When your schedule is busy, getting fast food may seem like your most convenient option for eating a meal. But while eating out will generally save you time (compared to cooking), that takeout habit can be tough on your savings, right? According to recent data, not necessarily. In some places, in the battle of “fast food versus cooking,” takeout surprisingly reigns supreme for being both time-saving and wallet-friendly. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the past five years, average grocery prices in the United States have risen by nearly 25%, and the rate of eating out has increased by about 30%. But these data points don’t offer a clear snapshot of whether eating out makes more sense than cooking — those averages neither consider price differences across cities nor weigh factors like nutritional value or the benefit of using extra groceries for various recipes throughout the week. Hims conducted a survey to clarify those data points. This included an analysis of price data on grocery store ingredients and fast food meals from 50 metropolitan areas across the U.S. to help you determine whether — in your city — eating out is more or less expensive than cooking. To streamline this analysis, Hims calculated the cost of making one cheeseburger at home and compared it to the price of buying one at a fast food chain. In addition, Hims outlined the benefits of cooking at home, which are often overlooked when price is the only consideration. Where is a fast food cheeseburger the most expensive? Where is a fast food cheeseburger the least expensive? Where is the price of cooking a cheeseburger at home the most expensive? Where is the price of cooking a cheeseburger at home the least expensive? Hims started by selecting the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas based on Census Bureau population data. To calculate the cost of cooking versus fast food in each region, Hims used the quarterly Cost of Living Index from The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER). From this dataset, Hims pulled the price of a single fast food cheeseburger, along with prices for five ingredients required to make a burger at home: ground beef, lettuce, bread, cooking oil, and cheese. The calculations below were used to determine the cost of making just one burger, given that the data includes grocery items sold for more than one serving: Hims then subtracted the price of a fast-food burger from the cost of cooking at home to determine which was more expensive. When the difference was positive, fast food was determined to be more affordable, and when the difference was negative, cooking was found to be cheaper.