July was a productive month at home, with no travel plans.
The averages for this month:
- Lunch prepared at home $2.41 ($2.82 in June)
- Lunch eaten or purchased outside the home: $10.29 ($8.13)
- Dinner eaten at home: $5.29($5.15)
- Dinner eaten out: $12.01 if averaged with the $5 pizza, otherwise $19.01 ($18.02)
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 meals were two lunches at The Country Deli at $21.55 per serve across both trips.
Meals out tend to cost about three times meals at home.
Had we purchased every lunch and prepared none it would have cost us $318.99 per person in July. We actually spent $48.21 for lunches at home plus $102.94 for lunches purchased or eaten out: $205.35.
Had we purchased every evening meal out and prepared none at home, it would have cost us $589.31. We actually spent $153.29 for dinners at home and $24.01 for dinners out: $177.30.
We saved $526.65 by preparing and eating most meals at home, plus we have better control over what we eat. Over the month we prepared 23 different recipes for evening meals.
