Make eating out occasional, cook most days, and cut grocery runs so your budget finally drops.

Simple home-cooked meal—eggs with bacon and two green salads on a family table

Why Part 2 is about home cooking

When our kids were little, we leaned hard on takeout and delivery.
Order once, then twice, and by 6 p.m. “Should we just order again?” became the default.
The less I cooked, the harder cooking felt—so we kept ordering. Vicious cycle.

Then one credit-card statement made us stop.
“This can’t keep going.” From that day, we pivoted back to home cooking.
Food is a line item that falls the moment you change habits.
Savings started climbing, and the frugal mindset spilled into other areas too.

Back to home cooking — start with realistic standards

I wasn’t a natural cook.
Making baby food forced me to practice—knife work, prep, timing—and my hands got faster.

Perfection wasn’t the goal. Edible, balanced, repeatable was.
Our one-bowl baseline:
carbs like rice or bread + one protein (eggs/tofu/chicken/fish/beef/pork) + two veggies.
Snacks are one fruit or a handful of nuts.
If we hit that, it’s a “home-cooked win” for the day.

Make eating out and delivery “occasional”

We don’t cut them out completely.
On family outings or birthdays, we enjoy them—no hesitation.
But we plan them inside a set budget and add a little waiting back in, and weirdly, our satisfaction went up.
Keep everyday meals simple; let special days feel truly special.

Ditch the big-haul grocery runs

Back when we did weekend “let’s just browse the store,” we always found something to buy.
Now we keep it tighter: Costco only for meat and fish (portion and freeze).
For small, fresh items—veg, tofu, milk—we stop by Trader Joe’s or a neighborhood market for just what we need that day.

I cut online grocery entirely.
Seeing things in person keeps me from impulse buys.
The ledger was clear: more store trips = higher food spend.
So we reduced the number of trips, and costs dropped the easiest.

Small systems that keep it going

Shop once a week or less; keep the list to five items or fewer.
Use what you have first—run “clear the fridge/pantry” weeks.
Leftovers and side dishes: finish within 48 hours.
Turn off delivery/promotions; shop after a meal—never hungry.
Try a two-week “we’ll live without it” experiment. Most gaps disappear.

Wrap-up

Coffee and dessert are occasional.
Home cooking is default.
Grocery trips are fewer.
Just shifting those three pillars lowered the budget and raised day-to-day satisfaction.
It doesn’t feel stingy—it feels lighter.

This week, where will you start?
One fewer delivery, one fewer store run, or a full fridge-first week?