Help us cut our food/dining expenses

[Anonymous]

Our food/dining expenses are way higher than they should be, and I am looking to shave off at least $300/month by changing our behavior. This will take a major attitude adjustment and I’m looking for strategies and perspectives from people who don’t consume like locusts. I’ve been tracking expenses for five years and the amount we spend on groceries, alcohol, carryout, restaurants, bars, lunches, and coffee is staggering: $2,000/month for a family of three. We’ve tried small fixes like bringing lunch to work, limiting carryout and restaurants, beers at home instead of at bars, etc. but rarely make a dent in our overall spending. I feel like we need some tough love and a lifestyle reboot to bring this in line.

[Anonymous]

I would just do no take out restaurants for 30 days and see what happens. You can make an exception for plans with other friends but no dining out just you guys.

[Anonymous]

OP - do you meal plan or do you wing it at the grocery store? Part of successfully avoiding take out is knowing what you are going to make for dinner.

I have tried a variety of ways to meal plan, currently I am using a great app called platejoy that’s also generates my grocery shopping list.

We probably spent like you at some point before we started tracking. We now have a $950/month grocery budget plus $500/month for dining out/entertaining. We use an app to track our spending throughout the month. We are a family of 4, we have two teen girls.

[Anonymous]

Where are you shopping and what are you buying? What are you eating at home?

When you aren’t cooking at home, why not? What are you eating when you go out?

[Anonymous]

Look at the stores you regularly shop at and set a weekly or biweekly budget per store. Also give yourself a hard limit of how often you go. For example, I allow myself one Costco trip every two weeks, one Wegmans trip per week, and one Aldi trip per week. If I run out of food early, then it’s scrape the pantry time. This encourages better meal planning and is much easier to manage than having a monthly bucket of food money.

It can also be helpful to separate out the meat budget, if that’s a source of heavy spending for you. I like having a weekdays target for meat costs and a separate weekend target to allow for roasts/grilling.

Consider breaking out snack food costs into per serving increments. Do your kids need individual Himalayan Salted popcorn bags from the warehouse store at $.80 per, or would they be just as happy with a baggy of homemade Cheerio/pretzel stick/mini marshmallows trail mix at ten cents a serving.

Stick to buying produce in season and on sale, and don’t overlook the frozen stuff. Wegmans sells very good quality frozen veg at a dollar a pound. Always give store brand a try at least once. Most stores will have a satisfaction guarantee, so you’re not out any money if you end up not liking something.

Know what your staples are and find out where they’re cheapest. Plan so you only buy those things at the lowest prices. For example, no one is cheaper for eggs and milk and frozen veg right now than Wegmans. Costco is cheapest for lunch meat, block cheese and rice. Aldi is cheapest for seasonal produce, sliced and grated cheese, yogurt and snacks.

[Anonymous]

Try shopping at Aldi if there's one nearby. Make a meal plan and stick to it.

Limit takeout and cut out going out. Also no drinks or desserts and take home leftovers.

[Anonymous]

Eat less, eat out less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our food/dining expenses are way higher than they should be, and I am looking to shave off at least $300/month by changing our behavior. This will take a major attitude adjustment and I’m looking for strategies and perspectives from people who don’t consume like locusts. I’ve been tracking expenses for five years and the amount we spend on groceries, alcohol, carryout, restaurants, bars, lunches, and coffee is staggering: $2,000/month for a family of three. We’ve tried small fixes like bringing lunch to work, limiting carryout and restaurants, beers at home instead of at bars, etc. but rarely make a dent in our overall spending. I feel like we need some tough love and a lifestyle reboot to bring this in line.

Here's your tough love, OP.

You are spending an obscene amount of money on food that is not good for you. Stop ordering takeout, period. Cook food at home and plan to go out to a restaurant as a family one night per week, then stick to that plan. If you're tired, eat sandwiches or cheese and crackers or quick pasta. Stop drinking so much alcohol. It's not good for you, and is absurdly expensive. Make coffee at home. Limit how often you go out to lunch during the week. When you go to the grocery store, go with a list of ingredients for meals. Don't buy premade food. Don't buy name brand food as a rule. Store brand food is fine. Don't buy pre-cut vegetables or fruit (bonus: avoid risk of food poisoning from grocery store!). Eat less meat overall. It's expensive and not all that great for you. Limit how often you go to the grocery store. Do your shopping for the week, not daily. Adjust your eating habits so that you are not snacking all the time, which I assume you are based on the "consume like locusts" comment. Grown adults do not need snacks in addition to large meals.

If you do those things, you will see your spending on these categories go down. You will also probably feel healthier because what you describe is how I used to eat in my early 20s and now that I am a person who has maybe 3 drinks a week and eats mostly vegetable-centric meals prepared at home, I am much happier and healthier, plus I'm saving hundreds of dollars a month. I'm a married mother of 2 with 2 cats and our weekly grocery budget is $180 for everyone. I work from 8-5:30 and manage to make dinner for my family every night and lunches for myself and my older child every morning. If I can do it, so can you.

[Anonymous]

Have an accountability partner. Send them a check for $1000 that they will donate to a cause that you hate if you do not cut your expenses by $1000 next month.

The pain of $1000 going to something you absolutely hate should be a motivator.

[Anonymous]

Limit how many times you get takeout--maybe start with no more than once a week. Limit how many times you eat out--no more than once a week or once every two weeks. Pack your lunch to work. Plan your meals before you go shopping and buy only what's on your list. Eat less meat. Eat seasonal produce. Drink less alcohol. Stop buying juice and soda entirely.

[Anonymous]

Find extremely easy recipes that you can make, you like and rotate them so you don’t get sick of them. We go out maybe once every two weeks. I cook and plan to cook even if I am just coming back into town. Have frozen options that are really easy. A bag of frozen ravioli from aldi might be $2.49 + a jar of sauce is .99. Add a bag of gr beans (fresh) from aldi for .99 (steam or make with a little olive oil and garlic). You’d have dinner for less than $5. Need more, add carrots and hummus or plain carrots or carrots and ranch. Add fruit (peaches were .99 a lb there this week).

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

YOu are probably getting take out or going to restaurants b/c you don't have the mental energy during the week to figure out what's for dinner. I would suggest making weekly meal plans so that you just go home, see what's on the list and go about making that. It's easier to follow instructions than it is to come up with what to make/what do I have ingredients for?

I would allow yourself once-a-week eat out lunch. The rest of the time, bring your lunch. You'll still feel like you are getting to eat out a little.

Think about it this way -- would you like to have an extra $10K per year? What would you like to do with it? That's what you are giving up right now by eating (and drinking) so much. And the latter (eating and drinking) is just going down the toilet. Might be nice to have less debt or a sweet family vacation and/or college savings for the kid.

You really CAN'T have your cake and eat it too. You have to decide not to eat the cake!

[Anonymous]

What is the breakdown of your groceries versus eating out? Alcohol at bars can really add up.

[Anonymous]

I agree with PP -- do a one-month food spending fast to reset. Eat down your pantry/freezer/fridge. Plan meals based on what you have on hand, bring leftovers for lunches.

Buy only what you absolutely need, and look at grocery sale flyers.

During the fast, pay attention to where you feel most deprived or what is most frustrating (keeping a journal could help). Use that info to come up with a longer-term plan. Do you really miss restaurants, then set a plan for making that a reasonable part of your routine, e.g. Friday nights and Sunday lunch, but not anytime you feel like it. Is it that you just hate bringing lunch? Think about how you can make that more appealing or are there lower cost options near your office?