Have you ever wondered how much of a premium you pay when you go out for a steak dinner instead of cooking that steak at home? Well I have, most recently this evening when my husband and I sat down to a couple of Delmonicos grilled to perfection.
We also had a lovely spinach salad with fresh strawberries, hard-boiled egg, and honey mustard dressing. Baked sweet potato with butter and cinnamon sugar, and sauteed mushrooms.
Fortunately, I still had my grocery receipts so after dinner I sat down and calculated how much our steak dinner cost us. Here’s what I found: 0.92 Spinach Salad with Strawberries, Egg, and Honey Mustard Dressing10.41 2-12 ounce Delmonicos
2.14 Sauteed Mushrooms
0.68 Baked Sweet Potato with Butter and Cinnamon Sugar (big enough to share)
1.10 Pop (this is a high estimate–I just used the price of a 2-liter on sale) That’s a total of $15.25. That’s right! $15.25 for a fantastic steak dinner for two! So how much would we have had to spend if we had gone out for this meal? Well I knew it was going to be more expensive, but I was surprised when I discovered how much more expensive. That same meal at a national chain steakhouse like Texas Roadhouse would have cost us $49.56 including tax and tip. That’s 325% more. Granted someone else would have cooked the food and washed the dishes, but we would have sacrificed the relaxing, quiet ambiance at home for the overly-loud, peanut-shells-on-the-floor atmosphere at the roadhouse. So now let’s aim for the ambiance and see what that meal would have cost us at a fine dining restaurant. Are you ready for this? At a finer restaurant, that meal would have cost us $77.59 or 509% more. Wow! So the next time your mouth is watering for a delicious steak dinner, think about heading out to the grocery instead of a restaurant. You can always take those savings and buy a nice bottle of wine to enjoy with your meal!