Anonymous wrote:I just bought scallops at Whole Foods on my lunch hour. They were $11, and I'll make them with pasta, butter and salt. So let's say that's $14 total. At what restaurant will I get a meal for $14? It'll take me 20 minutes to make, and most of that time is waiting for the pasta water to boil and the 8 minutes the pasta has to cook. I'll clean up for a total of five minutes. Most of the time when I want pizza, I toss a piece of naan on a baking tray, pour TJ's pizza sauce on, sprinkle some mozzarella cheese on top and bake, while munching on raw veggies. So yeah, it's cheaper at home for those two meals.
Now there are some meals I can't make at home - I'm not that good a cook, have a very tiny, poorly-laid out kitchen, and don't enjoy it. So in those cases, ordering in or going out makes sense.
First of all, congrats on getting Whole Foods scallops for $11- that seems like a great deal. However, Op’s point is not about the cost of the ingredients but the opportunity cost if she could otherwise allegedly be billing $625/hr. So even a 30 minute meal would be well over $300 and that’s not even taking into account the time to shop for ingredients.