Cooking is a hidden financial skill
50% of Americans hate to cook, according to a Harvard study.
People are eating out more than ever compared to shopping for groceries. It doesn’t help that it’s easier than ever to order delivery from apps like DoorDash.
Even if most people know they can save money by cooking, they’re held back by the myth that cooking takes too much time and effort, or that cooking always has to be some fancy gourmet activity.
What if we reframed cooking as a fancy skill to a financial skill? And how much money can you save with this reframe?
This is how much eating out costs you
I’ll just start with data from BLS on how much people spend on groceries per month vs their total food spend. You can also read this article for average food costs per city — this illustration is using Los Angeles.
- Average total food spend: $747/month
- Average grocery spend: $378/month
- The difference is about $369/month spent on eating out
Even if you ate out half the time, an extra $185 month translates to $2,200 extra every year.
