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I'm not in your target demographic, but I have a book recommendation that you may like. An Economist Eats Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies. It's a good book, full of interesting stories and useful suggestions. Might as well eat the best food possible on whatever food budget you ultimately set!
$0. Eating out is a waste of money unless you are pressed for time or in an unusual situation. Have you ever figured the markup on the items in restaurants? I have and rarely is the food worth it. Better just to make the food myself in the vast majority of cases.
That's fine for some, but I like to eat a variety of foods. Sometimes I'm in the mood for Pho, or Bulgogi, or butter chicken, maybe pizza. It'd be too much to have all the ingredients on hand for every possible cuisine, and I love all kinds of foods. Plus I can't make some of the cuisine as good. Just this weekend I had Lebanese for the first time, and boy was it good. Since I live in a pretty cosmopolitan area, it's not that hard to have a meal from a different country every day of the week.
There's some food that I make better than restaurants, so for those I usually don't eat out.
The price of the ingredients to make the food isn't the only item you must enter into the equation.
What's the value of your time? Factor in the time to go to the grocery store and purchase the ingredients, the time to prepare a meal, the actual cooking of the meal, the cleaning, etc. Usually you have to make a decent quantity of food and if you aren't a fan of leftovers, the food goes to waste.
I just don't see the value in it but to each their own.
I dare anyone to tell my wife she has to cook 7 days a week. I dare you.
$0. Eating out is a waste of money unless you are pressed for time or in an unusual situation. Have you ever figured the markup on the items in restaurants? I have and rarely is the food worth it. Better just to make the food myself in the vast majority of cases.
It's a waste of money depending on where you go and what you eat. Fast food and big chain restaurants are a huge waste of money because you're paying more for TV commercials than quality food. If you have simple taste and eat common food like pizza, burgers, steak, and spaghetti you're better of just making it at home and saving money.
I like to eat out at restaurants that serve food that I can't easily make at home. Such as Japanese, Mediterranean, a good dry aged steak, and even bar b q. Foods such as those require ingredients that aren't available in your neighborhood Wal Mart or take LONG periods of time to make. For me foods like that are worth the price.
It's a waste of money depending on where you go and what you eat. Fast food and big chain restaurants are a huge waste of money because you're paying more for TV commercials than quality food. If you have simple taste and eat common food like pizza, burgers, steak, and spaghetti you're better of just making it at home and saving money.
I like to eat out at restaurants that serve food that I can't easily make at home. Such as Japanese, Mediterranean, a good dry aged steak, and even bar b q. Foods such as those require ingredients that aren't available in your neighborhood Wal Mart or take LONG periods of time to make. For me foods like that are worth the price.
its funny how people make these sweeping judgments over "whats a waste of money" as if their persoal preferences should matter to anyone else. its only a waste of money if you arent getting what you personally feel is value for your dollar. it doesnt matter what people choose to spend their money on as long as they can fit it in their budget.
Some months a big money drain for me and my SO is eating out. We like to experience new foods and restaurants. I would like to set our budget to limit 1-2 fancy meals per month and leaving a little bit for cheap eats.
A "fancy meal" for the two of us is normally around $50-$70. About twice a week we grab fast food when either of us works late. I'd like to eliminate the fast food due to lack of nutritional value, the food usually sucks, and it's a drain on the wallet. So I'm putting more in the grocery budget.
I'm thinking around $100-$150 per month for eating out/going out. I'm just wondering how much other young couples here with no kids budget for eating out.
My budget for "Dates & Restaurants" is $250 a month - sometimes we end up well under, sometimes we're a bit over (last month was $314 :/).
We go to a lot of festivals, sporting events, and concerts though, so that makes it hard to do a monthly budget because sometimes there will be something every weekend, and we'll go over, but other times there isn't really anything going on for the whole month and we'll come in well under.
We also generally go somewhere decent for food once a week, but that can range from anywhere to $25 to $70 depending on where we pick - but generally the average is probably around $35-$40.
as long as i dont see mathjak complaining about the cost of eating out; why should he cook?
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