Cooking at Home vs. Eating Out

The Fiscal Times took a (virtual) trip to some large restaurant chains and compared the prices of meals there to the costs of preparing the same meals at home. Admittedly, our methodology was highly unscientific. We didn’t go hunting for the best deals we could find on groceries. We also didn’t factor in whether one meal or another would be healthier. But that’s part of the point: Finding the savings that could be had by comparison shopping comes with a time trade-off that many families can’t afford to make these days. The comparisons that follow at least offer some food for thought.