A full tummy and wallet? Say less.
1.
“Canned pumpkins for pie. Don’t bother getting pumpkins and gutting them. Assuming you got the right pumpkins, it’ll still be a lot of work and won’t taste any better.”
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2.
“Frozen lasagna slaps IMO.”
Krblokhin / Getty Images / iStockphoto
3.
“Dim sum anything — basically all dumplings.”
Xiu Huo / Getty Images
4.
“Ketchup. Don’t do it. Don’t put yourself through it. I was intensely curious and decided to make diabetic-friendly ketchup for my mom. I got the purest and freshest ingredients I could then spent two to three days slowcooking and refining it. What did I get? Ketchup. It tasted and looked identical to Heinz. Who, I learned later, already make diabetic-friendly ketchup.”
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—u/MrLeopard25
“Not food but a condiment: ketchup. I once made my own out of fresh tomatoes, it took three hours and ended up tasting like any cheap no-name ketchup from a supermarket.”
—u/internetzdude
5.
“Ribs. I can order some good ribs. 20 minutes later I’m enjoying ribs. If I make ribs, it’s a four-hour process. Cleaning the ribs, prepping them, and slowcooking them properly.”
Wirestock / Getty Images / iStockphoto
6.
“Kebab. I managed to get quite close to the taste I’m looking for, but I doubt it’s worth it even from a utility cost perspective, not to mention time and effort.”
Milanexpo / Getty Images
7.
“Pho soup from scratch.”
Eric Marion Williams / Getty Images / iStockphoto
8.
“Croissants. I curiously looked up how to make them from scratch. Hard no from me.”
Ivan / Getty Images
9.
“Ice cream.”
Sally Anscombe / Getty Images
10.
“Egg rolls. I tried making them once and almost half of them tore up. It’s better to just buy them by the box.”
Lauripatterson / Getty Images
11.
“Rotisserie chicken.”
Alexander Spatari / Getty Images
12.
“Crackers.”
Magdalena Niemczyk – Elanart / Getty Images / Image Source
13.
“Beignets. I was born and raised in the New Orleans area but failed in every homemade attempt. I am ashamed.”
Steve Korn / Getty Images / Tetra images RF
14.
“Canned beans, lentils, and chickpeas! It’s about the same price as the dried ones and saves you hours of soaking and cooking.”
Mediterranean / Getty Images
15.
“Baklava.”
Tomekbudujedomek / Getty Images
16.
“Thai food. I’ll never make the stuff myself, and we love it, so that’s my splurge.”
Chanda Hopkins / Getty Images
17.
“I have a photo from my dad of my great-grandmother in Greece making homemade phyllo dough. I cannot even begin to imagine the work. Now I can walk into the store and choose between about four or five different thicknesses.”
Graphic Photoart / Getty Images
18.
“Unless you want to make dozens of them — tamales.”
Victoria Pearson / Getty Images
19.
“Pretty much anything deep-fried. It’s a simple process that almost any restaurant can do perfectly well for most foods, but it doesn’t scale well to a home kitchen at all. You end up making messes, possibly scalding yourself, and having to figure out what to do with a big leftover pot of oil just to get something that’s maybe marginally better than what you could’ve gotten at a restaurant for probably less money.”
Karl Tapales / Getty Images
Which food would you rather buy than prepare yourself? Share it in the comments!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.