February 2021: Summary and Observations

We continue to see about a 20% saving in overall evening meal costs, since dropping the Keller Crafted meat box, without appreciable drop in quality of meat.

This month we did seven take out lunches and two take out dinners: Japanese Bento Box, and The Country Deli Skirt Steak Dinner, both of which we augmented.

The averages for this month:

  • Lunch prepared at home $2.68 ($2.30 in January)
  • Lunch eaten or purchased outside the home: $8.10 ($8.67)
  • Dinner eaten at home: $4.87 ($4.56)
  • Dinner prepared in a restaurant $18.55 ($17..20)

The variation is small, but as noted above, about 20% down because we are buying meat primarily at Aldi and Whole Foods instead.

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 33% 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 $226.80 per person in February. We actually spent $56.20 for lunches at home plus $58.67 for lunches purchased or eaten out:  $114.87 in total.

If every evening meal cost us the same as our one this month, it would be $519.40 We actually spent $126.53 for dinners at home and $37.09 for dinners out, or $163.62 in total.

We saved about $465 by mostly eating at home, and we have a lot more control over what we eat.

Feb 28: Kedgeree with Garlic Naan; Rack of Lamb with Baked Sweet Potato

Lunch

We reheated the remaining Kedgeree and served with a Garlic Naan.

  • The Garlic Naan is $1.00 per serve
  • The Kedgeree adds $1.25 as we didn’t have any Cod left!

A filling and tasty lunch for $2.25 per serve.

Dinner

It was once again time for sous vide Rack of Lamb, served with what we thought was a Japanese Sweet Potato, but turned out to be something else!

  • For $22.13 we got 2.25 lbs of Rack of Lamb that we split into four 9oz (approx) serves for $5.53 per serve
  • At $2.61 for over a pound of Sweet Potato, we ended up leaving some, for $1.30 per serve.
  • Add 30c for Butter and Seasoning.

The “Japanese” Sweet Potato was even less sweet than expected, and took the Everything Bagel seasoning well. A good meal for $7.13 per serve.