How often do you eat out?

[bbak3030]

Way too much. Last Monday night after baseball, Thursday for BILs bday, Friday night just DH and I. That's just one week. We pick up a lot too. At least 5 times a month. And that's good sit down restaurants.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

We usually eat out once per week as a family. That is mostly for something to do...entertainment/get out of the house.

I swing by a drive thru occasionally when running errands during the school year by myself at lunch.

Now that it is summer I will probably do chick Fil a lunch with the kids to get out of the house once a week.

On sports nights, if DH is traveling for work, the kids and I will grab drive thru or little Caesars, but we bring our drinks from home.

On average, all this comes to about $250/mth for family of 5.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Once or twice a month and that's including ordering pizza or getting fast food. So maybe pizza/ff once a month and a sit down meal once a month.

I sometimes meet a friend in the evening and we go out. But we usually just have dessert or an appetizer with our coffee.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

We've always eaten out once a week during our 31 years of marriage.
Now, however, we eat out lots more.
Seems life is so busy it makes more sense to grab a bite in town lots of times.
We use coupons a lot & do buy one free or split meals. So the bill is usually pretty cheap.
This holiday weekend we haven't ate a single meal at home. Hopefully, Tuesday will be a meal at home!

 

[nene0182]

As a family, we typically go out to eat every Friday night. For the three of us, it's normally around $30. I usually buy lunch 2-3 times a week and spend around $5 each time.

 

[Poohforyou]

We don't eat out as a family that much, maybe a few times a month. Mostly we'll grab something if we're at an event or out doing something. Last night, for instance, dh and dd were at the ranger game so they ate at the garden. I'm more likely to buy shortcut things like a rotisserie chicken and bagged salad if I'm too busy to cook rather than us going out/getting takeout.

 

[Kristina4109]

MAYBE once a week. I love to cook, and I'm on a healthy food kick, so really we'll only eat out if we already have plans to be out and about during meal time.

 

[kirstenb1]

Couple times a month. However, we have season passes to Busch Gardens/Water Country, so now that summer's here, I take the kids to one or the other once a week, so we'll eat fast food lunch there. Summer is much more expensive than winter!!

 

[bigbabyblues]

We rarely eat out as a family, maybe 3-4 times a year? We don't do fast food any more than that, either. If we are travelling, we usually pack a cooler. It isn't necessarily to save money, it is because we don't care for fast food and what it does to DH's system.

DH sometimes has to, as he is a flight paramedic and works 24-hour shifts. If they are busy, he has to grab something when he can, and if there is only fast food across from a hospital or airport/fueling place, the that is what he has to do.

He loves to cook, and is very good at it. The upside to the long work shifts is that he only works 2 days a week. This makes it easy for us to eat at home; I work at a school, so I get off when the kids do. Even during soccer season (DS1 plays varsity soccer), we are easily able to eat at home after practices and before games.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Our dining out habits vary by season. We eat out less in the summer, as we have more time off and less extra curriculars (meaning we take full advantage of being able to barbecue our favourite foods on the grill). The school year is a whole different ball game, when there are sports, part time jobs, and meetings to attend to.

We eat out, on average, twice a week. Once on Friday nights, once on the weekend (my mom is a senior citizen, a widow and doesn't drive, so its a big treat for her to have dinner out on the weekends when we go for a visit and to take her to do all of her shopping for the week).

None of our meals out involve alcohol. We also tend to use all coupons and special offers/promos that are running. Both tend to keep the cost very reasonable.

I also have my daily medium double double at Tim Hortons every morning. Best coffee $1.60 can buy . I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't go to concerts or drive a flashy car or live in a mansion. So I feel zero guilt about my coffee addiction .

 

[wendow]

We don't eat out much either. Once every 3'ish months and that usually when family is visiting. When we do eat out, it's a sit down meal for pleasure. When we are on the go, we carry protein bars, fruit, sandwiches, etc. We don't really like fast food and I find it very expensive.

 

[pixiemama91]

We usually go out every other week not including anything special we have going on for the month. We used to go out once a week every friday. It was a nice way to wind down the week and take a break from cooking. My DD used to have swim class friday evenings so it was also out of convenience.

 

[MSLRAC]

We usually eat out once a week at a restaurant. Some times it will be more often if we've got stuff going on in the evenings. In the summer, we tend to eat out quite a bit more because we end up buying dinner (and lunch some days) at the club pool instead of going home to eat.

 

[sarahk0204]

The ideal is once a week. During the school year, it was the night we had bowling and Cub Scouts. Now it's the piano lessons followed by soccer games night. When I worked more hours, we got into the habit of fast food several times per week. When my hours were reduced, that was no longer sustainable! Once a week is the compromise to keep everyone happy. That said, in doing the no buy months I can see that we do eat out more than once a week - usually a lunch here and there.

 

[SEA333]

We order either pizza, chinese, or other "hot dog/italian beef" food to be delivered once a week. When we have extra money, we may go out for lunch or dinner another time, usually to a casual family place like red robin or noodles and co.

DH and I will sometimes feed the kids something quick for dinner and wait till they are in bed and grab a burger or hot dog or something, maybe once or twice a month. We have a local pizza place that has an ongoing deal for a large pizza and pitcher of beer or soda for $15, so sometimes we will go there with BIL and split the bill.

Very rarely we will go out to a nonfmily resturant on a date-night...but most of our date nights consist of the above or a late night grocery store run. We are soooo romantic! Lol

For the most part, our fancy dinners are nonexistant anymore. We have been to expensive upscale resturants downtown Chicago...the last time was for MIL's birthday and spent $250.00 on one meal. All I always think is how much better and cheaper I can make the same steak and crab legs at home.

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

Sit down meal, almost never, it's just way too expensive! It's really limited to vacations or if we happen to have a gift card.

I make our breakfast/lunch everyday so we never eat those meals out.

I cook 4/5 nights a week. Friday and Saturday we will do something like chipotle, taco bell, papa murphies or in and out. Those are relatively inexpensive and I really don't like to cook on the weekend.

 

[figment3258]

We used to eat out a lot more we would eat out at least once a week and then get take out at least once we really love sushi so that would be take out every other which was really expensive but things changed and we had to cut back its so tempting to get a quick bite

 

[worm761]

We figure our average is about once a week but it doesn't happen every week. Some are busier than others. DS's graduation was last week. We ate all three meals out. First was the Senior Breakfast put on by administration. Then we had some running around to do so was still out for lunch. Then graduation was during the dinner hours so we went out to dinner after the ceremony. But it is not unheard of for us to not eat a single meal out for over a month at a time. I stay home and both DH and I enjoy cooking.

Though DH and I do date nights. Not every month though. Christmas time to shop for gifts, Easter to do basket shopping, and our Anniversary. We might do another one once during the year. Most of our date nights involve rum and cokes at the kitchen table and a good board or card game with the occasional Redbox movie.

When I worked we ate out twice a week. Saturday nights after I got of working. Friday was normally a 15 hour shift working late with an early 8 hour shift on Saturday so we would eat out. And then go out for breakfast on Sundays.

 

[eliza61]

It really depend. I sold my house so all this week time has been spent packing and cleaning out. No time to cook, so I've literally eaten out every night, but this is an unusual situation. Generally it's once a week. Personally we made a point to always do this, it gave me a break since my dh did not cook.

 

[Moniqu17]

We go out twice a week but only lunch on weekends. It is usually cheaper than doing dinner and we stick to a budget. We both work full time and it is nice not to have to worry about two meals.

It works great with ds nap time too. We have lunch, run errands before/after and by the time we get home he is ready for a 2 hour nap. Also since ds is so young we don't go out to movies and we don't drink alcohol so it's more our entertainment.