how much do you spend each month on eating out?

[Anonymous]

We are a family of 2 adults and 1 toddler and spend $150 - $200 per month on eating out. This goes up if we have to travel.
We cook everyday and pack our lunches. We spend about $700 on groceries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1800/ month. No joke. Don't ask.

I'm the 1k pp. I honestly don't know anyone who spends as little as the other posters on this thread. Maybe if they were in college...?

Because they probably do not live on a budget and probably actually have no clue how much they spend. Fact.

NP here -- I won't add it up for just that reason. At least not right now. We need to cut back and I know it, but things are nuts for a variety of reasons and I'm all about taking the easy road. I suspect I will be horrified when I do add it up. But no real point until we are committed to making a change.

Definitely no fancy or above mid-range meals -- these all involve a 3yo. It is purely convenience -- and some laziness.

Also, I hate cooking.

[Anonymous]

Maybe $100. And, no, I'm not in college. Single mom (one kid) on a budget. I do a lot of Groupons for cheap restaurant meals. We generally go out to one regular sit-down restaurant a month and once a week Chipotle/Panera or similar. Almost never buy lunch out.

[Anonymous]

I spent a lot. I try to keep it down to $40 per week for breakfast and lunch several times a week. An additional $40-80 per month on eating out for dinner and on the weekends. It's just myself and a toddler. $300?? Wow But I only spend $50-70 a week on groceries, so it evens out.

[Anonymous]

Family of five in NW DC. We spend about $400 a week eating out.

[Anonymous]

Single mom - we don't eat out much, so I probably spend $200/month. Though it helps that I'm dating and often have drinks/dinner picked up by a date.

[Anonymous]

Family of 4, we eat out every Friday night and often on Saturday and/or Sunday as well. Including eating lunch out a few times per week we spend between $750-$1,000 per month on restaurants and fast food.

[Anonymous]

Most people who are estimating are way under - we actually track this expense, and find it hard to stay at $250 (family of four). It would be very easy to up this to at least $500 if we had the funds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are a family of 2 adults and 1 toddler and spend $150 - $200 per month on eating out. This goes up if we have to travel.
We cook everyday and pack our lunches. We spend about $700 on groceries.

2 adults, 2 teens in our house and we spend about the same. I'd say we eat out maybe 1x/month ($60-80 for the four of us) and get takeout a few times a month.

We cook dinner every night and we all pack lunches for school and work. Maybe 1-2x/month I have lunch out with colleagues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people who are estimating are way under - we actually track this expense, and find it hard to stay at $250 (family of four). It would be very easy to up this to at least $500 if we had the funds.

LOL - and you know this ... how?

[Anonymous]

DH and I have home delivery/carry out about 2-3 nights a week. ~$40 each time.

With kids- I go to pinkberry or starbucks 1-2 times a week. Kid's night at the diner once which is dirt cheap. We don't eat out with the kids too much.

I do spend a fortune at Whole Foods each week.

[Anonymous]

We typically order pizza on Fridays and eat one cheap meal (average $15 for two people, me and a 6-year old) out during the week. Eat a weekend lunch out about once a month. That all comes to about $150/month. I buy lunch about twice a week, pack the others, for another $75 or so a month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most people who are estimating are way under - we actually track this expense, and find it hard to stay at $250 (family of four). It would be very easy to up this to at least $500 if we had the funds.

LOL - and you know this ... how?

because they're talking about
-families of 5 where they spend $10 on pizza (come on, where do you pay $10 for a pizza and you're telling me you order a single cheese pizza? no drinks? one pizza?)
-5 days of lunches for $50. really? no more than $10/lunch? And the poster seemed to indicate this was for 2 people?
-2 nights of pizza plus a dinner for 5 on "under $100 a week". again, where is this magical pizza? Or do you not get beverages when "eating out" or all split one chinese entree? Or are you posting from middle America?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most people who are estimating are way under - we actually track this expense, and find it hard to stay at $250 (family of four). It would be very easy to up this to at least $500 if we had the funds.

LOL - and you know this ... how?

because they're talking about
-families of 5 where they spend $10 on pizza (come on, where do you pay $10 for a pizza and you're telling me you order a single cheese pizza? no drinks? one pizza?)
-5 days of lunches for $50. really? no more than $10/lunch? And the poster seemed to indicate this was for 2 people?
-2 nights of pizza plus a dinner for 5 on "under $100 a week". again, where is this magical pizza? Or do you not get beverages when "eating out" or all split one chinese entree? Or are you posting from middle America?

I think I am one of the posters you mention so I will say: 1) 3/4 of our "eating out" is takeout-- so we don't have pay for beverages; and 2) $10 is plenty for lunch (including beverage!)-- we aren't going to sit down restaurants, we're getting sandwiches or salads to go (and we do bring from home probably 2x a week).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I eat lunch out every single day. So that's $8-14. Plus I usually spend $4.50-$6.50 on breakfast each morning on the way to work. I eat dinner out probably about half the week. So we're spending an obscene amount on food eaten out. It's indulgent.

This is us. DH eats lunch out every day. I eat lunch out 2-3 days a week. Neither of spend money on breakfast/coffee. We order in probably once a week and on the weekends will eat almost every lunch and dinner out for us and our toddler. Sometimes I get off work late and will drive through for my son's dinner so he can go straight to bedtime routine when we get home. About once a week my DH goes out with friends and spends $75-$100.

Overall - we spend WAY TOO MUCH on eating out. But we do it, and we're happy with it.