Is cooking at home really cheaper?

The waste in some restaurants is amazing.

For example some places take left over fried chicken and make chicken salad for the next day, either for a special or employees meals. Others throw it out.

One of my favorite customers was a Holiday Inn that served a buffet at lunch. I always managed to make this a stop at about 1:30. Breakdown time for the buffet. Fried chicken, roast beef, pork roast, veggies all were going into the garbage. Nothing was saved. I would load up four or five go boxes and the dog and I ate well for days.

This was one of worst examples, but plenty more were like that.

I have seen one of the hotels throw away a couple hundred salads that filled a large garbage can. Don't know what happened, but they were a little old. Could not be served (little browning of the lettuce) but perfectly ok for Wayside for someplace like that.

Of course a lot of places or much more frugal that this.

A few XMAS breaks ago I volunteered with Kentucky Harvest. As I had access to an older, full-size van, many of my runs were to deliver food from corporate shindigs and restaurants to local non-profits (Healing House, Wayside, etc.)

I had not really considered the topic of restaurant waste until I did this work. I was happy to see how many places took "donating" seriously, but also wondered how many other places were filling up dumpster after dumpster.

Although not related to a specific restaurant, I'll never forget making three (3!!!!) runs from Humana's penthouse meeting room to local non-profits with a van full of pizza. At one point I had to call the central office and ask, "OK, find more locations for this pizza, I have much more more to distribute." I think Humana might have helped every food shelter in town that night. Which may or may not have been the point. What astounded me was the fact that so much pizza still remained AFTER the company function concluded.

I've personally always been a big fan of Annie Cafe for dining out inexpensively. Sophomore year of undergrad, I would eat there at least a few times a week. An appetizer and an entree rarely costs over $8, and the entrees are large enough that I'd always have leftovers for lunch the next day. This is very handy when you're stuck in a residence hall and your ability to cook is extremely limited.

a) have a grocery budget (weekly, biweekly, monthly) that is adhered to.
b) plan weekly menus wiithin said budget.
c) utilize leftovers... todays steaks/hamburgers can be tomorrow's chili, etc. SO many things can be reinvented the next day. all the way down to bread crumbs.
c2) soup is your friend
d) fresh is obv the best, but frozen vegetables can be really good.
e) your freezer is also your friend.
f) bear in mind that x meal may cost y amount of dollars, but certain items purchased like oils, herbs/spices, rice/grains, flour, condiments, etc. can be used for many dishes to come, so it's +ev to buy larger amounts once than smaller amounts multiple times.
g) be dilligent and take advantage of sales, x items for y dollars specials, kroger card discounts, etc.
h) buy produce that hasn't quite ripened yet if you dont plan to use it right away.

trust me. it works in your favor