It makes things alot cheaper when you prepare the meals and take them to work or have them ready to heat up when you come home. In my younger years i bought everything already cooked and ended up spending 5-8$ a meal 3 times a day with protien shakes and bars being around 1 to 2 $ each .so the food bill was around 250$ a week. almost 1000$ a month . then i relized fuck this is getting exp . now my food bill is around 75$ a week at the most .plus i have better control over soduim intake and calories intake.
typical shopping day once a week looks like this.3 gallons of milk,6 tubs of cottage cheese,6 cans of albacore low sodium tuna,12 bonless skinless chicken breast,few cartons of egg beaters ,salad stuff tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers.then 6 bannas, bag of grapes,apples, a few peaches.It amazing you can fill awhole cart for under 50$
everynow and then i'll pick up some frozen health choice dinners just incase i only have a few minutes pop one in the microwave and in 3 minutes you have lunch but try to avoid them.we still eat out on friday nights or saturdays so some meals your gonna have to eat prepared but most resturants have chicken salads you can get with no dressing then use your own lowfat dressing the wife keeps in the purse.
its amazing how much prepared food cost vs from the store. a dinner for 10$ is just one sitting. for 10$ i can buy a gallon of milk , few cans of tuna or lbs of chicken and a hand basket of veggies and fruits from the super market and make enough for 4-5 meals.
i think your gonna get a lor of responses from comp bodybuilders that have come to the same conclusion if you want to grow you have to eat and if you want to afford your gear and gym meberships then you have to buythe food and have a girl at home to cook it for you or learn to do it yourself.