February was largely free of major events, and we spent the month at home.
The averages for this month:
- Lunch prepared at home $2.20 ($2.40 in January)
- Lunch eaten or purchased outside the home: $5.95 ($6.77)
- Dinner eaten at home: $5.11 ($5.81)
- Dinner eaten out: $11.04 ($15.20)
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 less expensive on average. In February this was largely because of the extremely cheap ham we used.
Our most expensive meal was the night at Gordon Biersch at around $17.07 per serve. Our most expensive at home meal was the NY Strip Steak with “refrigerator” salad at $13.12.
Lunches at home cost just 37% of the cost of eating food prepared outside the home, while dinners at home cost half the average of dinner out this month.
Had we purchased every lunch and prepared none it would have cost us $166.60 per person in February. We actually spent $39.49 for lunches at home plus $47.60 for lunches purchased or eaten out: $87.09 in total.
Had we purchased every evening meal out and prepared none at home, it would have cost us $309.12. We actually spent $127.66 for dinners at home and $22.07 for dinners out: $149.73 in total.
We saved $280.92 by preparing and eating most meals at home, plus we have better control over what we eat.
Over the month we prepared 16 different recipes for evening meals.