Get Rich By Eating Fancy Seafood Dinners

What if I told you that changing one thing about your life could generate over $104,849 in 15 years?  Would you be interested?  What if I told you that implementing this change would have you living in the lap of luxury?  Let me share with you how it’s done.

Eating Out (Or Not)

According to the latest survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American family spends around $3000 a year dining outside their home.  That is roughly $250/month.  About the same amount of money spent on entertainment.  That’s a lot of money!  In my area, which is considered HCOL (High Cost of Living), a family can easily exceed this amount.

I understand why people do it – They like the convenience, luxury,  and ease of eating outside the home.  Someone serves you a fancy meal like a king and cleans up the mess after you.  Sounds fantastic.  But at what cost to your life?

Well, I’m here to say, that $3,000 compounded at 8% over 15 years amounts to $104,849.  If you want to be financially independent, dining-in instead of dining-out will get you much closer to financial independence.  So don’t be a convenience wimp!  Dine-in!

Luxury At A Fraction Of The Price

We live in the Pacific Northwest, where seafood is abundant, but rather expensive (as it is most places).  Fortunately for me, Mrs. Tako had a birthday on Monday.  She *loves* seafood…especially crab.  What’s a husband to do?

Rather than wimp-out and give-up our financial independence by taking her out to a fancy seafood dinner, I chose to make one at home for her and showcase my maaaad cooking skills.

At a local seafood restaurant chain, a crab dinner (for 1 person) goes for $48 (before taxes).  After taxes it’s about $52.56 (9.5% sales tax).  Add in 15% for a tip and we’re up to $60.44.  Dinner for 2 would be $120.88  Can I beat that at home?  Without hardly even trying…

Finding The Meal (At a Affordable Cost)

First off, we’re not going to go down to the nearest grocery store and buy the already-cooked-dried-up crab that they offer.  We need fresh, live specimens for a proper comparison.  A quick drive to my nearest asian market looks like there are plenty available.

Ignore the fact the sign says regular price is 10.99/lb.  They never sell for that.  

I scored 3 live crab for $31.48.  Nice!  We will get at least 2 meals out of this.

That works out to $10.48 for each crab.  With no sales tax on groceries we are WAY ahead of the fancy-pants restaurant already!

Mr. Tako’s Mad Cooking Skills

What’s that?  You want that $104,000 but don’t have those mad Mr. Tako cooking skills?  Cooking a juicy succulent crab is a piece of cake.  I can show you in less than 2 minutes with this little video:

Done!  If you don’t like my video, there are literally hundreds on Youtube.

Presentation

Part of making a fancy meal is about presentation.  All that takes is a little bit of effort, not money.  Easily accomplished for Mrs. Tako’s birthday dinner.  In this case, I paired the crab with a bean-noodle asian salad, a glass of plum wine, and a garlic-butter to accompany the crab.

Final Total

The final numbers worked out like this:

• 2 whole dungeness crab: $20.96
• Roughly 1 pound of bean-noodle asian salad; $4.00
• 1 Glass of plum wine (Mrs. Tako only): $2.00
• Garlic butter: $0.50
• Mrs. Tako’s appreciation of my cooking skills: Priceless
• Total:  $27.46

Compared to the local seafood restaurant’s total of $120.88, we blew them out of the water.  Yes, we even shared with the kids!

There you go: A fancy dinner that easily bests a fancy restaurant, and can be yours at 1/4th of the cost.  Take a hint and save yourself $104k, don’t eat-out!

Your only question should be:  What will I do with the third crab tonight?  Ideas?