Addicted to buying food?

In the last year, I've developed a problem of ordering takeout too often. I mean I know everyone does that occasionally, but I do it a LOT. Every day, at least once, sometimes twice. Each time it's like $25 or more, too. I live on disability and have a VERY limited budget. I think it's a problem because I cut into money I need for other stuff. I am ashamed I spend my money this way. The other reason I think it's a problem is that I can't stop. I've had people bring over groceries in the past couple of days and I still ordered a burger for lunch today and pizza for dinner. I don't know how to quit! Can someone help?

[Arabesque- golfing girl.]

Hello,

I am so sorry that you have been having trouble with this and I hope that you will be okay soon. When we are buying so much take out it can be hard when we only have so much money coming in.

If you can, try to make it so many days before you can buy something. Ask your roommates if they would like to go in half of the groceries with you, so that you are not spending as much. Try to buy breakfast, lunch and dinner stuff that you like to eat and when you make dinner and have more leftover, you can always save it in the refrigerator or freezer and you can eat it the next day or whatever you want to. When you are looking for take out try to find something to get your mind off of this so that you are not thinking about it so much and going to buy something. You can try going for a walk or putting on a funny movie or TV show or reading or drawing or painting or something else that you enjoy doing. Or you can make something to eat with the food you bought from the grocery stores. If you are having trouble coming up with different meals you can Google any kind of food and so much comes up and buy what the recipe calls for. I wish you the best with this and hope that you will be okay soon. Hugs to help.

[Mallika]

Hi Eli,

Thanks so much for sharing this with us.

Obsessions can be really hard to overcome, but they're not impossible. What has really helped me deal with overbearing temptations is thinking about the consequence. For example, if I wanted to do something, I'd pause for a moment to imagine how I'd be after I actually did it - I might imagine myself feeling regretful or guilty, and that allows me to refrain from doing that thing in the first place.

Usually, weaning off certain habits requires us to take things step by step. Going cold turkey overnight and deciding not to get any take-outs at all might be really difficult, so perhaps you may want to try limiting your purchases one week at a time? For example, if you're buying take-outs every day currently, you might want to try to buy them every other day from next week. Once you get accustomed to that routine for a couple of weeks, you might want to go on to the next step of getting take-outs only every third day, and so on.

Another thing that might help is budgeting your finances at the beginning of every week (or every month), whereby you set a certain amount for a certain purpose. For example, you decide that next week, you'll allot 15% of your budget to food, 30% to rent, etc. The hard part is sticking to it, so every time you feel like you want to purchase something that overrides your budget, you can remind yourself of the budget you had charted out at the beginning of the week.

Also, I second Emma about finding recipes online - as I've personally experienced, cooking homemade meals saves a lot of money. Nowadays, you can find the recipes for most take-out style items online, so you can check what their recipes call for and get those as part of your groceries.

I've heard that it takes 21 days to form a habit, and though the scientific community remains divided on whether it is true or not, we all know that getting accustomed to a certain routine certainly becomes second nature after a while. In the same manner you are now used to getting take-outs, it is possible to get accustomed to a lifestyle whereby you're no longer spending much on it.

Good luck, and feel free to PM me if you'd like to chat!