# PSA: you can't make it better and cheaper at home. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 19, 2020, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148 "2020-02-19T03:52:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/21 "2020-02-19T12:22:17Z")
All this time we’ve been buying groceries when it’s cheaper to eat out? C’mon, kids, we’re going to TGI Friday’s! ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/22 "2020-02-19T14:57:19Z")
Ironically, I’m reading this right after I ate the egg sandwich I made this morning. Egg, 15 cents. Slice of smoked Gouda, maybe 25 cents. Bagel, 99 cents. Salt, pepper and a little oil for the pan, perhaps 2 cents, for a grand total of $1.41. Yesterday’s egg sandwich from the grill downstairs was $3.50. It’s $4.75 if I want to add a slice of ham. That’s what prompted me to make my own today. And, it took less time for me to make than it took to get my order yesterday. The Gouda was definitely a nice touch. Far superior to the American cheese on yesterday’s sandwich. OP, perhaps you are just incompetent. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/23 "2020-02-19T15:55:57Z")
Not only can my wife definitely make better food than restaurants, she can make better “supermarket food”, like bread. And the bread IS very much cheaper to make than the “artisan type” bread you will get at a store. Now, you want to bring the cost of “personal time” into it? Sure, maybe. But this is not a “second job” to her, more like a hobby. If you want to be poor, eat out for every meal. I’ve done both, and I know the cost of both. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/24 "2020-02-19T15:58:20Z")
There are plenty of things that can be made better and cheaper at home, at least in terms of monetary outlay. The difference is in effort. For example, homemade bread is dirt cheap. You can get a 25 lb bag of flour at Sam’s or Costco for like $8, and a lb of yeast for $3. Water is effectively free in the quantities we’re talking about. A gallon of vegetable oil is $4.50. 4 lb of sugar is $1.60. 3 lb salt is $2.40. So a recipe making an 8.5x4.5 loaf takes 2.5 cups flour, 2.5 tsp yeast, 1 tsp salt and 2 tb oil. Scaled up, that’s 91 loaves of bread (the flour is the limiting thing here) for $19.50, which is about 21 cents per loaf. You’ll still have about 3 lb of sugar, half a gallon of oil, and about 6 oz of yeast left over for next time. Even if you assume that the loaves are half the size of a commercial one, that’s still 42 cents a loaf which is much cheaper. And in all likelihood, your freshly baked bread will taste better than bargain-basement grocery store white bread. Now the big question is how much effort and time does that take, and how do you account for that? It may be true that you can’t make it cheaper if you account for your own time, but most people who are extremely cost conscious don’t value their time nearly as much as their money (and vice-versa with more flush people). And you’d have to factor in the qualitative differences as well- what would similar quality bread actually cost? ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/25 "2020-02-19T16:13:48Z")
I dunno man. I can make about 8-12 servings of spaghetti and meat sauce for the cost of one package spaghetti, 2-3 lbs hamburger, 2 jars of sauce and a few spices. Since I live alone, that’s 4-6 days worth of meals. No doubt it isn’t as good as restaurant quality, but “good” is subjective. I make it because it does taste “good”, it’s going to be healthier and it’ll cost me less in the long-run. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/26 "2020-02-19T16:16:30Z")
> [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](#): > > Ironically, I’m reading this right after I ate the egg sandwich I made this morning. Egg, 15 cents. Slice of smoked Gouda, maybe 25 cents. Bagel, 99 cents. Salt, pepper and a little oil for the pan, perhaps 2 cents, for a grand total of $1.41. Yesterday’s egg sandwich from the grill downstairs was $3.50. It’s $4.75 if I want to add a slice of ham. That’s what prompted me to make my own today. And, it took less time for me to make than it took to get my order yesterday. The Gouda was definitely a nice touch. Far superior to the American cheese on yesterday’s sandwich. > > OP, perhaps you are just incompetent. You’re leaving out $0.05 of energy to cook and maybe $0.03 of hot water to clean up. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/27 "2020-02-19T16:24:17Z")
I happen to believe that everything tastes better if someone else makes it. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/28 "2020-02-19T16:39:11Z")
I like an obscenely thick Filet Mignon cooked perfectly rare. At home I can sous vide my filet for 4 hours, then sear it. It will be a perfect rare steak all the way through. A restaurant cannot duplicate this, nor could I without my sous vide unit and plenty of time. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/29 "2020-02-19T16:45:13Z")
> [@Kovitlac](#): > > I dunno man. I can make about 8-12 servings of spaghetti and meat sauce for the cost of one package spaghetti, 2-3 lbs hamburger, 2 jars of sauce and a few spices. Since I live alone, that’s 4-6 days worth of meals. > > No doubt it isn’t as good as restaurant quality, but “good” is subjective. I make it because it does taste “good”, it’s going to be healthier and it’ll cost me less in the long-run. There are lots of recipes that are more complicated than spaghetti. Some require lots of training and skill to make properly, sushi being the most obvious example. So when I eat out, I avoid something like spaghetti, which I could make at home and stick to the more complex dishes where the chef’s training is apparent. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/30 "2020-02-19T16:51:43Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > There are so many variables to the OP’s statement that it makes absolutely no sense. > > … I like some stuff I make, some stuff restaurants (even fast food ones) make, some stuff my friends make. “Better” is IMHO too subjective to be the basis of a meaningful discussion. Which (again IMHO) this is not. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/31 "2020-02-19T17:01:42Z")
Some things I make better and cheaper (in my own opinion, because it’s to my taste) at home, and some things I leave to others. OP is way too general. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/32 "2020-02-19T17:06:01Z")
Sorry you didn’t grow up with good home cooking. Everybody should have a dish they feel that no restaurant can make as good as their mom/dad/uncle/aunt/grandma/grandpa/etc. And, yes, it’s far cheaper to cook at home, providing you know how to manage inventory, and my family’s food budget easily reflects that. The four of us going out to eat usually will rack up around a $50-60 bill at a perfectly average restaurant. Eating at home, I budget for $20 per day for all meals, max, and often it’s closer to $15. There’s a reason my blue collar immigrant folks almost _never_ ate out (and, frankly, none of my friends parents in a similar situation), because what they could put out at home was much cheaper and healthier than what you’d get at most restaurants. Going out to a restaurant was only for special occasions and even take out food was rare (I literally never remember my parents ordering delivery, because they’d rather drive the couple blocks and pick up the food themselves and not have to pay a delivery charge and tip the driver.) I mean, sure, there’s plenty of stuff I prefer from restaurants and might end up being cheaper, especially when it comes to ethnic cuisine, where I don’t have the food knowledge, and might not have the stock of items and need to buy something in bulk that I will only use once in a month or two and end up throwing out. But for the day-to-day meals I eat? Oh hell no, it ain’t cheaper to eat out. And there’s a lot of stuff I simply cannot even get at restaurants here even if I wanted to. Nobody has a good Hungarian goulash soup, one of my staple recipes. I’m not even sure where I can get chicken paprikash around here anymore (though Epicurean Hungarian, when it was around, did do a decent job that wasn’t altered for local tastes [like it was served skin-on, bone-in, like it should be, none of this boneless skinless crap]). That’s the nice thing about cooking at home. You make it how _you_ like it, not how that particular restaurant’s clientele likes it. If it makes you feel better to think we’re all delusional, go ahead. I’ll be here cooking food almost everyday as I love to cook, eating food I love to eat, and not feeling guilty about eating out all the time and spending much more money than I need to. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/33 "2020-02-19T18:06:52Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I like an obscenely thick Filet Mignon cooked perfectly rare. At home I can sous vide my filet for 4 hours, then sear it. It will be a perfect rare steak all the way through. A restaurant cannot duplicate this, nor could I without my sous vide unit and plenty of time. Sure they could, but nobody does because the market for that sort of steak is very small, and it can’t be done to order. Sous vide started in restaurants, FWIW, and is still super-popular for a lot of uses in higher-end ones. They just typically don’t use it for steaks, AFAIK. Although… that could be interesting for a restaurant to sous-vide a bunch of steaks to the various donenesses, and just sear them/grill them to order, kind of the way some do the first-frying on french fries in the morning, and just do the second frying to order. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/34 "2020-02-19T18:20:37Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Sure they could, but nobody does because the market for that sort of steak is very small, and it can’t be done to order. > > Sous vide started in restaurants, FWIW, and is still super-popular for a lot of uses in higher-end ones. They just typically don’t use it for steaks, AFAIK. I’ve heard that a number of professional kitchens do exactly that. They bring the steak up to temp and hold in the sous vide for until they need it and then finish them on a grill or under a salamander or whatever. Speeds up the whole process. ETA: For example [here’s a Reddit thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/KitchenConfidential/comments/4gheez/restaurants_that_sousvide_steakhow_do_you_run/) where posters discuss various ways their restaurant uses sous video for steaks. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/35 "2020-02-19T18:24:15Z")
I just made a wild mallard pizza on Sunday night. The duck cost $30 for the hunting licence divided by the two dozen ducks I shot this year but let’s say it cost me $1.5 for the pound of meat we got off it. It was 6 cups of flour, 0.25 cups of sugar and a yeast packet for the dough which ran about $4 total for 3 pounds of dough. I put about a dollar worth of mushrooms and a dollar worth of olives and lets say a dollar worth of cheese and another dollar worth of sauce. So the large pizza cost me about $7 from which I was able to feed 4 people. I can’t buy Domino’s that cheaply and I certainly can’t get a wild game pizza from any pizza place around here so I would say that meet the requirement of cheaper and better. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/36 "2020-02-19T18:28:52Z")
Salad. Eat half, toss the rest, it’s still cheaper and better. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/37 "2020-02-19T18:35:31Z")
Apres ski? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/38 "2020-02-19T18:36:50Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’ve heard that a number of professional kitchens do exactly that. They bring the steak up to temp and hold in the sous vide for until they need it and then finish them on a grill or under a salamander or whatever. Speeds up the whole process. > > ETA: For example [here’s a Reddit thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/KitchenConfidential/comments/4gheez/restaurants_that_sousvide_steakhow_do_you_run/) where posters discuss various ways their restaurant **uses sous video** for steaks. You get to watch them cook from your table? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/39 "2020-02-19T18:54:57Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > You get to watch them cook from your table? > > 😃 Damned muscle memory (auto)typing! ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/40 "2020-02-19T19:02:28Z")
It’s like some internal slide rule where you have to factor in health, time allotted, finances, allocation of effort, beer, and giving a damn. I try to eat food that hasn’t been heavily processed. Lots of fruits and vegetables and fish three times a week. Tuesday after the aqua fit class, I have about 45 minutes to drive home, cook and eat or I will be taking my nightly dose of medicine on a full stomach which doesn’t work very well. I take my lunch to work almost every day, but sometimes I forget and sometimes I would just like to go out and eat with a co-worker. Some Sundays, I do meal prep. Some Sundays I put my feet up and drink beer and watch baseball between naps. Both days are important to me. The scale slides. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148.md?page=3)