By Paul Schilling

(9-2020)

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and forced the closing of many restaurants, people “ate out” a lot of the time.  “Eating out” is a very expensive experience.  We have never eaten a lot at a restaurant or even a fast food place very much.  It is always fun to “eat out” once in a while and it gives the cook of the house a break from making the meals all the time.  There were several years over our lifetime when times on the farm were tough and money was short that we never went out to eat.  We just ate at home and had plenty of good food we could afford.  After the COVID-19 forced people to cook at home, a lot of people took cooking lessons just to know how to cook as they had never done it before.  Helen and I grew up at a time when everyone cooked at home and going out to eat was seldom ever thought of.  Girls learned to cook at home at a very young age and were all very good cooks.   We always had a big garden and we canned or froze enough vegetables for our family for the next year.  Home grown veggies always taste ten times better than what you get at the grocery store.  The following are some examples of what the savings of cooking at home can save a person.  I am talking about cooking from scratch and not just warming a frozen dinner in the microwave.  Any prepared foods are very expensive to buy and aren’t very healthy as a rule.  Most have too much salt, sugar and way too much fat to be healthy.  And of course they don’t taste anywhere near as good as a home cooked meal.

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Even eating at a fast food place is expensive.  It will cost two people $15 or more just for a burger, fries and a drink.  Breakfast at a restaurant will cost from $6 to $9.  A steak dinner will cost anywhere from $16 to $25 or more per meal.  A burger meal will cost at least $10 per meal.  A regular dinner will usually run $7.95 to $11.95 per meal.

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Now for cooking at home I will start with breakfast.  We eat cereal a lot and I kept track of how many bowls of cereal were in a box and the cost.  I like Wheaties but it is one of the more expensive cereals.  I got 7 big bowls out of a box that cost $4.85 at the Piggly Wiggly.  That comes out to .69 per bowl.  It was $3.74 at Walmart, .53 per bowl.  You do have to watch the price from store to store as you can see if you shop around you can save a lot.  Special K costs $4.99 at the P. W. but I can get 11 big bowls of cereal from a box which is only .45 per bowl.  It is $3.78 at Walmart or .34 per bowl.  Helen likes Cheerios Crunch.  She doesn’t eat as big a bowl as I do and she can get 16 bowls from a box at $3.64/box it comes out to .23/bowl.  She also eats Golden Crisps and gets 13 bowls from a box at $3.95/box which comes to .30/bowl.    With Honey and Oats I only got 6 bowls from a box at $3.25/box or .54/bowl.  About the cheapest cereal you can buy is the good old store brand corn flakes at a little under or over $2.00 for a big box.  You will add a little milk and sugar to your cereal and have a couple slices of bacon at about .35/slice and you have a very cheap, tasty and healthy breakfast.  Once in a while I like an egg or two for breakfast.  We buy our eggs from our neighbor and they are “free range” eggs.  We pay $4/doz. which comes out to .33/egg.  You can buy eggs at the store for $1/doz. or .08/egg.  If you eat two eggs, two slices of bacon as a treat and a slice of toast, you have a very cheap meal compared to a restaurant.  Bacon really is an expensive treat to have once in a while.  It probably isn’t the most-healthy thing to eat on a regular basis.

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For our main meal of the day we have for meat either pork chops, chicken, fish or once in a while beef.  We don’t eat a lot of beef.  We usually have some venison that our Son-in-law or Grandson shot.  We like it cooked on our grill over charcoal with some bar-b-que sauce on it.  We have been getting pork chops at about $2/lb.  Two chops come out to about $1.60.  We each have one chop which only costs 80 cents.  We have been able to buy frozen salmon at $3.99/lb.  It comes to about .93 per piece which is enough for one person.  We also eat Tilapia, Pollock and Cod when it is on sale.  These run from $2 to $5/lb.  Chicken is always reasonably priced from less than a dollar to two dollars per pound.  Beef steak is usually quite expensive, up to $12/lb. and more for the good cuts.  We only buy it when it is on sale for $7 or 8/lb.  We each eat about a half a pound per meal.  That comes out to only $3.50 to $4 each which is quite reasonable when compared to the $15 to $35 for a restaurant steak meal.  With the meat add some vegies and mashed potatoes (real potatoes not the fake powdered ones you can buy) and you will have a great healthy meal for $3 or so or for a couple dollars more if you have steak.

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Don’t buy chips, Fritos, corn chips or bags of already popped corn and eat them on a regular basis.  They are very expensive and not the most healthy food to eat.  They are also very fattening.  Don’t drink pop or eat ice cream often either, as these are also very expensive and very fattening.  Don’t eat processed meats or prepared meals.  They are very expensive for what you get for your money & full of salt.  Microwave popcorn is also a no-no.  It is very expensive and high in bad fat.  We eat a lot of popcorn as a snack but we buy un-popped corn and pop it in our popper on top of the stove.  We pop it in canola oil which is fairly healthy.  We add a little “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” from the spray bottle and a little salt.  We buy the Route 1 brand white popcorn in the two pound bag at Woodman’s.  It always pops great and tastes great.  It is a much healthier and very cheap snack.

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Low income families should never eat out, even at fast food places.  They should always eat at home, a home cooked meal.  If a person works they should always take a sack lunch.  That is what I took every day while in school.  We never bought our lunch.  I have heard of low income families that eat out at fast food places etc. regularly and then complain that they can’t afford to live.  I don’t feel sorry for these people at all.  If they just ate home cooked meals and sack lunches, they would save hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars every year.  These people should never drink pop, eat chips or other snack foods as they are very expensive and you can get along just fine without them.  Of course smoking and drinking alcohol is totally out!  That should go without saying.  However if the person is making a lot of money and feel they can afford it with no financial burden then I have no problem with them eating out once in a while.  But home cooked meals always taste better than even eating in a good restaurant.  I know when we go on vacation we do eat out now that we are older.  When we were young and camping we always cooked our meals over the camp fire.  If I eat out while on vacation it tastes good for a few days but after a week or so I get real sick of restaurant food and long for a good home cooked meal.

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