Since we dropped (at least for the moment) our meat box delivery, the average evening meal cost has dropped about 20%, without appreciable drop in quality of meat.
This month we did four take out lunches and three take out dinners: Japanese Bento Box, Chapli Kebab Meal and The Country Deli Skirt Steak Dinner.
The averages for this month:
- Lunch prepared at home $2.30 ($2.95 in December)
- Lunch eaten or purchased outside the home: $8.67 ($9.48)
- Dinner eaten at home: $4.56 ($5.81)
- Dinner prepared in a restaurant $17.20 ($15.44)
Normally the monthly variations are small, but this month, evening meals are down about 20%, largely attributable to the move away from the Keller Crafted Meat Box.
Our most expensive meal of the month was the Bento Box and Ahi Tuna at $20.44 per serve.
This month, lunches at home cost 27% of the cost of eating lunches prepared outside the home. Our evening meals prepared in the home are 26% of the cost take-out meals.
Had we purchased every lunch and prepared none it would have cost us $268.77 per person in January. We actually spent $62.14 for lunches at home plus $34.56 for lunches purchased or eaten out: $96.80 in total.
If every evening meal cost us the same as our one this month, it would be $533.20 We actually spent $130.45 for dinners at home and $51.61 for dinners out, or $182.06 in total.
We saved about $520 by mostly eating at home, and we have a lot more control over what we eat.