How Do I Kick the Drive-Thru Habit?

In My Humble Opinion
1

According to my records, I’ve spent $48.01 on dining out this month… that is 50 bucks over the last two weeks. I do this a lot right before work in the morning and during lunch break. Normally this includes trips to places that ‘‘aren’t really’’ fast food, like Tim Horton and Panera Bread, though I do occasionally hit up the local McDonald’s.

I want to stop doing this, because I am trying to save money, and I believe all that soda might have an adverse effect on my health. Additionally, I just dropped down to part-time at work, which means I have to save even more money, especially due to the holidays.

My problem, as I see it, is time. When I run out of food at home, I often don’t have time to go to the grocery store right away, so I find myself living off drive-thru over the next couple of days.

My other problem is laziness. I hate cooking. I also hate grocery shopping.

I’m looking for ways to significantly reduce the amount of money I spend on casual dining and fast food. It is especially hard to resist the temptation of yummy Panera Bread.

Has anyone had to work to kick this habit? How’d you do it? My savings account will thank you.

is seriously considering a Panera Bread run right this moment
see how desperate I am???

2

I have a stash of food at work…oatmeal bars for breakfast, nuts, soup, crackers and other munchies for lunch.

All I bring from home is the fridge stuff: a yogurt, a V-8 and a flavored water. I go “grocery shopping” every two weeks, when I get my paycheck, and it’s not big shopping for the family, so it’s a little me time for myself and I’m just getting a few odds and ends for my own use.

Can your hubby do the grocery shopping and you take some stuff for a “pantry” at work?

3

I broke this habit by declaring a one-month moratorium on fast food. When I needed fast food I went to the grocery store and bought a loaf of french bread, some sliced salami, some cheese, some grapes. It was just as fast as going through McDonald’s and lasted for several meals. Likewise, in the morning if I didn’t get around to having breakfast, I’d stop at the grocery store and grab an apple, some milk and some cereal. I could eat the apple in the car, have a bowl of cereal at work, and have leftovers for the next day.

So, here’s hoping you have a grocery store you pass on the way to work. :slight_smile:

4

If you haven’t read it already, reading *Fast Food Nation * might help. It makes it perfectly clear how no one in that supply chain has any incentive to care a rat’s ass about whether they are feeding you, well, rats’ asses.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you can run into a grocery store just as quickly as a fast food restaurant. You might find this somewhat cheaper. Pick up an apple, banana, or other fruit. Lunchmeat or cheese and a roll will work for a snack, too. Delis have small servings of potato and pasta salads that are inexpensive. Some grocery stores have salad bars (not especially cheap, but at least healthy). You’ll have more selections of juice, water, yogurt drinks, or tea if you want to cut down on soda. Although, if you can’t cut down on soda, keeping cans or bottles at the house is a lot cheaper than fast food. You can even keep cans in the car during cool weather (not particularly classy, I admit).

Try not to hate all cooking. That’s a very expensive hate over the course of your lifetime. Start with some of your favorite foods and learn to cook them, so you associate cooking with eating things you like prepared how you like them. I know you like Latin-American stuff, try learning to cook Mexican food. Ultimately, learning to plan ahead to have food you like around the house, or ready to go when you need to eat away from home, will save you a ton of money and improve your control over your health a great deal.

5

You have to get over your hate for grocery shopping. There are ways to do this.

First of all, find several pre-packaged types of lunches you might like to eat. Don’t sweat cooking anything right now.

I vary between the following:

Chef Boyardee (I confess to an unholy fascination with these. I never ate them growing up, so I rather like them. Plus, they’re cheap.)
Microwave-able rice packets or pasta packets.
Indian food. The local Indian store has this brand called “Gits” that heat up real nice.

Ok. Stock up on a bunch of these and bring them to work. Then, when you get hungry, EAT THEM!

As time goes on, you will either find that a) you’re fine with these pre-packaged foods, or b) they are boring, and you want to go to the store to buy better stuff.

When you go to the store, pick times when it’s empty. Don’t go on Senior Citizen Bus Day (Mondays around here.) Early in the morning right before work our store is pretty empty.

Also, try to find a store that’ s a little more fun than your average grocerey.

Also, you can start keeping track of how much you’re saving if you like. My Chef Boyardees are $1 each, plus I usually have something small with it - fruit or something. The Gits are maybe $2.50. Still cheaper than a $5 lunch out.

And I second keeping a stash of other stuff at work.

Seriously, fast food every day is not good for you, and it’s expensive as hell.

6

What helps me is making sure that I have a variety of foods at home which are as easy as fast food. I’ve got several can’s of Campbell’s Fully Loaded soups, for example, in my cupboard. And a couple of frozen pizzas–not neccessarily great for me, but less expensive than Pizza Hut. Sometimes I buy stuff for sandwichs, and I try (with varying amounts of success) to alternate between major shopping trips where I buy food for at least one meal which requires significant cooking effort, but that I will then eat happily for several meals, and short trips, where I just buy the bare minimum. (Like yesterday–when I bought milk, bread, a box of cereal, and three boxes of crackers–at least I left the jars of olives stuffed with blue cheese behind).

And for me, a large part of it is psychological–if I eat fast food on Monday “because I don’t have anything at home I want to eat”, I’m much more likely to eat fast food on Tuesday “because I didn’t have anything on Monday, and I haven’t gone shopping since then”. So I try, most weeks, to search my cupboards(or freezer) on Monday, even if I didn’t buy supplies for PB&J, so I don’t get into that loop.

7

It’s tough to resist the siren song of fried yumminess. Believe me, I know.

Here’s what has worked for me.

Try to get all of your grocery shopping for the week done on Saturday or Sunday. Make a list of lunch and dinner menus for the week and base your grocery list around that.

I always brown-bag my lunch–partly because I’m a tightwad, and partly because I work in the middle of frickin’ nowhere, so it’s either a packed lunch or cafeteria food. Yogurt, carrot sticks, and apples are my staples. All these things are healthy and require very little preparation.

I agree with Harriet the Spry–you should try to get over your hatred for all cooking. If you can cook big meals at home, you can take the leftovers for your lunches. Beans and rice is an easy, tasty, cheap meal that keeps well for several days. (If you want, I’ll post my recipe.) Soups are also easy and forgiving.

Like you, I also hate grocery shopping. My husband loves it, though. Is it possible to arrange an agreement with your husband where you do a chore he hates in exchange for him doing the shopping?

Good luck!

8

Sometimes you can find good stuff in the company fridge that others have left unguarded.

:: d&r ::

9

Well, then, make it harder to go to a drive-thru. Take a different route to work where you don’t know where the drive-thrus are. Keep food around, so that it’s more work to go to a drive-thru than it is to eat something from your stash. Don’t keep the car keys with you when you get home.

Try doing your grocery shopping in a different way. You might just hate the way you’re doing it now. There is more than one way to grocery shop.

For example, I hate long trips to the grocery store where you systematically go through every aisle, I hate planning menus in advance for a week or so, and I really hate comparison shopping (I can’t do the arithmetic in my head- I have a math degree). So I try to minimize that kind of shopping trip. I go to the grocery store more often (I go most days to pick up something for dinner).

Maybe I spend more time going to the grocery store than strictly necessary, but I do spend less time on the types of trips I hate. And my time is mine- if I want to spend more of it going to the grocery store than I strictly have to, that’s my business. Figure out what, exactly, it is you hate about grocery shopping, and try to figure out a way to do less of that.

Same goes for cooking. I’d be surprised if all cooking were equal in suckitude for you. Figure out exactly what you hate about cooking, and try to do cooking that involves less of that. You may spend a little more money than you strictly have to, but you’ll still be spending less than you would be on takeout. And that’s what matters- a perfect plan to save money on food doesn’t do you any good if it’s a plan you won’t implement, for whatever reason. Forcing yourself to do stuff you hate doesn’t usually work out so well in the long run- try to find a way to work around the stuff you hate, instead.

10

I’m as lazy as the next guy, but going through the drive-through actually takes more time and effort (let alone money) than taking something out of the freezer and sticking it in the microwave, or than pulling out a can of soda or a sandwich that I had been carrying with me. So, laziness is no excuse.

So, the next time you do go grocery shopping, stock up on cheap & easy food that you would actually eat. This would include things like the aforementioned Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, canned soups, etc., as well as all sorts of things you can find in the frozen foods section—whatever you, personally, find palatable. Also stock up on canned soda, iced tea, water, or whatever you like to drink. And invest in a personal-size cooler and a few of those ice-pack thingies you freeze and then put in the cooler to keep things cold. Then get into the habit of carrying your cooler around with you, filled with drinks and meals or snacks.

11

There is nothing you can get at a fast food place that you can’t get at the store. Heck, they even have McGriddles knockoffs in the freezer section now. Stock up on whatever it is that you are getting at the fast food places but get the home version. It will be cheaper and it will take less time to microwave it than to hit a drive thru. Also, I highly recommend Campbell’s Soup at Hand. They are delicous and can be taken anywhere so they make an excellent lunch if you pair one with a piece of fruit.

12

Mmmmmmmm … Tim Horton’s.

I’m sorry, were you saying something?
:wink:

13

An intermediary step to getting over hating cooking would be do start buying frozen dinners to eat for lunch – if you have access to a freezer. Buy five for the week and take them all with you on Monday. Every day you have one there, ready to eat. This becomes your routine.

When you get sick of them (and you will) move on to sandwiches and soup you make on the weekend. Later you can bring in leftovers if you get into cooking more.

But try the Lean Cuisines, etc. I lived off them fine for several years of lunches.

14

As to the health aspect, don’t order soda when you go through the drivethru. Get water. That’ll save you at least a dollar on the trip, not to mention the calories and sugar.

15

I also find when I do go “out” to lunch, I appreciate it more. There’s a Sweet Tomatoes by my work I try to hit once every month or so. When I go there it’s a special treat for me.

Save the Panera for special treats. The soup in a bread bowl will taste better, trust me.

16

I can’t help you with the grocery shopping, but if you want to cook without really having to go through much effort, start using a slow cooker. That way you can make a huge amount of, say, cuban black beans, some sort of roast meat, chicken or veggie stew or any number of other things so you’ll have plenty of food for later. All you need to do is cut up some veggies and/or meat the night before, pour in some liquid (usually chicken or veggie stock, I often use coconut milk), some spice, throw it all in fridg in the crockpot insert, then plug in the crockpot the next day, drop in the insert and set it to low. When you get back from work, dinner’s ready and so is lunch for two or three days.

Roasting a chicken is also really easy and you wind up with plenty of meat for fast sandwiches and quesadillas, or you can slice it and eat it with rice or bread & veggies for dinner. Just buy a whole roaster, salt it, pepper it, rub about a tablespoon of oil on it and stick it in a 350 degree oven for an hour and a half to two hours (or until the juices run clear and the meat is all white) for a 4-pound bird. That way you wind up with just one pan to wash - the one you used to roast it in.

Edited to add that if you don’t want to chop veggies for a crockpot, you can buy them pre-chopped and washed at the market. Or just use frozen.

17

**Olives, **I pack my lunch at night. Otherwise I won’t do it in the morning, I have too many other things I have to do.

As overlyverbose suggests, go the crock-pot route for your cooking. I generally cook on Sundays, and make enough for the whole week. Sure that means I have some repetitive meals, but the same thing happens in restaurants too, I order the same sorts of items.

18

You could also just set yourself a budget for fast food so you aren’t denying yourself completely while you learn to make food at home. Instead of $50 every 2 weeks limit yourself to $10 per week so that you can certianly go to McDonalds but you had better have a dollar menu burger and a cup of water so you can save your other $9 for later in the week.

19

This, and a currently running TV commercial, has given me the perfect solution to your dilemma!

Buy an expensive English sports car!

The money you save by not going to drive-thrus will pay for the cost of the car … in say, 50 years!

20

Exactly, and TRADER JOE’S!