7,200 Reasons You Shouldn’t Eat Out So Often

Your wallet, waistline, and your planet will each thank you.

Starbuck’s. Dunkin. Chipotle. Chick-fil-A. Shake Shack. Subway. McDonald’s. Taco Bell. Waffle House. Buffalo Wild Wings. KFC.

There’s a good chance if you’re reading this article, you patronize one of those fine establishments. If your dietary habits resemble a typical American’s, you probably eat out a fair amount.

The average American eats 4.2 commercially prepared meals per week (when we’re not sequestered in quarantine). That translates to 18 meals a month, each of which costs $12.75 on average.

Another survey found that millennials spend the most dining out, averaging $95 per week. That’s $5,000 spent every year on often overpriced beers and stale nachos.

You probably miss eating out without worrying about social distancing or masks or hand washing. Your Venti latte and breakfast sandwich and nacho fries were suddenly taken away from you, and for four months, you’ve been chomping at the bit to satisfy your craving.

Perhaps some quick math will convince you to consider a different dietary way. If there’s any habit quarantine forced upon us that you might want to adopt once our long international nightmare is over, it might be wise to eat more at home.

Eating Out Will Eat Into Your Savings

Let’s do some quick math on how costly your food is, with a few scenarios below. I’ll assume that every time you eat out, it costs $15 on average.

In Scenario 1, you prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner yourself; since you like to spruce things up in the kitchen, your typical home-cooked meal costs $5. In Scenario 2, you eat one $15 meal per day (lunch or dinner) and home cook the rest. In Scenario 3, you eat two $15 meals per day (lunch and dinner) and home cook the other one.

Scenario 1 costs $15 per day. $15 per day equals $105 per week, $450 per month, and $5,400 per year.

Scenario 2 costs $25 per day. $25 per day equals $175 per week, $750 per month, and $9,000 per year.

Scenario 3 costs $35 per day. $35 per day equals $245 per week, $1,050 per month, and $12,600 per year.

Let’s introduce Scenario 4, where you eat a normal three meals per day but only go out three times per week. In this scenario, just like the ones above, you eat 21 meals per week. You prepare 18 of them and buy the other three. Your 18 home-cooked meals would cost $90, and your three weekly commercially prepared meals would cost $45, so you would spend $135 per week eating out.

Scenario 4 translates to about $580 spent per month and $7,000 spent per year. And it’s not that different from Scenario 1. Instead of eating out seven times a week, you eat out three times a week.

But Scenario 4 differs quite a bit from Scenarios 2 and 3. And those differences save you thousands of dollars. Below, you can see each scenario ranked from lowest to highest annual cost.

Scenario 1: $5,400 per year

Scenario 4: $7,000 per year

Scenario 2: $9,000 per year

Scenario 3: $12,600 per year

There you have it: 7,200 reasons why you should get more acquainted with your stovetop and oven.

And remember, I made a lot of assumptions here. First of all, these numbers only reflect the food consumption of one person. Second of all, even a simple restaurant meal could easily cost you at least $20. Add in some drinks or appetizers (plus a healthy tip to help the hard-working staff who risk their health every day to prepare and serve your burrito and beer) and the bill will escalate quickly.

So let’s say you live in a family of four. I’ll multiply each of those annual cost estimates by four and include a 20% adjustment for the cost savings of cooking in bulk.

Scenario 1: $17,280 per year

Scenario 2: $22,400 per year

Scenario 3: $28,800 per year

Scenario 4: $40,320 per year

It’s More Than A Cost Saver

Now, obviously, your food budget may differ drastically from my estimates. You might live in an area with a different cost of living. You might have a very fine taste or very simple taste. You might like eating at fast-casual places or splurging at nice bars or fine steakhouses. That’s ok!

The bottom line is that if you’re looking to economize and save a good amount of money, reducing your food expenses is one of the easiest ways to do so. Get to know your local grocery stores inside and out; you’ll learn what to buy where.

Soon enough, you’ll realize if you bring a list and look carefully, you can find just about every food you’d ever want at far more affordable prices than your local diners, drive-ins, and dives. Don’t tell Guy Fieri I said that.

Not only will it save you money, but it will also probably save you time as well. Many people have a misconception that they can’t cook well or that it’s too time-consuming. Neither could be further from the truth!

I’m one of the laziest and least qualified home chefs you’ll ever meet, and yet I recognize the benefits of cooking my own meals. I can whip up a mean salmon, brown rice, and salad combo that my wallet and waistline both appreciate.

And these days, the added benefit (both psychological and maybe physiological) of controlling everything that goes in your mouth cannot be ignored either. You control the ingredients and the portions — no added sugars, no empty carbs, no food comas.

Your wallet, waistline, and your planet will thank you — eating out usually worsens your diet and has a much higher carbon footprint while costing much more than home-cooked eating.

Celebrate Without Nickelback And Overpriced Wings

Am I telling you to never eat out again? No. It’s great to patronize restaurants and celebrate life with the people who mean the most to you. Plus, you might need a break from cooking and washing dishes, especially during a pandemic with no end in sight that forces us to sequester ourselves indoors for far more time than we should ever be comfortable with.

You can, however, celebrate life’s high notes without crowding around a cramped booth listening to Nickelback and waiting an hour for your beer and wings combo that costs $20. You can celebrate at home without being tempted to order that calorie-addled treat your eye turns out when you scan the menu.

You can host a dinner party and show off your cooking skills. If you do, make sure to protect your brand new 12-inch plasma screen TV from any spare Dundies trophies lying around your pad.

If you’re staring at your credit card statement wondering why that big bolded balance feels a bit bloated, there’s a good chance you can save yourself a headache by being more mindful about your food spending.

And if you’re on the hunt for self-improvement tips coming out of quarantine, a solution that helps your wallet, waistline, and your planet is hard to beat.