Cheapest and least bad take out options

[Guinevere]

Hit me with your go to when you just have to eat out.

[mytwomonkeys]

Subway. I get a loaded veggie sub with vinegar, salt & pepper on a whole wheat toasted bun.

[HomeAgain]

Taco Bell has an al fresco menu.  I could get chicken or beef tacos with just veggies, no cheese.  The salads at Wendy's aren't too bad if you watch the dressings.

[dsmith]

There is a deli/pizza place up the street from me, and during the school year they have family dinners to take out 3 times a week. Last Friday they had chicken parm, baked ziti, a salad and bread for $38, enough to feed 4. Other meals they have at a per person cost, from 6.99 to 11.99 per person. They've done full turkey dinners, chicken francese served with rice and a vegetable, etc. I usually can't eat their meals but they always have great salads with grilled chicken. Another deli has roasted chicken dinners, pot pies, pastas, etc. There is a supermarket close to me that has an awesome hot food bar and an amazing chef on staff. Her meals sell out by 5 pm. There are also a ton of places that have special meals that can be delivered during the week. A friend of my sil just opened up a place that mainly does dinners for families. She started out of her home emailing people her list of dinners for the week and had them ready for pickup at a certain time. Now she will deliver them or they can be picked up at the store. We are in the suburbs about 35 minutes from NYC. Prepared dinners to go or for delivery are huge around here. Many of them are out of my price range though. 

Edited October 11, 2017 by dsmith

[PeterPan]

Baked potato from Wendy's and a Caesar side salad (no meat) if it's fast food. Cheap and doesn't make me gain weight. Fast food meat is ADDICTIVE.

 

For an actual meal, our local Mexican places.

 

If you're just feeding people, donatoes has nice large salads. One of those with or without pizza is a crowd pleaser.

Edited October 11, 2017 by OhElizabeth

[skimomma]

We seek out Mexican take-out places.  Qdoba is an example but we often find independent places in most places we go that are similar an tastier.  Almost all have a "bowl" that I order up with brown rice, beans, and whatever toppings I want that day.  

[mathnerd]

We have a local chain which does all kinds of vegetarian/vegan bowls, salads, burgers etc. I always get one of their bowls with quinoa or ancient grains with beans, grilled veggies, fresh veggies in it. It is more than I can eat, but it makes me feel less guilty about eating takeout. They have soup/bowl combos, burger/soup/drink combos as well.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Papa Murphy's - you can get a really thin crust so it isn't as carby.  Though now that our whole house is gluten free, we go with their gluten free crust.  Lots of veggies.  Sometimes no cheese. 

[Ali in OR]

Pizza is the cheapest way to feed the whole family. Dh and I also like to get Singapore Noodles from a Chinese restaurant.

[Janeway]

if I need take out but not super unhealthy, it would be Starbucks. For the whole family, it would be Thai. For just me, a bistro box from Starbucks.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Janeway

[wathe]

Wendy's baked potato and chilli. 

[rjand6more]

I agonize over this. If there is a good answer, I'd like to hear it!

For cheap carry out, we like Costco pizza. I would not consider it healthy. We have bought a pizza and eaten it there.

We have a big family and fast food( unless it's McDonald's) is expensive. So, we just don't eat carry out very often.

[displace]

Another subway vote.

 

I try to get salads at regular fast food places, and reduce the dressing/get grilled foods, but they are still a lot of calories. Grilled nuggets at chick Fil a are okay when necessary.

[AnnE-girl]

Costco rotisserie chicken and a bag of salad can be very cheap and easy. For a regular restaurant takeout, we have a Mediterranean kebab place that we can get enough for all 4.5 (the .5 being the toddler) of us for just over $20.

[Julie Smith]

Since I walk almost everywhere, takeout is never done for convenience. But we do often walk to Harvey’s and we all get vegeburgers. (We are vegetarian)

[Pawz4me]

I don't know about cheap, but we do Subway or any other sub place, pizza, and Japanese (hibachi chicken/shrimp/scallops with rice and veggies).

[EMS83]

Subway, Taco Bell, Wendy's.

I can usually get away with $5-$6/person at Chick-fil-A, too.

[mykidsrmyjoy]

Wendy's side salad and chili or subway sandwich.

[TX Native]

Jason's deli all you can eat salad bar has all the salad fixings plus hummus, boiled eggs, pasta salad, fresh fruit, nuts, and whole grain crackers. If you get their sandwiches, the deli meat is nitrate free. Their soups are good and filling as well.

 

Another choice is a burrito place like Qdoba, Chipotle, or Moe's where you can get a rice bowl loaded with beans, lean meat, and lots of taco salad type veggies on top.

 

A noodle bowl or Asian fix your own bowl restaurant is another option.

[Alessandra]

7 Eleven.

-- I can park the car a few feet from the door.

-- Food is already prepared and ready to go.

-- Sandwiches and salads are fresh.

-- I am in and out in a few minutes.

[Tanaqui]

Cheapest and "least bad" option? Plan better, bring food.

 

Otherwise, I'm a fan of Wendy's. The girls won't eat Subway. And there's a Wendy's at the boat. (LOL, when it opened, for a week everybody I bumped into told me about it! I had no idea so many people were that excited over Wendy's!)

[Crimson Wife]

The problem you'll be dealing with is that there is an inverse relationship between how healthy the takeout is and how cheap it is. So you'll have to decide whether you care more about it being healthy or about it being cheap.

 

For healthy, Panera and Whole Foods are my "go to" places.

[TravelingChris]

Subway for healthy and relatively cheap.  We used to do McDonalds for a children's burger or 2 and one set of fries for all and iced tea or milk to drink=== That was very fast, not much calories but enough food until whenever and really cheap - as in almost everything was in the dollar menu but I think they changed their pricing scheme.  We tend to only eat at Subway or Chick Fil A in terms of fast food places.  Pizza can be cheap and is a healthy food if you do healthy toppings.  

[Guest]

I usually go with Subway, if I have to.

[Guest]

Little Ceasar's "Hot-n-ready" pizzas are $5. Cheap, but not healthy.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Kinsa

[SKL]

Chipotle feels "less bad" than most other quick options, and I like their food.  But if I have to eat in the car, that doesn't work so well.  I'm good with Chick Fil-A and sometimes Taco Hell.  I like Subway, but recent experience with their service was not good.

[goldberry]

Wendy's baked potato and chilli. 

 

:thumbup1:

That's my go-to eat out but not terrible option. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

Our local Subway only hires surly employees.  It's actually kind of amazing.  In 20 years, I've never once met a friendly employee in there.  (And it's them, not me!)  I loved when we had a Quizno's nearby.  They had great service and great sandwiches. 

[Guest]

I can tell you what not to do - order nachoes at Moe's! I just recently fell down that particular rabbit hole, because I love Moe's but don't have one nearby. So I stopped at a Moe's while in southern Maryland and ordered nachoes, paying no heed to their caloric profiles.

 

Don't do that. You will need four digits to record it on My Fitness Pal! 😱😄

 

Eta: typo

Edited October 11, 2017 by Quill

[Guest]

chipotle

[AmandaVT]

Panera's veggie soup and a half a sandwich

 

Moe's rice bowls with lots of veggies (they also have a salsa bar!)

 

We have a pizza place, Positive Pie, which has really good, really thin crust pizza. You can buy it by the slice and get a huge slice for $3. 

 

We don't have a Wendy's, but I used to like their baked potato w/ broccoli

 

I'll get a veggie sub at Subway on occasion

[MEmama]

Chipotle or any local-to-where-we-are burrito place.

 

Burritos for the win, always. :)

[prairiewindmomma]

Wendy's....the salads are a few dollars cheaper than at Chipotle or Panera's.

[J-rap]

We don't have much in our town, but of what we do have, I vote for Subway. 

[Catwoman]

What kinds of foods do you like?

 

And how healthy do you need it to be?

[Bambam]

Our favorite - Jason's Deli - call ahead and order so it is ready to go when you arrive. You can also just order the salad bar and they have a nice plastic box and a couple of containers (for dressing,etc) if you want super healthy. (Love their hummus!) You do have to go in and pick it up. You could probably ask them to bring it out to your car, and they might do that. They seem very helpful there. One sandwich is enough for 2 people here (usually - unless teen is super hungry)

 

We also like Raising Canes - but we all split a box. Not as healthy!

 

[Zinnia]

Jason's deli,Publix subs, Indian Chinese (I love this and crave it so much), Moe's, a local gyro/hummus type place. Thes are our usual go-tos.

[MFG]

Soup and salad from Zoup.

[Soror]

Wendy's baked potato and chilli. 

That is usually what I pick, although I'm not sure how healthy the chili is, it is not a HUGE caloric bomb. If doing lower carb I go for a salad but pretty much all "cheap" salads have cheap fraken-processed chicken, blegh. 

[mamaraby]

Taco Bell is the cheapest for me and by far the most vegan friendly. I can sub rice or beans for any meat without paying extra, the fresco option eliminates all the dairy and excepting the one time where they thought that meant lettuce in my bean burrito, it’s pretty darn tasty.

 

Subway is a bit more expensive, but with coupons it’s cheaper and pretty tasty.

 

Mod Pizza isn’t bad. No vegan tax, thank goodness, as there’s no extra charge for the vegan cheese. Plus, the mini pizza is plenty and there are oodles of veggies to choose from. Hello roasted brussels sprouts!

[Sandwalker]

We have a local pita place that has Meatless Mondays with huge veggie pitas (falafel yum) $3 apiece.

[ktgrok]

Subway if we are eating there and DH is with us. 

 

Otherwise Chik Fil A. Kids get nuggets, fruit, and plain milk. I get the same but with a diet lemonade. 

[Annie Elle]

Papa Murphy’s has an amazing thin crust vege pizzas. They also have very good coupons. I recently got one of their speciality thin crust large pizzas for a little over $7.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I do stuff like bagged salad mix and a rotisserie chicken.  The grocery store has some decent to go things.  Since being super low carb there are very few to go options at restaurants that work so I just don't eat out much these days. 

 

Although last night I had a planned cheat.  I went out and ate an ice cream sundae for dinner.  Is that healthy?  Hell yeah.  LOL  Prior I would have eaten the meal AND the ice cream sundae.  So I figure at least I was getting a lot less calories. 

 

 

[Familia]

Thanks all!  I am sending this all to ds who is eating on the run a lot now.  He is so crazy busy with college & work that he is eating more and more on the run.  This is his first year living as a commuter rather than a resident student.  Since he is recovering from chemo this semester, I want to steer him toward healthy options.  Fortunately he has healthy food attitudes anyway, so he is receptive to ideas.

[Jean in Newcastle]

We also eat at a local food truck. Depending on what is available, there can be cheap healthy choices at those too.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mommyof1]

Chinese food: honey chicken and veggies

[gardenmom5]

for cheap - I get teriyaki. we do have a lot of choices, so I do have places I prefer.

[Guinevere]

Thank you for all the ideas! I discovered I could order Panera from my phone and then send a kid in to get it. That's what we ate tonight!

[TechWife]

Sub sandwiches from a grocery store, either Harris Teeter or Publix. I order ahead using the store app and they are made fresh to order. I can choose the pickup time at both places. Publix has the best bread, Harris Teeter has the best customer service. Both have Boars Head meat and Harris Teeter has the lower price.

Edited October 12, 2017 by TechWife