Is cooking at home really cheaper?

I would have to say cooking at home would be cheaper if you have a big family but Cooking for two, maybe not. Our last Child got married in September of this year and now it's just the two of us. I've been a Chef most all of my life and cooking for the family is something I'm used to. Cooking for two seems to be a whole different thing. Maybe it's cheaper for the food, but for the whole meal experience from start to finish, I don't know. If I go out to a restaurant, I'm not going to order a can of soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. Let's say I want meatloaf and gravy, grean beans and a baked potato. Think of everything involved in preparing that meal including the tea, bread, butter and sour cream for the potato, seasoning meat for the beans and let's not forget the clean up after the meal. It seems like every time I turn the TV on there is someone saying the best give to give is some kind of kitchen appliance becauce people are cooking at home more now because of the money crunch. How many of these appliances do you already have under your kitchen counter now? Use'em once or twice then have to find a place to put'em. I think I can find a meat loaf dinner for two for under $20.00.

I took a salad to a pot luck the other day (normal size) and spent twenty five dollars on the groceries for it. No meat or expensive cheeses either. It was damn good salad, though.

Steve,

Good question...I've got a bunch of receipts here in my wallet, let's see what they say. (sound of crumpled paper).

Dinner last night was chicken grilled with an Asian style sauce, a small veggie stir fry, a couple of egg rolls and a glass of wine (for Becky) and beer for me. Having just went to the grocery store and the Liquor Barn yesterday I have the receipts right in front of me.

Glass of "Little Penguin Merlot" (the best deal in town next to a road trip for "two buck chuck")...........75 cents
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale..........1.10 (with 5 beers left over for watching the Browns lose...again)
Tyson Chicken Breasts..........3.50 (with one breast left over to make chicken salad)
Veggies...........................3.91
Egg Rolls..........................1.95
Grill Sauce, cooking oil, etc....1.00 (lets just say)

Total..............................12.21

Also in my wallet:

A receipt for El Acapulco (La Grange) for two entrees, two beers and a tip...$33.82
A receipt for Wicks Pizza (Middletown) for a med."Big Wick" pizza and a couple of beers each for 3 people...55.57 (so lets call it $37 for two).

These are the only two dining receipts I happen to have in front of me but I would say they are fairly typical of our casual dining expenses when we go out, that is to say a couple of entrees, a soda or beer and a tip. I would also say that the at home meal expenses are fairly typical as well.

[Robin Garr]

Tough question, Steve. For me it's not that easy a call. We eat out about half the time, or one-third, anyway, in connection with my duties. But when I eat at home, I'm cooking, and I like to dine at least as well here as we do when we dine out. We have both a quality and an ethical commitment to buy mostly organic produce and entirely natural meats, poultry and fish, and to support local producers as much as possible. This makes both Mary and me happy, and we enjoy the results, but it's not an inexpensive decision. If we ever end up with less income in a depression or whatnot, we'll almost certainly go vegetarian rather than give up the ethical foodstyle.

The point being, I would guess we spend about as much to eat at home as to dine out in some weeks, but a lot depends on whether I'm reviewing the Oakroom or the taco trailer.

I have to agree with you myself Steve, I'm used to making food on such a large scale, I find it hard to make dinner for just "two" that isn't just as expensive as eating out somewhere.

This past weekend I made a pot roast with Jardenare Veggies, mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, a very nice salad and a cheeseball to snack on. I spent upwards of $70 at the grocery...Granted, I did have to purchase a lot of staples because the inside of our fridge usually looks like it belongs to a college student.

I invited the In-Law's over after realizing that I once again made enough to feed an army and set them home with leftovers as well.

I tend to spend alot more at the store than I would if I was dining out, but maybe I'm a weird exception!?

yep.

I don't see how cooking at home couldn't be cheaper since if you're cooking for only two (as we do at my house), cooking a meatloaf (to use your example) would give you plenty of leftovers. Buying meatloaf out at a restaurant can't surely be cheaper considering I can get two or three meals out of my portion alone (not to mention another two or three for my girlfriend). Add on to that the beer/wine markup (if I'm going out, most likely I'm having aside from just water) and 20% tip, and there's no cost comparison.

Or to put it another way, I spend about $200 each month on groceries (that's a fixed amount in my budget, actually -- I try not to go under or over but use $200 as a target -- my girlfriend spends slightly more). Granted, I get some discounts here and there, but most of my groceries are bought at retail price from either ValuMarket (first choice) or Kroger's. Any money I spend to eat out is above that $200, and even a relatively inexpensive dinner at, say, Zeppelin Cafe or Flabby's in our neighborhood might be $25-30 (again, depending on what I'll drink and/or appetizers). A meal at a more upscale joint like L&N (where I went last Friday) or elsewhere could easily be between $75-100 for two (assuming I'm buying -- if we're going dutch it still could easily be $40-50). Eat out at a place like that twice in a month, and $200 gets reached pretty quickly.

The only truly inexpensive restaurant meal I've had recently was at Santa Fe last weekend when I had a burrito and a soda for dinner, which was about $8 including a generous tip, but eating only Mexican would probably not be the healthiest choice ever. And it might get old. Not to mention Santa Fe doesn't serve alcohol (unfortunately!).

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It depends on how you eat.

We eat almost vegetarian (not by choice, just because it is cheaper) at home. Meals consist of lots of beans, rice, pasta and frozen vegetables. A pot of lentil soup feeds us for days for less than 4 dollars. The last time I made us chili it cost nearly 25 bucks for everything. We could have had as many servings of Wendy's chili for much less. By the way, I like Wendy's chili--its one of the only fast food places I'll go. It is cheaper to go to Shiraz and get kabobs than it is to buy meat as well.

If we ate the way I'd like to at home and I bought good cuts of meat and yummy cheeses, I could spend massive amounts of money, but we try to keep groceries for 2 at about $200 a month. My only luxuries are organic milk and good coffee. I don't actually consider the milk a luxury because we use so little and the long shelf life means we don't waste it.

On the other hand, we like to go out and we like to eat and drink well. It isn't difficult for us to go to affordable places like the Irish Rover or North End and still spend 80 bucks when you combine wine, beer, food and tip.

A couple of months ago some articles made the rounds in some of the bigger media venues (including The New York Times, I think) about the massive food waste in this country. We tend to either buy more than we end up using and so we throw out either fresh foods we never get around to cooking, or we throw out a lot of leftovers. That was sort of my point above.... I grew up in an environment where food was a fairly scarce commodity, and so we made it stretch as far as we could. When we cooked, we expected to save some. When Gary and I married, I was distressed by how much we started to take food for granted. So much so that we were throwing a lot of it out. Over the years I've managed to impress on my husband that the waste not only costs us money, but has some fairly stark political implications as well.... Not that I ever talked about it quite that way, which may be why it took so long to get the point to register for him.

This is a great point, thank you for posting this. One thing that I think it's hard for us as Americans to realize is that we consume far more of the world's resources per capita than any other nation on earth, and part of our wasteful use of these resources leads to scarcity elsewhere. It's as old as your mom nagging you that there are "starving kids in [impoverished country here]" when you were a kid, but that cliche does have some truth in it (as most cliches do).

In our case....not really. We mix it up about half and half. If you intend to eat well....you pay either way.

Well, for breakfast and lunch, I think it definitely is cheaper. I can do a mushroom omelet for one for a lot less than it costs me in a restaurant. And my morning cup of coffee at home (made with freshly ground beans) costs a whole less than the two dollars plus it would cost me out.

When it starts seeming like winter out, I really dig soup for lunch. I can make up a batch or two and freezing some am set for days. For $20 I can make two batches that will give me at least 12 servings. Eating out that would be at least $48. Of course there is always Campbell's. I think not!

It's definitely cheaper for us, but we also make a conscience effort for that to be the case. We also have lots of rice and beans, soups, pasta dishes and less-expensive higher-yield dishes that can last us through a couple of meals. Then we supplement with salads, etc. I pride myself on having very low food bills each month - it's an absolute necessity in our home.

I grew up in an environment where food was a fairly scarce commodity

Me too. But it's interesting how this had a different impact on the two of us. When I was young, leftovers for us came from the dish, not our plates. We were never allowed to leave the table until we cleared our plates and as a result I have a difficult time leaving food on the plate when eating at home or someone else's home. It's totally pyschological, I know. (Which has resulted in an ever-increasing struggle with my waist-line! ) I try to remedy this though by just taking smaller portions to begin with. It doesn't always work though. I absolutely cannot stand seeing food scraped off a plate into the garbage and this can result in me finishing someone else's plate too. Insane, I know. I can't help it though, it was instilled in me as a kid.

On the other hand, when eating out I almost always take a doggy bag. I think that makes me feel like I get more for my money (since it does cost us more to eat out).

I grew up in a family that rarely dined out, so I always was under the assumption that eating out was much more expensive.

Now that I am living alone (cooking for two when the girlfriend is in town) I've become more critical of this previously held viewpoint.

What's expensive about dining at home is 1) stocking up the essentials and 2) figuring out how best to cook for one/two.

There is no solution to #1, you just stock up and restock when needed (such as the chili powder I've got to get later today). My best solution for #2 is to cook for 4 or more even if it is just actually for 1 or 2. I specifically cook meals that lead to leftovers such as chili, Hawaiian chicken, stir fry, pasta, etc. As I tend to take a sandwich to school with me for lunch, I work through the leftovers for dinner.

The other important change I have made is in my grocery habits. I make mini-runs to the store now, instead of the massive every-other-week trips I grew up with and continued through college. I've tried to become more cognizant of planning the use of fresh ingredients, as I was not happy with how often I'd throw out one pepper or a head of broccoli.

The real difference is in tip and alcohol, as I like my beer and I tip well, as a former server. An 8-10 dollar entree soon turns into a 17-20 dollar meal.

I'm a grad student, so I do what I have to do based on available time and resources. When I have a few more dollars in my pocket, I might leave the leftover life behind. Alas, it's always been part of my identity. Family meals tended to lead to leftovers during my childhood (my mom would cook for 10, and not the actual 6 of us). Summer meals often lead to fights over who had dibs on the leftovers. I'd never considered it until now, but maybe the leftover approach was a sneaky way for my mom to make sure we ate healthy.

Sort of related to this topic, a couple in California recently did an experiment wherein they cooked at home for the price of $1 per day for a month. They wrote about it on their blog here: http://onedollardietproject.wordpress.com.

I haven't read through the blog yet, but it's been getting a fair amount of publicity.