For Young Couples, How Much Do You Budget per month on Going Out/Eating Out? (paying, average)
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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.
Too much. If I had to guess, I would say I spend around $600 a month on dining out, and that doesnt count going to bars and just drinking. 'Fancy dinners' for us are usually 150+, and we probably do that once or twice a month. Then we will often go and get carry out, or sit down somewhere 'simple'.
Being smart is essential. I give blood for NFL tickets. I use grupon and livingsocail like its going out of style. I see bands I love at small hole-in-the wall rock bars for little money. I go to college football games and buy season tickets (its cheaper) or use my student ID (discount prices). I dont mind sitting in the nose-bleed sections of MLB games, or if I can I use my office tickets. The list goes on. Just have to be prepared and do some research.
I calculated my dining out expenses for a few months and it ranged anywhere from $1400 to $2000/ month. I'm single and I simply don't cook so basically I eat out for all three meals. It's not that I CAN'T cook, it's just the idea of food preparation, cooking the food, cleanup afterwards, dishes, etc...I just don't see much point in doing all of this for one person. There's a wonderful variety of restaurants in the Scottsdale area that I frequent and it's nice to have Mexican one night, steak the next, maybe some pasta another, etc.
I rarely go to "fancy" places unless I'm with a girl-friend or a group of people. My average tab for lunch is $15 plus tip and supper is $20-$25 plus tip. If it were a "fancy" restaurant, I'd be paying for two people instead of just myself and the tab would probably be at least $100 not including drinks or tip. I stick to midpriced places for this reason!
For us I'm really trying to eliminate random fast food trips and random unplanned sit down dinners. Like if we're lazy to cook or don't feel like eating what we have at home. A typical scenario is "eehhh I don't really feel like eating salmon at home, lets try that new sushi place down the street. OK!" Then there goes $50 I wasn't planning to spend.
Our total food bill, including drinks/buying alcohol and eating out, is probably around $27-28 a day for two people, if you net out alcohol probably around $25 a day. We generally eat out probably 5 meals a week on average. Most are cheaper ethnic meals, and then a couple meals around 40pp+ per month. Basically we rare eat frozen food, eat fresh produce from farmers markets, fresh meat, and will often eat fresh salads from places like trader joe's or fresh and easy lunch bowls for lunches. For dinner we usually grill meats, bake some meats and have fresh veggies with it.
I think the best thing to do is have a "routine" for grocery shopping and dining out. We usually eat out for dinner one night a week, and then on the weekend we eat out a lot, probably twice for dinner fri-sun night (eat home one night) and then do brunch one meal, and then one other random meal to get 5 out for a week.
I calculated my dining out expenses for a few months and it ranged anywhere from $1400 to $2000/ month. I'm single and I simply don't cook so basically I eat out for all three meals. It's not that I CAN'T cook, it's just the idea of food preparation, cooking the food, cleanup afterwards, dishes, etc...I just don't see much point in doing all of this for one person. There's a wonderful variety of restaurants in the Scottsdale area that I frequent and it's nice to have Mexican one night, steak the next, maybe some pasta another, etc.
I rarely go to "fancy" places unless I'm with a girl-friend or a group of people. My average tab for lunch is $15 plus tip and supper is $20-$25 plus tip. If it were a "fancy" restaurant, I'd be paying for two people instead of just myself and the tab would probably be at least $100 not including drinks or tip. I stick to midpriced places for this reason!
I'm a single male and my expenses are about the same ($1400-2000 a month). I also dont cook and i eat out all of the time.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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Quote:
Originally Posted by poloi3eai2
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.
I think it sounds like you are doing well - you are spending money on things that you find worth it to you. Maybe you should set down a monetary goal along with a consumption goal - something like - one fancy meal per month for $60 and 3 regular meals per month for $25 each with no fast food meals. This would mean you are eating out once per week. You can adjust it on how much you actually spend.
If you are looking to cut down your eating out bill, you can perhaps try a cooking date where you buy the ingredients and follow a recipe for something you'd like to try or do a copy cat recipe for food that you like at a certain recipe. You can probably do it for about 1/2 the cost of eating out. This might be fun for a change every once in awhile.
Our total food bill, including drinks/buying alcohol and eating out, is probably around $27-28 a day for two people, if you net out alcohol probably around $25 a day. We generally eat out probably 5 meals a week on average. Most are cheaper ethnic meals, and then a couple meals around 40pp+ per month. Basically we rare eat frozen food, eat fresh produce from farmers markets, fresh meat, and will often eat fresh salads from places like trader joe's or fresh and easy lunch bowls for lunches. For dinner we usually grill meats, bake some meats and have fresh veggies with it.
I think the best thing to do is have a "routine" for grocery shopping and dining out. We usually eat out for dinner one night a week, and then on the weekend we eat out a lot, probably twice for dinner fri-sun night (eat home one night) and then do brunch one meal, and then one other random meal to get 5 out for a week.
That's what I would like to do. Great home cooked meals are more to brag about than expensive restaurants. Plus I need to eat healthier, eating out alot has been emptying my wallet and filling my gut. But I would still like to have a nice treat and a good restaurant here and there.
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