What is the main reason we don’t eat in restaurants every time? Well, it’s too expensive of a luxury these days.
…but is it?
Let’s take a closer look.
The main reason we cook is to afterward consume the food prepared.
Wouldn’t you get rid of cooking if you could have the food magically appear on the plate every time?
And that would be totally reasonable, as cooking is an incredible time-eater.
Numbers
50% of the people cook and eat at home 3–6 days per week, and 36% do it on a daily basis. A lot of them are full-time workers.
Next, according to 50% of respondents, cooking each time takes 31 minutes-1 hour.
Multiplying it by 2–3 meals per day means that an average person spends around 28 days every year over the stove.
6 Reasons Why
The most common reasons why people cook at home are:
- It’s cheaper to cook (31%)
- It’s healthier (22%)
- Better control of what you eat (18%)
- I love cooking. It’s passion (13%)
- It’s the best way to gather with family (8%)
- It’s a habit (6%)
As we can see, only 13% of people love cooking. The other 5 out of 6 reasons are just the utility.
#2: It’s healthier: that’s questionable. Nowadays, you can easily find a healthy food provider outside of your house.
#3: Better control: same as above. All food providers have certain legal standards in food quality they must maintain. If you really want to guarantee what ends up on your plate is safe, you can request certificates of the purchased products from the food provider.
#5: The best way to gather with family: nothing stops a family from gathering together if the food was delivered or when dining out-of-home.
If we can agree that reasons 2, 3, 5, and 6 can be fulfilled by external food providers, let’s go through the financials of reason 1.
#1: Is it cheaper, though?
No matter what angle we look at it, cooking at home is usually a cheaper option money-wise, but it is more time-consuming. Therefore, we need to understand the optimal balance between time and money in this case.
We will review online food ordering as an alternative to cooking. With the help of modern food delivery services, it’s straightforward to choose, request, and receive ready meals to your door.
The optimality of choice between cooking and ordering food is based on your effective salary or your hourly billable rate.
For example, if you earn well enough, it makes more sense to invest your time spent on cooking into your business. If, by doing so, you can cover all the food delivery/preparation expenses and still make some profit within the time saved, it is a financially favorable trade-off.
I like to look at it as an equation:
Your hourly billable rate * x > Cost of ready food — cost of groceries
where x — is the average time you spend on cooking in hours (e.g., 30 minutes = 0.5 hours)
For example, given the following:
- You get paid $30/hour on your job. (Hourly billable rate)
- You order a meal that costs $15, delivery included. (Cost of ready food)
- The cost of groceries to make the same meal is $5. (Cost of groceries)
- It takes you 30 minutes (0.5 hours) to cook it by yourself. (X)
$30 * 0.5 > $15 — $5
=
$15 > $10
The equation is correct, which means it would be a favorable decision for you not to spend time on cooking.
As a result, by ordering food online, you ended up spending an extra -$10 (for preparation and delivery) and earning +$15 (by utilizing saved time for work), which netted $5 in profit.
Basically, if you earn well enough to compensate for all the delivery/cooking costs within the time you save, it is a favorable exchange.
Optimize cooking
If cooking is your only way to survive (for example, you are a student whose financial well-being relies on efficient usage of groceries), there is a way to get more benefits out of it.
Cooking is another auto-pilot activity, which means you can casually mix it with other things. While cooking, you can listen to podcasts and e-books. Or you can develop relationships by speaking with your relatives and friends over the phone. If you are not the first-time cooker, you should be able to combine it fairly easily.
Closing thoughts
Still, cooking at home is the preferred way to prepare a meal for 98% of the US citizens. Interestingly, this trend changes for the millennials. 4% of them don’t cook at home at all (compared to 2% of all citizens), and 20% only do it 1–2 days per week.
With the adoption of new technologies and widespread food delivery services, it’s fair to assume that this trend is going to grow.
The higher the volume of online orders rises, the more it becomes possible to decrease margins lowering the single delivery costs.
Meaning the larger amount of people will use it, the cheaper it will get.
And overall, more and more people start to recognize the benefits of outsourcing the cooking, as it allows them to dedicate time to something more purposeful.
