Since starting on locarb, my food bills have increased but not incredibly so. However, there are many stages of marking-up in the restaurant business, and costs that register as nominal to the home cook will be exponential to those dining out.
Me too. I go out an average of twice a month, brown bag it to work and cook from scratch. The amount of money I spend on food is a very small portion of my budget.
I have been lo-carbing for several years now and I found you can cut cost even further if you buy the veggies at a farmers market and they taste better too! Add in buying your meat in bulk and avoid processed foods, even the lo-carb ones and your food budget doesn't have to go up that much if any.
However, there are many stages of marking-up in the restaurant business, and costs that register as nominal to the home cook will be exponential to those dining out.
Preparation is the biggest part of your costs in restaurant food and lo-carb food often, requires more preparation and doesn't keep well.
But I am glad to see restaurants responding to the lo-carb demand. It makes dining out much less of a hassle for me.
Agree with you there. Although my grocery bill spiked when I went low-carb (natural foods are much more expensive than processed foods), eating less at restaurants has more than offset the higher cost of groceries. I now prefer to eat at home because I control the ingredients. Restaurants tend to add a lot of "extra" ingredients to their dishes that really pile up the calories and fat. For example, the steak dinner I make at home might have 750 calories but in a restaurant, it could add up to 2,000 calories easy.
I recently took my family to the Outback and the bill came to $120 (with tip) for the four of us. That's nearly five days worth of groceries in one shot!