Off the Menu: It's not always cheaper to cook at home

Going out to dinner is great, but it's cheaper to cook at home, right?

Not according to a recent study by the personal finance website, which contends that the cost of preparing meals in your own kitchen is greater than ordering the same dinner at a restaurant.

The site compared two typical casual restaurant meals – a rib eye steak dinner and a plate of seafood pasta alfredo – with the costs of ingredients to make those same items at home. In both instances the dinner "out" was several dollars cheaper.

How can that be? Well, there are certainly economies of scale involved in restaurant purchasing and food preparation, not to mention the timesavings and convenience that consumers enjoy when dining out.

The study concluded that, despite the popular belief that food prepared at home was always less costly, consumers no longer necessarily save money by eating at home.

Of course, depending on the choices home cooks make in the process of preparation, food cooked at home is likely to be less salt- and fat-laden than restaurant food.

The complete report can be viewed at
