Of course!
I’m a little appalled by a recent article over at The Penny Daily. He suggests that for some people (himself included) it is more expensive to cook at home than to eat out. But the situation he is describing is what I would consider the worst case scenario. And if the worst case scenario is coming up on a regular basis you need to change your system. He describes dedicating the one hour before work as the time to cook and then losing out on additional incoming when he turns down going into work early to have that time to cook.
The average person dedicates the time after work to cook their largest meal of the day. If you regularly have other things interrupt your cooking time, make and freeze extras when you do have time to cook so that you’re freezer is stocked with quick meals and you can avoid having to eat out.
What do you think? Does cooking at home actually save you money?
Shared in Food Roots, Food on Fridays, Foodie Friday, Frugal Friday.
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{ 22 comments }
We are a family of 5. There is no way we could eat as healthy as we do on the same amount of money if we ate out instead of at home. If he truly cannot give up an hour before or after work…then I suggest his weekend. This gentleman could give up one Saturday a month to do freezer cooking and be able to eat dinner at home everyday. I can do enough in one day to have 15 meals ready for those nights that you’re running late, or the kids have to be somewhere. He could spend less time than I do, and make 7 meals at 4 servings each. Eating each meal once per week would give him 28 meals per month…allowing him to eat out twice. He could also double this, and prepare freezable lunches to take to work. (my guess is he eats lunch out). Pull one from the freezer and it would be thawed and ready to warm up by lunchtime.
Ok. But I wasn’t supposed to give HIM advice! So to answer your original question: by making dinner at home we are able to incorporate organic produce and better quality meats. Even with the expensive ingredients I can still make dinner for FAR less than taking my family out…even to fast food. And I would think the money spent on quality ingredients pays off in lower health care costs.
It’s absolutely cheaper to buy your own food vs. eating out. If you track your expenses for one month, it’s much easier to see the hard numbers to prove it. Sure, it takes time to shop, prepare and cook. But if there’s one way to trim your budget, the first thing to go in our family is limiting the number of times we eat out.
Without a doubt! I love eating out but it does get expensive!
You know what, people will find any excuse to choose eating out over cooking at home.
BF and I spend about $400 – $600 in groceries each month (we don’t eat out), but that’s only because we cook with only organic eggs and veggies, high quality meats, and we like the finer ingredients to put in our meals.
If we cooked like normal people with cans, etc (we don’t use any cans whatsoever), we’d probably only spend half of our budget.
Just found your blog from Mama Bear’s page!
Adding you to my reader
To keep our savings, tithing and simple living goals on track, I strive for a $5 price tag on the ingredients for our evening (vegetarian) meals for the two of us. I can’t find a restaurant that will feed us both with nutritious food that includes fresh veggies and whole grains for that price tag. My career is on “hiatus” right now so there is more time for meal planning and cooking. When I was working 55+ hours a week, I’d use Sunday afternoons to cook for the week. At the end of a long work day, just pull out what was already made ahead and refrigerated or frozen, heat it ups, toss the salad, and enjoy.
It’s not just about saving money. Home cooked meals can be far healthier and much more exquisite. My boyfriend and I love to entertain, and we often are able to put out seasonal, multi-course menus for groups of 6 to 8 for $10 to $20 a head (less wine costs, of course).
Good point about them being “exquisite”. I’m just getting to the point where I feel like I can cook much better than any casual dining restaurant and I’m now pushing into the “fine dining” realm with my home cooking.
Is this guy a single? I could see justifying eating out if he has to cook just for himself every single day. But then like others have said, cook on the weekend and put it in the freezer!
For our family of 4, fast food costs over 25.00, plus it’s gross. A casual restaurant is closer to 50.00. A local diner we love to patronize is around 30.00 for a ton of home cooked food. We eat there about once a week, because we love it so much. Otherwise, we don’t eat out anymore. It’s just too expensive and I can cook much better quality food than what I’m receiving at the restaurants.
My dh grills a better steak, I bake a better bread, my kids can eat as much or as little as they want and I don’t feel pressured for them to “clean their plates, I spent a fortune on that meal” or “no, that meal was too expensive, you can’t have any more food!” (my kids have huge healthy appetites!).
Cooking at home is much cheaper, but it is nice to eat out once in a while.
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First the health benefits for me to eat at home are priceless. I can control the amount of salt and sugar.
Joyce
I add my voice to the readers who vote for good health and taste. I have actually done comparisons on the time and expense of dining out vs. dining at home and my numbers don’t confirm those published at the Penny Daily. But, I’m cooking for a family of 8.
Of course, if you’re going for per-calorie expense, you can’t beat eating out. That $1 Big Mac (McD’s runs a promotion here) has more calories than anything I could create at home for $1. But the thought of eating like that on a regular basis makes my stomach turn.
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I think he is missing the planning stage of the process. I’m sure for one it is sometimes a little cheaper, but I would bet not on a daily basis in the long run.
I don’t know how anyone could say eating out is cheaper than cooking at home (this guy’s situation was too extreme to be applicable to most people), but I have found that homemade food is often more expensive than processed food, especially if you use coupons. But homemade food tastes better and is much healthier, so it’s worth it to us to pay a little more.
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I can’t imagine eating out all the time. 1 I would be sick of it, my sister does this and when we went to visit I was so ready to get home for a home cooked meal. 2. very unhealthy 3. It is two expensive.
Beverly’s last blog post: Frugal Friday: Buying In Season and Thrift Store Finds
Michael Pollan said that a few decades ago, we spent 30% of our income on food. Now we spend half that — just 15% — but we have increased the amount we spend on health care to 15%.
All that cheap convenient food is making us sick.
There is no such thing as cheap food. It’s an illusion. You can pay now or pay later with your health. I’d rather pay now and ENJOY good food.
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it all depends. mr. right hasn’t grasped that cooking a frozen pizza (bought on sale for $2.50) isn’t really that much cheaper than his standard 3 bean burritos @ $0.89 each.
but the meals i cook? of course its cheaper to eat at home.
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How could someone even think that eating out is cheaper then eating at home? When you eat at home the meals are so much healthier and so much cheaper. This does depend on you having some basic cooking and shopping skills, but come on. Who would even want to eat out all the time?
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I enjoy eating out. So does my husband. When we do, I try to pick the better (not necessarly nore expensive) restaurants that serve healthier food. My husband and I lead busy lives, and when we do eat at home, we try to eat organic as much as possible. It’s not cheaper, but it is better for you in terms of health benefits.
One place I enjoy eating is Panera. Their soup in a bread bowl is a nice treat, and you can get it with an apple on the side for about $5. If I don’t finish my bowl (which I usually don’t), I will take it home and have soup again for supper. Works for me!
Sheila
Sheila’s last blog post: Foodie Friday Train Wrecks: Don’t Shoot That Turkey — He’s Someone I Know (or Don’t Believe Everything You Hear or Read!)
I used to eat out all the time, but I always felt sick! My tummy hurt, I felt like I had to poo all the time. My head hurt, I was tired. My feet even hurt and I was sitting all day. I started cooking more, we cause I like to make things. And low and behold I feel about 100 times better. So if it takes him 1 hour to get ready for work and he can’t boil an egg while he brushes his teeth, then he is worn out from all that fast nasty food and needs to eat at home. How sad. I bet his work preformance would improve with home cooked meals. That isn’t in his formula either. Please, he is just looking for the easy way out, not the most effective.
Without a doubt, it’s cheaper to cook than to eat out. I like the convenience of eating out, but whenever we do it we invariably have extra cash burning a whole in our wallets (otherwise we wouldn’t dare eat out when we could prepare meals at home).
Thanks for sharing this in today’s Fight Back Fridays carnival!
Cheers,
KristenM
(AKA FoodRenegade)
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Most of our meals are around $2 (for the entire meal) for all 7 of us. Some meals I will spend as much as $5, and that meal will usually have leftovers for the next day.
Right now, our garden is producing an abundance of fresh vegetables. We have 71 artichokes growing in our garden right now. This morning I ate homemade crepes with asapargus from the garden. At dinner we had a nice salad from lettuce in our garden. A packet of lettuce seeds costs $1 and can make several hundred heads of lettuce (and a single head of lettuce at the store is more than that packet of seeds!)
Sorry but I just don’t see how anyone can argue that it’s not cheaper to eat at home…come on. I haven’t read the article you are referring to and how he justifies it but maybe someone just needs to teach him the tricks to saving money cooking at home. Cheaper to eat out???? BAH!
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I think it depends a lot on personal preferences and what types of foods you are buying. For the vast majority of people I’d say they would save at least 100% by cooking themselves at home. Now if you are factoring in your time spent cooking as time at work and putting a price tag on it, you could make the case that it is cheaper to eat out. For instance if you are working less at your high paying job in order to cook food for yourself. That’s the only way this argument holds water.
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