My husband recently acquired a new contract closer to home. His new job is so close that he can now regularly come home for lunch at least three or four days a week. Tonight I began to wonder just how much we’ve saved by avoiding fast food restaurants and work cafeterias. I crunched the numbers and found over $130 in savings.
In the month of January we spent over $200 on a variety of fast food restaurants, last minute carry out meals, work cafeterias and sit down restaurants. In the month of February we spent only $67 in those same categories.
After running the numbers I immediately wondered if we spent a lot more money on grocery purchases. I ran a similar query against the credit card and found that our grocery bill for the month of February is only $25 more than the grocery bill in January.
It’s hard to quantitatively decide whether or not the increase at the grocery store is due to eating at home more often. I stockpiled a number of sale items this month, so the $25 might be accounted for by the staples in my pantry.
My husband was out on vacation for one week in the month of January so I also went back through December’s bills to compare the differences. In December we spent over $280 eating out. Compared to this month’s food bill that’s over $213 in savings!
Scott @ The Passive Dad
Sunday 15th of March 2009
That is a very impressive monthly savings from eating at home. Congrats. Any plan for the money you've saved?
Her Royal Highness
Monday 9th of March 2009
Isn't it amazing how those numbers add up? For $10 a week in produce and a few random freezer items (meat or dairy), I can feed an army!
Trevor @ Financial Nut
Monday 9th of March 2009
Wow! Now those are big savings! Hey- the little things add up, I suppose. This is an excellent example of that!