Eating out

[lovesmurfs]

Does McDonalds and takeaway pizza count?

Absolutely.

 

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

Absolutely.

In that case too much.

 

[CdnCarrie]

I would take what everyone says with a grain of salt - the Dis tends to sometimes be a competition for who is the most frugal with this kind of stuff.

Really? I see it as the opposite - talking about European vacations, dining out, designer bags. DVC.

 

[NotUrsula]

Am I allowed to say buttload...as I wait for DoorDash to bring me Chicken Fiesta

Now that's one thing I won't ever do; pay a service to deliver a meal. If the restaurant itself delivers I'll tip nicely, but the 3rd party services are insanely expensive, and my frugal heart just can't justify that in that name of convenience. (It also rather bothers me that the service takes so much off the top of what the restaurants pay.)

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

We don't eat out much. Some months it's zero. I'd say we average out to about $30 a month maybe.

 

[gmi3804]

Now that's one thing I won't ever do; pay a service to deliver a meal. If the restaurant itself delivers I'll tip nicely, but the 3rd party services are insanely expensive, and my frugal heart just can't justify that in that name of convenience. (It also rather bothers me that the service takes so much off the top of what the restaurants pay.)

I'm the same. I don't really do much take-out anyway, as it's always cold and kind of gross by the time it's time to eat. I'll do Chinese and certain pizza, things I can heat up a bit before I eat. I always pick up if I do, never delivery. I certainly would never do a delivery service, but if I had to I'd use the restaurant's delivery.

 

[nw6675]

Now that's one thing I won't ever do; pay a service to deliver a meal. If the restaurant itself delivers I'll tip nicely, but the 3rd party services are insanely expensive, and my frugal heart just can't justify that in that name of convenience. (It also rather bothers me that the service takes so much off the top of what the restaurants pay.)

But you can even order a carafe of wine or a long Island iced tea from our hibachi place.

Quite a few places don't mark up and we are members so essentially no fees. Convenience wins for us!

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We eat out once or twice a week typically, to give me a break from cooking. Theres usually 6 of us, 7 some nights if my oldest is here. We do takeout every other Friday and eat in restaurants on the alternate fridays. Occasionally we’ll eat out one other day during the week if I don’t feel like cooking. And Dh and I do one date night a month usually too. We average anywhere from $400-$1000 per month on eating out, depending on what/where/how often. Just one trip to Chick-fil-A for the 6/7 of us is well over $65. Prices are insane.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

We made it a goal not to eat out in December at all because we were eating out a lot. We made it. Then decided to try for January and make an exception for take out once. Chinese is planned for tomorrow. So far we have been sticking to it. It's been a good challenge and we realized just how much we were spending on dinner, alcohol, lunches out (DH does that more than I do really). It's working and we are more mindful of what's worth it for us to eat out. Planning a night out in February (not Valentine's Day), but I think we are committed to make a goal each month and stick to it.

Sorry- Meant to say I think we were spending at least $500 a month on things out if you added it all up.

 

[Suger Mag]

too much. I try to limit it to once a week, but we often have take out 2-3x a week, usually pizza and burritos. Chinese food is reserved for birthdays and occasions as it is so $$. It depends on how much I had to do that day whether or not I feel like cooking. Tonight i don't feel like cooking so burritos from Bueno Y Sano.

 

[shh]

If I could just shed my 2x/wk sushi addiction, I'd save a lot. But most restaurant dining has stopped. My area has gone bonkers: skyrocketing prices, served with sides of extra service charges, lower quality and smaller portions. I save restaurants mostly for vacations these days.

 

[sk!mom]

Covid forced us to eat at home and so far we have managed to not revert to our old ways which were eating out most meals.

We eat at home for dinner Sunday - Thursday and eat at home Monday - Friday for lunch. Breakfast is always at home.

A total of 17 meals at home and 4 meals out per week.

So that leaves dinner Friday and Saturday and lunch Saturday and Sunday out. Those meals usually add up to around $500 a month.

Where are you going and what are you eating to get 4 meals a week/ 16 a month for only $500? That’s $31.25 a meal. I assume only 2 people?

We typically eat out for lunch on Saturday. A local brew pub where we split a burger and fries and have a couple of beers for $40-50 depending on whether it’s 1 or 2 beers. We occasionally go to Sunday brunch with friends.

All breakfasts are at home, and We both pack lunches everyday. I’m a teacher with only 30 minutes, and DH doesn’t eat fast food due to healthy habits.

We never get take out. My coping mechanism after all the nightly dinners while child raising is that we don’t eat dinner M-Th. DH prefers a preworkout protein shake before meeting his training partners 5 days a week after work. I just have something light when I get home after work and the health club. Greek yogurt with fruit, cheese and crackers. I cook a meal on Saturday and Sunday and make enough for us to have leftovers for lunches.

Covid changed our ways somewhat, as well. Prior to 2020, we would usually go out for Happy Hour on Fridays. Since then we make charcuterie or chips and Queso and drinks at home. DH became a pretty good mixologist during Covid. We enjoyed trying new drinks at home and now prefer it.

On vacation, every meal is out. Beyondd that it varies depending on the month. January will be higher as our adult son had a birthday and we took everyone out to dinner. Our anniversary is next week and we’ll go out for dinner and drinks somewhere local and nice. I honestly don’t want to actually look to see the total over the course of a year.

 

[kdonnel]

Where are you going and what are you eating to get 4 meals a week/ 16 a month for only $500? That’s $31.25 a meal. I assume only 2 people?

Yup, just two people.

We also often split meals as a calorie control method, so often just one meal.

 

[DisneylandFreak2013]

We don't eat out anymore. Never that big on restaurants, but the last couple times it just feels like the food has been lower quality. I would rather make things myself and know what I am getting versus going somewhere to spend $25-50/pp and get less than desirable.

 

[pinkxray]

I’m going to be honest. No idea how much we spend on eating out. We usually get take out at least once a week. We tend not to eat out much, but sometimes that changes and we out a bunch in a short amount of time. Probably at least a few hundred a month. Dh also used to buy breakfast and lunch out while at work. I might buy lunch at the work cafeteria once a week if working my normal part time hours. If I got asked to work extra I’d probably buy lunch those days.

Since I am determined to work less this year to have a better home/work balance, I decided to keep an eye on our budget and really work on eating out. My biggest issue with the expense is I will spend a ton of money on groceries and then throw them away bc we were lazy and grabbed food out instead.

So far in Jan. we have spent about $100 on take out pizza. $60 of that is when DS had some friends over and we got their favorite, dominos. Not planning on getting anymore take out this month. I have also not bought lunch at work at all this month despite working tons of extra shifts due to coworkers being out sick.

Since we typically eat pizza the most as our take out, I decided we will start doing make our own pizza on Friday nights. The kids love rolling out the dough and putting on their own toppings.


Last year Dh and I spent a ton on eating out every for breakfast or lunch. He had a bunch of vacation time to burn and I don’t work Fridays. Every Friday for a few months we went out to eat together which is something we haven’t done in years since we almost always have our kids around. It was awesome. He is probably going to do the same thing again starting in the spring and we will gladly drop a few hundred those months to eat out. Really enjoyed our time together

 

[longboard55]

Around $2000, I use the Capital One Savor card only for meals, so it is easy to track. We are empty nesters with very low household expenses, so we enjoy going out. We like places with live music, they all do the best business, more should do it. Food quality and service are also very important, and we know prices and do not like to get gouged. We do a lot of splits, especially at something like a Steak place, seldom do we bring home food. We might order one entree and one salad.

 

[focusondisney]

Yes, we cut way back, too. I was referring to folks who listed number of times/week out and then a number. Those numbers are practically impossible if you're "eating out" unless you are just picking up, say, a pizza...

And pizzas around here have gotten expensive too. We get pizza & wings for 2of us. Used to be maybe $28. Now, it’s over 40. So even for pizza some of those numbers wouldn’t work here.

 

[focusondisney]

I've mostly given up on eating out just because the quality has become so poor.

I've grown tired of spending 150-200 for mediocre food, or inconsistent food.

We used to eat out about once week at minimum. We used to stock up on gift cards at Christmas - lots of deals where you buy $100 gift card and get 125 etc...

One of the last places that was still pretty consistent got rid of all the waitstaff that had been their for years and brought in a bunch of kids. It's an slightly upscale Italian restaurant. They basically made all the folks that used to bus tables waitstaff. I'm guessing they replaced the kitchen staff as well. Service is now as bad as everywhere else - basically they do the bare minimum and expect 20%. Food is also not as good, for example they stopped making fresh rolls and used prepackaged ones from BJs. Not even the good ones, but the cheapest ones. The give one roll per person and if you want more they charge you. As I said it's an Italian restaurant with lots of sauces and the average dish is around $30, I think you can through us a few rolls. Anyway the last straw was when my wife got a boneless chicken breast that was very fatty and rock hard on the edges. We sent it back and that was the last time we went. Still have $100 gift card to use, but we just dont want to go back. Will just get take out.

We stock up on gift cards with the Christmas specials too. They last longer now that we don’t eat out as often as we used to. It’s too bad that your local place has gone downhill. We also have a favorite local Italian place. It’s our go to for birthdays & special occasions. Luckily food quality is still good & prices are only moderately increased. On 1 visit last year, it struck me there was no bus person around. They were usually the ones who brought the bread service & filled your water in addition to clearing plates. I thought maybe it was because we were there within a half hour of opening. But no, they just got rid of busers. The wait staff now does everything, no matter what time we’re there. It’s fine for us, but I imagine the wait staff is probably not happy.

I'm the same. I don't really do much take-out anyway, as it's always cold and kind of gross by the time it's time to eat. I'll do Chinese and certain pizza, things I can heat up a bit before I eat. I always pick up if I do, never delivery. I certainly would never do a delivery service, but if I had to I'd use the restaurant's delivery.

That’s why we don’t do delivery. Many nice restaurant meals won’t do well with reheating. I can’t imagine paying restaurant prices & having poor quality because we had to reheat it. We used to get pizza, wings, subs etc at least once a week. We never had delivery til maybe 4 years ago. It was so cold & snowy & I just didn’t want to deal with going out. We’ve maybe only done it 10 times total. I usually don’t mind going For it. I put the pizza down on the passenger floor with the heat up as far as it will go blowing down on it. I can get it home still very warm & it’s so much better than getting cold delivery.

 

[gmi3804]

That’s why we don’t do delivery. Many nice restaurant meals won’t do well with reheating. I can’t imagine paying restaurant prices & having poor quality because we had to reheat it. We used to get pizza, wings, subs etc at least once a week. We never had delivery til maybe 4 years ago. It was so cold & snowy & I just didn’t want to deal with going out. We’ve maybe only done it 10 times total. I usually don’t mind going For it. I put the pizza down on the passenger floor with the heat up as far as it will go blowing down on it. I can get it home still very warm & it’s so much better than getting cold delivery.

During the pandemic lockdown, I had a huge craving for Chicago tavern-style pizza. It doesn't travel well. So I taught myself how to make my own.

 

[NYCgrrl]

We are empty nesters with very low household expenses, so we enjoy going out.

Thank you for reminding of a giggle moment.
When the man and I first became empty nesters we ate takeout like it was going out of style. We had a folder of takeout menus with any and everything you could imagine.
One weekend my then 7 y/o nephew stayed with us and upon leaving, reported back to his parents that we had a nice house but there was no kitchen…