometimes I'm not in the mood to cook even though I love cooking. I eat more take-out in the summertime. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a hot meal, but don't want to turn on my oven because I have no air conditioning in my apartment.
I'm not in the best financial situation at the moment so take away food in not an option. Even if I don't feel like cooking, I still do it. Usually, in such moments, I cook fast meals like soup - you just place all the ingredients and condiments together and do something else (relax!) while they boil. After an hour or so, voila, tasty cooked food! And I didn't lift a finger (almost).
Sometimes you have to take into account the fact that you will not be using your oven, you have more free time and cleaning up is usually a lot less hassle (less water etc) It's not always as costly as you think.
For me, it depends on our budget for the week. I don't like to cook in the first place, but I am feeding a family of 3. If we get take-out all the time, the pocketbook really feels the strain. I think it is always nice to have lunch meat for sandwiches or soups on hand when I don't want to cook.
When I don't really feel like cooking I will eat cereal, yugart and a salad I don't really like eating out or take away. But I do understand being too tired to want to cook ofr yourself or anyone else. When the kids are in school /friday is pizza night so that no one has to cook.
There are only a few options available for take out around my home. I should say, many places but almost all are sushi joints. I like sushi but cant eat it every day. If I were more inspired at dinner time, I would likely cook for myself more often. Like the original poster, it isn't that there isn't food in the house or that I can't cook, but because sometimes I am too lazy to do so. What I would really like to find is a place that has take out food that is both inexpensive and nutritious.
It just depends on if its in the budget for us or not. I usually have about one night a week when I really do not want to cook. On those nights we usually have three options: leftovers (if there is any), eat out, or my husband cooks. If we do eat out, we tend to order a pizza or get fast food. Every once in awhile, we will get take away service from restaurants like Applebee's or Outback Steakhouse. However, there are nights when we just can't flat out afford it so that's when the other two options will come into play. Well, I guess there's a third option: this mama sucks it up and cooks herself. I don't like to cash in on that option on those nights though.
The prices on fast food and takeout food have been fluctuating so much over the past 10 years, that many of the things I used to get quite regularly, I can no longer afford on a regular basis, while some other newer restaurants are offering great deals on certain menu items where it actually ends up being cheaper for me to buy it from them than buy all the ingredients and make it myself. There is a Philly Cheese Steak place near me called Penn Station. When I am in the mood for a rib-eye "philly" sandwich, I will just go to them. They also sell hand-cut home made fries as well as fresh squeezed lemonade. The sandwiches are around $5-$7, which may sound like a lot, but lets look at the costs if I were to make this at home with the same ingredients: $5 for a pack of shaved ribeye (and it's only about enough for one sandwich), $3-4 for a pack of fresh mushroom and some onions and bell peppers, $2 for a pack of hoagie rolls and there is 6 in a pack so about 33 cents, Provolone cheese 25 cents, A bottle of peanut oil to make the fries $7, and some fresh potatoes $1. That's nearly $20 to make that meal at home. Much of that is wasted on the cost of the oil, which would go rancid quickly. The pack of steak alone costs about as much as the sandwich. On the most cost saving side of things, many of the local pizza joints - namely the mom & pop places - will often sell $5 12" or 14" pizza's plain or with one topping on off nights of the week, like a Tuesday or Wednesday to spur business. That's about as much as a frozen pizza, if not less. Granted they usually require you to pick it up yourself, but I would be picking up any other fast food anyhow. One of the things I very rarely order takeout on anymore unfortunately are buffalo wings. They used to be like 10 cents a piece at many bars, now they want nearly $30 for a 30 piece bucked of wings at many places. An order of like 8 usually runs around $7, and they don't even include any celery, carrots and blue cheese.
