I went grocery shopping yesterday morning and found myself taken a bit aback at the grand total of about $120.00 for people food only. This is a weekly shop for food for us. My husband was with me and asked what I honestly thought these foods would have cost 4 or 5 years ago. I told him this amount of groceries probably would have cost about $85. Some foods have seen a small amount of price increase, while others like eggs (which have more than doubled) have really skyrocketed. Butter is crazy high right now. Milk has increased 50% in price. I have primarily bought the same basic foods for many years, so I remember what I used to pay for items pre-2020. Even with more expensive grocery store prices, cooking and eating at home is still a better deal in most cases compared to restaurant eating.
I realize that my region of the US has a high cost of living. So understand that my restaurant meal prices may be more than yours. But I also believe that lower restaurant prices also correlate to lower grocery store prices. So, a similar comparison for your area could likely be made.
Here's a typical casual restaurant meal my family would enjoy.
A Five Guys burger costs $11.29 each, multiplied by 4, $45.16 for the burgers. If we split a regular order of fries 4 ways that adds $6.49. Our sales tax rate is 10.5%. So for $57.07 my household of 4 adults can go grab a burger out.
Or, we can use our premium ground beef bought on contract from a rancher, I can do burgers for 4 at home, including buns and all the fixings for ~ $20.00. If I add frozen fries, our home-made burger night would cost about $23.00. Judging by the fact that high schoolers are hired to flip burgers, I think it's fair to say that making burgers at home is very do-able for most adults.
So burgers can be a bit expensive for better quality ones. How about pizza? Mod Pizza is a popular choice for casual dining in my area. If we all got the Mad Dog (pepperoni and sausage), we'd need 1 "mini" ($9.39) and 2 "MODs" ($11.39 each) to feed us all. If we drank water, we could have a dinner out for $35.55 including tax.
Or, I can make pepperoni and sausage pizza from scratch at home to feed us for $8 or $9 at most. Scratch pizza is a bit more complicated than making burgers, as you have to make a dough. If I don't want to mess with a homemade dough, I can buy a Pillsbury Refrigerated Classic Pizza Crust at Walmart for $3.64. That would bump my homemade sausage and pepperoni pizza meal up to around $10. That is still less than 1/3 of a Mod pizza dinner out.
Even with significant grocery inflation, it's still a better deal for the 4 of us to cook and eat at home, and that takes into account that some of my ingredients are what I'd consider premium and not budget.
We may not be able to reduce inflation ourselves, but we can find ways to mitigate some of the effects of these higher prices.
You do have a high cost of living. I live in the Washington D. C. area, and we also have a high cost of living, but not as high as yours. My son considered moving to your area for his job, but even with a pay raise, it was going to be too expensive. Eating at home is almost always cheaper than eating out even if you are using convenience foods - especially since the Pandemic. We out some, but are pretty good at using coupons and specials - like half-priced days.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteI don't think many people think of the Seattle area as being as expensive as it is. Your son probably made a good choice. I don't know how young people can get much of a start in this current housing market.
Yes, coupons and specials are the way to go for budget restaurant dining. Do you remember when restaurants would have "senior specials"? Many places didn't care that you weren't a senior, so that was a good option, too.
Michigan here and I think I can say that our COL isn't as high as some, probably on the lower end but inflation prices of foods and other things are pretty high. We eat out when we visit kids and an occasional breakfast with my dad on Saturdays. But eating out lunch or supper, no. We have enough good food that turns into meals that are filling even if they don't have that "wow!" factor that a fancy restaurant has. It might not even taste like a fancy restaurant but it is filling. We basically eat to live and not live to eat. We're happy making food at home including pizza which rarely gives us indigestion that pizzaria's can often give!
ReplyDeleteAlice
Hi Alice,
DeleteI love the idea of eating breakfast out occasionally. And especially so that you can do this as an opportunity to spend time with your dad.
Most of our home-cooked meals lack wow, that's for sure. But they're always tasty, nutritious, and filling. I think that's how food is supposed to be, most of the time.
I'm in your area, Lili, and, yes, everything is so expensive here. I rarely eat in restaurants, but I had lunch out yesterday. I spent $12 (taco bowl), and this was one of the cheapest options for where I was.
ReplyDeleteI have a fairly specialized diet due to some health problems, so I spend more than you do on food. Last summer, I figured out I was probably spending about $12/day for one person on meals/snacks, and I cook a lot from scratch. Dairy and eggs have gone up so much. I only buy one type of bread, one loaf about every two weeks. Cost in 2020 was $3.49 a loaf at Trader Joe's, and now it's $4.99 there, and $9 at QFC. I mainly shop at Grocery Outlet, Trader Joe's, Fred Meyer and Costco.
Hi Tina,
DeleteQFC has always been the expensive market for us. I used to find occasional loss leader items that I could stock up on. But since Kroger bought them out, they don't have much to offer our household and are so expensive. I'm glad you can find the foods you need elsewhere. I love Grocery Outlet for their health conscious options at a bargain. They have plain whipping cream (just cream, no thickens or stabilizers) for a great price. But I have noticed that I need to grab what I want when I see it, or else I miss out. Do you ever shop the bulk bins at WinCo? I get our table salt in bulk there now because it doesn't have anti-caking additives. The bulk bins have a couple of other items like that that are less adulterated than the standard packaged foods.
$12 for a taco bowl -- ouch! It's a good thing you can cook from scratch well.
You're right that eating quality home cooked meals is cheaper than restaurant or take out. To make it a bit more fun, we discovered the joy of grilling. It's a nice alternative to eating out. There is a kiawe tree behind our property that we use for its mesquite flavor. Instead of expensive steaks, crossrib and ribeye roasts go on sale occasionally, which we cut to our preferred thickness. We have some for lunch, and freeze the rest in portions for breakfast. Nothing like thin slices of smoky mesquite steak and egg bagel sandwich in the morning. For the price of breakfast steak and eggs smothered in gravy, called "Locomoco" which cost over $30 at a local popular restaurant, we can grill 4 pounds of smoked meat.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice day,
Laura
Hi Laura,
Deletethat's such a great idea to buy roasts and cut to your preferences to grill. It sounds delicious with the mesquite flavor. I love the idea of thin slicing and freezing some to use in breakfasts. That sounds like a bargain compared to buying traditional breakfast meats, like bacon. I think I may have to give this a try. I do better if I have some protein in the morning.
Thanks for sharing!
Yes, I think it may be cheaper than the cost of breakfast meats, which run about $5 per pound. Plus it won't have bad preservatives like sodium nitrate. Uncured meats may not have these additives but are higher in salt. On the other hand, grilling (charred meats) may produce carcinogenic compounds so to minimize this we trim visible fats to discourage flame flares, keep fire burning low, turn meat over often, and marinade although we generally like it just salt/pepper/garlic powder. I figured the cost per breakfast serving is 75 cents. I've been lucky to find rib eye roasts @$6.99/lb.
DeleteLaura
I was shocked a few weeks ago when I took my oldest dd out for dinner. I got a burger and fries and she got jambalaya. We shared an appetizer and drank water. With the tip it was $74! This was not a fancy restaurant-kind of a trendy sports bar type place. Then 2 weeks ago we went out again (my Dh has been traveling a lot, and it’s been hot) . This time we went to Buffalo Wild Wings. The bill, including tip was $54, so still expensive, but a lot better than $74 lol. We rarely eat out so to do so twice in one month was highly unusual. I had heard restaurants were getting expensive, and boy they are. By the way, both places were busy, so people are still eating out.
ReplyDeleteDiane
Hi Diane,
DeleteI would have been shocked to see the $74 restaurant bill for two! Especially for a sports bar. I think many people are still eating out a lot. Perhaps it's pent-up desire for treating oneself after states being shut-down. Or perhaps restaurant meals are their one "luxury". I would hope they're not taking on credit card debt just for meals out. But I've heard of even more shocking things people will go into debt for. So that shouldn't be a surprise to me.
I hope you and your daughter enjoyed your time together.
Restaurant prices are insane these days! We do some eating out, primarily "date" meals for my husband and I every so often, but not a lot. I love to play the same mental game with myself that you do. For me, one of the least expensive meals to get food from these days (takeout) is tacos. But the only fast food tacos that are gluten-free aren't as low as "The Bell" We easily spend $40 on such a meal, which we occasionally do when life seems extra busy. But at home, I can make an equivalent meal using grass-fed and finished beef for about $22-25 for all 5 of us (2 lbs of meat). Realistically, I usually go ahead and make 3 lbs of taco meat and then use the leftovers for lunch taco salads the rest of the week, super cheap and healthy (we don't use a shell for those, just crumble a few tortilla chips on top for crunch).
ReplyDeleteCurrently trying to come up with a simplified meal rotation for when my classes start in early October, to keep us from eating out, and to keep us eating for maximum nutrition. Thanks for another great thought-provoking topic!
Hi Cat,
DeleteI can't eat at many of the cheaper fast food places due to digestive issues. So I understand the challenges of getting to-go GF tacos that don't break the budget. I love your idea to cook up extra taco meat to use in lunch salads during the week. A better quality meat than lunch meat, and probably more tasty, too.
Good luck coming up with your simplified menus for the school term. When I went back to school with a family to continue cooking for, I found making meals somewhat challenging. I think we ate a lot of simple meals for those years. I did enlist help from my husband on the weekends, though. And that really helped. But I did end up buying more convenience foods than I would have otherwise. I'm excited for you with your classes and additional degree pursuit!
Agreed! I think I've mentioned before that I started cooking more years ago when I was in Weight Watchers because I had more control over what was in my food, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that we saved more money, too. Not that we ate out a crazy amount before that, but it was still noticeable. We don't go to restaurants much on a daily basis--we went out a few times on vacation, and I consider that part of the experience of vacationing. We camped on our trip, which was significantly cheaper than a hotel or rental, so it all balanced out. :)
ReplyDeleteI find that these days when we go out, we generally try to go to restaurants where we can't easily replicate the meal at home. I'm wondering if we will bump up our dining out experience once my daughter moves onto campus next week. Big life changes seem to bring on new habits.
Hi Kris,
DeleteI'm in 100% agreement with you -- when we've been able to afford it, dining out is part of the vacation experience. We budget for that aspect of a vacation. It may mean we have to modify where we stay or how long we'll be gone, but we try to prioritize eating at least one meal out per day. It's the part of the vacation that I probably look forward to more than any other part.
I wonder, too, how life will be for you and your husband as empty-nesters (at least during the school terms). Good luck with the new challenges and opportunities to do fun couple activities.