My partner and I have a rule to never buy takeout or delivery without first making a recipe once and then doing the takeout/delivery recipe comparison and deciding if we want to go the takeout route going forward.

My partner and I love cooking and trying new recipes, so we started making the takeout versions of food we already like at home (like korean bbq, pasta, etc.) and once we have our homemade recipe mastered we will do a takeout/delivery comparison once and then decide whether or not the takeout/delivery is worth the cost.<br><br>Example: We used to love going to takeout for korean bbq and the cost was somewhere around $30-$40 for 2 meals, so we made the decision to try and make it at home. After a few trials and errors experimenting with different ingredients and cooking methods, we came up with a delicious korean bbq recipe we loved and the cost was about $15 for the same meal. One day we decided to do the recipe comparison and we had our homemade korean bbq meal, cleaned up, and then ordered the takeout korean bbq. We ate it and agreed that it was definitely not worth the extra cost and decided to go the homemade route every time.<br><br>It has quickly become our favorite fun challenge to pick and choose foods to try to master in the kitchen. We have done a few so far and the results are always fun and delicious, and we save money by not going to takeout/delivery. We call it the "takeout/delivery recipe comparison challenge" and once we compare the recipe to the takeout/delivery recipe we never order the takeout/delivery version again.