Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I read somewhere that eating out is perhaps the biggest money waster the average person does. If people just cooked their own food that they got at the grocery store, they would save thousands a year. Is this really true?
Yes, eating out at fancy restaurants is quite expensive and you could do much better with a cookbook and quality food from a nice grocery store. But as a single person, am I really spending much more money at a fast food restaurant than cooking a hamburger or chicken dinner? For mid-quality food, how much more am I spending at a place like TGIF or Ruby Tuesday vs, buying the food at the grocery store and cooking the meal at home?
i think with some pretty simple decisions made to reduce waste and get decent prices at the grocery store, you are pay a fraction for home made vs restaurant.
I want to add some real experience to this. After I got out of the service, I was working so much that I didn't cook at home. I was single, always out, and didn't have time. I spent a good $500.00 a month on food. I moved in with a new roommate who was a foodie. He ate top shelf, and spent way less than me. I learned from him how to shop, and what items to prepare in bulk, like brown rice. I also taught myself how to cook using youtube. My food expense dropped $200.00 a month.
You do have to learn how to shop and how to buy what you will use instead of buying lots of groceries and then throwing them away because you didn't use them and let them spoil.
That restaurant has to buy the food. Same food you buy. Then they have to pay rent for the building, pay someone to cook the food, pay all their utilities....
You don't really think that there is some way they can cook the same meal as you do and they can do it for lots cheaper?
MIckey Dee burger, 2 ounces of ground lips and scraps, cheap hamburger bun, squirt of catsup $1. Couple ounces of french fries $1.50 (? I don't know because I don't eat there.)
Home: 2 ounces of quality ground beef 22 cents, cheap bun 12 cents, couple ounces of french fries about 8 cents, if you get the frozen ones and bake them.
Of course, if you cook at home, you will most likely do 6-8 ounces of ground beef and a better quality bun. You might add lettuce, pickles, cheese. Still frozen fries if you aren't a cook, but you'd most likely cook a larger serving. So, you might come out costing slightly more, but it would be a much better quality meal. Oh. wait. Your home meal with the better burger, you should be comparing to Red Robin, not Mickie Dee's. Red Robin, by the time you pay tip and all is going to be over $15.
Yes, compare equal quality and it is always going to be cheaper to cook at home.
I just bought a box of froze Panko breaded shrimp at the restaurant supply store. This is what you would get at a quality restaurant. Really good shrimp. So, 5 layers in the box, each layer would be dinner for 3-4 people using the number of shrimp that the restaurant would give you. So 5 shrimp dinners for a small family. $16 for the box of shrimp. About $3 for the meal. What do they charge a family of 3-4 to serve them panko shrimp at a restaurant?
I think you can eat cheaper at home as a single person, but it is not a guarantee. It depends on what you are buying and how much time you are willing to invest in the process and how much food gets wasted in the process. You probably can buy some fast food less expensively, but your health and weight is another factor. If you buy fresh food for at home, you risk the food going bad before you use it all up.
Everyone has to decide what works best for them. You have a wide range of options to keep your costs down and eat what you want. You can eat breakfast at home, splurge on the lunch specials at a restaurant for lunch and eat a simple evening meal at home. Or you could eat all meals at home and splurge on a meal or two during the weekend. It depends on your budget and what you like or need to eat.
No. It's not. The prices are getting there. I'm thinking in terms of people who basically eat a burger with fries regardless of whether they are at McDonalds or a chain steakhouse.
I read somewhere that eating out is perhaps the biggest money waster the average person does. If people just cooked their own food that they got at the grocery store, they would save thousands a year. Is this really true?
From my experience, eating home is much more economical than eating out. Especially, when cooking for a family. There was a period of time that I was single and all the kids had left the next. I could live on $70.00 a week groceries...total all inclusive: food, paper, cleaning products (mind you, this was about 12 years ago). Included in that was $10.00 for five days of salad bar lunch at the school I taught in. ($2.00 a day for salad bar including cubed chicken, ham, and cheese).
My dinners were normally something with ground turkey cooked several different ways, chicken breasts cooked a variety of ways, and salmon usually once a week. Breakfasts were an egg on toast most days. My snacks were apples, peaches, or some other fruit. My meals were healthy and tasty. If I wanted to "eat out", it was usually "take out" from the Chinese restaurant and I would get steamed chicken with broccoli, with the sauce on the side. A quart of it, which was more than one meal was about $5.00 plus change. Again, healthy, delicious and thrifty.
On top of everything, I was a "coupon queen", clipping regularly and comparing coupons with weekly circulars. I usually saved 1/3 off my bill with the coupons, which the store always doubled. These days where I live, the coupons are not as available as they used to be. I find myself spending way more because food prices have skyrocketed and the coupons are not as easy to find. My DH enjoys going out to eat. So, we do....and we spend way way more. If it were up to me, we would go out late afternoon and get in on the early bird or the happy hour specials. In many cases they offer things at half price. That can save some big money!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
