I saw this post on X today. I've definitely cooked meals that cost more than eating out, but usually because of some expensive item that I didn't use all of.
If you cook the same types of meals regularly, surely it's much less expensive than eating out, but it's not as simple as people suggest.
Do you agree or disagree?
Cooking yourself should be always cheaper and it's much healthier as well.
I would love to see a calculation where self cooking ends up more expensive than a restaurant meal.
It's cheaper eating at home. Even if you cook a 35 dollar filet mignon from the butcher, that same steak would be 70 in a steak house.
Eat more veggies wrote:
Cooking yourself should be always cheaper and it's much healthier as well.
I would love to see a calculation where self cooking ends up more expensive than a restaurant meal.
Chipotle is like 15 bucks. At home that filet mignon is 18 bucks. Potato, asparagus, and sprouts is 6. Salad is like 3. As you can see eating out is about half the cost….. And I haven’t even factored in throwing out half the food I buy.
This is new math….
Cooking at home is always cheaper when just calculating the cost of raw ingredients. But if you start pricing the value of your time it takes to cook + clean up, even at minimum wage, it is then almost always cheaper to eat out. That holds true for cooking/ eating out for one. When you're talking, 2, 3, or especially larger families, cooking at home becomes much cheaper again since cooking for 5 only takes a marginally smaller time than cooking for one. Not to mention when you cook for one you almost always end up with leftovers that eventually find their way in the trash.
Lastly cooking at home just tastes significantly worse. All the power to the people who actually enjoy cooking and become great cooks, but that's not me.
Eat more veggies wrote:
Cooking yourself should be always cheaper and it's much healthier as well.
I would love to see a calculation where self cooking ends up more expensive than a restaurant meal.
I'd agree but only if you specify the same food ingredients. Otherwise, eating only at the Costco food court would be cheaper the the calories (but you'd get close to zero veggies and fruits).
Eating Out wrote:
Cooking at home is always cheaper when just calculating the cost of raw ingredients. But if you start pricing the value of your time it takes to cook + clean up, even at minimum wage, it is then almost always cheaper to eat out. That holds true for cooking/ eating out for one. When you're talking, 2, 3, or especially larger families, cooking at home becomes much cheaper again since cooking for 5 only takes a marginally smaller time than cooking for one. Not to mention when you cook for one you almost always end up with leftovers that eventually find their way in the trash.
Lastly cooking at home just tastes significantly worse. All the power to the people who actually enjoy cooking and become great cooks, but that's not me.
It only tastes significantly worse when YOU cook at home. Don't speak for others who can actually cook. I can cook a better tasting steak than Ruth's Chris steakhouse.
More evidence that the American dream is dead.
Is the labour time of preparation costed?
Is it costed per meal or per serving?
Eat more veggies wrote:
Cooking yourself should be always cheaper and it's much healthier as well.
I would love to see a calculation where self cooking ends up more expensive than a restaurant meal.
Consider opportunity cost. If I can choose between going home and making dinner vs staying at work and spending the same amount of time performing one more heart catheterization, the cost of my meal includes the amount of money I forgo by not doing the cath.
This is basic specialization of labor. I spent a lot of time and effort becoming an interventional cardiologist. Someone else spent a lot of time and effort learning to make great food. We’re both better off when I spend more time in the cath lab and the chef spends more time in the kitchen than if either of us tries to do the other’s job.
opportunity cost wrote:
This is basic specialization of labor. I spent a lot of time and effort becoming an interventional cardiologist. Someone else spent a lot of time and effort learning to make great food. We’re both better off when I spend more time in the cath lab and the chef spends more time in the kitchen than if either of us tries to do the other’s job.
Many folks here specialize in basement self stimulation.
Niels wrote:
I saw this post on X today. I've definitely cooked meals that cost more than eating out, but usually because of some expensive item that I didn't use all of.
If you cook the same types of meals regularly, surely it's much less expensive than eating out, but it's not as simple as people suggest.
Do you agree or disagree?
It’s easy to look at your credit card expense categorization to arrive at an answer. I only eat out a few times a month at most and my dining expenses are comparable to though still usually less than grocery.
My time is “free” because I like cooking and cooking doesn’t take that much time if you are used to it. It also takes time to go somewhere, order, wait for food, and then come back home. DoorDash doesn’t have the time overhead but it’s definitely not cheaper than cooking at home.
The time of prep and clean up, time at the grocery, I could see where people just decide to outsource the entire endeavor.
I dont mind cooking, and I am good at it, and I do not mind leftovers. So I might spend time cooking etc.. but I can get at least 2 meals out of it.
There are things I do not like to do and I pay to outsource them (house cleaning, lawn maintenance) cooking is no different.
Interesting thread at a particularly interesting time for me. I’m married with three kids and depending on what we eat, I find it to be dead even if we’re not going to a fine dining restaurant. Maybe slightly cheaper to eat out.
Let’s consider pizza. If I take my family to a higher end (for pizza) Neapolitan pizza place with good salads and wine, it’ll be about $125. If I go to Trader Joe’s and buy the ingredients for two pizzas - one simple Pizza Margherita and one with some kind of meat like pepperoni or prosciutto - plus salad stuff and a bottle of wine, I may go over $125 and my boys will ask for more pizza when we run out at home (we will get more food at the restaurant). I’ve paid attention. Same with food like burgers and other grilled items (chicken, veggies, salmon).
Steaks are cheaper at home. For sure.
The reason the timing is interesting is because my wife took the kids to visit her parents for the week and I stayed home because work is busy right now. I spent a total of $60 and change on food for the entire week. Pasta, rice, eggs, frozen veggies, beans, bananas, romaine, tomatoes, yogurt. I’m a really cheap date. I love fuel, not necessarily rich flavors. I also ran like a f@@@king animal this week. Doubles every day.
Now, I haven’t had any meat so we’ll grill when they get home tonight. But normally I’d be $500 deep or more by Saturday on groceries. But that’s with 3 growing boys for kids. It’s only getting worse at the grocery.
TL;DR - Eating out can be cheaper if you’re not actively trying to eat inexpensively.
It's alllllllll aboutttt the leftover grind. If you have leftovers, then it is cheaper. Otherwise buying a bunch of ingredients and food items is expensive for a one-meal deal....
Side Quest- Grow your own veggies and livestock...?
Pick your Poison
a one wrote:
It's cheaper eating at home. Even if you cook a 35 dollar filet mignon from the butcher, that same steak would be 70 in a steak house.
The $70 at the steak house would also include sides (e.g. mashed potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower). Ingredients to cook all that might include olive oil, butter, pepper, salt, garlic, fresh rosemary, etc. To make the equivalent at home, you'd easily be spending another $10 on quality ingredients. Remember that you can't just buy a teaspoon of rosemary; you have to buy a whole package of vines for $4 or whatever. Now remember all the time you have to spend going to the grocery store, prepping ingredients, cooking, putting out plates, cleaning up, restocking the shelves after the dishwasher is done, etc.
So you maybe save $25 and lose a lot of time.
But let's not forget that restaurants and bars are largely about atmosphere and convenience. You're "really" spending only $25 and that's for a sort of entertainment, luxury, convenience. You could also spend $25 going to the movies or something.
For under 10 dollars you can buy a 10 pound bag of white rice(16,000 calories) add in some meat and veggies. I dare you to eat this cheaply at restaurants and fast food.
I do all the cooking in our house, for 4, and main meals cost in total £5-30, average probably around 10. If I do a a stir fry, adding shop-bought things like prawn toasts, spring rolls, etc. is what increases the cost.
It can be "cheaper" when taking into account the time commitment if you cook different things every day. I sometimes would batch things up at the start of each week and that saved me time, but it's not exciting food to eat (rice, beans, lentils, etc and some meat). But when I'd be busy and didn't batch things, I'd probably have greater utility from eating out than making food myself - I can get a very filling Chipotle meal for $15-20. Spending almost an hour to cook something worth $5-10 when I'm busy, and then taking the same time to eat it, isn't worth it for me then because I value the extra hour more than $10 bucks.
As a single person, it is not easy to cook at home cheaply, especially with the rising grocery prices these days. Most ingredients are sold in large serving sizes, and it is incredibly difficult to plan meals that use up all the ingredients before they expire. What if your friends ask you out for an impromptu celebratory dinner? Well now you have to either re-do your calculations or throw the food for that night away.
Researching ingredients and recipes, going to the grocery store, cooking, and cleaning after a long day of work and/or school is a just a massive time and energy drain. Meal prepping can help this I guess, but I personally just find the idea of living off of leftovers 6/7 days a week to be gross. Most stuff from a nice restaurant doesn't even taste that great the next day, much less a 6 day old grilled chicken breast.
That's not say it can't be cheaper if you do everything right, but I definitely think there is a certain income where it makes more financial sense to just pay someone else to do the cooking and save the time.