These days, you can spend more money in groceries than you can from spending money at a restaurant. You can easily put 8 items in your shopping cart and spend $50. That’s the norm now and that is insane. My terrible advice is to spend that money on cooked food. The difference in pay off almost breaks even. If you want to save a few dollars, of course, the better option is to buy your food and cook it yourself. But, if your time is more valuable then having someone else spend their time and resources to cook your meal then you save on your most valuable resource, time.