There are a few reasons I don’t really enjoy eating out anymore.

I worry about the cleanliness of the establishment, servers and cooks.

Most restaurants don’t serve anything I can’t make at home. I would never order spaghetti, meatloaf, lasagna, sandwiches, fried chicken, steak, eggs, pancakes, mashed potatoes, pork chops or pot roast because I can make those things at home.

When I look at a menu I automatically start calculating prices. “How much does this actually cost to make?”

Today I went on a family outing to a Greek-owned breakfast and lunch diner. The food is good and plentiful.

I started out my meal with a cup of coffee. That was $1.45 with unlimited refills. I pay less than $3.00 for a can of coffee that lasts for months. Although I looked at the breakfast choices and lunch entrees, I decided that the soup and salad combo was the cheapest and most appealing option. “Almost six bucks for soup and salad? That’s nuts! I could make a whole pot of soup and a sinkful of salad for six bucks!” My traditional Sunday Greek soup was cream of chicken with rice or avgolemono (egg lemon). Restaurants in this area leave out an important ingredient to appeal to the masses, so I asked for lemon wedges to squeeze into the soup. My salad was iceberg and romaine, cucumber, tomato, red onion, and cheddar cheese with ranch dressing. Thankfully, the “bread basket” was sanitary wrapped packets of crackers. (We all know that restaurants recycle bread baskets.)

The service was great, the hostess and manager friendly and accommodating. The restaurant seemed clean and well-maintained. Although my soup was tasty and my salad full of satiating fiber, it was not worth $5.50.

I just kept thinking, “How much food could I buy with that money? How much soup and salad could I prepare with that amount?”

Understandably, dining out is a social experience, but one I gladly forsake for the monetary savings.