For those of you that cut back on eating out....

[njmomtoone]

We really need to do this. We are a family of 2 adults and DS 9. My husband and I both get paid on the 15th and end of month.

My question, how did you set up the budget? Do you set a monthly amount, put cash in an envelope and when it's gone then that's it for the month?

I know this may sound silly, but for is, when we want to eat out we do and it needs to stop because it is costly.

 

[miknsusn]

This is hard to do but so worth it. It will save you a tremendous amount of money and calories too.

What we do is budget separately for groceries and eating out. I am in a fairly low cost of living area, have a family of 5, and we can eat for $380/month. I have recently added in $60/month for eating out. That could be 3 trips to Chic Fil A, or 1 nice restaurant trip, whatever we decide.

The food is all paid for in cash (separate envelopes for groc. vs. eating out). When the money is gone, you quit buying stuff. It will probably take a couple of months to figure out how much your grocery budget should be, so start a little higher than you think you will need.

To stick with eating at home, you have to have a meal plan. Know a week ahead what you will be having each night for dinner and have the needed groceries on hand to prepare. If you work outside the home, look into freezer meals to make on the weekend and do most of your prep work the night before. If you don't plan ahead, dinner time just sneaks up on you and you will be to tired and hungry to cook.

Good luck-it's hard but you will be glad you did it in a few weeks!

 

[mom2val]

We cut our eating out to 2 times per month. My dh gets paid same as yours on the 15th and end of month. We go out 1 time after each paycheck. We try to pick somewhere that is moderately priced. We used to go out every Saturday night and Sunday lunch. We are now spending about $70 a month including tips eating out.

 

[Marionnette]

We really need to do this. We are a family of 2 adults and DS 9. My husband and I both get paid on the 15th and end of month.

My question, how did you set up the budget? Do you set a monthly amount, put cash in an envelope and when it's gone then that's it for the month?

I know this may sound silly, but for is, when we want to eat out we do and it needs to stop because it is costly.

We draw our salary from our business every month. That means setting a weekly food budget and multiplying by 4.3 to see how much needs to be held in reserve to pay for groceries.

We dont do envelopes or even set the money aside anywhere else. It goes into the checking account. I use my visa card to pay for groceries and I just keep track of the spending that way. I check my credit card account online and then pay on it when the charge is posted.

 

[hipchickie]

we cut back to eating out 2-4x a month, $200 budgeted for the month....so we may go out 4x for "cheaper" meals, or less if we have more expensive meals.
This covers ALL eating out - from fast food to stopping for drinks, etc. Stopping for drinks is a worse habit for us lately, because we did so much traveling in December, and stopping for even just drinks is about $10, which is ridiculous.

We don't "set" it aside per se, but keep a tally.

I agree with the person who mentioned health benefits - don't discount that factor!

 

[Pembo]

We take out $200 every two weeks in cash. That is out eating out money, milk money, extras during the pay period. We eat out maybe once every two weeks. It's usually pizza or the occasional trip to Applebees.

For us, having the cash kept us from spending it. It was too easy to just charge it (even on the debit card). However seeing how much cash we have or don't have is easier for us to say no.

If we have any $$ left over at the end of the 2 weeks, it goes into the Disney fund.

 

[MoniqueU]

I wrote out a huge long confusing response. My husband works straight commision. We can sort of guess if next month is going to be a good one or not. We have to weigh what we are able to pay each month and what may possiblcoy be paid at what time the following month before we decide to spring for extras. Today we just got paid yeserday and my husband will move on to a new job on monday where it will take awhile to have the pay completely cycle to where we know how we are doing. I only feel I can spring for a 16 dollar pizza from a local pizzeria today and a starbucks trip tomorrow. After that is hunker down again and pray we can stretch it til we get paid next time. It is so stressful and our situation is unique compared to others.

 

[2disneyboys]

my husband and I (and our 2 boys) changed how we handle eating out back in oct. We make decent money for our ages etc and dont have much debt at all (really just our house) the way we always did it was, all the bills are paid, and once they are paid for the month, if there's extra we can do "whatever" with it..it was fine, I mean, its not like we were using credit cards or anything to eat out, KWIM? . well, we started the financial peace university (a dave ramsey program) in Sept and for sept we did not change ANY spending habits just to really track and see... wow were we shocked by how much money was being spent on "entertainment" eating (thats what we call eating out now!) yes, we were not stacking up debt or anything by eating out so much, but we were cheating ourselves (and our savings account). Starting in Oct 2010, We set a budget for the month (say $100 a month)& divide the monthly amt by the # of payperiods and then each time we get paid (also twice a month like you), we pull out the budgeted cash and put it in an "envelope". Once the money is gone from the envelope... no more going out. period. no exceptions. the 1st time we had to *sigh* say no to someone who asked us out or just make dinner at home (was trying to be lazy and not have to cook) we were not happy, but the key to this type of budget succeeding is not giving into the the temptation of "taking" the money from somewhere else.

You may have to tweek your amounts some and be aware of that. You want to set a realistic number for this category so that you don't just give up and collapse the whole system, but you want it to be less than you spend now in order to see the savings. as an example If you spend $500 now on this type of thing a month, it would most likly not be realistic to set yourself a monthly limit of $50! the first month, try cutting down to like $300.. and if that was comfortable, then drop it down a little more and see if that's liveable. as this category is a total "want" category and not a NEED category, it's an expendable category. meaning if something happens where suddenly your bills are more than your income, this is one of the first categories to go. or if you just need extra money for a particular want, (not need, want) then you could pull it from here. if you are trying to pay off debt or something of that nature, then the budget amt for this category needs to be teeny tiny and the xtra money you would have put in this category, can go to paying off the debt or whatever.

Since starting this type of system in Oct we are now spending about 25% of what we used to spend on entertainment eating. and we are FINE with it. We feel like we get to go out as much as we would want to and are still saving money.
as another PP said, it's important to have some sort of meal plan for the week. By the time I get home from work and picking kids up the last thing I want to do is "deceide" what to make for dinner... thus the reason we ate out all the time! by having a plan of the meals, we also try our best to plan for when we are going to eat out and I have found that we actually consider eating out much more of a treat then it used to be.

sorry this is such a long post, it's just something I'm very passionate about. I am not kidding when I say how shocked we were at the amt that we are now saving by eating in more than before.

 

[figment3258]

We set a budget for food shopping and put the money one our Disney visa that way we are not in debt but we also get the points. We also plan out a menu for two weeks so we can stay on target.come join us on the eat at home thread on this board there is some great support there.
We also plan each month on how much money to put in savings for our next trip it helps to have a goal that u are saving for

 

[laurafergie]

I wrote out a huge long confusing response. My husband works straight commision. We can sort of guess if next month is going to be a good one or not. We have to weigh what we are able to pay each month and what may possiblcoy be paid at what time the following month before we decide to spring for extras. Today we just got paid yeserday and my husband will move on to a new job on monday where it will take awhile to have the pay completely cycle to where we know how we are doing. I only feel I can spring for a 16 dollar pizza from a local pizzeria today and a starbucks trip tomorrow. After that is hunker down again and pray we can stretch it til we get paid next time. It is so stressful and our situation is unique compared to others.

Girl, you are not alone. That is my life and has been for over 20 years. My DH is a contractor and I am self-employed. Some months or years we are flush and some we hunker down.

To answer OP - we almost never eat out, and when we do it's a big treat. However we did get delivered Chinese last night because neither DH nor I got home until after 9pm. Yummmm Eggrolls.

We do have a budget for extras, like stopping for coffee whatever for DH and it is $25 a week.

ETA: Grocery budget including pet food, cleaning and paper products is $100 a week - $150 when the older kids are home.

 

[angierae]

When we decided to cut back on eating out, we set ourselves a limit of once a week. We don't budget a dollar amount, but we generally know how much eating out costs for the three of us - we don't tend to go to expensive restaurants or anything.

So once a week, and we're careful about it. Do we want to go out on the weekend, or go out on a weeknight when we might be busy? Do we have a school event that week that means we should probably order pizza?

But yeah, we set ourselves a once a week limit.

 

[stich1fan]

well we simply just stop eating out. Our goal was to save about $500 a month and as of now we have saved about $1500. Our average credit card charges total $3000, which we always pay off in full. Anyway we have about 7 days left in the cc cycle and so far the cc charges are less than $1500, so we are very pleased. If we meet our goal we will go out to eat at the end of the cc cycle. I am just making sure we do not waste food. I check all the items in the fridge and make sure to let everyone know what is expiring first and we will eat those things prior to expiration.

Sounds silly but we through out so much produce and things like yogurt. They are expensive....so we stopped than.

 

[bonjoe07]

Starting this month we have not gone out to eat yet! Last month we spent a total of $1400 in eating out and Christmas dinner for the whole fam., having goodies for the kids and neices and nephews, but it all added up in the end We decided that we would use that extra money
($1500/month) and put it towards Disney world and Disney cruise in August. I felt go guilty for spending so much money, but this month we are deciding we would eat out only once and it better be worth it lol! Me and My husband are having a hard time to not eat out, because it so easy to just get fast food, but its more healthy for us to eat at home and not muching out at night!

 

[braysmommy]

So far we have not gone out to eat this month. My goal is not stopping for coffee, take out or eating out for the month. I need to start keeping a budget to see where all the money goes I do already have a set amount that goes into an ING savings account twice a month which is a pretty large sum.
I have started planning meals for the week which has been very helpful since I work late evenings a couple times a week. After this month I think I will set aside a certain amount for eating out. It is only myself and my DS (4 yrs old) but my mom does live with us. So far she is buying into the meal planning thing....
We have a big trip planned to WDW and DCL in June '12

 

[fakereadhed]

We don't have a budget for eating out, but by meal planning and having dinner cooking as often as possible it cuts out the temptation. Someone asked my DD how in the world she had family dinners EVERY night. She shrugged and said, "My Mom's got a crock pot."

Someone mentioned stopping for drinks. I try to keep my trunk stocked with some sodas, bottled water, and juice boxes. Really cuts down on fast food stops because when we stop because someone is thirsty, somebody else gets sucked in by the fast food smells and wants to order.

 

[IMALOVNDISNEY]

We really need to do this. We are a family of 2 adults and DS 9. My husband and I both get paid on the 15th and end of month.

My question, how did you set up the budget? Do you set a monthly amount, put cash in an envelope and when it's gone then that's it for the month?

I know this may sound silly, but for is, when we want to eat out we do and it needs to stop because it is costly.

Start out slow. Don't just give up going eating out all together. If you just stop all at once, you're setting yourself up to fail.
In the begining, try to cut out 1 or 2 eat out nights, and then expand that as time goes on. Before you know it, you will be eating "in" more and more.
You can get so many great recipes and "eat in" ideas right here on the Dis to help. The "No buy and crock pot threads are a couple of my favorites.
Also, set yourselves a goal for the money. Designate the money it would have cost for an eat out meal to go toward something else your family likes to do. Sometimes when we are at a crossroads as to eat out or not. I ask. "If we were in Disney, what would you use that money towards. And that works. We will take that $$ put it into the Disney jar.
Good luck.... if we can do it....anyone can.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Getting control of dining out costs is difficult. It's so easy to stop off and grab something and before you know it, blow through a few hundred dollars. I eliminated Starbucks runs unless I am traveling and unable to make coffee myself. That alone saved $20 a week. Not such a calorie saver as my drink of choice is a non-fat latte with splenda. Bringing my lunch to work instead of eating in airports. This one is much harder as I have to plan for more than one meal at times and sometimes they have to be TSA checkpoint-friendly. Definitely saves calories and $$$. I also bring an empty thermal cup and tea bags with me when I travel. Fast food places and Starbucks will gladly fill it with hot water for free. I keep a refillable bottle of water in the car, too and force my kid(s) to eat BEFORE we leave the house to eliminate or reduce food stops.

Admittedly, I have been really bad at keeping track of the savings but at the end of the month I'll sit down and figure it out.

 

[DisneyScraps]

Starting this month we have not gone out to eat yet! Last month we spent a total of $1400 in eating out and Christmas dinner for the whole fam., having goodies for the kids and neices and nephews, but it all added up in the end We decided that we would use that extra money
($1500/month) and put it towards Disney world and Disney cruise in August. I felt go guilty for spending so much money, but this month we are deciding we would eat out only once and it better be worth it lol! Me and My husband are having a hard time to not eat out, because it so easy to just get fast food, but its more healthy for us to eat at home and not muching out at night!

OMG I can't imagine that.

We NEVER eat fast food, it's terrible and it is so unhealthy. We just say no. We have to pass every fast food restaurant in town but when we moved into this house we agreed..NO. If ones of us gets weak the other one stands up and says NO. So far it's been a year and not a single time. You just have to stand up to it.

We almost never eat in chain restaurant. Again, they are high calorie and the food is crap. I know someone is going to debate me about their favorite meal. I seriously think that if you knew the calories and the preservatives that are in that food, you might rethink it. All we have in my town for chain restaurants is Applebees and Ruby Tuesdays. That food is terrible so we don't ever give in. Unfortunately when we moved last year we had to and I was miserable.

Once you get used to healthy delicious food you won't want to eat out. I learned how to cook and I am a great cook. Every week I make meals that my family is excited about. I change things up and always make old favorites. It didn't just happen. It takes effort but it's worth it.

I started to cook and freeze favorites so even night when I am tired or we are out late there is always something to eat.

It takes some effort and some planing but trust me it's so much cheaper, so much healthier and your family deserves the best don't they? We are not doing any kind of favor for our kids by giving them fast food or eating out too much. We have to teach them how to be adults and you want then to sit down at home with their family and share a meal.

I wish I had 1,500 to eat out because that is a Disney trip to me. I would be going a lot more than I do!!!

Lisa

 

[Mrsdennison]

I started by making a calendar of meals from one pay check to the next. I then made sure I had all the food for those two weeks. This helped, because it was like looked I wrote down that we are having this so we need to eat it.

I also scheduled meals out. Like my bday meal is going to be eating out. So we will eat out twice a month.

Mrsdennison

 

[Granfan]

I find it helps to spend a little more on better quality Food to cook at home. In the end it saves from going out because "there's nothing to cook"