Feeding everyone for cheaper than eating out!

You guys, I love eating out.   Ah, the break from cooking.   No dishes to wash. Everyone orders what they want.   But, *gulp*, you pay for it, too.   We eat out quite rarely because it is painful to pay so much!

It’s honestly cheaper for me to feed several families in addition to my own than it is for us to go out to eat.   On Sunday, we had a few families over after church and served bacon burgers (around 5 lbs of beef), fries (10 lbs!), baked beans, and iced tea for $1.62 per person (8 adults, 6 kids) and had three burgers, hotdogs, lots of fries, and baked beans left over for supper (not to mention a gallon of leftover oil!).

Here’s the breakdown:

Ground Beef $7.50 (purchased at Safeway this week)
Hot Dogs 25 ¢ (purchase at Safeway this week)
Buns $1.75 (purchased at King Soopers this week)
Cheese 50 ¢ (purchased at King Soopers last week)
Ketchup $1.30 (purchased at King Soopers this week)
Mustard $0.00 (“purchased” at King Soopers last year)
Pickles $1.00 (purchased at Safeway this week)
Onions $1.00 (purchased at King Soopers/WalMart this week)
Bacon (for burgers and beans) $1.50 (purchased at Safeway awhile back (from freezer)
Potatoes 99 ¢ (purchased at Rancho Liborio last week)
Oil $3.00 (purchased at King Soopers around Christmas)
Baked Beans $4.00 (purchased at WalMart this week)
Tea $0.00 (“purchased” at Albertsons last summer)

Total for entire meal: $22.79

Ah, ok, I think I can handle doing the dishes for that much savings – it would have cost us at least that much to feed just our family if we ate at a restaurant!   I didn’t even have to use too much from my stockpile.

I went to WalMart to pick up a few last minute things for baked beans – haven’t been in there for at least a month, and left thinking “man, they are scalping people in there!” :) I was a little shocked at some of their prices.   Thankfully, I only had to buy beans and and an onion and was able to price match some of the beans for almost half off WalMart’s prices.

If you ever need to be discouraged from eating out, calculate what it would cost you to cook the same amount of food at home and you’ll instantly be a little more motivated to cook at home more often!