On the topic of cooking meals at home vs. eating out, as someone who lives on his own, I know it's way cheaper for me to cook at home. If I'm diligent about planning meals out for the week and stick to my plans, saving leftovers instead of overeating, I can get by with a food bill less than $30 if I stick to things that are relatively cheap (so not a lot of beef right now with the way prices have spiked; instead, I'm substituting pork in some things like chili). Fruits, vegetables, rice, pasta, and dry beans are all pretty cheap, while also being filling and generally nutritious. If you make good use of them, you can really reduce the need for much more expensive meats (although I like meat, especially pork and lean beef, and I really want to try cooking with lamb, venison, and rabbit, but they're more expensive than I really want to spend to "experiment" with). In contrast, I can hardly ever get away from a restaurant without spending at least $5 for my meal. If we leave out breakfast, at 14 meals a week, that would be $70, absolute minimum, more than double what I would spend to cook for myself. $100 a week would be more likely.
And I like the food I cook at home better than what I can get at a lot of restaurants. And I like cooking, too. There's a rewarding feeling knowing that I made something really tasty. The one thing that keeps me from cooking at home almost all the time is doing dishes. I *hate* doing dishes, and my apartment doesn't have a dishwasher, so it has to be by hand. Plates aren't a big deal, they're quick and easy, but pots and pans take more time and force me to split it up between multiple times because my sink and dish drainer only have room for so much.