Once again, nominating myself (sigh). Inlaws are coming tonight, we're feeding a crowd, so I wanted to make a nice meal and planned to make my lamb ragu that everyone loves,* along with a salad and a peach crisp. Then I looked at the prices and realized the lamb was @$8.50/lb and it would cost me like $40-$50 just for that, and I thought, well, crap, that's stupid. And then I thought, wait a minute, I can make pizza -- I have a pizza stone in the oven, Wegman's has pre-made dough for cheap, and everyone loves making their own. I even got to the store and realized the pre-made dough was going to run $10 by the time I got enough for everyone, and said screw it, I can make my own for like a buck.
The problem is, since I didn't plan this before about 30 seconds before leaving the house, I just kept seeing "good ideas" for toppings for people to choose from -- here's some Italian sausage, oooh, I can do a bratwurst-and-mustard pizza, oh look there's a salad bar with artichokes and roasted peppers and olives; wait, I know they like veggies, so how about mushrooms and onions and such; DH likes pineapple and ham; oh wait, I can do a s'mores pizza so I need mini-marshmallows and dark chocolate chips -- wait a minute, DH likes white chocolate, let's add those too; oooh, and that raspberry jam-brie-chocolate one is good, too; oh, wait, there's truffle paste, taleggio-truffle-garlic is DH's favorite. It wasn't until I got home that I realized exactly how much I had bought: $128 of stuff. One hundred and twenty-eight dollars. For pizza. Fuck. I could have ordered enough pizza for everyone from the pizza place with the wood oven for that -- the place I limit my visits to because it's so expensive. Hell, I could have made everyone a prime rib roast for half of that.
It's not a total waste, because I will use only little bits tonight and then find other things to use the rest in. But still, damn.
*My MIL is going through chemo and struggling with her appetite, so I was really focused on making something that she would find tasty.