Cutting back on eating out, how to not feel deprived?

[Anonymous]

Homemade pizza is a great and easy option. That's our standard every Friday; husband and I share it with a bottle of wine after the kids go down, and the kids enjoy the leftovers the next day. Bonus is that we can make it whole wheat and with whatever toppings we want.

[Anonymous]

Our eating out budget is about $100-$150 per month. We are a family of 5.

Plan your weekend lunches at home.m have cold cuts and good bread for sandwiches, maybe pesto or another nice spread. Or eat leftovers from another night.

to avoid feeling deprived, learn to cook what you like to eat out. My parents find it really funny that I cook what we call our "Indian feast"' -- lamb curry, chickpea stew and eggplant curry! Tacos are really easy to make at home, as are burritos and enchiladas. Fajitas take a little more planning and chopping, but are also very doable. I just saw a recipe the other night for a good shrimp fried rice -- and I can leave out the peas if I make it at home!

Also, plan your menus. I sit down on Sunday and think through our week. Then I write it all down -- the meal plan and the shopping list. If we're having crock pot chicken on Thursday, I note on Tuesday to defrost the chicken. If you have things in your freezer all ready to go, just put them into the fridge the evening before and they'll be defrosted by the time you get home. Heating that up and setting the table is a lot easier than going out to eat with a hungry toddler. I keep our menu plan in the kitchen so I can note if something changes. It also helps me see where we are on the weekends -- what needs to be eaten/frozen, do I need to shop on Saturday or can it wait til Sunday, are there meals we did not get to that we need to slot in the following week, etc.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

You suck it up. When we were poor we ate out 3-4 times a year. Now it's 1-2 a month and we are comfortable in HHI.
just change your habits and you'll realize that you can do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Homemade pizza is a great and easy option. That's our standard every Friday; husband and I share it with a bottle of wine after the kids go down, and the kids enjoy the leftovers the next day. Bonus is that we can make it whole wheat and with whatever toppings we want.

Learning to make pizza dough will help a ton! You can easily personalize a pie for everyone, or make several for people to share. And the dough freezes really well and defrosts quickly. We do this at least twice a month at my kids' request. I think making an entire batch of dough (three large pies easily) doesn't cost more than $3 and is probably less. kids do just cheese and sauce and herbs, we like feta, spinach, mushrooms,onions and tomatoes. That is maybe $2-3 per pie. obviously meat toppings are more expensive, but nothing near the price of delivered pizza.

[Anonymous]

I would also recommend to stock up for weekends at a Farmer's Market for good crusty bread, fresh fruit, cheeses, spreads. and meats (or maybe smoked fish too) that you can put out on a board for a late afternoon treat as you prepare dinner. Get some other treats occasionally like a nice dessert from a bakery. While both of these are spends, you will spend less than eating out and you won't feel deprived.

Like on PP, I do a big weekend cook, usually every other weekend, but I do one or two dishes to keep for the week and something more special for whatever is the big weekend anchor meal. Now that the weather is getting better, this will involve the grill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

We only order alcohol if we are eating out with friends. If we eat out as a family we generally just drink water or soda. We probably eat out with friends 1-2x per month.

What's a good recipe for a yummy stir fry? I really haven't made that and we'd probably like it.

We have a freezer full of meat as well - which is great when I remember to take something out the night before.

It becomes part of the bedtime routine or the kitchen cleanup routine. When the kids were little, whomever cleaned the kitchen took something out. Now that the kids are older, they get to pick. So they really choose what we have for dinner. It's okay by us because it's all good so they can't make a bad choice. And since they picked dinner, they enjoy eating it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would also recommend to stock up for weekends at a Farmer's Market for good crusty bread, fresh fruit, cheeses, spreads. and meats (or maybe smoked fish too) that you can put out on a board for a late afternoon treat as you prepare dinner. Get some other treats occasionally like a nice dessert from a bakery. While both of these are spends, you will spend less than eating out and you won't feel deprived.

Like on PP, I do a big weekend cook, usually every other weekend, but I do one or two dishes to keep for the week and something more special for whatever is the big weekend anchor meal. Now that the weather is getting better, this will involve the grill.

Yes! And one year DH bought me these cute little cutting boards that I use as serving plates for the kids. When the kids come home from school, I try to have out an assortment of cut up fruit, veggies, crackers, and meat or cheese. Some days that dinner for them---and that's okay.

[Anonymous]

We still get a fair amount of takeout but we split one entree and fill in with salads/slaws/ rice. Out favorites for this are bonchon or Peruvian chicken. We spend around $13 and always have a bag of salad or slaw mix and rice at home.
We also occasionally get a giant pizza from costco or pho both which are less than $20

[Anonymous]

You really don't end up saving much after taking into account all the prep work, cleaning, shopping time etc... I would opt to find more cost effective healthy places to eat out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Homemade pizza is a great and easy option. That's our standard every Friday; husband and I share it with a bottle of wine after the kids go down, and the kids enjoy the leftovers the next day. Bonus is that we can make it whole wheat and with whatever toppings we want.

Learning to make pizza dough will help a ton! You can easily personalize a pie for everyone, or make several for people to share. And the dough freezes really well and defrosts quickly. We do this at least twice a month at my kids' request. I think making an entire batch of dough (three large pies easily) doesn't cost more than $3 and is probably less. kids do just cheese and sauce and herbs, we like feta, spinach, mushrooms,onions and tomatoes. That is maybe $2-3 per pie. obviously meat toppings are more expensive, but nothing near the price of delivered pizza.

I get the stuff from trader joes, it's probably 10x as expensive at 1.49 but still a huge savings.

[Anonymous]

One trick is to take just a step down. Even expensive grocery store food is cheaper than eating out. For example, last night I grilled fresh swordfish form our local fishmonger. Came out restaurant-quality. Yes, the fish was $15/lb, but it's still a lot cheaper than eating at a restaurant. Took 1 hour from start to finish, including marinating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You really don't end up saving much after taking into account all the prep work, cleaning, shopping time etc... I would opt to find more cost effective healthy places to eat out.

Everything cost time or money. Just depends which you have more of. For most people it's easier to find time than money.

[Anonymous]

Invest in some gadgets that will make cooking at home fun: pasta maker, pizza stone, breadmaker, spiralizer, Vitamix-type blender. I have all of these and none of them has gathered dust.

[Anonymous]

Op here.

The problem is that we can afford all this eating out, but we feel that it's stupid and a waste (now that we've realized what we're actually spending on it). So it's really easy to get sucked back in to going out.

I think after reading responses that I need some new recipes/to learn to make some new things.

I think there's a little part of me that feels entitled to eat out bc the meal planning/shopping/cooking burden has solely been on me...so I need to get over myself.

Maybe I can pick up a few nicer things from Whole Foods to make on the weekends?

[Anonymous]

First, stop with the baby talk. Yummy is baby talk. Time to grow up.

Next, just go to the damn store and buy food. Dang, it ain't that hard. I doubt you ever cook. Spending a thousand dollars eating out every month is a lot of money and a lot of food, it's shameful, unhealthy and dirty. Have you been in a restaurant kitchen before ? Go take a tour one day. I am sure you will never eat out again.

There are these things on the internet called recipes. Find what you 3 like and cook it.

Burden ? You have NO idea hon. I cook 3 times a day for 5 people. What you do is a hobby.