generally, yes, cooking at home can be a powerful way to reduce food spending.
But always?
No.
Not automatically.
Not for every household.
Not for every meal.
Not when you’re buying specialty ingredients you’ll use once.
Not when you’re throwing half of them away.
Not when you’re cooking a complicated meal for one person.
And not when you’re comparing a $10 prepared meal with $35 of groceries that could theoretically produce multiple meals but probably won’t all get eaten.
The actual answer is much more boring:
It depends.
