A Little Encouragement To Cook At Home

Today was such a nice laid back day.  My oldest daughter and I hit some garage sales this morning (didn't find anything), we all had a nice nap, and this evening we grilled chicken while the kids splashed in the back yard kiddie pool.  We had such a nice dinner using some of the great deals they had on sale this week, and it was just an all around great day.

Some days don't go that way though.  Some days are so busy running here there and everywhere, and you end up not being home at normal meal times, and it is very tempting at those times to pull into a drive-thru and grabs some burgers.  This was a bit of a problem for us this past month, not for dinner, but for lunches.

As we were eating this lovely meal of BBQ chicken, fresh corn on the cob, stuffing, and salad I began thinking about how much it has all cost in comparison to grabbing a quick meal on the run.

I do not have a mouth watering picture to accompany this, but here is what I came up with:

1/2 bag of chicken leg quarters =  $2.95  (10 total in bag for $5.90 this week at Kroger)
5 fresh corn                              = $1.00  (5 for $1 this week at Albertson's)
Herb flavored stuffing               =  $0.79 (in pantry, bought recently at Aldi)
Green Salad Mix                      =  $0.49  (picked up yesterday at Aldi)
     Total                                   = $5.23  


Now, I did not attempt to include the cost of seasonings and BBQ sauce (which I think I got for free), but even adding that, I would be well under $6 for a whole meal for a family of 4.  Plus, all of these things were purchased completely without coupons, just by shopping sale prices.

Also, we didn't even eat all of this.  We still have two whole leg quarters and two whole pieces of corn left, so technically what we ate only cost us $3.41!  You could spend that much on an afternoon snack from a fast food place!  And we have leftovers that we can eat as is or turn into a different meal entirely, already cooked.  I will likely turn it into a salad tomorrow.

Sometimes when things get crazy, it is easy to think that just one time through the drive-thru won't matter, but then it turns into once a week or more, and before you know it you've spent $40+ out of your food budget that could have gone much further (or been put to use on a nice date).

I used to not think twice about dropping $20 on Chinese take out because that was cheaper than going to a dine-in restaurant and we usually had leftovers, but how much less would it cost to prepare that same meal at home?

All it took was a really nice dinner and a little math to put things back into perspective for me.

I challenge you to calculate how much a recent meal at your house cost in total.  I bet it's a whole lot less than you think!


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