GoKawiilPizza delivery, iced lattes and untold amounts of bottled water add up fast. At $20 a pop in many places, a large pie for the family can be key when there's no time to cook, but start relying on these food and beverage shortcuts regularly and your wallet will start to feel the pinch.
CNET
Your local café and the restaurant around the corner are quietly winning a war against your savings. Meal by meal, drink by drink, the habit of eating out costs most people more each year than they'd ever care to admit.
Not all kitchen splurges are created equal, but the right appliances -- think coffee machines, water filters, and soda makers -- don't just save you a single trip out; they can recover their purchase price within months and keep saving long after.
We did the math to determine which kitchen investments deliver the best financial returns, taking into account upfront costs and projected annual savings. The most dramatic example we found? Switching from daily coffee shop visits to home brewing can save upwards of $1,000 per year.
1. Pizza oven
A home pizza oven can be had for a few hundred bucks and will spare you the rising takeout costs. Ooni
Making pizza at home isn't just fun; it can save you big money if you swap an at-home pizza night for expensive store-bought, even just a few times a year.
The ingredients to make several pies at home -- dough, red sauce and cheese -- cost around $8. Compare that with the $17 average cost of a single pizza in the US, and the potential for saving becomes clear. Since most households require two pizzas per order, you could be saving roughly $30 every time that craving hits.
Best of all, pizza ovens are easy to operate, with most models fueled by gas or wood pellets, and can produce restaurant-quality pies in under 3 minutes. Some of our favorite models cost just a few hundred bucks, so your pizza oven won't take long to pay for itself.
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