Life in the PiN household has been very busy lately.
My work has mostly been the same as usual, possibly even lighter after finishing a streak of hospital rotations.
However, home life has been more challenging.
Mr. PiN, who usually takes care of the very important tasks of grocery shopping and cooking, has been consumed with getting his parents’ house ready for sale. By consumed, I mean 12-14 hour days.
This leaves him little time to shop, cook, or really do any other chores at home. He has the car, so I can’t really run out to take care of this during my time off.
And, have I mentioned our dishwasher died?
With all this, home cooking has not been happening at the PiN household on a regular basis.
As people in the personal finance space know, cooking at home is one of the best tools families have for keeping the budget in check.
As with many other necessities, we pay for convenience; or we can do the work ourselves and save the cash.
So although we can afford it, ordering take out several nights a week (possibly 7 nights in a row, leading up to listing the house), felt wasteful. However, given the state of affairs, a fully home-cooked meal every day just wasn’t on the menu.
It took a trip to the deli counter to remind me that all-or-nothing thinking is just as bad for personal finance decisions as it is for other issues.
A quick stop for (tasty) store made tuna salad, a loaf of bread and some sliced cheese cost about $18. From it, I made 4 sandwiches before I ran out of tuna. That was $4.50 a sandwich, with bread and cheese left over for other uses.
If I were really splurging, I could have bought a container of deli salad for about $2 more per meal, and had a pretty deluxe (in my mind) lunch or light dinner, for under $7.
I am pretty sure I could make my own tuna salad for cheaper. However, that takes a little more time than I have, and I’m not particularly interested in washing up by hand.
I’ve since “invested” in a few more emergency meals: things to pull out of the freezer, another container of tuna salad, etc.
Are these the cheapest and healthiest options for eating? Definitely not.
Are they still cheaper and healthier than our typical Door Dash order? Absolutely!
I think this is a good reminder to me that we don’t have to pick the cheapest option to still be prudent with our spending.
Do you have any examples of ways to save money when time and effort are low?
My go-to is the Costco rotisserie chicken. At $8.99 for a whole chicken that’s already cooked you can’t go wrong. And we always have enough for sandwiches or salad the next day. Much cheaper than ordering takeout.
A great reminder! We don’t do the Costco chicken often, but maybe we should revisit that.