December was largely free of major events, and we spent the month at home.
The averages for this month:
- Lunch prepared at home $2.33 ($2.23 in November)
- Lunch eaten or purchased outside the home: $9.75 ($7.83)
- Dinner eaten at home: $7.29 ($7.01)
- Dinner eaten out: $14.00 ($12.28)
The averages are fairly consistent with previous months, with some averages slightly higher, some lower. There has been a slow trend for our evening meals to be a little more expensive on average, partly because we use mostly Prather Ranch dry aged meat, which is definitely more expensive than supermarket, although comparable to dry aged meat at Whole Foods.
Our most expensive meal was the Aussie style Cobb Salad at home for $14.72. Our most expensive meal out was $14.00 at Krua Thai.
Lunches out tend were over 4x times more expensive than those prepared at home, while evening meals run about 1.5 x meals at home.
Had we purchased every lunch and prepared none it would have cost us $305.25 per person in August. We actually spent $46.88 for lunches at home plus $62.64 for lunches purchased or eaten out: $109.52
Had we purchased every evening meal out and prepared none at home, it would have cost us $586.8. We actually spent $189.16 for dinners at home and $24.56 for dinners out: $213.72.
We saved $568.81 by preparing and eating most meals at home, plus we have better control over what we eat.
Over the month we prepared 22 (again) different recipes for evening meals.