Hailey Sabai can count on one hand the number of times she has cooked in the last month.
“Like last week, other than warming some food I bought from the supermarket, I haven’t cooked at all,” she says. “Some weeks I’ll make tea and fried eggs at home, but those are very rare instances.”
For Hailey, eating out is not an occasional treat or luxury. It’s a necessity.
On the four days she goes to the office in a typical week, she might pick up some chicken from Carrefour for breakfast, order in some pilau and beef at lunchtime, have tea with sausages and plantain for an afternoon snack, before having her usual cardamom tea delivered just in time for dinner.
Weekends tend to push her spending even higher, with brunches from Java, two-piece meals from KFC, and a steady stream of snacks, from croissants and crisps to flavoured popcorn.
Add the two bottles of fresh juice she picks up every week, and her food bill comes to roughly Sh8,500 a week, or about Sh34,000 a month.
That spending is hardly insignificant, but Hailey says this is a cost she is willing to bear for the convenience.
“I don’t even feel like I have a choice,” she says. “Just the thought of going to the market to pick up groceries after a long day at work exhausts me. And even if I have the groceries, because sometimes I do, I find it tiring and time-consuming to chop ingredients and wait an hour for food to cook. I often end up sleeping before the meal is ready.”
She has tried doing meal preps before, but the habit never sticks.
“By day two, I would find that I was already bored with my options and wanting something different,” she says.
“There’s also something about the difference in tastes that keeps me going out for food. With even tea, for example, I have packets of milk in my house and it would be cheaper to just make the tea myself, but for some reason, the tea I make at home never tastes as good as the one I buy, and at this point, I am quite accustomed to those better tastes.”
And while Hailey is now earning enough to comfortably afford her eating-out habit, her income has never been the deciding factor.
“Even when I was earning Sh30,000, I ate out,” she says. “I didn’t even have any kitchenware at the time. I only went home to sleep. The only difference is that I would eat cheaper food and at cheaper joints. And if the money wasn’t enough, I would sometimes take out a Sh5,000 loan just for food, or ask my boss for an advance.”
Lawrence Wairegi is another frequent diner. He eats out every day, for all three meals. With a budget of around Sh200 for breakfast, and between Sh300 and Sh500 for lunch and supper, his minimum daily spend comes to about Sh800 or roughly Sh6,000 a week. And like Hailey, Lawrence believes the cost is justified by what he gets in return.
“I genuinely think it’s cheaper to eat out,” says the businessman. “It’s only about five percent of my total income, and it saves me the time and effort that I would otherwise spend deciding what to eat, cooking, and worst of all, cleaning up. It has also spared me other expenses and worries. I haven’t had to buy something like gas for the past three years.”
Rising food prices have not been enough to wean him off the habit, but Lawrence says he might consider changing his lifestyle when he gets married.
“If what I usually eat no longer fits within my budget, I simply choose something that does,” he says. “And it’s not that I don’t know how to cook; I can cook everything. When I get a wife, I’ll probably cook for her sometimes or cook together with her, but for now, I am content to live this way.”
Chef with a home meals appetite
While Hailey and Lawrence are willing to pay for the convenience of eating out, George Onditi would rather put in the work at home. He eats out only about twice a week.
Hungarian Cold Cuts comprising of Salamis, Cheese, Sausages, Pickles and Pogacsa scones pictured during the launch of the Hungarian Food Week at Villa Rosa Kempinski Hotel in Nairobi on October 16, 2024.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
George and his two roommates share the costs of buying food, mostly shop from a local supermarket, which brings his weekly contribution to around Sh5,000.
“It is easier to control the ingredients when you cook at home,” says George, a chef who also teaches people to cook. “When you eat at a restaurant, the only thing you can control is perhaps the salt. As a chef, you must follow the recipe, but at home, you are free to do whatever you want with your food.”
Cooking at home also makes it easier for people who are conscious of their health and diet to eat balanced meals.
“When we eat out, we mostly get fatty food,” he says. “A balanced meal often comes at an extra charge. But at home, you can easily get your carbohydrates, proteins, and vitamins.”
Beyond the practical benefits, George enjoys cooking because it gives him and his roommates a chance to spend time together.
“I particularly enjoy cooking Swahili pilau, which typically takes time before it’s ready. As we wait, we often end up either playing games or talking, which helps us bond.”
While George enjoys the control and social aspect of cooking, Fabian Oduor has another reason for preferring meals prepared at home: Hygiene.
“I got sick one time after eating in a restaurant and since then, I have developed some phobia,” he says. “So unless it is at a restaurant with reputable standards, I don’t like eating out.”
He typically prepares breakfast and supper at home, often having a substantial breakfast that carries him through most of the day. If he does get hungry for lunch and is somewhere close to home, he simply goes back to cook.
Fabian’s weekly shopping typically consists of spices and vegetables such as tomatoes and onions, which he estimates cost him around Sh600.
“I learnt that it is cheaper to cook at home when I was in school, and I guess after doing it for so long, the habit just stuck,” says the biomedical engineer.
So is eating out a waste of money?
According to Barbara Nzovu, personal finance coach and founder of BudgetnKE and Sumtack, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Whether it makes financial sense depends on a person’s goals, priorities and overall spending habits.
Barbara Nzovu, personal finance coach, educator and founder of BudgetnKE & Sumstack Limited, based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Photo credit: Pool
“If you look at the numbers, eating out tends to always be more expensive, but I have seen people who cook at home yet have very high spending budgets. Someone who shops at Zucchini or the higher-end supermarkets, for example, will have a very different budget from someone who goes to Gikomba market for their produce. And then there are those who will eat more organic foods and those who are comfortable with diversity. Bunching them all into one category would be misleading.”
Barbara says spending ultimately depends on factors such as income, where one shops, the number of people in the household, and their tastes and preferences.
“I would ideally keep non-essentials, which is where I’d personally categorise eating out, to between 20 and 30 percent of your income,” she says.
“If you are eating out more, there is a greater chance that you will end up pushing your non-essential spending beyond that range, which then reduces your income to invest or save more.”
“Spending Sh100 here and Sh200 there can accumulate very quickly, particularly if you are not keeping track,” she cautions. “You may end up spending a lot more than you had planned to.”
One way she helps her clients manage this is by setting a limit for a particular expense and treating it as a boundary for the month.
“If you choose to use that budget in one day, that’s fine, but just know that for the rest of the month, you will not be able to eat out again,” she says. “Ideally, it gives you that distinct distance between the beginning and the end of the month. So you space it out and make sure you utilise it correctly throughout the month.”
For those who realise that they are spending a lot more on eating out than they can afford, Barbara’s recommendation is simple: start by tracking every shilling.
“Sit with your M-Pesa and bank statements and monitor them for a month or two to identify where the leakage is, then you’ll see a trend or pattern which you can use as a corrective measure.”
Ultimately, Barbara says, managing your money is all about being intentional with what you have.
“Let’s not hide or be afraid of personal finance. It is not difficult or reserved only for the wealthy.”
Joyce Wangui Gikonyo, a financial advisor at ICEA Lion Group, says, “The rule of thumb in budgeting is 50-30-20. 50 per cent needs, 30 per cent wants, 20 percent savings and investments. Of the 30 percent of your income, I would say prioritise fixed bills like subscriptions, then the rest can go to the occasional eating out. So I would say it depends on the person’s lifestyle but should not overrun other bills.”
