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If I'm going to eat, it's going to be quality. I'd rather spend $10 for 2 Culver's Double Deluxe Burgers than $6 for a value meal from McDonalds. Better yet.. just buy 5 pounds of low quality beef from wally world and grill it all up at once with applewood chunks on a Charcoal Grill.. no restaurant makes better burgers than I make at home.
I do eat out, mostly at buffets of which I have my favorites nailed down. What I don't do is spend $40 or more for a piece of steak at a high end restaurant. Law of diminishing returns. I can make as good at home for half or less the price and not have to deal with tipping, other people, etc.
Stuff like crab legs at casinos and other things I can't easily make myself I'll eat out, like indian food or whatever. Nothing super expensive. Most people on here make far more money than I, though. In general most forum people are millionaires.
I lucked out in the marriage department in that regard. My husband often eats less than I do (and I don't eat a whole lot). We also have quite different tastes for food, so what will often happen is that he'll make his own dinners and I'll make mine (he frequently eats only once a day too). When I make one of my crock-pot dinners, he'll often have a day or so of it but leave most of it for me.
Funny you should say that because I think I lucked out. I'll make a big meal, get one dinner and maybe pack one lunch out of it, and the rest just disappears!
Leftovers are fine with certain things, but...I don't know, I guess those aren't really the things I eat. I don't eat a lot of pasta or casseroles. I eat a lot of vegetables and I like them fresh, so freezing portions kind of ruins it. Texture is a big part of my enjoyment of food, and that gets ruined in the freezer and/or microwave. I will sometimes make a big pot of something for lunch for several days, but it has to be something like split pea soup or dal which won't suffer from being stored and reheated.
And yeah, I'm one of those women who doesn't like leftovers. Unless it's pizza. I'll eat leftover pizza for breakfast.
It depends on your point of reference. Here are two extreme examples:
1) My mom would lean towards eating out as a luxury and a poor financial choice. She says aside from the upcharge of overpriced food, you're paying 8.5% tax and another 15-20% as tip. Then she says, where are you going to invest to get a 25-30% return? My mom does not have a palate for food and tends to eat out of necessity. She's the only one out of a family of food-loving gluttons and ego-driven home cooks.
2) My sister-in-law's ex-boyfriend's family would never allow their kids to cook. One was an electrical engineer and the other parent was a CPA and everything came down to dollars and cents. They bought nothing but takeout and prepared meals because their rationale was that they make $40-60 an hour. So a meal that takes 2 hour to make and clean up would cost them $80-120. Therefore they believed it was more expensive to not eat out.
Everyone will have different values on what they want to spend their money on and how to enjoy their free time. I, similar to you, like to try new culinary experiences and am fortunate enough to have the resources to do so. At the same time, I'm pretty careful with my wallet and budget out what we spend on local restaurants compared to what we spend on groceries each month. If we spend more than $500 a month on local restaurants and less than $300 at the grocery store, I know we're not cooking as much as we should. On a side note, we also try to cook at home more out of health concerns. Restaurants tend to be a little heavy on fats, sodium, sugar, and tend to over-portion their offerings…but they're selling an experience and you can't fault them for serving what the people want.
It depends on your point of reference. Here are two extreme examples:
1) My mom would lean towards eating out as a luxury and a poor financial choice. She says aside from the upcharge of overpriced food, you're paying 8.5% tax and another 15-20% as tip. Then she says, where are you going to invest to get a 25-30% return? My mom does not have a palate for food and tends to eat out of necessity. She's the only one out of a family of food-loving gluttons and ego-driven home cooks.
2) My sister-in-law's ex-boyfriend's family would never allow their kids to cook. One was an electrical engineer and the other parent was a CPA and everything came down to dollars and cents. They bought nothing but takeout and prepared meals because their rationale was that they make $40-60 an hour. So a meal that takes 2 hour to make and clean up would cost them $80-120. Therefore they believed it was more expensive to not eat out.
Everyone will have different values on what they want to spend their money on and how to enjoy their free time. I, similar to you, like to try new culinary experiences and am fortunate enough to have the resources to do so. At the same time, I'm pretty careful with my wallet and budget out what we spend on local restaurants compared to what we spend on groceries each month. If we spend more than $500 a month on local restaurants and less than $300 at the grocery store, I know we're not cooking as much as we should. On a side note, we also try to cook at home more out of health concerns. Restaurants tend to be a little heavy on fats, sodium, sugar, and tend to over-portion their offerings…but they're selling an experience and you can't fault them for serving what the people want.
I never understood that line of thought where if you make $X/hour then housework is a waste of money if you can hire someone to do it for <X. I mean, I make quite a bit, but I don't get paid overtime. Even if someone does get paid overtime, they do not always have the option to work that extra 2 hours and earn the money.
I will hire a professional to replace my roof or remove my dead trees, because I don't have the skills/tools or just don't want to take on the risk of doing it. But cooking and cleaning doesn't require any special skills, everyone can do it or learn how to.
I very much agree with your last paragraph! I find a lot of food at restaurants is too salty for me. Long time ago I decided to reduce the amount of salt I was using. Gradually, we adjusted to eating slightly "underseasoned" food.
I still like to go out, just to break the monotone of home cooking. I enjoy cooking, but I often run out of ideas, and we tend to rotate the same menu in 2 or 3 week cycles. We are a family of 4 (3 during school year, when my older one is at college). None of us is a picky eater, but we all have our preferences, so I often need to compromise when cooking, to insure everyone will be satisfied. This is easier to achieve at restaurants. I especially love buffets for this reason!
Still, I am conscious of the fact that eating out is much more expensive than cooking at home. I have a budget for restaurants and fast food. We usually come under budget for that, but sometimes we are over budget for groceries. Ugh, we just eat a lot. What a waste of money!
I never understood that line of thought where if you make $X/hour then housework is a waste of money if you can hire someone to do it for <X. I mean, I make quite a bit, but I don't get paid overtime. Even if someone does get paid overtime, they do not always have the option to work that extra 2 hours and earn the money.
I will hire a professional to replace my roof or remove my dead trees, because I don't have the skills/tools or just don't want to take on the risk of doing it. But cooking and cleaning doesn't require any special skills, everyone can do it or learn how to.
I very much agree with your last paragraph! I find a lot of food at restaurants is too salty for me. Long time ago I decided to reduce the amount of salt I was using. Gradually, we adjusted to eating slightly "underseasoned" food.
I still like to go out, just to break the monotone of home cooking. I enjoy cooking, but I often run out of ideas, and we tend to rotate the same menu in 2 or 3 week cycles. We are a family of 4 (3 during school year, when my older one is at college). None of us is a picky eater, but we all have our preferences, so I often need to compromise when cooking, to insure everyone will be satisfied. This is easier to achieve at restaurants. I especially love buffets for this reason!
Still, I am conscious of the fact that eating out is much more expensive than cooking at home. I have a budget for restaurants and fast food. We usually come under budget for that, but sometimes we are over budget for groceries. Ugh, we just eat a lot. What a waste of money!
It's really just a matter of perspective.
In relative terms eating out is expensive - compared to going shopping and buying perhaps 10 or more ingredients then spending 2-3 (or more) hours preparing and cooking food then dealing with the family who may not like what you make and of course you get the privilege of cleaning up after everyone. I like Indian, Chinese, Mexican and other types of food that are less than simple to prepare. I go out for them and other types. I rarely eat out steak and baked potatoes because I can do that better at home.
I think of eating out as a small luxury that I can afford and like to spend my money on - as opposed to that $500 handbag or $300 watch or even a $50 shirt I might wear a few times. It's like coffee - I can make it well at home - better in fact than most places including Starbucks but sometimes I just want to go out and sit and enjoy the place, the company and letting someone else do the work. It is certainly not going make or break my financial status.
In relative terms eating out is expensive - compared to going shopping and buying perhaps 10 or more ingredients then spending 2-3 (or more) hours preparing and cooking food then dealing with the family who may not like what you make and of course you get the privilege of cleaning up after everyone. I like Indian, Chinese, Mexican and other types of food that are less than simple to prepare. I go out for them and other types. I rarely eat out steak and baked potatoes because I can do that better at home.
I think of eating out as a small luxury that I can afford and like to spend my money on - as opposed to that $500 handbag or $300 watch or even a $50 shirt I might wear a few times. It's like coffee - I can make it well at home - better in fact than most places including Starbucks but sometimes I just want to go out and sit and enjoy the place, the company and letting someone else do the work. It is certainly not going make or break my financial status.
I certainly understand this perspective! One is entitled to spend their money the way that brings the most pleasure, and if for someone it's eating out - then great. I also go out for the very reasons you mention - not willing to spend the time, mental energy researching new recipes, cleaning up, throwing out leftovers, because nobody really liked what I made. Doing so 3-4 or even 10 times a month is not going to break us either. I just came back from a week of travel, and I REALLY enjoyed not having to cook.
However, from strictly financial perspective, for someone who already doesn't spend money on handbags or expensive watches, cooking at home is a very good way to save (even more) money. So, we try to stay somewhere in the middle - our grocery budget is 1000, our restaurants/fast food budget is 300/month (more if we travel). That's 1300/month for food for 4 people. If we would eat lunch and dinner out all the time, we would easily spend >2000/month. That 700/month is something that could accumulate into a lot of money over time.
I still believe in general, food and restaurants are much cheaper than spending money on expensive money and maintenance that come with it.
Recently i had to replace some windows trims and it costs me couple of grand, imaging how many good meals I can have with that?
It really depends on what your definition of a "good meal" is. People need to eat continuously, but replace window trim once in decades maybe? Assuming all your meals are "good meals" at $30/meal including tip, the $3000 would last a month. Every other meal, 2 months. There is a good reason why food budget is one of the largest budget items in the US.
In relative terms eating out is expensive - compared to going shopping and buying perhaps 10 or more ingredients then spending 2-3 (or more) hours preparing and cooking food then dealing with the family who may not like what you make and of course you get the privilege of cleaning up after everyone. I like Indian, Chinese, Mexican and other types of food that are less than simple to prepare. I go out for them and other types. I rarely eat out steak and baked potatoes because I can do that better at home.
Yeah, it all depends. Some types of food are not practical to cook and eat at home yourself because they require a lot of different ingredients in very small quantities. Or the time and effort input would make it not worth it for you. You would not enjoy the benefits of economies of scale that the restaurant does. So you'd waste a lot of money by buying these things from the grocery store, using 1/10 of it, and the rest would waste unless it can be frozen.
For "normal" cooking, you'll likely have most of the ingredients needed already at home, except for whatever fresh goods you'll be cooking like meats or vegetables.
I never understood that line of thought where if you make $X/hour then housework is a waste of money if you can hire someone to do it for <X. I mean, I make quite a bit, but I don't get paid overtime. Even if someone does get paid overtime, they do not always have the option to work that extra 2 hours and earn the money.
I work as a professional, so know people with that mentality. I think it's more the fact that they work so much than there being a true opportunity cost of making the food. You simply would rather spend the time sleeping or doing other necessary chores over cooking when you work 12+ hours a day.
Unless you're the big boss driving extra sales during the extra 2 hours, the workers are generally on salary and see no direct benefit of working 2 hours more vs staying home and cooking besides the potential for a raise at the end of the year.
I met a woman recently who said she hardly eats out as its a massive waste of one's money regardless of enjoyment because she said you can cook it yourself at home for quarter the cost.
Then she should do that. Cook at home herself.
But she doesn't get to dictate what other people do.
Also, not everyone has the luxury of time to cook homemade meals from scratch, three times a day. And some people dine out often but use any combination of coupons, groupons or gift cards for their meals to save money.
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