Get the wings, pizza and chili on the stove. Football season is here, and that means shelling out money to have friends over the watch the games.

News 12's consumer reporter Janice Lieberman gives us The Real Deal on how to cut those costs.

Buying pre-made eats from a restaurant, or even the supermarket can add up. Studies say you can save almost $10 per person by making your own.

Nutritionist Jamie Feit says that making fried chicken at home could cost about $7 per pound, whereas store bought chicken costs $9.99 per pound. To prepare the chicken, Feit used an airfrier - saving money on oil, and on calories.

Homemade coleslaw is $5.15, for double the amount of the store bought coleslaw that costs about $6.99.

"With fried chicken, you must have coleslaw. This entire bowl of coleslaw cost $2 less than this package of coleslaw. So already you're saving money, but this is double the amount. And so much healthier because this coleslaw is loaded with preservatives and tons of sugar where this one is equally delicious. But you don't get all of those sugar calories or the preservatives," Feit says.

If you're not eating the chicken, you might want to eat chili, or you might want to eat both.

"So this chili, the entire bowl of chili came out to about $3.50 per pound to make it, whereas the store bought was almost $5 per pound. So again, you're still saving money by making your own, but this is much healthier because if you look at this chili, it's mostly red meat with a little bit of beans and peppers where this one has a powerful pound of red meat," he says.

When you're cooking for a crowd, it's always good to try and make things that have a lot of volume so that you can feed a lot of people for less amounts of money. So things like the coleslaw and the chili, you're going to get a large amount for very low cost because you can buy the beans on sale.

Of course there is the convenience of ordering in. A mix of homemade and store bought may be the best idea. Look for pizza specials, coupons for takeout, or use discounted gift cards to pay for meals.

Check out all the recipe’s from today’s segment HERE.

If you have a story idea, question or tip, click here to reach out to Janice.