3 ms·

Cooking for yourself is only cheaper than eating out if you buy in bulk and buy whatever is in season. Often the capital outlay of this makes it daunting, not t

Cooking for yourself is only cheaper than eating out if you buy in bulk and buy whatever is in season. Often the capital outlay of this makes it daunting, not to mention the fact that people who are worried often don't have a car to drive to the supermarket and therefore have to carry all those groceries by hand or on the bus. It's very hard to compete with the local burger chain which is within walking distance and where you can get a burger, chips, a drink, and desert for only a few dollars.

charlieflowers 10y ago
No, that's not true. Cooking for yourself is _easily_ cheaper than eating out. You pay heavily for the luxury of having someone else prep your food. You can go to the grocery store once a week, cook a few meals to last through the week, and eat for $3 a meal without trying hard. Frugal people can eat for $1 a meal easily.
- taeric 10y ago
  This can easily depend on what you eat. Both when eating out, and eating in. As such, strawmen and assertions without data will be tough to argue against. Specifically, I'm sure there are folks that spend more than I do. In either category. Numbers would be interesting to see, and I'm sure someone has them.
  - disordinary 10y ago
    It will very wildly city to city, state to state, country to country, and also season to season. Whereas fast food tends to be reasonably standard.
  - redial 10y ago
    If you compare the same meal and don't account for the time you spend cooking it, it will be cheaper to do it yourself every time. If you go to fancy restaurants it's not even close. You just have to compare the price of a soda, ~$3 and up (usually $5), to its price at the supermarket and you'll have your answer. Wine is also an easy one, with at least 300% markup even on cheap bottles. Everything is marked up like that (maybe calling it 'markup' is not really fair as they provide other things and not just a meal, but you get what I mean.) I've been cooking for years and not even trying to save money meals are less expensive.
    - taeric 10y ago
      You can't skip on the time. It is one of the main reasons to do fast food, after all. And it has been a long time since I bought soda. Still, I feel it is impossible to list ingredients and recipes without building a straw man. Research on average amount spent eating out and eating in would be nice to see. My point is it is easy to save money doing either. It is equally easy to spend more than makes sense doing either. My gut would be that eating in is cheaper. My gut is also that it is easier to waste food at home. Is amazing how many times we let something ruin in the fridge. And again, neither of those gut checks are data.
      - redial 10y ago
        Wine bottle prices and beer prices are available everywhere. It's not that hard to compare them.
        taeric 10y ago
        And when I'm eating out, I'm not ordering those... When I'm having a night out, beer. Maybe. That is, since most eating out is at fast food locations, wine and beer are irrelevant.
        redial 10y ago
        They are not irrelevant as 'hard data', which is what you requested. If you want to have only anecdotes and personal experiences then by all means stay with what you order when you go out.
        taeric 10y ago
        Sorta. That is hard data on price of some things. My question is data on what people actually spend. Consider, many people buy dollar beers at the bar. What I buy at the grocery isn't even that cheap. So, again, straw man. I'm not asking what people could spend. But what they do spend.
- randomdata 10y ago
  > You pay heavily for the luxury of having someone else prep your food. To be fair, you also pay heavily for the luxury of having the means of production (i.e. a kitchen) at your disposal. Some back of the napkin calculations show that simply allocating a small area to a kitchen in San Francisco costs you $6-10 per day. That's not even including the opportunity cost and operating cost of having the tools found within the space, or the many other costs of operating a kitchen beyond raw food ingredients. And that alone can buy you an entire meal per day at some restaurants, prepared by someone else. When you factor in all of the costs of cooking for yourself, I don't think there is any way you can complete with restaurants. They have economies of scale on their side. But it is easy to ignore many of the costs of cooking for yourself.
dragontamer 10y ago
> It's very hard to compete with the local burger chain which is within walking distance and where you can get a burger, chips, a drink, and desert for only a few dollars. $5 for a good McDonald's meal (fries, drink and burger). Or spend $3 on a loaf of bread, and $5 on enough meat to make 4 sandwiches or so, and $5 for a 3lb bag of potatoes (which can be cooked rather easily: from baking, to boiling, to whatever). Basically, the $15 equivalent of grocery store food can get you far more meals than three $5 meals from McDonalds. ---------- Eggs are also like $3 per dozen. Also, "buying what's in season" is easy as all hell. Just buy what is on sale. Done... and done. If you don't know how to cook, lemme teach it to you.
- disordinary 10y ago
  Yes, but you have to have access to a supermarket for that to work and buy in (relative) bulk. A lot of the poor only have access to convenience stores and mini marts which makes the equation quite different. The cheapest way to cook would be to buy whatever meats on special, a bag of frozen vegetables, some rice, and some sort of sauce, it won't be particularly nice but it would be fairly nutritious and only cost a few dollars.
Nition 10y ago
Really? A Big Mac combo from McDonald's here costs around $10NZD (which is about $7USD). You might get something cheaper from a Fish 'n' Chip shop. Fancier chains like Burger Fuel are more like $15NZD for a meal. For that $10NZD I could buy a decent amount of ingredients from the supermarket for healthy meat+veges meals at home. I guess maybe fresh produce is cheaper here since this country basically runs on agriculture.
- disordinary 10y ago
  I was thinking of the summer stunner meals from Burger King in NZ which is $5 for a burger, a sundae, fries, and all you can drink, McDonalds also has the loose change range. But really the cheapest meal if you have no money and need to fill the stomach of your family is a $2 scoop of chips from the local fish and chips shop, every suburb has them and not every suburb has a supermarket. Here, in NZ, some food is actually ridiculously expensive compared to overseas so I can only think the economics are even worse elsewhere. The point that people seem to be missing is that food is only cheaper if you can get to a large supermarket, which many poor people cannot. They have a choice between convenience stores / mini marts and fast food.
zeroer 10y ago
I find that without trying particularly hard or trying to find deals or optimize my shopping, cooking is slightly less expensive than eating out at cheap places. The real gain is total control over my diet and the way things are made. For instance, I feel that almost all food in restaurants is extremely over salted. It tends to be greasy, too. And the cooks are oft stingy with expensive ingredients. None of that conflict of interest when I make it for myself from scratch.
- disordinary 10y ago
  I agree, we make virtually everything from scratch. And it is cheaper and healthier, also if you cook lots at once and freeze things then it doesn't take much time out of your day.

charlieflowers 10y ago

No, that's not true. Cooking for yourself is _easily_ cheaper than eating out. You pay heavily for the luxury of having someone else prep your food. You can go to the grocery store once a week, cook a few meals to last through the week, and eat for $3 a meal without trying hard. Frugal people can eat for $1 a meal easily.

taeric 10y ago
This can easily depend on what you eat. Both when eating out, and eating in. As such, strawmen and assertions without data will be tough to argue against. Specifically, I'm sure there are folks that spend more than I do. In either category. Numbers would be interesting to see, and I'm sure someone has them.
- disordinary 10y ago
  It will very wildly city to city, state to state, country to country, and also season to season. Whereas fast food tends to be reasonably standard.
- redial 10y ago
  If you compare the same meal and don't account for the time you spend cooking it, it will be cheaper to do it yourself every time. If you go to fancy restaurants it's not even close. You just have to compare the price of a soda, ~$3 and up (usually $5), to its price at the supermarket and you'll have your answer. Wine is also an easy one, with at least 300% markup even on cheap bottles. Everything is marked up like that (maybe calling it 'markup' is not really fair as they provide other things and not just a meal, but you get what I mean.) I've been cooking for years and not even trying to save money meals are less expensive.
  - taeric 10y ago
    You can't skip on the time. It is one of the main reasons to do fast food, after all. And it has been a long time since I bought soda. Still, I feel it is impossible to list ingredients and recipes without building a straw man. Research on average amount spent eating out and eating in would be nice to see. My point is it is easy to save money doing either. It is equally easy to spend more than makes sense doing either. My gut would be that eating in is cheaper. My gut is also that it is easier to waste food at home. Is amazing how many times we let something ruin in the fridge. And again, neither of those gut checks are data.
    - redial 10y ago
      Wine bottle prices and beer prices are available everywhere. It's not that hard to compare them.
      - taeric 10y ago
        And when I'm eating out, I'm not ordering those... When I'm having a night out, beer. Maybe. That is, since most eating out is at fast food locations, wine and beer are irrelevant.
        redial 10y ago
        They are not irrelevant as 'hard data', which is what you requested. If you want to have only anecdotes and personal experiences then by all means stay with what you order when you go out.
        taeric 10y ago
        Sorta. That is hard data on price of some things. My question is data on what people actually spend. Consider, many people buy dollar beers at the bar. What I buy at the grocery isn't even that cheap. So, again, straw man. I'm not asking what people could spend. But what they do spend.
randomdata 10y ago
> You pay heavily for the luxury of having someone else prep your food. To be fair, you also pay heavily for the luxury of having the means of production (i.e. a kitchen) at your disposal. Some back of the napkin calculations show that simply allocating a small area to a kitchen in San Francisco costs you $6-10 per day. That's not even including the opportunity cost and operating cost of having the tools found within the space, or the many other costs of operating a kitchen beyond raw food ingredients. And that alone can buy you an entire meal per day at some restaurants, prepared by someone else. When you factor in all of the costs of cooking for yourself, I don't think there is any way you can complete with restaurants. They have economies of scale on their side. But it is easy to ignore many of the costs of cooking for yourself.

dragontamer 10y ago

> It's very hard to compete with the local burger chain which is within walking distance and where you can get a burger, chips, a drink, and desert for only a few dollars. $5 for a good McDonald's meal (fries, drink and burger). Or spend $3 on a loaf of bread, and $5 on enough meat to make 4 sandwiches or so, and $5 for a 3lb bag of potatoes (which can be cooked rather easily: from baking, to boiling, to whatever). Basically, the $15 equivalent of grocery store food can get you far more meals than three $5 meals from McDonalds. ---------- Eggs are also like $3 per dozen. Also, "buying what's in season" is easy as all hell. Just buy what is on sale. Done... and done. If you don't know how to cook, lemme teach it to you.

disordinary 10y ago
Yes, but you have to have access to a supermarket for that to work and buy in (relative) bulk. A lot of the poor only have access to convenience stores and mini marts which makes the equation quite different. The cheapest way to cook would be to buy whatever meats on special, a bag of frozen vegetables, some rice, and some sort of sauce, it won't be particularly nice but it would be fairly nutritious and only cost a few dollars.

Nition 10y ago

Really? A Big Mac combo from McDonald's here costs around $10NZD (which is about $7USD). You might get something cheaper from a Fish 'n' Chip shop. Fancier chains like Burger Fuel are more like $15NZD for a meal. For that $10NZD I could buy a decent amount of ingredients from the supermarket for healthy meat+veges meals at home. I guess maybe fresh produce is cheaper here since this country basically runs on agriculture.

disordinary 10y ago
I was thinking of the summer stunner meals from Burger King in NZ which is $5 for a burger, a sundae, fries, and all you can drink, McDonalds also has the loose change range. But really the cheapest meal if you have no money and need to fill the stomach of your family is a $2 scoop of chips from the local fish and chips shop, every suburb has them and not every suburb has a supermarket. Here, in NZ, some food is actually ridiculously expensive compared to overseas so I can only think the economics are even worse elsewhere. The point that people seem to be missing is that food is only cheaper if you can get to a large supermarket, which many poor people cannot. They have a choice between convenience stores / mini marts and fast food.

zeroer 10y ago

I find that without trying particularly hard or trying to find deals or optimize my shopping, cooking is slightly less expensive than eating out at cheap places. The real gain is total control over my diet and the way things are made. For instance, I feel that almost all food in restaurants is extremely over salted. It tends to be greasy, too. And the cooks are oft stingy with expensive ingredients. None of that conflict of interest when I make it for myself from scratch.

disordinary 10y ago
I agree, we make virtually everything from scratch. And it is cheaper and healthier, also if you cook lots at once and freeze things then it doesn't take much time out of your day.