# Food cost comparison: pre-made vs. home cooked **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 11, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-cost-comparison-pre-made-vs-home-cooked/678547 "2014-01-11T23:02:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2014, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-cost-comparison-pre-made-vs-home-cooked/678547/21 "2014-01-12T17:51:24Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Yup, not only that but unless you have a deep fryer at home it will never taste identical. You can do “fry bake” which isn’t bad but isn’t deep fried chicken. Dutch oven or iron skillet works better anyway. Why on earth would I want something that tastes identical to mediocre fast food chicken anyway? ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-cost-comparison-pre-made-vs-home-cooked/678547/22 "2014-01-12T18:44:49Z")
Accounting for comparable quality, I can’t think of anything. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2014, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-cost-comparison-pre-made-vs-home-cooked/678547/23 "2014-01-12T20:42:32Z")
There are so many variables. Do you have a well stocked kitchen? Lots of spices? Gadgets? Dishwasher? How do you shop? Do you get to all your food before it starts going bad? Are you big on leftovers, or do you want new food everyday? A large family with a great kitchen is going to be more efficient making most of their own food. A single person may be better off buying pre-made. I love to cook, but it tends to be expensive for me because it’s hard for us to avoid food waste. Cinnamon rolls are efficient to buy pre-made. So are jams and juices. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2014, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-cost-comparison-pre-made-vs-home-cooked/678547/24 "2014-01-12T21:46:25Z")
The hot and cold foods sold by the pound at Wegmans are mesmerizing and seldom do I leave without picking up a little something. (They are going downhill a bit, though.) For my $8, though it seems expensive for that little container, it would cost me FAR more to buy all the ingredients. Not to mention prepping and cooking them, and frankly they wouldn’t taste as good as the pre-made. Of course, I can also pick up a nice strip steak for $10, we can broil that, round it out with salad, baked potato, and maybe bread, and the meal for both of us would cost less than what the same thing in a restaurant would cost just one of us. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-cost-comparison-pre-made-vs-home-cooked/678547/25 "2014-01-14T02:36:20Z")
Note that there are lots of things that you probably can’t make because they require special equipment that you don’t have. The one that comes to mind for me is pizza. I can make good pizza at home cheaper than Pizza Hut. But I can’t make _great_ pizza at home because I don’t have brick oven that gets up to 800 degrees. Clearly installing a pizza oven that I’d use once or twice a month is not worth it. ---
**Author:** ![chancetx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@chancetx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chancetx)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-cost-comparison-pre-made-vs-home-cooked/678547/26 "2014-01-14T11:30:05Z")
Salad bar. They can get expensive but to have all those options available at home would cost a fortune and result in a huge amount of waste. ---
**Author:** ![jfreakofkorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecc23a/32.png) [@jfreakofkorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jfreakofkorn)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-cost-comparison-pre-made-vs-home-cooked/678547/27 "2014-01-14T12:26:46Z")
its cheaper to have it made it at home ( you can make up 2 or 3 days worth ) depending at where you live, lunch can be any where from 5 USD to 15 USD ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-cost-comparison-pre-made-vs-home-cooked/678547/28 "2014-01-14T19:40:33Z")
> [@chancetx](#): > > Salad bar. They can get expensive but to have all those options available at home would cost a fortune and result in a huge amount of waste. Same with a Chinese buffet. Think what it would cost to prepare a single meal with a dozen different items. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-cost-comparison-pre-made-vs-home-cooked/678547/29 "2014-01-14T19:43:01Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > The hot and cold foods sold by the pound at Wegmans are mesmerizing and seldom do I leave without picking up a little something. (They are going downhill a bit, though.) The one in Pittsford is still top-notch. The only problem I ever have there is they have so many good choices I always end up buying more than I should. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-cost-comparison-pre-made-vs-home-cooked/678547.md?page=1)