I've never been a big fan of eating out. It's typically not a frugal practice since it usually costs more to eat out – unless you're comfortable eating off the dollar menu at your local fast food joint – and to be honest I found myself often disappointed in the quality of the food when eating out.
Jackie over at Money Crush wrote a post recently where one thing she's done to cut back on eating out was to prepare one home cooked meal a week. Since I've been on this traditional diet, almost every single meal has to be prepared from scratch. That is a lot of cooking!
Thankfully I come from a family where cooking from scratch was the norm, and this set the foundation for me to lean toward cooking my own meals for most of my life. For the last 22 months (how time flies!) I've been eating a traditional diet to regain health and I have been happy so far with the results. But as I said, cooking for every meal = much more kitchen time.
Usually this isn't too much of a problem. I try to make extra at dinner meals so that I'll have lunch at work the next day, and sometimes I'll even have enough leftovers for two meals in a row. Recently my mom asked if I would bring her some chicken soup since she hasn't been feeling well lately, and since she's never asked me to do that before, naturally I made a big pot of soup and planned to deliver it to her the very next day. This happened to be a work day and on the way home I was wishing I could just stop by a fast food joint and grab something to eat for myself and my family. But this doesn't happen often.
I have recently seen first hand how much more expensive it can be to eat out instead of home cooked meals. For a couple of weeks my husband resorted to eating out every day as he has been working a lot of hours. It turns out he was spending between $10 and $15 a day between meals and soda, and this wreaked some major havoc with our grocery budget. We allot $200 a week for food, so with him spending about $15 each day that left $95 for myself and our two adult sons, plus any other meals he ate when he was home. Since I am not eating grains of any kind and avoiding certain types of starches, (it turns out I don't tolerate them real well) I can't just stock up the house with beans and rice. I love beans and rice, in fact, I miss eating beans and rice. Anyway, either our food budget needs to go up to include his eating out every day of the week.
In the past two years, my husband and I have eaten out together in a restaurant twice. Both times for my birthday. I have eaten out 3 or 4 other times with friends for lunch. Before I started this diet I was tempted at least a couple times a week to eat out at a fast food restaurant. It is interesting how easy it became to avoid the temptation once I set the boundary for myself. One thing I used to do if I had to leave work to run errands, as a “reward” I would usually stop my Jack in the Box and get myself two tacos and a small order of french fries. And then I would feel guilty for eating such crap. But once it became a definite no-no and I stuck to my self-imposed rules, it was quite a relief to not engage in that internal battle with myself.
What's your opinion on eating out? Do you love it? Prefer to eat out? Or do you love cooking and eating at home?
Since the economic crash, I revamped my life and expenses. I realized that cooking at home is not only more healthy, but cost effective as well. I think eating out should be a treat – and not the norm. I’d rather spend $20 on some divine ingredients for a home cooked meal than get a mediocre meal out. But, it’s all about personal choice. I just choose to spend my money differently.
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
August 26th, 2011 at 10:23 pm
@Darla, you know it’s true about spending more money on divine ingredients, but the funny thing is I find myself having a hard time splurging when eating at home. For example, I wrote about splurging for my birthday going to Fogo de Chao but you wouldn’t catch me spending even $10 on a porterhouse steak to eat at home! But it’s true, I could eat five porterhouse steaks as opposed to just one time eating at Fogo de Chao. I agree that eating out should be a treat, not the norm. I would think it would become boring. But that’s me. I guess there are so many thousands of restaurants to choose from you would never have to eat from the same one twice. Thanks for visiting and commenting!
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We regularly have dinner out at local inexpensive restaurants a couple times a week. Since my wife and I work full time and max out our retirement savings and only have a small mortgage, it is part of our entertainment.
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Being unemployed, I find it far cheaper to make my own meals. It’s generally more nutritious too!
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I absolutely love to eat out (pure laziness). Work tires me out, and honestly I don’t enjoy cooking. It’s a strain on our budget, and I’ve love to kick the habit.
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Preparing homemade meals doesn’t have to take all that much time if your strategy is right.
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