Cooking At Home: The Smart Answer To Rising Food Costs

Remember when fast food was the cheap and cheerful answer to hunger? When a burger, fries, and a drink only cost the price of a pocket full of change and a mildly guilty conscience? Well, welcome to 2025, where a poll found 78% of Americans now consider fast food a "luxury." Not in the caviar-and-limo sense, but more in the “I’d love a Big Mac, but I also need to pay rent” kind of way.

Turns out, prices for "food away from home"- which is a polite way of saying "someone else cooked it while I sat on my couch"— are up almost 22% in just three years. You used to splurge on steak. Now? It’s a $14 value meal that somehow no longer includes the actual value.

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Meanwhile, grocery store prices are a little less offensive—up just 1% this past year, but still a hefty 21% over the last three. So yes, everything is more expensive, but cooking at home is still the financial MVP.

Not sure where to start? Here are four borderline genius (and mildly sarcastic) ways to save money on food right now:

1. Stop claiming you're “too busy” to cook.

I get it - you’re swamped. You work, you parent, you doomscroll. But your stove misses you. Try stocking your pantry with the building blocks of an emergency 15-minute dinner: pasta, canned tomatoes, rice, beans, frozen veggies, tortillas. That way, when life gets chaotic (again), you won’t end up paying $18 for a sad burrito that tastes like regret.

2. Eat less meat.

Hear me out. Your wallet and your arteries will thank you. Meat is expensive, and let's be real: we’ve all eaten enough bacon to last two lifetimes. Going meatless even one or two days a week adds up fast. Plus, you can finally learn what quinoa is supposed to taste like.

3. Stop pretending you’re going to eat those leftovers.

Be honest. If you’re not going to eat Tuesday’s mystery casserole on Thursday, don’t make enough for an army. And if your fresh produce constantly dies a slow, forgotten death in your crisper drawer, just switch to frozen. It's cheaper, lasts forever, and doesn't judge you.

4. Embrace generic brands like a long-lost cousin.

Store brands used to mean “tastes like cardboard.” Now? Many are delicious and suspiciously identical to their name-brand cousins—just in less flashy packaging. Unless you're doing a blind taste test for YouTube, most of the time, your taste buds won’t even notice the difference. Your bank account definitely will.

So if fast food is the new filet mignon, then home cooking is your secret weapon against going broke and hungry. Dust off that frying pan, befriend frozen peas, and stop treating snacks like a food group.

Now go forth and feast. Frugally.

Leftoverly Yours,
Behka