Food is Costing You More Than You Think
How to take control over your food spending
For the past couple of months, I’ve been ordering most of my meals on home delivery apps.
My kitchen is small, and having food delivered is really cheap where I live in China. I figured that I was probably being very financially responsible when I compared the cost of delivery to that of my native Australia.
But I was deluding myself; I didn’t want to face the facts of what was really happening.
I justified my behaviour with China’s comparatively low costs, but eventually I had to face the music. I was making excuses for the fact that I didn’t feel like cooking, and tried to equate China’s low costs with my own good financial decision making.
I also somehow managed to convince myself that having food delivered was healthier than cooking for myself. I figured that restaurants use a lot more ingredients than I have in my fridge, and that they probably cook with advanced techniques I don’t know about.
I know for a fact that this way of thinking is ridiculous.
There’s a restaurant nearby my apartment that my partner wants to try out, but I know in my heart I’ll never eat there.
The back of the restaurant is visible from my living room window, so I can clearly see inside at what they’re doing. I see the plates stored on the floor and the cutlery soaking for hours in cold dish water. I see meat hanging outside in the elements, and vegetables being chopped on the same cutting board as raw chicken.
I realised that in reality, restaurants are just as gross as the rest of us, maybe more so, because they don’t have to eat what they’re cooking.
If I can’t justify my habits with good health, and I certainly can’t justify them with financial stewardship, then why the hell am I having everything delivered? I’m beginning to think it’s a combination of laziness and Kool-Aid, so maybe it’s time to make a change.
Drinking the Kool-Aid
When I say Kool-Aid, I’m of course referring to “drinking the Kool-Aid” or “believing what the restaurants are telling you in their marketing.”
Restaurants spend a lot of money to persuade us to choose them when out on the town or perusing delivery apps.
Yesterday, I ate a $6 lasagne that the restaurant claimed was made with Angus Beef; but all I could taste was a mixture of beef chuck and ground pork that heavily favoured the pork and made me seriously gassy.
What I could have done is go to the supermarket and spent $30 on lasagne ingredients and make one large pan all at once. I could have used a lot of fresh vegetables (healthy) and used real beef. Best of all, I could have really taken time and made sure the food was delicious.
After making it, I could have eaten my fill and portioned the rest up for future meals.
There’s no question that cooking at home is cheaper and healthier, and even though many of us don’t know how to cook, it’s more delicious too.
People give restaurants far too much credit. They automatically assume that because a restaurant serves food professionally, it has to be better.
What they’re not remembering is that a restaurant is a business, and that all that matters to a business is the bottom line. Restaurants spend as little money on food as possible, while maximising the value from each sale.
That $6 lasagne I ate tasted like it cost the restaurant $1 to make. The rest of the cost was probably spent on the glossy marketing that made me pick them in the first place.
We shouldn’t believe that restaurants are any better at cooking than we are, especially since healthy food is often the quickest and easiest to prepare. (Stick around till the end for my never-fail healthy recipe that tastes as good as junk food).
Magical Mind-control
Of all the restaurants out there that persuade us with misleading marketing, the worst offender is Starbucks.
Starbucks have beautiful advertisements that feature young, attractive people getting together over coffee at their restaurants.
Sometimes these people are getting work done, and other times they’re just chatting away with their ethnically diverse, under 35 year old friends.
People talk about the inspiration they feel when they’re drinking coffee in a cafe, or they talk about the burst of creativity they feel while writing in a booth at Starbucks.
What they’re actually feeling is the burst of euphoria that happens while we’re living out the fantasies we’ve been sold in a good marketing campaign.
I’m someone that loves a day at Disneyland, but I’m the first to admit that the “magical” feeling I have when I’m at the parks is the result of stellar advertising and corporate synergy.
The movies, merchandise and parks all work together to spread a unified message of corporate fuelled joy. If you loved Frozen, then you’re encouraged to recreate that feeling by visiting a park or buying an Elsa doll.
When you’re holding that Elsa doll in the Disney store, you’ll feel the way you felt when you were in the cinema feeling inspired by her song. Are you going to let $60 stand in the way of that feeling?
When you’re watching TV and you see someone kissing their sweetheart in-front of the castle while fireworks light up the sky and the Disney logo fills the screen, a part of you clings to the fantasy. It’s that part of you that justifies the ticket cost, or the price of the food. Then once you’ve been imprinted with the message of the marketer, you’re not going to lose that feeling until you satiate the feeling with your money.
That same witchcraft is at work when you see hot people drinking Starbucks coffee on TV.
Cafe coffee is one of the most marked-up products in history, but we pay these prices because of the trance we’re all under. We somehow feel that we need coffee, and we feel that Starbucks is the right provider of that coffee; but both feelings are the result of marketing.
So here I am in my kitchen tonight, wondering whether to order in again, or make something myself. I don’t want to make something difficult, so I search through my fridge.
I have a chicken breast, some breadcrumbs, some cheese, and a few other things.
I know that it would take almost no time at all to whip up something delicious, and I’m confident it would be cost effective.
While I won’t be able to live out any marketing-induced fantasies that I’m confident are imprinted onto my brain, I will instead be saving money and eating something delicious.
So next time you’re eating a meal, take stock of what’s going on inside your mind. The food should taste good and be healthy, but it shouldn’t be giving you an unrealistic amount of thrill or excitement.
If your excitement extends any further than the pure deliciousness of the food, then you’re outworking a fantasy that’s costing you.
The excitement that kids feel when there’s a bucket of KFC chicken on the table isn’t an accident, it’s the result of careful planning and billions of marketing dollars.
If you’re looking to make one financially responsible decision this week, let it be a serious look at the food decisions you’re making, and why you’re making them.
If you don’t know where to start when it comes to eating healthy on a budget, let me suggest one of my favourites.
Crispy Cauliflower
For this recipe, buy a head of cauliflower, a bottle of extra virgin olive oil, and a pepper shaker.
Cut the cauliflower up into pieces and rub them with olive oil. Arrange them on an oven tray and sprinkle them with pepper.
Put that tray into the oven at 180 degrees (Celsius) and bake them, keeping at eye on their tops.
I like the tops of the cauliflower to be super crispy, so I let them get quite dark. It’s essential that you’re very generous with the olive oil.
When they start to get dark, I like to turn on the grill at the top of the oven for extra crispiness.
Take them out of the oven when they’re dark and serve immediately.
Honestly, when they’re super crispy (because of the olive oil) they taste exactly like french fries, except they’re good for you!
For me it’s the ultimate health hack. I’m eating vegetables, I’m saving money, and it feels like I’m eating delicious junk food without drinking the marketing Kool-aid.
You see? Who says you can’t have it all?
