If you’re going to do something daft like add the value of time, you need to add the commute/order/wait time.
And if you’re unemployed, the cost of your time is zero.
I could easily eat out both lunch and diner every day for $20.00 a day. That is $600.00/month. I spend at least $100/week on food just for myself. Sometimes more. When you add in the hassle of cooking and cleaning it is a push.
Exactly, cause eating out still takes the going out, the gas, and the wait time that homecooking does.
Recently, we went out to dinner with my son, his wife, my daughter, and mr. mm. The bill for the dinner with a couple drinks was well over $100.
I could have fed the family well for a week on that >$100.
AND we'd know what was in it and know that someone had not spat in the food or whatever else goes on in the back room of restaurants that people don't see.
I've been in the back of some restaurants and my kitchen would NEVER come to that level of filth.
Plus I used to work at McD's way back in the day, and if they don't like the customer, there's plenty of ways of getting back at them.
So there are more considerations than just cost of food.
But on a strictly dollar spend for quantity of food received, eating out is not cheaper. If it was, I'd really wonder about what I was getting.