Home Made Lunches

Another benefit of making dinner is left overs for the next day.  I write this as I munch on a left over quesodilla from my last post.  I'm re-posting the story of a friend of mine who is a fellow dinner-maker and I find that I LOVE her story.

"Apparently, a couple of my husband's work friends LOVE ME without ever having met me.  Why, you ask...  because my husband always has good, homemade meals for lunch.  One of them said his meals were more than just good, they were pretty much gourmet!

I have to admit, this made me feel good, but I didn't think I was doing anything special.  Truthfully, all I do is cook a little extra for dinner and package it up for his lunch the next day.  Actually, I don't even package it, he does.  I don't think I cook extra special dinners, or gourmet anything...

The only obvious conclusion I draw from this is homemade lunches are out of style.

My husband said that most people go out to eat or bring a frozen meal every day for lunch.  This leads me to wonder if people even eat a homemade dinner (because if they did, wouldn't they have leftovers?).

Maybe, just like sewing has become a lost art, cooking is going out of style as well.  How sad would that be? 

I am making a promise right now, that my children (even the boys) will know how to cook a decent meal.  Eating out is just too expensive.


Curiosity Research:
The average American eats 4.8 meals per week in restaurants (dine-in and carry-out), with the most popular meal being lunch at 2.6 meals eaten on average each week.

Americans Spend A Stupid Amount On Coffee & Lunch Every Year
A new survey from Accounting Principals' reveals that the average American worker spends over $1,000 a year of coffee, plus another $2,000 a year on lunch out.

How Much Money Can You Save by NOT Eating Out?
It costs about $25 for a family of four to buy a meal at a typical fast food restaurant. Averaging just two trips per week totals $50; continuing the pattern each week over the course of a full year comes to $2600.

A daily fast food lunch runs at least $5; in a typical five day work week, that’s $25. Over the course of a year, $1300. Just for lunch. Just for one person. How many people in your household might be doing that?

At mid-priced restaurants—Appleby’s, Ruby Tuesday, etc–$40 for a couple is pretty standard. Done weekly over the course of a year exceeds $2000. For a family of four it double to $4000. That’s starting to look like an annual grocery budget for a typical family, and all we’ve satisfied is one meal per week.

Some households eat dinner out two or three times per week, so we can multiply accordingly and see that thousands of dollars can be spent with little effort or concern.