Evolution of A Pizza Order

When your parents are paying: "Extra Large, 5 toppings, and a side of bread sticks and some wings, and 2 liters of Pepsi."

College: Party Special, 2 extra large, a side of wings and two 2 liters of soda, split 5 ways.

After your first job: A large, 3 topping, with a salad and a drink. Delivered.

When your first discover that you're broke: "Have you seen how much delivery is?!? I will go pick it up!"

Next time: "and no drinks! They are crazy expensive!"

When the creditors are starting to wake you up in the mornings: "We can only get pizza on Mondays, when they run their special, and I found this coupon, too."

When you realize exactly how broke you are: "Wow, Papa Murphy's is much less expensive, and I can cook that at home just fine. It's really no longer then waiting for take out."

Followed quickly by: "WOW! I can get a pizza just like at Papa Murphy's at the grocery store, and it's only $5!"

Until, eventually, you reach: "NO PIZZA!"

When you discover your get-out-of-debt guru (Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman, Larry Winget, etc): "We can make our own pizza. I found these crusts at the grocery store, and this pizza sauce. Buy some cheese and pepperoni, this will be good!"

When you really get in the groove of a get-out-of-debt plan: "I'm going to MAKE a crust, using Bisquick. This will be so much better! And we're just going to use some pasta sauce, not buy that little packet of pizza sauce."

When you're getting unbroke: "I know it won't be nearly as good, but I think I'm just going to pick up a grocery store pizza tonight."

We've been enjoying homemade pizzas for a while now. This summer we even got pretty good with grilled pizza. We do pesto and chicken, and burger and cheese, and peppers and mushroom, and, my personal favorite, smoked mozzarella and basil.

We love our homemade pizza. . .even if there are times I have to question how much I am saving on ingredients, compared to those $5 pizzas!

But tonight I was out and running errands and already at the grocery store and I knew I hadn't taken anything out for dinner, and sure, we could have made do, but man that pre-made pizza looked good.

So I bought it, and we enjoyed it, even if I felt a little guilty. Its just really nice to know we have enough room in the budget to get groceries and get pizza and not be juggling bills to make it happen!