Well, and the same logic applies to monetizing housework-- if everything the stay at home mom does is worth $135,000, what should she have to pay for the services of someone who goes to work and brings home a salary to pay for everything?* $235,000? Just maybe, there's more to marriage than a purely economic transaction...

* Before you even start, remember that I'm the one who stays home and cooks and so on.

Anyway, my one point about all this is, while I agree that it's rare you truly spend as much at the store as in a restaurant for a comparable meal, I know why it feels that way. Pick a dish out of a cookbook and if you don't have two or three ingredients, very quickly you're buying $5 jars of stuff for one tablespoon of stuff out of them. Theoretically you'll use them for other things but it doesn't feel that way at the time.

I recently made pickled beets and considering the cost of the beets, the white wine vinegar, the tarragon because Whole Paycheck didn't have tarragon vinegar, the shallots Alton Brown told me to roast with the beets, etc. etc., I doubt I beat the price of a couple of Mason jars of beets at a farmstand. Hopefully there's more to pickled beets than a purely economic transaction, too.

HI,

I was acquainted with a gentleman who managed a company, which was part of a multinational conglomerate. In his job he was responsible for millions of dollars in acquisitions and sales.

The conversation rolled around once to relative merits of managing his company's assets as opposed to his personal assets. At his job his time was valued at X per hour, while at home his time was not compensated and valued at 0 per hour. At his job he was making million dollar decisions regularly. At home he was making them on tens to hundreds of dollars though he would more carefully consider the relative value as the amount increased. He would not translate the value of his time on the job to domestic efforts like mowing the lawn, preparing a meal or making his bed. They were in his opinion two very separate worlds with no commingling of value.

He said if he made decisions at home like he did on his job, then he would dissolve his personal assets fast. If he evaluated purchases on his job like he did with personal life, then he would be nit picking and not getting anything accomplished.

If you think about it, you cannot take your value on the job to what it is a home, because you may not be able to afford yourself.

edit: I just saw Mike G's comments above, I believe we were on the same thought track.

Regards,

"No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money."
Samuel Johnson

Certainly, we all do things that some might consider work without the hope of economic compensation.

The thing that occurred to me lately is that one reason the cost of a meal at home might approach the cost if a meal out is that most people aren't cooking from scratch. They're buying one of those $3 bags of salad (comes with croutons and dressing), a frozen, prepared side dish, and a prepared main course. Throw in a frozen dessert or something from the bakery, and you are beginning to approach the cost of a cheap dinner out. You really only get those great, inexpensive home meals if, like eatchicago, you're whipping up favorites from scratch, and most people aren't doing that. So if you buy everything prepared, a cheap restaurant might look like a cost effective alternative. (Because, honestly, no one I know is figuring in the time they spend cooking, because, outside of this group, almost no one I knows cooks.)

This is a very good point, Cynthia.

We're all paying a convenience cost at some point in our home food prep, it's just a matter of how much*. Clearly, those who buy a large amount of prepared food items are going to have costs that are much closer to that of eating in a restaurant.

Best,
Michael

*As Carl Sagan said, "If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."

I don't know. Sometimes it sure as heck feels like it's cheaper to eat out. For example, two nights ago I made posole rojo. After buying 2 30oz cans of hominy, a head of garlic, 4 lbs of country style ribs, avocados, limes, radishes, corn tortillas, dried ancho chiles, dried pasilla chiles, and two cans of broth, the bill was $25. Granted, that made a lot of food, but you go down to the Mexican joint on the weekend, and they'll have a huge portion of homemade posole for you ready to go for under five bucks. At best, it seemed I was breaking even. Add the fact that I don't have to worry about all the prep and clean-up, and it's often worth it to go out to eat.

However, I still end up eating in almost every single day.

Hi,

Years ago when we were a young family, I cooked for six people daily. Now it is half that and most are on some special diet either self-imposed or doctor-directed.

I find when I make large batch items like Binko's pozole, either I give some away, freeze it or toss it away when it spoils. I do try to freeze in 1-2 portion servings so I can enjoy it another day without running the marathon.

You can have your own collection of ready-to-heat meals made by yourself if you use the freezer (as well as canning).

Regards,

I will say this, though, if you're making simple meat and potoates stuff, it certainly is a lot cheaper that eating out. I could feed a family of six on chicken paprikash with homemade spaetzle, and I don't think it would cost much more than $10, given the insanely cheap price of chicken at the local market.

It's when you start buying items like avocados ($1.50 a piece at the Mexican market by my house), dried chiles ($2.50 for 2 oz), and such semi-specialty items that the costs start adding up quickly. If you like to cook ethnic cuisines, a lot of times it requires going to ethnic supermarkets to get reasonable prices and save money over going to a restaurant. For example, veal is expensive at Jewel and Dominick's, but bloody cheap at most Polish places (something like $2.50/lb last I checked.) If you have a taste for lamb, it's insane at the supermarkets, but go to a Middle Eastern or Pakistani neighborhood, and you could find it for a fourth of the price. Once again, at around $2-$3 a pound, rather than the $10/lb I see around.

And if you want to cook all organic, using produce and ingredients only from Whole Foods or farmer's markets, then it's not difficult at all to imagine eating out being a cheaper option for some people. Granted, for the quality of food I like, I'll do better cooking in than eating out for the same price, but I could get a decent enough prepared meal for the cost of ingredients if I shopped at places like this all the time.