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You definitely save money eating at home once you get good at it. If you live with someone else it is also a great social opportunity. These days I cook and eat

by Cerium 10y ago

You definitely save money eating at home once you get good at it. If you live with someone else it is also a great social opportunity. These days I cook and eat with my wife, but before I met her I cooked with my roommates. One roommate now will only eat with us if we add up the cost of ingredients and charge him fairly. Many of our dinners cost only a couple dollars. Pasta with marinara sauce and dinner rolls: 1.33 / pound pasta, 1.80 jar of sauce, rolls 0.13 each. Serves 3-4 people for $5. 15 minutes (limited by water heating). Tacos with guacamole: $3 pre-made guacamole, tortillas 0.5 / 12 pieces, beans 1.20 / can, salsa $2 / half bottle, tofu 1.5 / block, cilantro 1 / bundle. rice ~$1. Serves 3-4 people for $10. 20 minutes (lots of tasks, have to cook tortillas). I won't break it down, but I can do a nice sushi dinner: various rolls, cold tofu, inari, miso soup, for 3-4 people for about $15. 45 minutes (lots of tasks). In any case I can feed three adults for about ten dollars and 2/3 of an hour of my time. Usually there are enough left-overs to make a nice lunch for myself. I enjoy eating out, and do so about once a week. Before I got married I ate out a lot. I would spend about $900 per month just for myself. Now I make an effort to cook dinner 6 days a week and spend a total of about 800 per month on food for both of us.

nilkn 10y ago
When I see posts like this the prices often feel like they're chosen to be the best possible that could be achieved. For instance, pre-made guacamole, if it's actually made entirely from real avocados, is more like $6 where I'm at if you want enough to feed 4 people multiple tacos each -- so twice the price you're quoting here.
- Cerium 10y ago
  Oh, you are right, I did the math wrong. I pay $11 for a three pack of 1 pound guacamole boxes. That's closer to $4 each. I'm in California which has a lot of Avocados. In the summer I can reliably purchase large Avocados for 4 for $5 at local markets. When I can get those I use three to make guacamole. My general food purchasing scheme is to attempt to only purchase the foods I can get at the best prices. If I am shopping and see a 10 pound bag of organic carrots for less than $5 I will buy it and have lots of carrots that week. For example: carrot salad, egg-rolls (carrot filling freezes well), soup, or stir-fry. I can always buy tortillas for about 3-4 dollars for at least 6 dozen. I freeze them into one dozen stacks and defrost in the microwave until they can be teased apart and finished on a pan. Some of the best deals I get are at Whole Foods. They often have very good sales on frozen foods. Otherwise I get foods at Costco, a local family market, and Trader Joe's. In the summer I occasionally go to a flea market to get specialty items and seasonal produce.
ashark 10y ago
> 1.80 jar of sauce A jar of $1.80 pasta sauce around here is probably going to be more closely related to ketchup than real pasta sauce. > tofu 1.5 / block Hm. You clearly have much better food prices than I do in general, I guess.
- Cerium 10y ago
  I'm in San Jose, California. I can go to a local tofu shop and get fresh tofu for $2 per block. Otherwise I can spend about 6 dollars at Costco to get a 4 pack of a good brand tofu.
ethbro 10y ago
I think the difference is in the scaling: cooking doesn't scale vs income in the same way that eating out does. So in the absence of enjoying the act of cooking (which I happen to) there is absolutely an hourly rate threshold past which it makes no financial sense to cook. If I save approximately the same amount cooking vs eating out, but it takes me the same additional amount of time to cook (again, assuming you don't enjoy that), then as my income grows the smaller the savings become as a percentage and the larger the monetary value of a given amount of my time becomes worth.
morgante 10y ago
30 minutes of my time is worth a lot more than the entire cost of a delivery/takeout meal.

by Cerium 10y ago

nilkn 10y ago

When I see posts like this the prices often feel like they're chosen to be the best possible that could be achieved. For instance, pre-made guacamole, if it's actually made entirely from real avocados, is more like $6 where I'm at if you want enough to feed 4 people multiple tacos each -- so twice the price you're quoting here.

Cerium 10y ago
Oh, you are right, I did the math wrong. I pay $11 for a three pack of 1 pound guacamole boxes. That's closer to $4 each. I'm in California which has a lot of Avocados. In the summer I can reliably purchase large Avocados for 4 for $5 at local markets. When I can get those I use three to make guacamole. My general food purchasing scheme is to attempt to only purchase the foods I can get at the best prices. If I am shopping and see a 10 pound bag of organic carrots for less than $5 I will buy it and have lots of carrots that week. For example: carrot salad, egg-rolls (carrot filling freezes well), soup, or stir-fry. I can always buy tortillas for about 3-4 dollars for at least 6 dozen. I freeze them into one dozen stacks and defrost in the microwave until they can be teased apart and finished on a pan. Some of the best deals I get are at Whole Foods. They often have very good sales on frozen foods. Otherwise I get foods at Costco, a local family market, and Trader Joe's. In the summer I occasionally go to a flea market to get specialty items and seasonal produce.

ashark 10y ago

> 1.80 jar of sauce A jar of $1.80 pasta sauce around here is probably going to be more closely related to ketchup than real pasta sauce. > tofu 1.5 / block Hm. You clearly have much better food prices than I do in general, I guess.

Cerium 10y ago
I'm in San Jose, California. I can go to a local tofu shop and get fresh tofu for $2 per block. Otherwise I can spend about 6 dollars at Costco to get a 4 pack of a good brand tofu.

ethbro 10y ago

I think the difference is in the scaling: cooking doesn't scale vs income in the same way that eating out does. So in the absence of enjoying the act of cooking (which I happen to) there is absolutely an hourly rate threshold past which it makes no financial sense to cook. If I save approximately the same amount cooking vs eating out, but it takes me the same additional amount of time to cook (again, assuming you don't enjoy that), then as my income grows the smaller the savings become as a percentage and the larger the monetary value of a given amount of my time becomes worth.

morgante 10y ago

30 minutes of my time is worth a lot more than the entire cost of a delivery/takeout meal.