6-Month overview of money spent eating out

[Tisha]

This past weekend my husband and I went to dinner with a neighbor friend of ours. How we spent $90 on a pizza, a plate of chicken fried steak, a kids chicken fingers and a few too many alcoholic drinks...I don't know...but I think it was a good thing that we did it because it helped snapped things into reality.

I was looking at my bank account yesterday and decided to figure out just how much we've spent in eating out...here are my totals:

January: $251.94
February: $175.13
March: $275.78
April: $152.30
May: $633.81
June: $458.77 (to date)
-----------------------
Total: $1947.69

what the....??#!! And, to think, that's only stuff that I actually used my debit card for. I can imagine it's probably higher due to the times that we pay cash for fast food and dining out.

$1947...that's 7 months of payments for the truck...that's 5 months of payments for the car...THAT'S MONEY I COULD HAVE SAVED FOR A DOWN PAYMENT ON A HOUSE....

Not to mention...that's a lot of weight that I gained through all of that. May was a good eating month, I see. Ya know, I didn't even go through to see how many times I went to the grocery store...it's probably half of all that.

~Tisha

[Miss Phode]

Tisha, you're doing a lot better than I am. I figured out our eating out expenses for 15 days and it was near $600 bucks. 1200 bucks a month? What were we thinking? We're being much more disciplined about it now. It's just so easy to go out to eat, rather than cook, clean, etc at home. Nice to be waited on too. Me and my husband both work long hours, so we spoil ourselves a bit with the eating out thing. Hubby also eats breakfast out nearly every morning, and we both eat lunch out most days during the week.

We're bad bad bad!

[Tisha]

and I grocery shop on top of all of that...I can't even imagine how much I spend in groceries that ends up going to waste. Last weekend I literally threw away probably $30+ of food that was spoiled...this seems to be a regular occurence.

We've decided to limit our dining out dinners to once per month...this should cut down on the changes of "slipping up" to almost nothing...we'll be able to plan it better...and what a nice "get away for a date with no kids" moment. We're thinking no more than once a week combined for going out for other meals. It adds up pretty fast and we really shouldn't be eating fast food anyway.

~Tisha

[ttdriver]

My DH and I eat out quite a bit, but never for breakfast. Eggs and bacon are darn cheap at home!

We typically do our evening meal out, but we don't spend over $100 a week, which is pretty much what we'd spend buying the groceries. Not to mention the time to prepare and clean it up.

We enjoy eating out and since we both work, we can justify it.

Betty

[Buddrfly]

Tisha, i know what you mean. I have saved a ton of money, since I started this woe. I have a BF that would eat out everday if he could, but now he prefers to eat at home. He loves my cooking, I just don't think he like the wait time too much--that's tough! I'd rather him have to wait for me to prepare a masterpiece, than pay someone else to do it :yes

[not2late]

After college, I quickly realized I was losing money eating out. That's partly the reason why I had to learn how to cook.

Now, I eat out maybe 2 or 3 times a month, usually dinner, never breakfast and rarely lunch.

[carbcounter999]

I was spending a lot on eating out - particularly with delivery food. It got to the point that once when I called to order Thai food (I would get on Pad Thai kicks), wasn't asked for my apt number, and I told them and the guy said "oh yeah, we know you." That was a wake-up call! So I can justify buying nicer cuts of meat sometimes (I usually go shopping on the day they mark it down and then freeze) because I know I'm spending less than I did before. I used to have a fixation with always having money in my wallet - at least $20 so I knew I could order something, get a coffee or treat at the store. I don't have that anymore. That sense of desperation for comfort food is gone. Now I make my comfort food! It's not that I couldn't cook, but having food sent to my house that was greasy seemed like a treat (a three or four times per week treat). I think I've ordered in food once since I started Atkins. :icondance

[BreakfastSurreal]

wow I have been trying to get my fiance to not eat out so much, and you have inspired me to go through my bank account as well..I'll get back to you guys with the results! Hopefully they will shock him enough to make him start eating at home (where he has plenty of food he likes)!

[Checkers]

Doing Atkins translates to many more home made meals for us. Like many of you we spent alot on eating out. We went to nice restaurants, drive-thrus and everything in-between. I cook so much more because i can count my carbs easier, and my food at home just is more yummy than most places we would dine out. I was also throwing away alot of spoiled food. I haven't been doing that lately. I try to save money where I can by buying meats in volume, but I also buy more exotic and gourmet foods that are spendy. And in the end I'm somehow spending about the same on groceries as before, but I'm also saving on dining out too.

[BreakfastSurreal]

from the beginning of may until now we have spent $430...not so good...$430 that could have bought me more STORE food so I could COOK every night! I have gotten so into cooking lately but cooking is kind of expensive...recipes that call for a whole pound of ground beef, then a cup of cheese...all that adds up! hehe

[sadie147]

I've been facinated by how often American's eat out at restaurants. I'm not saying we don't here...but no one I know, friends, family coworkers, go out nearly as much as compared to the US (not sure if anyone from the UK or elsewhere has noticed this?) When i was in florida in March i was blown away by the lineups in the restauruants, and how EVERYONE talked about where they had eaten, where they were eating next week, where their sister ate yesterday etc. We were not in a tourist area, we were staying with family inland. We went to a Chili's one night and had to wait an hour for a table and were even handed a pager to notify us! I was amazed at the crowd(and it was obvious most of the diners were local and not tourist..). It was my mother in law that had originally pointed this out to me (she' lives down there 1/2 of the year). I've really never even seen so many restauarants in one place!

I really think this is a US culture thing, and it's really interesting to me. I can't even imagine spending that sort of money on eating out...or even imagine eating out even twice a month? We may 'go to dinner' twice a year. the odd time we'll be at a bar having beer and order wings..but htat's about it. LOL. the one thing we do like is to go out once a month for breakfast..but never dinner.

Dont get me wrong...we have our Mcdonalds and our burger kings and they're always booming! It's the 'going out for dinner' that I'm amazed about.

Curious to know if anyone else has noticed this...

[lotusblossom1966]

Eating has stopped being a way of obtaining nutrition for the functioning of our bodies and has become it's own form of entertainment. Plus, I think we all convince ourselves that our lives are so busy, we do so much, etc. that we DESERVE the treat of eating out. I know for a long time I kept convincing myself that I deserved this treat and that treat, and that piece of cake, and a sugary coffee drink...........and now a 95 pound weight gain later, here I am. Do i feel like I've been treaing myself...not really.....more like mistreating myself, not to mention my health.

I know here in Indiana we have TONS of restaurants right on top of each other, and they are always busy. It seems like instead of going to a movie, or doing something else....we just eat......ALOT. And it's stuff not very good for us at that!

We had our son @ grandma and grandpa's last night, so hubby took me out for dinner and we went to see "Batman Begins." I had a prefectly fantastic dinner: salad, prime rib and broccoli. Very good. The guy across the hall from us had a HUGE rack of bbq ribs, plus an order of french fries, PLUS a baked potato. Ugh. Hubby ate what he wanted, even the dinner rolls......but I stayed on track. Good girl!

Today we ended up @ Subway. Ick. I ended up with a grilled chicken salad, with cucumbers and banana peppers and a slice of provolone. I asked for italian dressing and it was fat-free - which of course means loaded with sugar instead. I don't get it.

Home is much better......you have total control, you know exactly what is in it, and you can have what you want.