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!
Trevor @ Financial Nut says
Wow! Now those are big savings! Hey- the little things add up, I suppose. This is an excellent example of that!
Her Royal Highness says
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!
Scott @ The Passive Dad says
That is a very impressive monthly savings from eating at home. Congrats. Any plan for the money you’ve saved?