Is It Cheaper to Eat Out or Cook at Home? Let’s Find Out

ABDUL MAZEENAnanya_Sreen
15 Min Read

In today’s fast-paced world, chooosiing between homemade or ready-made food has been a dilemna in the human lifestyle. However, it depends from individual to individual. On one hand, many people prefer to cook and pack for the rest of the day. On the other, they prefer to eat on the go. 

Both cooking and munching outside have their pros and cons. Cooking involves buying ingredients from the supermarket or grocery shopping and dedicating ample time to make the recipe food. In contrast to cooking, having ready-made or fast food can save time and effort. But what is cheaper? Let’s find out.

1. List of Benefits of Cooking at Home 

A happy cooking at home in a kitchen.
Image by Kampus Production from Pexels

Preparing meals at home1 has its benefits and drawbacks. One must travel to bring groceries initially and then cook them according to their preferences. Before considering the total expenses of making meals at home, let us consider its benefits. 

1.1. Healthy Options

Eating handmade food is arguably the best alternative to making healthy meals. We find many healthy choices through organic grocery stores and supermarkets. Perhaps these are raw green vegetables, beans, legumes, fresh fruits, oils,  seeds, and nuts. 

Buying and cooking fresh foods can eliminate the risk of exposure to various health problems and diseases. Moreover, all these groceries are available at half the cost compared to a meal ordered at a restaurant.

For instance, a 500gm box of baby spinach is available at around $5 or $6.97 at a store like Walmart or Costco. Compared to this price, a spinach snack or meal may cost around $10. That is almost double the price of a spinach box purchased at a grocery store.

Not only is it expensive, but it has harmful chemicals, preservatives, and additives that have bad effects on children’s health especially.

Quick Advantages Of Home Cooked Food II @ApoorvaDietician

1.2. Customizable Meals

By gathering all types of veggies and fruits at a supermarket, we can make combinations and varieties of dishes at home. Suppose we bring 5 types of vegetables, 4 sorts of lentils, and 3 kinds of salads. We can make ten types of delicious meals. 

To eat a tasty non-veg salad at a restaurant costs around $36. To make a non-veg salad at home, chicken breast, some baby spinach, asparagus, onions, nuts, seeds, olive oil, and some dressing sausage may cost only about $20.

Surprisingly, the only similarity between these is that we have to travel to the restaurant or the grocery store. The travel expenditure is almost the same.

Even if we order some food at a restaurant, we have to wait until the waiter serves the food. So, waiting for the waiter to serve the food or making food after bringing the ingredients from the grocery store is almost equal. However, homemade meals are a lot healthier than restaurant dishes.

1.3. Heart-Health Benefits

Pomegranate grains filled in a heart-shaped container
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There are a vast number of benefits to eating cooked meals. These benefits range from having a healthy body function, healthy organs, healthy skin, and a fit lifestyle. At home, we use natural oil that can ward off cardiac problems in the future.

Natural oil at home instead of edible oil used in restaurants can also free you from hormonal imbalances. Edible oils like palm oil used in restaurants have large amounts of saturated fats and trans fats that are culprits in making blockages in the arteries of the heart. 

Natural oils2 like olive and mustard oil are used in homemade foods and are high in heart-healthy mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated fats. These fats unclog the solid deposits in the arteries by dissolving them. 

1.4. Self-Satisfaction

A couple taking selfie while cooking in the kitchen at home.
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Preparing meals at home by ourselves improves self-confidence and promotes self-satisfaction. When we start to cook with our own hands, we can quickly develop a habit of cooking whenever we want to eat. We do not have to depend on anyone to wait until the meal gets ready, or we do not have to hang out in a restaurant. 

Once we get accustomed to cooking by ourselves, we can survive anywhere in cooking food. Cooking is an essential skill for self-survival. If we have lots of money and do not even know how to make a simple meal, then it is worthless.

1.5. Financial Savings

Purchasing ingredients at grocery prices and cooking at home is not even a quarter of the meal expense at a restaurant. Preparing meals at home saves money compared to spending money on one meal in a restaurant. The traveling costs and the waiting time are almost the same when cooking or eating out. 

A significant difference is that the expenditure on cooking at home is almost 70% less than eating outside. So it is highly recommended that you make the same meal from restaurants at home to save money.

1.6. Hygienic Conditions

Before and after cooking the food at home, we take care of the surroundings where we cook and eat. Consistent cleaning is done when food is prepared at home. Therefore, the cleaner the environment, the healthier the food.

At home cooking, we can practice all food safety measures by cleaning and maintaining cleanliness.

2. Aspects of Eating Outside

Eating outside3 is all about saving time and struggle. However, for every pros, there are cons as well. Outside food can also be referred to as fast food.  

2.1. Advantages of Eating Outside

2.1.1. Time-Saving 

A coffee mug with a spoon  in it surrounded by sugar cubes that makes a clock.
Image by Stas Knop from Pexels

The best thing about eating outside is saving time. For instance, people working in an office in a closed cubicle crave a quick snack or meal as they get exhausted by workload. In such circumstances, any individual only has one option: to go outside a restaurant for a quick meal or a snack. 

As a result, it saves their time by having a quick meal. If we think from another perspective, this type of craving can save time, but at the same time, it can be harmful to long-term health. It saves time and suppresses hunger but is not favorable for our health. 

In some studies, having dinner outside, apart from cooking at home, saved a lot of time. 

2.1.2. Effort Saving 

Consuming food outside can exclude the effort it takes to prepare a meal. We do not have to dedicate much time thinking about what to make after bringing the groceries. It cuts down the extra stress that occurs after preparing a meal.

Some people find it highly tiring and arduous to cook at home, especially people who have jobs and can opt to eat ready-made meals outside at a restaurant. Nevertheless, the meals sometimes come along with less nutrition compared to homemade food. 

2.2. Disadvantages of Eating Outside

2.2.1. Long-Term Side Effects of Outside Food

When we are obsessed with eating outside food daily, especially for dinner, it may seem satisfying and delicious, but many health risks gradually arise. After a certain period, our body’s immune system gets weak due to a lack of nutrition in fast food.

  • The mouth-watering dishes we see outside in an average restaurant or store brands contain edible cheap quality oils, trans fats, outdated ingredients, preservatives, enhancers, stabilizers, emulsifiers, and many more artificial ingredients that pose health complications. 
  • Fast foods that include menu items of burgers, processed meat, pizza, sandwiches, cheese, burritos, fries, and pasta are all made of refined wheat flour, palm olein oil, and leftovers. Ingesting these junk foods can be highly hazardous to health in the long term.

Simple homemade foods like organic milk, lettuce salad, egg omelet, dark green veggies, air-fried steak, and boiled, steamed food would be the best alternative to all these outside junk foods.

Many fast-food chain restaurants like Burger King and many more worldwide only focus on providing meals on the sport regardless of its health hazards. The restaurants use processed products to make dishes that are composed of many health risks if consumed in the long run.

2.2.2. Un-Hygienic Conditions

A dirty and un-hygienic kitchen of a restaurant.
Image by 652234 from Pixabay

Almost all restaurant owners do not give much importance to public health.

  • The dining area at a restaurant may look clean and hygienic every time. But no one knows how cooking is done in the background. No safety measure is taken.
  • Occasionally, some restaurants do not clean or refurbish their cooking area. Consequently, the food is unprotected from the fungus in the cooking area.
  • Not maintaining hygiene and not taking care of regular cleaning can cause many health problems for customers who eat food at a restaurant. 

Feasibly, there are numerous health concerns if the environment around the cooking area is not cleaned regularly. Sometimes, the chefs and masters of cooking forget to wash their hands before touching any raw food items. Such unhygienic conditions pose a greater risk of developing health problems. 

2.2.3. Expensive Dishes

A series of few of expensive cakes and muffins displayed in a bakery.
Image by Vo Thuy Tien  from Pexels

The restaurant owners run the business by sometimes setting the prices of some cuisines higher than usual. The cost of even a simple dish is twice the expense of a grocery expenditure. Moreover, the quantity of restaurant food can only be served to one person. 

On the other hand, homemade food can serve more than one person. The restaurant owners run a business by providing fast food to the customers and earning money for their profit. The food makers in a restaurant do not give much importance to the customers’ value of money. 

So, Is It Cheaper to Eat Out or Cook at Home?

Homemade food not only benefits health but also helps save money. The restaurant owners are business-minded and do not give much importance to food’s nutritional value. They only focus on building their brand according to their business model. They can upgrade the quality but also increase the price with additional service tax charges.

Buying the ingredients from a grocery store or a supermarket and cooking it does not consume as much time and money as we think. Cooking is fun to learn and beneficial for our health and self-satisfaction. We can make any food dish we want with much lower price ingredients than readymade restaurant food.

However, it also depends on how many family members we feed; food preferences and location matter in this decision. Outside food can surely save some time but is overpriced. It has a confined set of dishes that cannot be mixed. Cooked food can be made into several combinations with healthy ingredients. Overall, cooking food by ourselves at home is cheaper and better than eating out. 

FAQ’S

1. Is self-made cooked food the healthiest?

The food made at home with raw, natural, and organic ingredients is always the healthiest. It has more nutritional value than the food available in a restaurant. Always aim to eat food that is nearest to its natural form. 

2. Why do we get health problems after consuming outside foods?

Food eaten outside at a restaurant or a food truck does not give attention to public health. They use edible and economical ingredients that have low nutritional value. Unfortunately, they sometimes use expired or outdated products and ingredients to add to a dish. 

3. Why is cooked food cheaper than outside food? 

Cooked food prices are substantially lower than ready-made food because raw materials are always cheaper than the end product. Furthermore, cooked food is free from germs compared to outside food. It is affordable to buy quality ingredients, cheaper than paying massive amounts at a restaurant. 

4. How long does it take to get perfect at cooking at home?

Initially, almost everything seems to be hard at first. But once we slowly begin cooking new recipes, we get used to them, and gradually, we can cook any meal we want. 

5. Can we eat outside food occasionally?

Of course, in most cases, we can eat outside food if we get bored of our taste buds. Occasionally, eating restaurant food would not cause health problems. However, ingesting outside food regularly can be detrimental to health. 

  1. Daniels, Sarah, et al. “More than preparing a meal? Concerning the meanings of home cooking.” Appetite 58.3 (2012): 1050-1056. ↩︎
  2. Tacon, A. G. (2004). Use of fish meal and fish oil in aquaculture: a global perspective. ↩︎
  3. Bezerra, Ilana N., Cintia Curioni, and Rosely Sichieri. “Association between eating out of home and body weight.” Nutrition reviews 70.2 (2012): 65-79. ↩︎

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By ABDUL MAZEEN Content Writer
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Iam a Computer Science Fresher who secured an overall 6.5 bands in International English Language Testing System. As an ardent content creator on Youtube, aspiring to write top-notch content for blogging as well as for websites to acheive personal and organisational goals.

Ananya, with a background in commerce, is a passionate writer and has written numerous articles covering a wide range of topics such as travel, food, health, etc. She also works as an editor, guiding fellow writers and helping provide the audience with content that is useful to them.

Education BCom(Hons.) - University of Delhi
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