Most of October was spent at home, with the exception of a longish weekend away for the Final Cut Pro X Creative Summit.
The averages for this month:
- Lunch prepared at home $2.03 ($2.47 in September)
- Lunch eaten or purchased outside the home: $9.08 ($9.39)
- Dinner eaten at home: $6.58 ($7.28)
- Dinner eaten out: $19.74 ($16.72)
The averages are fairly consistent with previous months, although dinner meals have become a little more expensive on average.
Our most expensive meal was last Saturday night’s dinner at $34.06 each, but worth it.
Lunches out tend to be 4-5 times more expensive than those prepared at home, while evening meals run about 2.5 x meals at home, because this month we had two of the most expensive meals we’ve prepared at home: the filet mignon on the 30th and
Had we purchased every lunch and prepared none it would have cost us $281.48 per person in August. We actually spent $32.24 for lunches at home plus $136.17 for lunches purchased or eaten out: $168.59.
Had we purchased every evening meal out and prepared none at home, it would have cost us $611.94. We actually spent $164.51 for dinners at home and $98.68 for dinners out: $263.19.
We saved $461.64 by preparing and eating most meals at home, plus we have better control over what we eat.
Over the month we prepared 22 different recipes for evening meals.