ur complaining about very vein things here…..

I think it is all well and good to be dissatisfied to pay good money for not so good food, but this is very reminiscent of the getting fast food versus making your own burger. Delivery whether it be pizza or chinese is not known for being great food. The value of delivery food is the convenience and time saved, that you could otherwise be still working, or spending time with wife and family, rather than in the kitchen (and cleaning afterwards). If you don’t value those things, don’t use delivery.

I hardly attacked it blind, you just withheld information which made your case – perhaps if you had written it better initially this would have been avoided.

that’s not the point.

It’s not 20 minutes – it’s about an hour.

Most of seem to earn around about $20-30/hr, which works out to maybe $15-25/hr after tax. That $20 took an hour to earn.

The differential cost between the $20 takeout and the $5 it would cost to throw something together costs about 3/4 hr. By going with the less frugal option you’re not just spending money you’re spinning your wheels when you’re working: working to earn money that you don’t need to spend.

I have found the key to making good chinese food is adding a little sesame oil. Chop up some garlic, onions, grate a bit of fresh ginger if you want, and sautee them in some olive oil, (or other healthy oil. I think they use a lot of peanut oil because it’s got a high smoking pt. so they can cook @ high temps)

Add meat if desired, cook that until it’s almost well done, then add the veggies, sliced thin so they cook faster (you could blanch/lightly steam them to speed things up) Add some soy sauce and sesame oil. It doesn’t have to be a lot. Mix it up and saute it for a few min. Or you can add the sesame oil at the beginning. Soy sauce makes things stick though, it’s best to add that later.

As far as rice goes, you don’t need to spend extra on another gadget that will take up space in the cupbords. Use a ratio of 1:2 (say 1c rice to 2c water). Pick thru the rice, rinse it well, drain, then put the rice and water in a pot, bring it to a boil, turn it down to a simmer, stirr well (once). Cover and let it absorb the water. It’ll turn out perfect evry time. I learned that trick from a lady from India.

Even crab rangoon is so easy to make on your own. They don’t even put real crab in it. Every time I go to a chineese resturaunt I ask (since some just use cream cheese) and they usually say they use sea leggs. But you can pick up a pack of wonton wrappers, creamcheese, and what ever you want for “crab” meat. Mix up the crab & cream cheese (or leave out the crab), put some in the middle of a wonton wrapper, fold it half, to form a triangle, dip your finger in water & run it along the edge to seal it, and push the 2 longer ends together. They take seconds to fry. You don’t even have to use much oil. Turn them over using tongs, a few sec. later take them out & drain them on a plate w/paper towells to sop up the extra oil.

I agree it would be cheaper, healthier, and tastier if you made yourself, but sometimes the convenience of being able to relax is well worth it. That is really what you are paying for.

So in your original post when you said your food cost $20, you were kind of fudging the truth.

Your food cost $14, the amount of tip you gave is completely independent of the food cost. It wouldn’t have been unreasonable to give hardly a tip due to the latenesss of the food, or to give the normal 15-20%. This drops your total from $20 to the $17 area. it was your choice to be extravagant with the tip.

Also, is this just the risk you take when trying a new restaurant? Some places are good, some are bad. You don’t know until you try. I enjoy your blog but this post just seem to be you complaining for the sake of complaining.

And, Sean, this is a ridiculous comment: “What’s really bad is I bet you tipped the dude a pittance due to your frugality.” You have absolutely no idea what frugality is if that’s your mindset. I generally tip far better than most people – the bill was actually about $14.75 and we paid a $20 to give the delivery guy a very nice tip.

If you have that attitude about frugality (or about anything in life), you’re going to have a very hard time being a financial success, or any sort of success. Perhaps learning about something might be good before attacking it blindly.

And honestly, is it that much of a ‘waste of time’ to be sitting around your house with your wife and child? Yeah, if you had prepared your meal yourself you could have gotten on to something more important like watching TV or something – god forbid you have downtime and spend it with your family!

I really don’t get this entry – You complained about the delivery time being off, thus you had to sit with your family and then when it came, you had to give them money and then eat.

What’s really bad is I bet you tipped the dude a pittance due to your frugality.

Get food delivered only when you have committed yourself to arse-sitting on the couch for the rest of the evening and don’t care when food shows up just as long as it does.

Don’t tip the driver – outside of the us – just use your c/c when you order. that way you don’t even have to wait for change.

$20 is about right for two meals and an appetizer. In Indiana anyway. Including tip. I hope you tipped the driver.