Since moving to San Diego from Italy, I put on my to-do list that I needed to update my budget. I was missing about $400 a month and had no idea where it was going. I later realized the money was going to the State of California.

Italy was a tax free zone for us, and before then we lived in Washington State which has zero income taxes. ZERO! Politics aside, I made a big mistake and had to reevaluate how we live. The easiest thing to do was cut out luxuries. For us, that is eating out.

Realizing how much I was paying someone to cook a simple meal for me was like dunking my head in arctic ice cold water.

It is SO easy to eat out in San Diego because of all the amazing restaraunts everywhere. One of our favorite cuisines is Korean food (my husband is half Korean and the spicy dishes remind him of his childhood). However, everytime we went out to eat, we would easily spend about $80. Worth it for a spicy stew and sweetly marinated meat? I would have argued yes, until I called my Mother in Law and begged her for the recipes.

After she told me how little work goes into making the dishes, and how much money I can save making it at home, I now know that it is NOT worth it to have someone cook for you. Not at all.

So I’m going to show you the cost breakdown of cooking for yourself versus going out to eat.

My favorite Korean Dish is called samgyeopsal gui. I have NO clue how to pronounce it, but it is basically just grilled pork belly slices that resemble bacon but are not cured. Here is a yummy picture.

Homemade korean food costs 1/5 less than buying at the restaurant. It is so easy you have to try!© Carmen Grant

To eat this you take a red lettuce leaf, place a bit of rice into it, pick up a small piece of pork, dip it into the sesame oil and then place a bit of the hot red bean paste on top. Wrap it all up like a taco and eat it up. I can’t even explain how amazingly good this is….but I can explain how much I saved when I found out I could make it at home.

It is NOT worth it to have someone cook for you. Not at all.

A lot of the items I was able to buy in bulk and use for later. I estimated how much of the item I used and then did the math to figure out how much that fraction cost. Here is what I came up with.

• Pork Belly: $4.95 for 1lb package
• Rice: $15 for a 10lb bag.
• My usage: $1.50
• Red Leaf Lettuce: 3 heads for $0.99
• My usage: $0.33
• Bean Paste: $2.99 for 4 cups
• My usage: $.014
• Red Pepper Paste: $3.99 for 4 cups
• My usage: $0.14
• Sesame Oil: $6.95
• My usage: $1.39

Grand total for the cost of groceries: $34.87

Grant total for the cost of my meal: $8.49

Average cost of the SAME meal in a Korean Restaurant: $56-60

So now, you tell me. Was it worth it to eat out when all I had to do was buy the groceries, cook the meat on a skillet, wash the lettuce, and put the rest in pretty dishes?

Restaurants are a treat in our home now, but now that I know how to make my favorite meals, it is more of a treat to go to the grocery store and pick out my own ingredients knowing that the money I spend that day will go towards feeding my family for more than 1 day.

What about you? What meal have you recreated at home for less? I would love your stories!