> That sounds odd, do you buy particularly expensive ingredients?

Yes. Far more expensive than the cheap ingredients like the flours and oils of fast food. I focus on making my food as nutritionally dense as possible, which ain't cheap. But I ate a lot more than my share of fast-food first and did a lot of damage with it. I'm positive I'd be dead if I didn't change. That would certainly be a lot cheaper.

Agree. I don't tip myself. And abundant portions at home are easy left-overs. And often the ingredients are not completely consumed by one meal and so amortize across a number of meals.

I think if you run the real numbers, eating at home is still a huge savings. And this allowing that you are probably using higher quality ingredients.