Eating at home is saving me money, I can't go back to spending most of my time cooking at restaurants.

I'm 18 and I've been working at a full time remote job since 2021. At the end of last year I started looking at my spending and realized that majority of my money was going to eating at restaurants, buying groceries, and going to the gym. At the start of this year I decided to cut down on spending by cooking at home every day and canceling my gym membership so I can focus on saving money.<br><br>I'd normally spend up to $15 each time I eat at a restaurant. I usually cook at home on the weekends, so about 2-3 times a week. When I started cooking at home more often, I was able to cook my meals for $2.50 or less. I was shocked at how little it actually cost. <br><br>I've been doing this for a few months now, and I am not going back. I was able to pay off my debt with the money I saved and start building up my savings. If I go out to eat, it just doesn't sit well with me because I think about all the money I'm wasting. I don't even want to go out to eat anymore because of it. <br><br>I've been able to pay more on my car loan, start a rainy day fund, and I was able to buy some good quality cooking equipment to make cooking easier. I also started meal prepping for the week which has saved me even more time and money. <br><br>Before, I was eating fast food and drinking soda all the time. Now I'm eating healthier, I have energy, and I'm just overall happier. It's so much harder to want to eat out when I know how cheap it is to cook my own food. <br><br>I also cancelled my gym membership at the beginning of the year and I was able to save some money on that as well. <br><br>I've started seeing huge changes in my life all because I decided to make my own food and work out at home.