Eating Out is Cheaper than Groceries?
I decided to map out a week's worth of food given three different scenarios to decide once and for all, whether eating out or cooking at home was cheaper. If you want to check the values that I used or verify my math, please refer to this spreadsheet.
Scenario 1: Eating out
If we assume that a meal out costs $10 on average ($5 for breakfast, $10 for lunch, $15 for dinner), that would bring us to $150 for a 5 day workweek. If you are like me and your meals out consist mainly of food delivery services or sit-down restaurants, this cost is actually pretty low.
Scenario 2: Meal Prepping
This is the most cost-effective option. This option involves making 1 breakfast, 1 lunch and 1 dinner that we eat for 5 days. In this example, we made:
Breakfast: breakfast tacos (for breakfast obviously lol)
- tortillas
- eggs
- sausage
- salsa
- shredded cheese
Lunch: falafel salad
- falafel
- salad base
- broccoli
- carrots
- ranch
Dinner: baked chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans
- chicken
- potatoes
- green beans
- sour cream
- parmesan cheese
- butter
If we add up the costs of everything that we need to feed one person for 5 days, it comes to $97.51 or about $6.50 per meal. This assumes that we end up throwing away the leftover sour cream and parmesan that we used for the mashed potatoes. If we are able to use the leftover at another time, the cost comes down to $89.43 or $5.96 per meal. I did not include the cost of things like the pots and pans or seasoning since those are not things that you would purchase each time you cook.
Scenario 3: Cooking with Variety
I'm sure some of you are saying, "but I don't want to eat the same thing for 5 days in a row". This option is for you. In this scenario, we choose 3 different options for each meal and we make enough of each option for two servings. This will feed us for 6 days instead of the 5 days that we had in the above two scenarios.
Breakfast options:
- breakfast tacos
- same ingredients as above, just lower quantity used
- oatmeal
- oats
- milk
- cranberries
- almonds
- brown sugar
- yogurt w/ granola
- yogurt
- granola
- falafel salad
- same ingredients as above, just lower quantity used
- burrito bowl
- black beans
- rice
- onion
- bell pepper
- cilantro
- sour cream
- tuna melt
- tuna
- bread
- mayo
- mustard
- sliced cheese
- grapes
- lentil pasta
- lentil pasta
- pasta sauce
- parmesan
- broccoli (use leftover from falafel salad)
- carrots (use leftover from falafel salad)
- chicken w/ mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts
- chicken
- potatoes
- brussel sprouts
- butter
- sour cream (use leftover from burrito bowl)
- parmesan (use leftover from lentil pasta)
- fish and grits
- catfish
- grits
- smoked gouda
- green beans
- chicken broth
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