We’re usually told that cooking at home is the cheaper option. Skip the takeout, buy the ingredients yourself, and you’ll save money.
But that math doesn’t always work, especially if you’re cooking for one or two people. Buying a full package of every ingredient for one meal can get expensive fast, and that’s before considering how much of it might sit in the refrigerator until it eventually gets tossed.
That’s what sparked a recent Reddit discussion about foods that can sometimes be cheaper to buy already prepared. In many cases, the trick wasn’t ordering an entire restaurant meal. It was buying the expensive or inconvenient-to-make part and stretching it with cheaper ingredients at home.
Restaurant soup
The shrimp, lemongrass, mushrooms, herbs, and other ingredients needed for a favorite restaurant soup can add up quickly, especially when you only need a small amount of each. Buying the soup and stretching the broth with homemade rice, noodles, tofu, eggs, or vegetables can turn a single takeout order into several meals.
Freezing the soup in individual portions can make the deal go even further. Keep rice or noodles separate until you’re ready to eat so they don’t soak up all the broth while they’re sitting in the refrigerator.
Pizza
If you only want one pizza, buying dough, sauce, cheese, and several toppings can cost more than a restaurant special. You may also end up with half-used packages of ingredients you didn’t really need for anything else.
Look for large pizzas and restaurant specials that provide enough for several meals, then freeze the extra slices individually. Depending on the deals available near you, prepared pizza can sometimes even compete with the price of frozen pizza from the grocery store.
Rotisserie chicken
A rotisserie chicken can provide the cooked protein for several meals without having to buy and prepare chicken separately each time. Chicken salad sandwiches, soup, casseroles, tacos, pasta, and wraps can all come from the same bird.
Check the refrigerated section for day-old rotisserie chickens that have been marked down, too. If you find a particularly good deal, you can remove the meat and freeze it for later meals.
Fried chicken
Buying fried chicken can make more sense than purchasing the chicken, breading, seasonings, and enough oil to fry an entire batch at home. There’s also something to be said for not having to deal with all that oil and cleanup afterward.
Instead of buying the prepared sides, make those at home. Rice, potatoes, vegetables, biscuits, or a simple salad can turn the chicken into several meals without paying prepared-food prices for everything on the plate.
Salad
A salad gets expensive surprisingly fast when you have to buy full packages of lettuce, cheese, protein, cucumber, tomato, avocado, dressing, and several other toppings. A pay-by-weight salad bar lets you buy small amounts of the ingredients you want without being left with a refrigerator full of extras.
Another option is to buy only the more expensive toppings from the salad bar and keep lettuce and dressing at home. A few broccoli florets, a spoonful of chopped egg, some cheese, and other toppings may be all you actually need.
Related: 12 Restaurants That Shut Down and Left Customers Missing Their Go To Meals
Sandwiches
Buying bread, lunch meat, cheese, vegetables, and several condiments for a single sandwich can cost considerably more than grabbing one already made. That’s especially true for someone living alone who may not finish everything before the ingredients start going bad.
The calculation changes if you’ll use the leftovers for lunches all week. But if you’re buying five ingredients just to satisfy a one-time sandwich craving, the prepared version may actually cost less.
Bakery cookies
If the grocery store bakery sells a dozen freshly baked cookies for a few dollars, it can be hard to make the same amount for less once you factor in butter, chocolate, flour, eggs, sugar, and other ingredients.
The bakery markdown section is worth checking, too. Cookies, muffins, bread, and other baked goods are often discounted when stores need to clear out yesterday’s inventory.
Chinese takeout
When a Chinese buffet or takeout restaurant charges by weight, loading your container with rice isn’t necessarily the best deal. Buy the entrée and make the rice at home instead.
The same idea works with regular takeout. Order the meat, tofu, curry, or other dish that’s more complicated to make, then use inexpensive rice or noodles from your pantry to turn it into multiple meals.
Restaurant bowls
A restaurant bowl doesn’t necessarily have to be eaten as one meal. Adding your own rice, chicken, beans, or vegetables at home can stretch one bowl into several servings.
You can also skip paying extra for ingredients that are cheap and easy to make yourself. Let the restaurant provide the sauces, toppings, and harder-to-recreate flavors, then bulk everything up once you get home.
Family meals
You don’t need a big family to take advantage of restaurant family meals. A package with a whole chicken or another entrée, several large sides, and bread can sometimes provide five or six meals for a single person.
Compare the family-meal price with the cost of ordering several individual entrées. Portion everything as soon as you get home and freeze anything you won’t eat within the next few days.
Related: 11 cheap ingredients that can stretch almost any meal
Catering trays
If you order a restaurant dish regularly, check the catering menu. Larger trays of curries and other dishes can cost less per serving than repeatedly ordering individual entrées.
Divide the food into individual portions and freeze them right away. This makes the most sense for something you already know you love and that reheats well, since there’s no bargain in throwing away half a catering tray.
