Home Cooked versus Eating out?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Someone commented to my DH that he makes super fancy lunches/meals obviously. His lunch was smoked pork ribs and fried rice. Homemade we have a smoker and bbq, smoke and just in general cook a lot at home. Tonight he's prepping guiness beef stew in a dutch oven. I made japanese beef curry Monday. Anyway the point is I don't think our homemade meals are cheap in the scheme of homemade meals but definitely to eating out.

Someone asked my DH how much he thought it cost for us to make these meals. I think per serving pretty expensive. So they asked is it more than $5 or $6 sandwich?

I know most on SA cook and bag lunch, so I ask this, do you think you save a lot in general or just sort of break even comparatively? But the benefit is the quality of food is usually better and you know how it's made?

We like cooking and enjoy eating out, but most for things we can't normally do ourselves. I think I do a better mac and cheese than Panera, LOL! But on a serious note we do spend a pretty penny on groceries a month right now around $500.

So i'm wondering if my DH bought a sandwich everyday and we didn't use leftovers for lunches or make lunches would we save?

[disneysteve]

do you think you save a lot in general or just sort of break even comparatively? But the benefit is the quality of food is usually better and you know how it's made?

I think it varies depending on the meal. I can buy a Healthy Choice frozen meal on sale for $2.50 or sometimes less. They're reasonably tasty and not all that bad for you nutritionally. So that compares pretty well cost-wise with a home cooked lunch. But that's not nearly the same as going out or ordering out for lunch. Then you're talking about $6-10 easily and you're probably getting something far higher in fat, sodium, and calories. So there the homemade stuff wins for sure.

[Permanent Temp]

I only eat fish as far as meat goes and usually only if we eat out which we rarely do anymore. I think that if you want to cut costs a bit but still eat at home consider eating more meatless meals. Most of the time my husband rarely misses the meat. And they can be just as fancy.

I think that right now though what your husband is eating at home is way better nutritionally so in essence you are saving money on health costs down the road.

See if you can save on ingredients by buying them in bulk or another store. I comparison shop to see which things I can save on. For example, I really like the Madagascar vanilla they sell at Sur La Table, but it is an 18.99 bottle. I did a comparison to the little McCormick bottle they sell at the store and I am actually saving a few bucks by buying the higher quality ingredient then if I bought what I consider to be the next available acceptable ingredient.

If I calculated it out our meals at home cost less than 10 a day to make between breakfast, lunch and dinner. If I ate out for every meal it would be more like 25-30 a day.

There is a website called Poor Girl eats well and she makes fantastic meals for dollars a serving I'd check that out too. Bon Appétit!

[humandraydel]

We spend around $100 per week on groceries - so that's $15 per day. 3 meals for 2 people, so 6 meals for around $15. Assuming each meal costs $6-7 on average, that would be around $40 per day. So we save $25 per day.

[thomasdan]

My wife and I work from home. We now have a set budget on &80 dollar per week for groceries.
so the break down for us would be, &11.50 per day for 2 of us for 3 meals plus snacks. Thats roughly 2 dollars a meal per person. AND we do eat GOOD and HEALTHY. we rarely eat out. Only special occasions. But Honestly, sometimes when we do go out. we get disappointed on how salty the food is*(our biggest complaint) So we go online and learn to make the same recipe ourselves but with alittle tweek to it for a healthier version.

[Brad03]

we set aside enough to be able to eat out once a month and if we dont it is just saved

[snafu]

In order to reduce costs and increase profitability the restaurants are buying more processed foods full of chemicals, sugar and sodium. It's like the food in the freezers at Costco. I get a lot of satisfaction out of baking and cooking from scratch with real foods mostly from the perimeter of the store. In my experience eating out costs double what it costs me to produce the same meal at home. If you add in a bottle of wine or a liqueur with coffee you've more than tripled costs.

I often make a large, foil roasting pan of Lasagna for those events when we're asked to bring a main. It's about $ 22. for lean ground beef and 2 tubs of Ricotta. Homemade tomato sauce, frozen spinach & package of noodles add effort not cost. I figure about $ 1. per serving and I know the nearby Italian eatery charges $ 12. for a small serving that includes a tiny chef's salad. I think I need to buy some of those white, fluted, lasagna baking dishes I see at the restaurant supply store.