An example was a steak dinner with a national restaurant chain price of $17.99 and grocery store price of $20.52. The at-home steak price was $9.55. I recently bought rib eye steaks on sale at my local grocery store. I paid $2.50 per steak. The soup price was stated to be $2.99. I could make potato cheese soup for two as a main dish for that price. Salad price was $3.99. I do grow my own in a my greenhouse, but a $4 container of organic salad mix would give me four or five servings. Asparagus price was $3.99. I do have this in my garden. Otherwise I would probably just cook a homegrown vegetable from the freezer. I could serve steak dinners for two with sides, fresh bread and a dessert for around $10 total. I can also control what goes into my food when I cook at home. This is important to me as we eat a lower sodium diet.
I should add that I am not against eating out. I do not particularly enjoy it as I rarely feel the quality beats what I can make at home. If you enjoy it and can afford it, then by all means go ahead. I simply feel it is inappropriate to try to convince people eating out is a good way to save money.
2 comments:
I so agree with you. And their estimate likely doesn't include a tip, and definitely doesn't include gas to get there, or a babysitter if you have young children. And not only can you control the ingredients when you cook at home, but you can also control portion size, which is so often huge at restaurants. I enjoy eating out, but I would never consider it the economical choice.
I'm late catching up on your blog...But my own steak dinner this week was higher in cost than usual due to the meat market steaks we bought, but the t-bones were $7.99 a pound which is a very good price for them. Like you I have found steak a good bit less expensive for very good cuts.
So our two t-bones $18.20
Asparagus (enough for two and then some) $1.99 on sale
Salad 1/6 of a packet of romaine hearts ($.50) plus grape tomatoes ($1) and homemade croutons (no cost as these were dried out pieces of bread I would not normally have used. Baking potatoes were $.40/pound and we'll say one pound for the sake of argument). I'm figuring $21.09 for all the food we ate that night. Pricier than our averge daily meals to be sure but a whole lot cheaper than the two of us eating in a restaurant!
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