Help us cut our food/dining expenses

[Anonymous]

Sometimes Greek yogurt, fruit, and scrambled eggs can be dinner.

My kids love "breakfast for dinner." Pancakes, bacon and fruit. Eggs, yogurt and fruit. French toast. Oatmeal. Heck, sometimes it's a bowl of Cheerios and sliced bananas.

We drastically cut back meat years ago, and we don't miss it. We rarely eat steak or beef.

Taco Tuesday is a thing. Tacos are easy. Make rice and beans on the side.

Make pizza at home with a fresh crust and your own toppings.

We just decided to take the family to Europe next summer, so I'm packing my coffee and lunch from now on to see what I can save ($4/coffee and donut; $10/sandwich and cookie = $$$). We still do carry out pizza most weeks.

Lastly, here's my biggest savings: we don't have a lawn service or cleaning service. If you hate to cook, then think about mowing your own lawn, cleaning your own house, and splurging on takeout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here: Thanks for the encouragement. I've done some deeper analysis of our food/dining budget, thanks to Mint, and made some alarming discoveries. Over the past 12 months, here's the breakdown of that $2000/month:

Groceries: 42%
Restaurants & Carryout: 25%
Lunch, Coffee & Snacks: 20%
Alcohol & Bars: 13%

It seems I'm better at tracking and trending our expenses than changing our dysfunctional spending behavior. Based on this research, and the suggestions offered above, my first step will be to make a science of meal planning with the goal of packing lunch at least 3 days per week for DH and myself. I already pack DC's lunch. By doing so, I will have made more dinners at home too.

Did I mention I hate to cook and meal plan? But I will enlist DH to help - he certainly has lots of opinions about what I make And I will buy him a cool lunch box without flowers or polka dots.

Thank you!!!

IMO - I can't imagine how you are spending $800 a month on food if you are typically eating out for lunches / dinners.

Question: Does your grocery line item include household items or just food? Vitamins / Laundry Detergent and other cleaner supplies / OTC medicine etc.

Yes, it includes all those items. Toilet paper, laundry detergent, etc. Too hard for me to separate those out.

[Anonymous]

Meal planning is key, but don't be overly ambitious. I like to cook, but am not making anything complicated on week nights. Nothing wrong with quesadillas and beans, or pasta or breakfast for dinner. If you want something that feels a little more "real" - fish cooks quickly, add a vegetable and some cous cous (also so quick) and boom. Keep a frozen pizza in the freezer. Maybe two. If you get home and JUST CAN'T that night, whip out the frozen pizza and feel proud that your desperation dinner was $5 rather than $20. Leftovers are great for lunches, but it might help to keep a few frozen dinners in your freezer too, so that you can grab those, rather than than spend $10 on lunch that day because you don't have any leftovers. Shaving $300 off your monthly expenses is definitely doable - good luck!

[Anonymous]

How much food are you throwing out?

Are you overweight?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recommend two things:

No eating out at all for a month. That means no drinks out and no coffee out and no meals out.

Buy food mostly at ALDI with one trip a month to COSTCO for meat.

Try to eat as much as you can ffrom your cabinets.

After his monthlong fast, think about what you really miss and which splurges give you the most bang for your buck.

You’lol of course need to pack a lunch and take a walk instead of eating out. You should also consider packing a thermos of coffee.

I know this all seems radical and crazy, but your spending is out of control and it’s time to take extreme frugality action towards moderation on the future.

Long term changes you should probably undertake:

No visits to Whole Foods. Ever. For at least a year.
Limit coffee out to once or twice a month.

Dinners out: once a month for a date night
OR (not and)
Twice a month for take out.

I agree with this person. Go cold turkey for one month (I find this is easier than trying to "cut back") on any eating out, including coffee, picking up a quick lunch, etc. Force yourselves to plan and prepare things at home. I bet you find you will not miss it as much.

[Anonymous]

OP, I think one of your challenges here is that you are trying to "solve" what is actually a non-problem in your life. You don't seem to be in any financial dire straits, so you don't have strong incentive to make changes that are difficult to rein in your spending.

So, other than a feeling that it is immature not to, what's really driving this? Do you simply dislike how much take-out you eat? Are you concerned about the food you're eating being unhealthy? Are you concerned that you are not adequately teaching your kid to cook? Figuring out what is really the problem *for you*, not what others think might be a problem, will help you solve this.

Personally, DH and I were in a situation like yours pre-kids where we were doing a lot of take out. The cost was not an issue, but I decided I didn't like that the food was so unhealthy and the amount of waste we were generating. So he and I figured out several super easy (like practically just heat up frozen foods) meals that we could easily have on hand. These meals were all probably less healthy than what we would cook from scratch, but they were healthier than what we would order as take-out (and definitely much less waste). They were, unsurprisingly, also cheaper.

So my advice would be to not focus on the money but focus on other things. How many meals a week do you prepare at home? How many are take out? How many are in a restaurant? Once you figure that out, make the changes you need to get yourself consistent with where you want to be...and I strongly suspect you'll be spending less as well (or at least more consciously).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I would also give some serious thought to the meal boxes that are increasingly available. They are a lot pricier than buying that food separately, but they can be a helpful tool for holding you to the cooking/planning end of things. It's also worth watching how much food (if any) you are throwing away. We definitely have stretches of being worse about that, and I do find it helpful to periodically have a couple of weeks when we "eat through the pantry" to really use up what's in the freezer/fridge/etc.

We use Hello Fresh, and the kids and adults seem to like it. For someone who either doesn't like to plan and cook or just doesn't have time, this is a huge time saver. The box comes with all of the ingredients and the recipe. All you need to do is chop the stuff, mix it together, and cook it. No meal planning or grocery shopping required, and yet it's a homemade meal.

[Anonymous]

We almost never go out. Restaurant food is pretty awful, in general. We frequently have dinners with friends and we all bring something, often to prepare together over wine.

[Anonymous]

I would suggest making small changes at a time. Don't worry about how much you spend at the grocery store- buy what you want. (although I find using the sale ad to meal plan to be a helpful organizational tool.) Stop ordering carryout- don't think of it as an option. When we were first making this shift, I started using the crockpot alot. If I already had something cooking, then it was easier not to default to carryout. Similarly, if I had fresh fish in the fridge, I don't default to carryout b/c I don't want it to go bad.

[Anonymous]

The single biggest thing that worked for me was changing cooking from being a chore into something that meant social or therapeutic time.

If you're spending a lot on going out because that's the default option for socializing, bring that into your kitchen. Whether it's just you and your husband, or you invite friends over, make the actual cooking of dinner part of the social evening.

Or, make cooking your personal time to recharge. Think about your favorite dishes to order when you go out, and vow to learn how to cook even better versions of them at home. Chopping and sautéing can be a great way to decompress after staring at a computer all day.

Don't beat yourself up if you don't have a perfect dinner on the table six nights a week. Take it slow and start with easy and easy options. Make-your-own tacos, pizzas, and omelettes is a super easy way to personalize each person's meal without much effort.

[Anonymous]

Instead of eating out do much we order meal delivery plans such as Plated or Home Chef. We typically order 3 to 6 of these meals a month. They’re about half the cost of eating out for us. Of course you have to do the cooking, but the shopping is done for you, and you’re introduced to new recipes.

[Anonymous]

When we absolutely don't feel like cooking or don't have the time, we recently switched from picking up takeout that is usual $30-40 to picking up a rotisserie chicken from safeway along with a bagged salad and sometimes their prepared sides (which I admit aren't always the healthiest though there is an Oprah brand that is a little better). The chickens are only $5.99 or $7.99 for their open nature brand. We frequently have deals on our club card making them less. Much cheaper and a bit healthier than takeout.

[Anonymous]

This post has inspired me to spend less on eating out (especially work lunches!) I've broken out my DD's old lunchbox and am bringing food in! Thanks all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much food are you throwing out?

Are you overweight?

Very little food is wasted. Not overweight (BMI around 20).

[Anonymous]

OP here with an update: it’s been almost one week and DH and I have packed our lunches every day and made dinner at home. I decided to dust off my Whole30 cookbook, mostly for the meal planning and healthy recipes. DH helps with planning and cooking. It’s been going well. It’s still pretty expensive because of all the meat we are cooking, but cheaper than the meal planning services I researched. I get a little panicked on busy nights and mornings when I don’t have time to prep. And I’m bored already - salmon again - but that’s my issue with resenting the plan and feeling trapped. But I’ll get over it and hopefully save some money. I’m sure there are better ways to do this, and I greatly appreciate the tips of healthy quick eats. I will try my best to stick with the plan and will report back in a month with my results in case that’s helpful to others in the same boat.