June was a fairly typical month, with only a one night side trip to Chicago to break the routine.
The averages for this month:
- Lunch prepared at home $2.82 ($2.48 in May)
- Lunch eaten or purchased outside the home: $8.13 ($8.79)
- Dinner eaten at home: $5.15 ($5.13)
- Dinner eaten out: $18.02 ($8.79)
These averages are proving to be fairly consistent month to month, with the primary variable on evening meal averages is whether or not the $5 pizza after LACPUG is included or not. Including it reduces the average quite significantly. Our most expensive meal was lunch at The Country Deli at $23.21 per serve.
Meals out tend to cost about three times meals at home.
Had we purchased every lunch and prepared none it would have cost us $243.90 per person in June. We actually spent $56.38 for lunches at home plus $73.16 for lunches purchased or eaten out: $148.66.
Had we purchased every evening meal out and prepared none at home, it would have cost us $540.60. We actually spent $133.88 for dinners at home and $18.02 for dinners out: $151.90.
We saved $483.94 by preparing and eating most meals at home, plus we have better control over what we eat. Over the month we prepared 21 different recipes for evening meals.
