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Last night I had a lobster tail, a wedge of lettuce, and Fettucine Alfredo. $10.35
I live alone and cook just about every night. The 8 oz. lobster tail was on sale for $9.00 The fettucine was a packaged deal, just add water, cost .99, and the lettuce was part of a head I bought for just over a buck. I'm not counting the tea bag or the 2 Tbs. of melted butter. This dinner would have easily cost me upwards of $25.00
Admittedly, I don't eat like this every night. But I can stretch ground beef and when I make a pot of Cowboy stew or Barfaroni, I freeze some of it in portion sizes and defrost at a later date. I don't consider this "leftovers". It's the same as a "TV Dinner" except I don't have to go out to get it.
I buy a pack of 8 pork chops for four dollars and change. Freeze 'em two to a pack and take one out when ready. Chicken legs are pretty cheap when on sale so if you buy a decent size package, you can freeze a couple to a baggie and I guarantee you, you won't believe the money you'll save by cutting back on eating out. But I'm betting you already knew that.
You say you don't eat leftovers, but what you're describing as "leftovers" is just something Mom threw together. Not at all the same as cooking several chicken legs, or breasts, and wrapping what you don't eat tonight, refrigerate it, and have it on Wednesday. Warmed up, those chicken legs will look the same as they did when they first came off the fire.
On Saturday morning, make a batch of pancakes. Eat your fill and wrap the leftovers in foil. Pop one or two in the toaster before work. Cook a pound of bacon (I do it in the oven). A couple of pieces heated up goes really nicely with those pancakes.
...I was pricing out what it would cost me to make a simple meal- pound of hamburger (smallest size), 6 hamburger buns, some chips, and a 2 liter of soda...the cost easily exceeded $10. I could easily eat out on that if I wanted...
So let me get this straight; a "simple" meal for you is six hambugers, a bag of chips and a two liter?
Even someone like me who easily overeats during every meal couldn't eat six hamburgers, a bag of chips, and a two liter in one sitting without geting sick. I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're slightly over exagerating.
If we look at it from a logical standpoint, you could split your "simple" meal into FOUR simple meals that would cost $2.50 a night. Can you get a meal out for that? Add spaghetti and use the extra buns for garlic bread and you've got no less that six dinners right there; all for less than $3 a night. With the cheapest spaghetti and an $0.87 can of tomato sauce and it would be well under $3 a night.
The difference in cost is huge. Eating out will kill your budget.
Unless your working 10 or 12 hour shifts. The first 8 at straight time rate of 35.08 per hour, the 9th and 10th hour at time and a half of 52.62 per hour and everything over ten at double time of 70.16 per hour. Working two hours late also put me in the thick of Bay Area rush hour traffic on the freeway and the 8.5 mile trip home could take almost an hour. If, instead, I took surface streets into downtown and spend an hour or so relaxing over a leisurely meal and reading then the traffic would have subsided and I could be home in under 20 minutes.
My last couple of years at work, prior to retiring, I averaged over 55 hours per week. So I ate out a lot of evenings at a variety of restaurants, nothing super high priced but not fast food either.
As a single person it meant that all household chores were my responsibility alone - laundry, yard work, 3 dogs and a cat to care for, auto maint (done at the shop, not by me) bill paying, general house keeping, etc.
The amount of time needed to shop for groceries, put them away, fix meals and clean up afterward was high and I preferred to use what little free time and energy I had in other pursuits.
I did do simple breakfasts at home and generally brought lunch since there were not any places to eat that I could get to on a half hour unpaid lunch break.
So for me and my particular circumstances it made sense.
Now that I'm retired and living in a rather rural area I eat at home much more - in part because places to eat out are limited and the variety is too. Nearest Chinese restaurant is 20 miles away and not all that good so I've learned to do without and consider it a treat when I go to the nearby big town 35 miles away and get enough to have some leftovers to take home for an additional meal once a month or so.
Why are you purchasing pre made Alfredo sauce, garlic bread, pre packaged salad and ranch dressing when you can make these items from scratch for a fraction of the price?
busta
Why am I? Because I neither have the time nor the energy to devote to making things from scratch. I work 8-10 hour days and the last thing I want to do is make a big meal using fresh ingredients even though it'd probably taste quite good!
Like some other posters here, the time I would spend making a large meal is more valuable being used for other pursuits. I can make a meal with prepackaged ingredients but I simply don't have an hour to spend to do everything from scratch.
One of my favorite restaurants is olive garden, I absolutely love their stuffed pasta in ALFREDO (substituted for red sauce). Otherwise I usually go to local joints for an evening meal.
Tonight I had Homemade Chilli and Crem Brulee I made last night. (Odd combination I know)
It DID take me a few minutes this morning to carmalise the sugar topping of the Crem Brulee before I put it back in the fridge, but between that and nuking the chilli I pulled out the freezer last night...
IIRC the standard calculation for a restaurant plate is three times the cost of ingredients. Only in higher end establishments do they purchase fresh the same day, and even in those establishments they maintain a larder. Run-of-the-mill chain restaurants absolutely use frozen ingredients of unremarkable quality, same as you would buy in bulk in the grocery store. Frozen chicken breasts in bags with lots of water and additives, canned sauces, etc.
We're really discussing the economy of time rather than absolute costs, I think. You definitely make better quality at home for the same or less money. (Ingredients are not "leftovers" for different meals.) Personally, my persistent issue with restaurants, especially those chains, is they tend to oversalt.
A really good compromise is pre-made entrees you can buy at places like Fresh and Easy. You just heat them up at home. OP, have you checked that out? They have varieties of dinners for an average $5, including main, veg, and starch. They're in the Phoenix area and it's a real bargain. You can use your own sauces change up the taste, if you like, or change them however you like. If I were young and time-starved, that's how I'd go.
My post was kinda sarcastic as I've owned several restaurants for years, one higher end and one a po-boy restaurant and I always purchased fresh and high quality food even in my po-boy place. And I've never purchased frozen food and always cook in the morning what was eaten that day.
But being that my places were in New Orleans I can tell you that the locals know good food and if you want to stay in business you better have good, fresh food.
Even at the cheapest takeout place, the mark up is typically 100% for cost of ingredients. So you're paying twice as much to have someone else cook for you-- and that's only at the cheapest places. Now if you hate to cook, or don't know how and don't want to learn, it might be worth it to you to pay for someone else's efforts. But if you are willing to cook, and eat the same thing a couple days in a row, then you could save a bundle cooking for yourself.
I'm not single, far from it, but I'm a picky eater so I have to cook separately for myself. I have a food processor (gift, not sure how much it cost), counter top rotisserie ($80), rice cooker and slow cooker (about $40 each). Between these appliances-- which I've used for years-- making delicious, healthy meals is quite simple and fun.
Why am I? Because I neither have the time nor the energy to devote to making things from scratch. I work 8-10 hour days and the last thing I want to do is make a big meal using fresh ingredients even though it'd probably taste quite good!
Like some other posters here, the time I would spend making a large meal is more valuable being used for other pursuits. I can make a meal with prepackaged ingredients but I simply don't have an hour to spend to do everything from scratch.
One of my favorite restaurants is olive garden, I absolutely love their stuffed pasta in ALFREDO (substituted for red sauce). Otherwise I usually go to local joints for an evening meal.
What as the reason for your OP? Sounded like you were trying to compare eating out to home cooking. Olive Garden has some of the nastiest food for an Italian joint.
LOL I can cook most meals from scratch in less then 15 minuets.
What as the reason for your OP? Sounded like you were trying to compare eating out to home cooking. Olive Garden has some of the nastiest food for an Italian joint.
LOL I can cook most meals from scratch in less then 15 minuets.
busta
My original post was basically about comparing the cost of eating out versus cooking yourself.
And maybe the Olive Garden in your state isn't very good but the one in Scottsdale is quite good. It does vary from region to region, I've had some chains that are terrible in one region and quite good in the next.
And cooking an entire meal from scratch in less than 15 minutes? I hardly believe that. I'm a fairly good cook when I have the ambition to do so and when I make ANYTHING from scratch it takes quite a bit of time.
I don't mind cooking for a large group- maybe smoking a pork loin or baby-back ribs overnight. I can do that quite well but it's time consuming. Even making a meal such as alfredo takes well over 15 minutes to prepare once you cook the chicken, make the noodles, bake the bread, etc.
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