Cost of eating out vs cooking at home

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irvinehomeowner

irvinehomeowner

Well-known member
As a kid, we only ate out on Friday or Saturday night... the rest of the week was home cooked meals and then maybe one or two nights of leftovers.

The fact my mother worked a full day and then came home and cooked us a meal is amazing.

Like maybe many here, we eat out more than we cook at home. But for the times we've cooked at home, it just didn't seem cost effective because the money spent on groceries, the time to go shopping, the time to prep, the time to cook and the time to clean seems like a higher expenditure than just to drive to a local place.

Another problem is my kids are picky... and they rarely eat what we want to cook/eat so it makes even more difficult. I think that's one of the benefits of eating out is everyone can choose what they want.

Roughly, this is what I estimated for costs of dining vs costs of cooking (just for dinners):

Assume 5 days of dining out (2 days of leftovers or whatever)... for a family of 3-5, I think $50-60 average is reasonable (I guess it also depends on alcohol consumption which could get pricey but we usually don't order booze)... so that's about $250-300.

What would be the grocery cost for 7 days of cooking (might need SoCal for this)? $100-$200? I've spent $50 on just chicken, steaks, veggies and misc... so let's say that's 2 dinners... we are looking at about $175-200 per week?

Is the effort/time worth the $75-100 per week? Let's say your "time" is worth $25/hour (low for some... but much higher than minimum wage). That's about $125 per week.

Is it a wash? I'll offset the cost of gas/water for cooking and cleaning with the cost of gas to drive.

In the long run, cooking at home probably will save you more money but some people have a premium on time too. And yes, I know many of you *like* to cook so it's not a waste of time... but considering both of us work a full day (we actually split cooking duties)... it sometimes the last thing we want to do... plus the house ends up smelling like whatever we had for dinner.

Thoughts?
 
My wife can feed our family of 4 on about $40-$60 of groceries per week.  We eat in on the weekdays and eat out only weekends. 

Lucky for me she is a great cook and enjoys cooking for her family (most of the time). 

No matter how much $ you save though, sometimes you just need a change of pace and need to give your spouse (or whoever the chef is) a break. 

We keep a budget and can definitely tell the difference when we break protocol and go out to eat more times a week than normal.  It is time consuming though - every Sunday night we usually grocery shop at Ralphs & 99 Ranch (minimum) and some Sunday's we also go to Costco or Trader Joe's.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
What would be the grocery cost for 7 days of cooking (might need SoCal for this)? $100-$200? I've spent $50 on just chicken, steaks, veggies and misc... so let's say that's 2 dinners... we are looking at about $175-200 per week?

Is the effort/time worth the $75-100 per week? Let's say your "time" is worth $25/hour (low for some... but much higher than minimum wage). That's about $125 per week.

Thoughts?
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I'd count the time cost of cooking/grocery shopping only if you would otherwise be working and earning money during that time. If you would have otherwise been relaxing or what-not, then its not really an opportunity cost. 

 
Cooking at home is not necessarily cheaper than eating out, but you get to choose exactly what goes into your pot.  Your home kitchen is likely cleaner as well.  At restaurants the kitchen is used heavily and there are many issues (good reason why we have health department).  For example the pots and pans used at restaurant kitchens are worn and warped from heavy use, whatever coating it had is long gone.

If you're looking at the cost-benefit of time spent in the kitchen, then cooking is not enjoyable enough to you.  Consider using time-saving devices like slow cookers, sous-vide machines, solar ovens, pressure cooker, george foreman grill, dish washer, and your car's engine compartment (see: manifold destiny).  It's easy to cook food in sealed bags or jars in your dishwasher.
 
When you add drive, park, order, serve and pay time, I'm not sure eating out is a big time saver. You need to make grocery / costco trips anyway, just a matter of buying more or less. It's a little easier to eat healthy cooking at home also.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
As a kid, we only ate out on Friday or Saturday night... the rest of the week was home cooked meals and then maybe one or two nights of leftovers.

The fact my mother worked a full day and then came home and cooked us a meal is amazing.

Like maybe many here, we eat out more than we cook at home. But for the times we've cooked at home, it just didn't seem cost effective because the money spent on groceries, the time to go shopping, the time to prep, the time to cook and the time to clean seems like a higher expenditure than just to drive to a local place.

Another problem is my kids are picky... and they rarely eat what we want to cook/eat so it makes even more difficult. I think that's one of the benefits of eating out is everyone can choose what they want.

Roughly, this is what I estimated for costs of dining vs costs of cooking (just for dinners):

Assume 5 days of dining out (2 days of leftovers or whatever)... for a family of 3-5, I think $50-60 average is reasonable (I guess it also depends on alcohol consumption which could get pricey but we usually don't order booze)... so that's about $250-300.

What would be the grocery cost for 7 days of cooking (might need SoCal for this)? $100-$200? I've spent $50 on just chicken, steaks, veggies and misc... so let's say that's 2 dinners... we are looking at about $175-200 per week?

Is the effort/time worth the $75-100 per week? Let's say your "time" is worth $25/hour (low for some... but much higher than minimum wage). That's about $125 per week.

Is it a wash? I'll offset the cost of gas/water for cooking and cleaning with the cost of gas to drive.

In the long run, cooking at home probably will save you more money but some people have a premium on time too. And yes, I know many of you *like* to cook so it's not a waste of time... but considering both of us work a full day (we actually split cooking duties)... it sometimes the last thing we want to do... plus the house ends up smelling like whatever we had for dinner.

Thoughts?
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How hard is it to bbq at home? (Marinate the meat, throw it on the bbq, grill veggies)
 
I'm currently trying Blue Apron, they give you ingredients and you prep and cook them.  Not really saving a whole bunch but it's pretty healthy, you learn how to make stuff, and forces you to try something new.

You can try it for a week free via refer a friend type deal, I have about 3 of them if anyone cares to try. 
 
Cooking at home can also be much healthier (obviously all depends on what you order when you eat out vs. what you cook at home).  Much more control into amounts of butter, etc.  Probably aren't deep frying at home either. 

Two young kids at home, but we tend to eat at home during the week, and then out a bit on the weekend's for a break. Largely cook the weeks worth of meals on Sunday so it is all set. Things like pasta or a curry tastes good reheated so it is nice and the actual meal that night is usually a fish (which I can't stand as a "left-over"). Veggies taste fine to me left over. Little bit more boring, but healthy and far cheaper. I can buy 2 or 3 lb's of chicken and cook it different ways and the chicken alone is like 5-10 bucks. Add in whatever veggies are on sale and some brown or wild rice (or potatoes) as a carb and you aren't talking about anything all that pricey. 
 
All great responses.. thus the copious amount of Thanks.

I do agree that at home cooking is healthier (well... me lub butter) and cleaner (at least my kitchen) but as for the time factor... time relaxing (or sitting around waiting for the server to refill my drink) is better to me than standing around over the stove... or smelling like burnt bbq.

Cost-wise though, I don't think the difference is all that great. Where I find the savings is having the leftovers for lunch or dinner the next day (and sure you can do that with home cooked food but you have to provide your own container :) ).

I just think we've spoiled our kids although we've been teaching them how to cook simple things (and no... that doesn't mean just throwing a frozen whatever into the microwave... nor does that exclude that).
 
I remember socal said she used to patronize an establishment in Woodbury shopping center where you go to their kitchen and cook the food yourself, pack it up, take it home, freeze the food packages, and eat all week.  Not surprised the place didn't last long.
 
Happiness said:
I remember socal said she used to patronize an establishment in Woodbury shopping center where you go to their kitchen and cook the food yourself, pack it up, take it home, freeze the food packages, and eat all week.  Not surprised the place didn't last long.
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There's a www.dreamdinners.com in Lake Forest.
 
Happiness said:
I remember socal said she used to patronize an establishment in Woodbury shopping center where you go to their kitchen and cook the food yourself, pack it up, take it home, freeze the food packages, and eat all week.  Not surprised the place didn't last long.
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Sounds like Dream Dinners. Assemble a months worth of meals at their kitchen facility (The ingredients are not cooked though) Bring it home, freeze. Then thaw as you want to use them and cook at home. You need the extra freezer in the garage though. They have a location in Tustin at 17th street.  The recipes aren't bad, but we found not very cost effective relative to portion sizes. Maybe $35 dollars for a meal for 4? (mostly the main course, no sides) with no leftovers, so we stopped using.
 
Yea we've tried dream dinners.  Food sucked, portions are small, and not sure it saved much time. Also tried blue apron and plated. Portions were ok but the prep for most of the recipes took foreverrrrrr. While having all the ingredients sent to you was nice, part of me felt like I was overpaying them to send me 1 tsp of soy sauce which I already have in my pantry.  After trying everything under the sun to solve the dinner "issue", we are back to cooking half the week and eating out/taking out the other half. Cooking can be pretty easy if you menu plan prior to. For us, no real savings with cooking since we do the majority of our food shopping at whole paycheck.
 
bones said:
Yea we've tried dream dinners.  Food sucked, portions are small, and not sure it saved much time. Also tried blue apron and plated. Portions were ok but the prep for most of the recipes took foreverrrrrr. While having all the ingredients sent to you was nice, part of me felt like I was overpaying them to send me 1 tsp of soy sauce which I already have in my pantry.  After trying everything under the sun to solve the dinner "issue", we are back to cooking half the week and eating out/taking out the other half. Cooking can be pretty easy if you menu plan prior to. For us, no real savings with cooking since we do the majority of our food shopping at whole paycheck.
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Have you tried www.gobble.com? 1 pan, 10 minutes (excluding oven pre-heat or boiling water if needed)
 
Anybody try the make ahead meal plans or the freezer meal plan sites?

We tried fresh20 for a while, but the family is a bit finicky eaters, and with no cheese many of the options are out.  They actually create a weekly shopping list so it goes hand in hand with the trip to the market an focuses on in season ingredients.

Also been thinking about the freezer meal plan sites, but have the same concerns that the majority of meals won't get eaten.

As for cooking at home being cheaper, it depends on the quality of the establishment you are eating at, and your appetite.  Many places, the dinner entree provides enough leftovers for a lunch meal.

Other places like Costco, well, you're lucky if you can even buy a whole chicken on sale for $4.99 not including, cooking etc. 
 
It's not about money, it's about eating healthy. It's okay to eat your fast food once in a while, but not everyday.

 
nosuchreality said:
Anybody try the make ahead meal plans or the freezer meal plan sites?

We tried fresh20 for a while, but the family is a bit finicky eaters, and with no cheese many of the options are out.  They actually create a weekly shopping list so it goes hand in hand with the trip to the market an focuses on in season ingredients.

Also been thinking about the freezer meal plan sites, but have the same concerns that the majority of meals won't get eaten.

As for cooking at home being cheaper, it depends on the quality of the establishment you are eating at, and your appetite.  Many places, the dinner entree provides enough leftovers for a lunch meal.

Other places like Costco, well, you're lucky if you can even buy a whole chicken on sale for $4.99 not including, cooking etc. 
Click to expand...

fresh20 sounds interesting.  did some research but concluded that it's probably not for us.  Seems like a big commit to prep, cook and eat it all - I feel like things are always coming up during the week and we're grabbing take out due to time constraints.  Also, browsed some of the menus and not sure our family of picky eaters would like it either.  If you try out any others, would love hear....
 
I'm with IHO, cooking is way too much effort. We still buy fruits and veggies every week but for dinner it's usually takeout. Probavly spend $20-$25 per night. We do buy frozen food at costco and trader joes as well.
 
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