Have you cut back on eating out due to the rising cost?

[Anonymous]

Yes. Be started figuring out how to make things I like from restaurants at home. My homemade pizza is awesome (worth it for taste alone and very easy, but also much cheaper). I made Thai food recently and it was good, though still needs a bit of tweaking. Learned to make my own King pao chicken that I love.
All so much cheaper than restaurants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Not only have prices gone up, I feel like service and food quality is poorer.

It’s strange. You’d think businesses would take pains to make sure everything is top notch these days (given increasing prices) but I agree with you. My husband and I stopped at two restaurants - and left - this evening before going to one of our regular places. The first one was closing early (at 5:30!) despite advertising being open til seven. The second was eerily empty - no one was at the counter and although I could see someone in the back, they didn’t say hello. I’ve also noticed actual service becoming more apathetic and robotic. It’s too bad (and is a huge disincentive to eating out!).

[Anonymous]

It is the place that I have noticed inflation the most (we have electric cars so no visits to the pumps). For fast casual, I just feel like it’s so much money to be paying for something that isn’t very satisfying. Paying $12 for a crappy salad or close to $10 for a five guys burger just makes me question whether I’d rather have a granola bar and wait until I can make myself something decent. I’m still okay eating out if it’s stuff I can’t easily make myself or it’s really good ….

[Anonymous]

Those of us old enough to remember the 70s….there weren’t so many places tp eat out and people really didn’t eat out very often. So it’s still a little weird to me how often people eat out, because that’s not how I grew up at all. Now it’s like if you don’t eat out or get takeout at least once a week, that’s odd. We may be headed away from that a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ordering out is expensive with the delivery fees.

Then go to a restaurant and don’t pay delivery fees.

Are we the only people who don’t use Doordash or Uber Eats?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those of us old enough to remember the 70s….there weren’t so many places tp eat out and people really didn’t eat out very often. So it’s still a little weird to me how often people eat out, because that’s not how I grew up at all. Now it’s like if you don’t eat out or get takeout at least once a week, that’s odd. We may be headed away from that a bit.

Same. If we get takeout every two weeks, that feels like a lot to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those of us old enough to remember the 70s….there weren’t so many places tp eat out and people really didn’t eat out very often. So it’s still a little weird to me how often people eat out, because that’s not how I grew up at all. Now it’s like if you don’t eat out or get takeout at least once a week, that’s odd. We may be headed away from that a bit.

Nah, this is just being middle class, I think. This was my experience growing up in the 90s and is now as an adult.

[Anonymous]

That was the plan, but I guess I don’t have enough motivation to eat out less.

[Anonymous]

Our “eating out” for the week is usually bringing home a $10 Costco pizza. We rarely used to get Costco pizza, but we got tired of paying a lot of money for really crappy food. We would get take out from real restaurants if we could find one that had good food and was close by.

[Anonymous]

we end up doing take out every weekend and cook in during the week.

However, we used to do delivery but now just do take out and don't tip to avoid fees and help w/ inflation.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, we are eating out less and if we do, usually do pick-up so we don’t have to pay delivery fee and tip (I often do a small tip for takeout, but not 20%, and no need to rehash that recent discussion here).

We dont even have kids but middle class without raises this year and rising costs have been really obvious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ordering out is expensive with the delivery fees.

Then go to a restaurant and don’t pay delivery fees.

Are we the only people who don’t use Doordash or Uber Eats?

Yep!

[Anonymous]

I’ve cut back on eating out because the quality of restaurant food is hit and miss. Most of the time I can recreate the dishes at home. We go out for cocktails instead of meals. Much more fun.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I became a SAHM as part of the “great resignation” and one of the things I’ve done with my extra time is far more home cooking. But takeout/restaurant cost is definitely a major factor in why I have prioritized it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Not only have prices gone up, I feel like service and food quality is poorer.

It’s strange. You’d think businesses would take pains to make sure everything is top notch these days (given increasing prices) but I agree with you. My husband and I stopped at two restaurants - and left - this evening before going to one of our regular places. The first one was closing early (at 5:30!) despite advertising being open til seven. The second was eerily empty - no one was at the counter and although I could see someone in the back, they didn’t say hello. I’ve also noticed actual service becoming more apathetic and robotic. It’s too bad (and is a huge disincentive to eating out!).

You can only “take pains” to create any kind of experience if you can find a staff willing to play along with that. And they can’t.