How often do you eat out?

[CdnCarrie]

Do those of you who cook the whole protein, two sides and bread type meals also work? I couldn't imagine doing all that after work! I can't even imagine giving up an entire weekend day to cooking lol.

I also kind of hate to cook as well so I think maybe that makes a difference.

I'm so thankful for places like Chipotle that are quick, yummy, use real food and make it fairly easy to eat fairly paleo friendly. I'm lucky to have a lot of those type of places near me. Of course it's much easier to rationalize eating out when you're just one person and the cost difference is negligible (at least for the type of foods I eat) especially when I factor in my time and the fact that I prefer not to eat the same thing 4-6 times in a row.

Yes we both work and have 2 school age kids. My husband is home first so does much of the cooking. It's not always from scratch.

This week - tacos, grilled chicken/potatoes, farmer sausage and perogies, tuna melts with a big salad, and one night was rushed with kid stuff so grilled cheese and a can of soup.

Have you considered taking some basic cooking classes? It would take 10 minutes to make yourself something simple at home. It doesn't have to be a 3 course roast dinner with 3 sides every night.

 

[kerplop]

We get delivery once a week, maybe once every two weeks if money is tighter. I think we probably eat at a restaurant probably once every 3 months or so - we're homebodies by nature!

 

[CdnCarrie]

I'm so jealous that your Panera has a drive thru!



It takes me 15 minutes to clean, peel and chop the veggies for our salad. Not that I'm complaining, I enjoy cooking and most nights I do like to make meals that are more involved than throwing some meat in jarred spaghetti sauce. Tonight was supposed to be braised chicken thighs in a lemon garlic sauce with artichokes and roasted asparagus over orzo. Unfortunately I opened the chicken and it was foul smelling so I grilled up some hotdogs and threw some frozen corn on the stove. Wasn't even 15 minutes

Oh of course jarred spaggetti sauce is not the best thing. But in a pinch I would rather feed that to my family (doctored with a few veggies) served with garlic bread and a salad than picking up fast food. And you can use ground turkey or chicken to make it healthier.

And $15 versus $30 for fast food.

 

[mombrontrent]

We get delivery once a week, maybe once every two weeks if money is tighter. I think we probably eat at a restaurant probably once every 3 months or so - we're homebodies by nature!

This is another major reason I never eat out, I just love being home. I just don't ever have the urge to "get out". I don't like to socialize and when I get home from work I really don't want to go out again, especially in the winter. It's not uncommon for us to not leave our house for the whole weekend unless we need groceries or a Costco run. Most evenings we are home unless I need to take the kids somewhere but we don't have "busy" lives and I strive to keep the kids pretty timetable open besides a sport or swim lesson occasionally. I just hate that run-around feeling.

 

[EMode]

Oh of course jarred spaggetti sauce is not the best thing. But in a pinch I would rather feed that to my family (doctored with a few veggies) served with garlic bread and a salad than picking up fast food. And you can use ground turkey or chicken to make it healthier.

And $15 versus $30 for fast food.

I agree its definitely better for you and cheaper to do that, but sometimes its about what is easier and stopping by the drive thru on the way past is just that, for me anyway.

 

[Jake&IzzyLand]

We would eat out more if we lived in a metro area that had a great variety. It is hard for me to spend sixty bucks on a meal that is not very good or thirty bucks at the drive through for nasty food. I have gotten pretty skilled at making quick and yummy meals even on the busiest nights. We both work and have kids in activities. When we do go out its a 45 minute drive to eat anywhere decent, just takes too much time! Does not help that I'm hard to please!

 

[wendow]

It really depends on your priority in life. I know someone who eats out 3-4 a week but purposely bought a super small house, one small car, never vacations besides a few weekends of camping, and only buys second hand clothes. She lives for eating out.

We like to have a nice home, a cottage, 2 SUVs, couple vacations a year, etc. We can't do that and eat out 3-4 times a week on our salary.

Of course, you are right. We all choose to spend our money somewhere. I just don't choose to spend mine on eating out. It's like flushing money down the toilet to me

 

[wendow]

Do those of you who cook the whole protein, two sides and bread type meals also work? I couldn't imagine doing all that after work! I can't even imagine giving up an entire weekend day to cooking lol.

I don't 'work' in the sense you mean. I raise 4 children, homeschool them, cart them around to a slew of activities, do mounds of laundry, clean the house, do all the grocery shopping (which for a family of 6 is a lot) and yes, cook all our meals almost every single night. My dh works all day and does none of the cooking. I've always been a bit jealous of women who have dh's who love to cook

I never give up an entire weekend day to cook. I'm just not like that. What I will do is when I make chili or spaghetti or a chicken pot pie, I will make double the amount we need and freeze half. If I already have bought everything and am making one, making another is easy.

 

[Blakelynn]

We used to grab fast food 3-4 times a week and eat out 2 or so times a month. It was too much but really what stopped us was me being diagnosed with food allergies. Now it's a pain to eat out and forget fast food, that's pretty much impossible for me to eat safely. So, now we only eat out when obligated to go with family for special occasions. I'd like to say its saved us money but our grocery bill has gone up now that I'm cooking more and some of the food items I buy to accommodate my food allergies are quite pricey so I haven't noticed any extra money at the end of the month yet.

 

[mrsbicewdw]

I don't 'work' in the sense you mean. I raise 4 children, homeschool them, cart them around to a slew of activities, do mounds of laundry, clean the house, do all the grocery shopping (which for a family of 6 is a lot) and yes, cook all our meals almost every single night. My dh works all day and does none of the cooking. I've always been a bit jealous of women who have dh's who love to cook :

I'm tired just reading that. : All moms work - in the home or out, we have a lot on our plate! My DH doesn't cook either, unless you count burning things as cooking (so I don't ask anymore...). I have 2 kiddos and the amount of work and mess generated by those two little people plus DH and me is just crazy.

 

[Marionnette]

Do those of you who cook the whole protein, two sides and bread type meals also work? I couldn't imagine doing all that after work! I can't even imagine giving up an entire weekend day to cooking lol.

I also kind of hate to cook as well so I think maybe that makes a difference.

I'm so thankful for places like Chipotle that are quick, yummy, use real food and make it fairly easy to eat fairly paleo friendly. I'm lucky to have a lot of those type of places near me. Of course it's much easier to rationalize eating out when you're just one person and the cost difference is negligible (at least for the type of foods I eat) especially when I factor in my time and the fact that I prefer not to eat the same thing 4-6 times in a row.

I worked every day while the children were still at home. I've cut my hours at the office back so that I now work from home 3 days a week and spend 2 days in the office itself. Being at home where I can toss a load of laundry in before I get on the computer or wipe down some counters before contacting a customer certainly makes it easier to handle meal prep at dinner time because I'm not trying to take care of those things in the evening as well.

However, even when I was at work 5 days a week and raising 3 kids, I still cooked dinner every night. And it was always 1 protein, 2 vegetables (one green, one yellow) and a starch. We also had homemade bread with each meal thanks to a breadmaker machine.

It takes a lot of planning and sometimes I was prepping a meal the night before or in the morning prior to walking out the door. It took a lot of organization but I never came home wondering what I was going to make for dinner. It was already at least partially prepared.

I think that the major factor working in my favor is that I like to cook and I clean up as I go along. When we're done eating dinner, the plates go in the dishwasher and there might be one or two pots to scour. Everything else has been washed, wiped and put away before we sit down.

 

[SM101]

Do those of you who cook the whole protein, two sides and bread type meals also work? I couldn't imagine doing all that after work! I can't even imagine giving up an entire weekend day to cooking lol.

Yep, I work full time and am a single mom. It takes a little preplanning and commitment but it's definitely doable.

Tonight it's pork kebabs, cous cous, and a salad.

Preplanning factor: I had bought a whole pork loin 2 weeks ago and spent about 15 minutes cutting it down, seasoning it, and dividing it up into single-dinner-size servings (2 cutlets). Also preplanning: I decided last night what tonight's dinner is, so I pulled a bag out out of the freezer and put in the fridge to thaw.

Tonight: Fire up the grill (gas). Cut up pork (already seasoned) into chunks, thread on skewer with chunks of onion, zucchini, bell pepper, mushrooms. While they're on the grill, prepare some cous cous by microwaving low salt chicken broth, add whole wheat cous cous when boiling, a little olive oil and seasoning (something out of the spice cupboard). Prepare salad, toss with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper. Kidlet sets table, puts out drinks, loads dishwasher afterwards (emptied this morning while I was waiting for coffee to brew).

It will take maybe 25 minutes to cook dinner, including giving the grill about 10 minutes to heat up. I'll also be packing lunches for us for the next day and getting breakfast ready to go as well.

For me, it's a priority to eat a lot of fresh foods and avoid processed foods as much as possible. It does mean that sometimes I give up a few hours here and there to do prep stuff and freeze as well as plan ahead so I'm never in the "what's for dinner - oh heck I'll just stop at McD's" mode....but given that I feel lousy when I stray off the whole foods path too much, it's all worth it.

 

[nene0182]

We cook full meals 5-6 nights a week (protein, vegetable, and starch) I work until 5:45-6 everyday but my husband only works until 4 and normally starts dinner around 5:30, I just help out when I get home if I can. In the summer we are not likely to make a salad and have that for a few days and cook meat and potatoes on the grill.

 

[greentea]

I don't mind cooking that much, but I get home from work late (never before 7) and I have a long commute, so I'm pretty tired by then. So dinner here tends to be something quick thrown together and that's it.

DH and I go out to eat 1-2 times a week because we like food, like very different kinds of food (which means we don't have to cook 2 separate meals at home -- I won't cook meat, for example). We also like getting out of the house, talking at the restaurant. One of our goals with managing our money was to be able to go out to eat if we felt like it.

If we are super stressed and popping out for quick food every day, it gets old pretty fast, but it wouldn't if we lived closer to better food options.

He also eats out every day for lunch. We used to pack more, but the lunches often went uneaten as his whole team would go out together or the office would provide something for free, so it was easier to just stop worrying about that and waste less food.

 

[threeboysmom]

Nice sit-down - 1x week
Fast food/take-out - 4-5x week (approx. 9-10 if you count lunch!)

Food budget is $250/week for 2 people which I know is extreme.

I NEED to cut back, but dining out is my guilty pleasure. I'd much rather spend my money on food than any other "entertainment."

 

[ameliahyde]

I don't 'work' in the sense you mean. I raise 4 children, homeschool them, cart them around to a slew of activities, do mounds of laundry, clean the house, do all the grocery shopping (which for a family of 6 is a lot) and yes, cook all our meals almost every single night. My dh works all day and does none of the cooking. I've always been a bit jealous of women who have dh's who love to cook

I never give up an entire weekend day to cook. I'm just not like that. What I will do is when I make chili or spaghetti or a chicken pot pie, I will make double the amount we need and freeze half. If I already have bought everything and am making one, making another is easy.

You most certainly work though!! Lol

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I am the original "meat plus two sides" poster. I work part-time outside the home, pick up my younger son when he gets out of school at 1:50 and am home by 2:00 most every day. My husband does work full-time, so no, I'm not going to wait for him to cook when he gets home at 5:30, even if I don't feel like doing a big meal - we go out instead. My goal is to have dinner almost ready when he walks through the door and we are ready to sit down by 6:00. We eat together as a family 6 out of 7 nights every week, the only exception being Wednesday night when the kids and I need to be at church by 5:30. That night is usually my "quick" night - hot dog crescents, frozen pizza, leftovers if we have them.

Before we had kids and we both worked full-time, we still ate out a couple of nights a week. When we ate at home, yes, I still made a full meal when I got home. If I walked in the door at 5:30, I tried to make it so we were sitting down between 6:30-7:00.

 

[Carina]

OP here

My husband works about 50 hours a week, I work 30 +/-

My shifts are all over the map, and at least 2 often 3 nights a week I am at work through the dinner hour.
I do not cook for my family if I am at work, my hubby just asks that I have dinner planned ( which is fair because he is walking in the door right before dinner time, and if I am working through dinner I was home for at least part of the morning)

Even before planning our meals 2-4 weeks at a time, planning dinner for him meant pulling a chunk of meat out of the freezer and writing down 'porkchops' or 'spaghetti' or similar. I do not pre-prepare any of it or tell them what veggie and starch to eat with it.

There are very few nights that making dinner takes a full hour of my time, sure my meat loaf is in the oven for an hour - but I am not in the kitchen for 40 mins of that time.

Most meals we make are under 30 mins, I also have my teens helping pretty much every night , whether its chopping veggies or at the least setting the table.

We are meat and 2 sides, ( veggie & starch) 5/7 nights, one night a week is spaghetti or tacos or similar, and one night a week is smallish or leftovers

(we call smallish something you can whip up fast like chicken strips and rice, or perogies or breakfast - which one poster thought meant cereal, but we mean bacon, eggs and hashbrowns or pancakes.)

My husband works a very physical job, and comes home ready for a BIG meal, He like it on the table no later than 6 as he truly is starving by then. Soup and sandwiches to him is lunch and is not dinner acceptable - he's hungry an hour later.

I am quite certain that I can plan shop, prep, cook, eat and clean up in less time than it takes to eat out.
(if you divide the shopping time between all meals) plus I imagine that 'most' of you that eat out 3+ times a week still shop - so that really is a wash anyways.

Our budget can only stretch so far and when I can make a nice roast beef dinner for less $ than eating take out pizza, it makes the choice easy.
(plus roast is SO fast to prep and I can be doing other things while it cooks surrounded by veggies and potatoes)

Even if I had more room in my budget, it would go to more vacations and excursions than to mediocre restaurant food.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Nice sit-down - 1x week
Fast food/take-out - 4-5x week (approx. 9-10 if you count lunch!)

Uggg. If I ate fast food 4-5 times a week I would weigh a TON!

 

[JanaDee]

Out of curiosity, I added up what we spent eating out the last six days, which were pretty typical, schedule-wise.

We spent about $165 on 14 meals for 4 people.