How much do you spend eating out vs HHI?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yikes. We spend a lot I guess. We go out with other couples every Friday night and including booze it's always about $200. Plus babysitting so closer to 300. We usually do takeout on sat for family night on saturday, for a family of 5. Sometimes eat at the club on Sunday after golf, which can get expensive too. Sometimes we do weeknight dinners out (we just signed up for a "wine dinner" at the club, it's $99/person for 5 courses and 5 wines....plus babysitting, on a Wednesday night). I very occasionally have lunch with friends after paddle tennis or golf. If I was really to add it up it would be quite a lot. We also entertain on Saturday nights about once a month, having 3-4 couples over, sometimes with kids sometimes without, but those are expensive nights too. Our HHI is is 400k, no debt other than 320k left on mortgage- kids cornea are paid for in trust funds.

I cook m-t and pack the kids lunches every day.

Wow, just from trying to add up what you wrote it looks like that adds up to $500/wk or more? You can't be spending $25k/yr eating out? Sorry, I'm not judging, just wondering if you are really spending that much or perhaps you have some weeks spending $500 and other weeks a couple hundred dollars?

[Anonymous]

HHI 350. Just dh and me. We spend 100-150/week eating out. We like to splurge on travel more than food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We spend about $500-600 a month on eating out.
We are a family of 4 (two small kids). We eat out a LOT and spend $40-80 per meal.

I've tried cutting down on our eating out budget and it just means that the expenses are transferred to the grocery budget. Whether we cook or eat out our expenditure is the same.

I forgot to add our HHI is about $95k

I am not judging you for eating out a lot, but you know that a $40 trip to Nando's doesn't translate to $40 worth of rotisserie chicken, sides, bread, and soda, right? No way. If it's an even exchange, then you must be grocery shopping at the Whole Foods salad bar, which I consider to be eating out.

We neither eat at Nando's (or any chains) nor buy our groceries from the Wholefoods salad bar. Nor do we eat rotisserie chicken. We are vegetarian and cook from scratch (nothing processed). I also am not hung up on buying organic. I track all our expenditure carefully and shop well but I still don't find a negligible difference when we eat out less in our overall budget for food.

Also, btw, it sounds like you are judging. Just saying.

Totally judging. And missing the point -- her assessment that rotisserie chicken and soda somehow makes a superior meal is laughable.

I think the point is that a burrito at home vs a burrito out does not cost the same. No way no how. Superiority has nothing to do with it.

While that's true, it's not how it works out for us in practice. I have done this for years and every dollar less I spend on eating out gets spent on groceries.

[Anonymous]

HHI of 160 and we spend about $200 a week eating out - just fast casual. But when I buy groceries, half go bad before anyone eats them and a lot is wasted. When I cook, no one eats leftovers so that's also wasted. My attempts to eat out less have been mostly unsuccessful.

[Anonymous]

1k a month, dinks, 200k.

[Anonymous]

Two person family. One night we order pizza, which usually comes to $13 - $15 with tax, charges, etc.
One night we eat out at Chipotle or the Silver Diner. So either $13 or about $25 total. Maybe once a month we go to another restaurant (either Matchbox or Rio Grande), where our bill is like $30. In total, I'd say we spend about $125/month.
My child far far far prefers to eat at home. He would never eat out if he had the choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two person family. One night we order pizza, which usually comes to $13 - $15 with tax, charges, etc.
One night we eat out at Chipotle or the Silver Diner. So either $13 or about $25 total. Maybe once a month we go to another restaurant (either Matchbox or Rio Grande), where our bill is like $30. In total, I'd say we spend about $125/month.
My child far far far prefers to eat at home. He would never eat out if he had the choice.

Forgot to add about $230k HHI.

[Anonymous]

If you want to feel better about these totals, remember that the alternative isn't $0. If you ate meals at home you'd need to spend more on food. The question is what is the cost differential for food eaten out vs. at home. Depends on what kind of food you cook at home -- for a lot of people who use packaged food, the differential isn't all that great.

[Anonymous]

HHI between 500k to 1 million depending on the year. We spend about 25k per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HHI 350. Just dh and me. We spend 100-150/week eating out. We like to splurge on travel more than food.

When you are traveling, do you eat out?

[Anonymous]

PP spending 25k - we go out somewhere nice at least one night a week and that's easily $400 for the family. One night a week as a couple is another $200. Take out here and there makes the rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes. We spend a lot I guess. We go out with other couples every Friday night and including booze it's always about $200. Plus babysitting so closer to 300. We usually do takeout on sat for family night on saturday, for a family of 5. Sometimes eat at the club on Sunday after golf, which can get expensive too. Sometimes we do weeknight dinners out (we just signed up for a "wine dinner" at the club, it's $99/person for 5 courses and 5 wines....plus babysitting, on a Wednesday night). I very occasionally have lunch with friends after paddle tennis or golf. If I was really to add it up it would be quite a lot. We also entertain on Saturday nights about once a month, having 3-4 couples over, sometimes with kids sometimes without, but those are expensive nights too. Our HHI is is 400k, no debt other than 320k left on mortgage- kids cornea are paid for in trust funds.

I cook m-t and pack the kids lunches every day.

Wow, just from trying to add up what you wrote it looks like that adds up to $500/wk or more? You can't be spending $25k/yr eating out? Sorry, I'm not judging, just wondering if you are really spending that much or perhaps you have some weeks spending $500 and other weeks a couple hundred dollars?

Honestly? Yes, it probably comes to that if it's averaged out over the year. In the dark of winter we may have some weekends that are more quiet, or where instead of a restaurant we are eating at a friends (so just paying a babysitter, still a $100 night plus the wine we bring) but then it is counterbalanced by the summer when we have to eat at swim meets every Tuesday and Thursday night (kids have to be there at 4:20 and meets aren't done till 8, you can't pack/bring food) so you eat dinner there, whether home or away, and it's charged back to your home club. Between that and nights where you just stay late and eat there we have $5000 a month bills all summer, but that's pretty much the only place we eat. So, yes, that's probably at least what we spend/year. As the kids have to be at swim team from 9:30-10:30 and we usually stay at the pool and we again aren't allowed to bring in outside food I pack lunch and we drive to a park a bit away and eat there, to cut down on costs, but averaging it out we probably do spend that much or more . A combination of having kids who no longer eat off of the kids menu, enjoying good wine, liking good restaurants once a week with friends, and living in an expensive area……throw in a weekly brunch with the kids on Saturday..yep.