During a dinner conversation with my husband the other night, we reminisced about his bachelor days when his dinners consisted of frozen dinners and (very cheap) frozen pizzas. I made the comment "I know we're spending a bit more on food, but it's so much better, right?" [as I give him a you'd better agree with me look] He responded with, do you think it's cheaper? So, we started to calculate and came up with the conclusion that eating fresh home cooked meals is still cheaper than eating budget frozen prepared foods. Here's the breakdown.
Meal Plan A (From Steve's Bachelor days)Breakfast every morning consists of a glass of orange juice and one of the following:
Lunch every day would consist of a sandwich, apple sauce or jello, and some chips. Dinner 3 nights a week would be a frozen dinner and the other nights would be half of a frozen pizza or going out to eat. (only 1 or 2 nights) We calculated that for only food (not including beers and non food items), one person would spend about $33.50, so making 2 people's weekly grocery bill $67.00 | Meal Plan B (what we currently follow)Breakfast every morning consists of a glass of orange juice and one of the following:
Lunch every day would consist of left overs from the night before or 2 nights before. Here's a sample dinner menu from last week: Sunday: lasagna Monday: Homemade pizza + salad Tuesday: Bible study meal Wednesday: fried rice and green beans Thursday: baked fish, spinach and quinoa Friday: Curry chicken with rice and green beans Saturday: Braised Beef and mushroom pasta My average grocery bill is about $60 - $70 which includes non-food items such as a six pack, a bottle of wine, soap or toilet paper. |
As you can see, there is so much more variety in IMeal Plan B. I had no idea that super processed, sodium laden food would come out to be just as expensive as fresh, sometimes organic food. It's so much more delicious and healthy too!
We also know of some people who never cook at home. So, to take this further and make ourselves feel super thrifty, we also did some calculations of what it would cost a couple to eat out every meal.
Dinner for 7 nights a week (av. $12/dinner) = $84.00
Lunch for 7 days a week (av. $9/lunch) = $63.00
Breakfast coffee + food for 7 days week =$35.00
This comes out to about $182.00 per person, $364.00 for two.
Typically, each week, we eat out one meal for lunch and one meal for dinner. So the grand total for the food bill each week consists of the following:
Grocery bill (on high end) $75.00
Lunch (for 2) $20.00
Dinner (for 2) $30.00
This comes out to $125 a week for 2. Not bad at all.
We also know of some people who never cook at home. So, to take this further and make ourselves feel super thrifty, we also did some calculations of what it would cost a couple to eat out every meal.
Dinner for 7 nights a week (av. $12/dinner) = $84.00
Lunch for 7 days a week (av. $9/lunch) = $63.00
Breakfast coffee + food for 7 days week =$35.00
This comes out to about $182.00 per person, $364.00 for two.
Typically, each week, we eat out one meal for lunch and one meal for dinner. So the grand total for the food bill each week consists of the following:
Grocery bill (on high end) $75.00
Lunch (for 2) $20.00
Dinner (for 2) $30.00
This comes out to $125 a week for 2. Not bad at all.