My entry about grocery shopping at Whole Foods got me thinking again about how much we spend on food, and how spoiled we are, frankly, that we have the option to eat the way we do.
As I mentioned, we grocery shop at Whole Foods almost exclusively, for a number of reasons, prime among them being laziness.
If we eat most meals at home during the week, we'll probably spend about $150-200 on groceries, depending on whether we have to restock on expensive stuff likewine olive oil.
When I say we're eating "most" meals at home, that means that we go out for no more than two meals- maybe one dinner and one breakfast/brunch- in the course of the week. That is us at our most disciplined- it requires that we cook at home pretty much all week and then save eating out for the weekend, with friends.
Most weeks, we can manage that. Maybe once during the week we'll be stuck working late, or just be too tired to cook, and we'll end up ordering pizza (we can get a good carry-out one for $10) or Thai.
Given how expensive Whole Foods is, I sometimes wonder if we're really saving money by cooking, but for the two of us to go anywhere we like to go for dinner is easily $50. It's not hard to see that grocery shopping (even for expensive groceries) and cooking at home is cheaper. Of course if you grocery shop and then decide you're too tired and order out anyway, your meals start getting really pricey.
I heard the CEO of Whole Foods interviewed one time, and the interviewer asked him about the prices at Whole Foods, and how he expected people to justify the high costs versus a cheaper store. His answer was dead-on- basically, we all have to make choices about how to spend our money, and you spend your money on the things that are of highest priority to you. If having cable at $100/month, or having a cell phone at $100/month, is more important to you than buying top-quality produce, then that's fine, those're your priorities.
The graphic below demonstrates all of this very tidily, and comes from a very interesting website, if you're interested- link is below the graphic.
From http://thesocietypages.org/graphicsociology/2011/09/28/is-fast-food-cheaper-than-cooking-at-home-bittman-mashup/
As I mentioned, we grocery shop at Whole Foods almost exclusively, for a number of reasons, prime among them being laziness.
If we eat most meals at home during the week, we'll probably spend about $150-200 on groceries, depending on whether we have to restock on expensive stuff like
When I say we're eating "most" meals at home, that means that we go out for no more than two meals- maybe one dinner and one breakfast/brunch- in the course of the week. That is us at our most disciplined- it requires that we cook at home pretty much all week and then save eating out for the weekend, with friends.
Most weeks, we can manage that. Maybe once during the week we'll be stuck working late, or just be too tired to cook, and we'll end up ordering pizza (we can get a good carry-out one for $10) or Thai.
Given how expensive Whole Foods is, I sometimes wonder if we're really saving money by cooking, but for the two of us to go anywhere we like to go for dinner is easily $50. It's not hard to see that grocery shopping (even for expensive groceries) and cooking at home is cheaper. Of course if you grocery shop and then decide you're too tired and order out anyway, your meals start getting really pricey.
I heard the CEO of Whole Foods interviewed one time, and the interviewer asked him about the prices at Whole Foods, and how he expected people to justify the high costs versus a cheaper store. His answer was dead-on- basically, we all have to make choices about how to spend our money, and you spend your money on the things that are of highest priority to you. If having cable at $100/month, or having a cell phone at $100/month, is more important to you than buying top-quality produce, then that's fine, those're your priorities.
The graphic below demonstrates all of this very tidily, and comes from a very interesting website, if you're interested- link is below the graphic.
From http://thesocietypages.org/graphicsociology/2011/09/28/is-fast-food-cheaper-than-cooking-at-home-bittman-mashup/
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