Eating out is killing us
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Anonymous
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I sat down last night and went through what we spent over the past month. Most things look pretty typical/normal expense-wise, but I saw that we spent $1600 on eating out! WTF!
I cook on weeknights, get a pizza delivered on Friday night and then we often eat out dinners on the weekends. A new wrinkle is that we also have been getting a meal delivery service. This has shocked me into submission. As much as I like eating out/meal delivery, we are trying to save toward a big home improvement project and even saving half of this per month would be a big deal toward what we need to do the project. I need to figure out how to get DH on board with eating at home much more often. What do you think is a reasonable monthly dining out budget? Is that the best way to approach this - set an amount per month and that's it - once you reach the ceiling, you're done eating out that month? How do most people manage these costs? I'm also working on trying to get DH to buy less food at work and bring more from home. He spent about $200 this past month at the cafeteria at work. Thoughts? What are other things that are easy to cut back on? |
Anonymous
| How many people are you? Meal delivery is ridiculous - cut that out right away. |
Anonymous
| $1600?!?! DH and I spend about $200 on eating out. Sometimes we go out once in a month and blow it all, sometimes that's 4-6 dinners out with friends at $15 entree type places. We never just order out food because we're too tired. |
Anonymous
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We get takeout many Friday nights, when we are too tired to cook, but whenever possible I try to get something prepared instead (e.g. a Costco or Trader Joe's prepared dish that just needs to be heated up). I'd say we do 50/50 on that and that takeout is about $60 (family of four) whereas Costco/TJs is about $15.
We eat out as a family at a restaurant maybe once a month. DH and I have a date night every couple of months. The trick is to plan ahead and always have something in the fridge and pantry that can be turned into a meal fairly quickly. Those Blue Apron etc. options look very expensive to me. |
Anonymous
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I'm confused. You spent $1600 on eating out alone? That seems pretty straightforward and choose less expensive restaurants, don't have cocktails and limit alcohol overall b/c that can really add to the bill.
In terms of a meal delivery service, I would scrap it. Do some meal planning/shopping at the start of the week. Buy your DH a "lunch box" and have him pack a lunch with left overs. |
Anonymous
| I am a huge fan of freezer cooking. If I'm making meatloaf it's not that hard to make another and freeze it. Double the size of the chili for the night. That sort of thing. Those are my go to meals when I'm too tired to cook. Not eating out. |
Anonymous
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I think in this situation it's best to quit cold turkey or limit it to specific scenarios (i.e. we only eat out on Saturday night)
I was in your situation and I did 2 things: 1) Meal planned for every evening meal of the week (including making enough for lunch) and 2) Stopped going out to eat completely. |
Anonymous
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You need to cook or grill main dishes on the weekend so you only need quick sides during the week if you work. If you don't work there is no excuse to not cook.
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Anonymous
| If DH lunch is 200 of your 1600 monthly expenditure, he is not the main problem. 200 is about 10 dollars a day for lunch for 20 monthly working days. Not super low but not out of the realm of possibility either. But where is the other 1400 coming from? |
Anonymous
The only way to figure this is out is to figure out how you'd replace the eating out and meal delivery service. Are you going to start cooking at home more? Will you be able to grocery shop more? Where will the time come to make those things happen? What changes to your schedule and the ways you approach meal planning will you have to make in order to meet this goal? |
Anonymous
| OP what are you spending on groceries per month, and what do you spend on meal delivery? Did you answer how old your kids are? |
Anonymous
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You have to meal plan and limit how much and where you go out. Simple really.
We both work full time and eat out 2 times s week max, not including buying lunch at work. We grocery shop on dat morning and cook 2-3 meals in the weekend that we reheat for evening meals. We may go out Friday night. Also Sunday lunch. But usually that is $50 for the 4 of us. Every 2-3 months or so we'll have a date night and dorms more like $100-200 on a nice restaurant, so not deprived or only eating Pizza Hut or something. |
Anonymous
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Can you switch up and go out one weeknight instead of the weekends? We go out on Thursday nights, because it's less crowded than Fridays. But otherwise we cook at home.
What does your husband like to buy out at lunch? Can he or you replicate it at home? Even packing lunches 3x a week can save a significant amount of money. It doesn't have to be every single day. |
Anonymous
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I had a similar revelation, OP. My new routine: every Saturday morning, I plan meals for the following Sunday-Friday, including breakfast, snacks and lunch (I always make double portions and save the leftovers for lunch the next day). I make a grocery list from my meal plan and we go to the store and buy exactly what is on my list. I always make something "fun" on Friday nights to curb the urge for takeout (mini pizzas made on naan, fajitas, enchiladas, grill burgers, etc).
Generally we'll do one night a month or so at a fun restaurant with friends, and it's more special because it's not every other night, you know? I've always enjoyed cooking, so I'm loving trying out new recipes. |
Anonymous
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Well, DH and I like eating out so we built the expense into our budget. We can easily spend over $1,000 a month.
But if I were you, I'd say order in a pizza once a week and go out to eat once a week. Tell DH to bring lunch from home and buy once a week. |