Asking the question as it seems to be a recurrent issue among finance-aware people.

Also if people have tips to save money on eating out or cooking, feel free to share!

  • tburkhol@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m going to talk about lunch.

    I used to pack a lunch - nothing fancy, just a couple of sandwiches, & maybe fruit - then cook dinner, all for around $100/week. Started treating myself to bought lunches. Again nothing fancy, mostly fast-casual type places where you order at the counter & they bring your food to the table. Water not soda. Restaurant lunches are cheaper than restaurant dinners, but they’re also way more calories than my packed lunches, and I found I wasn’t in the mood for big dinners anymore. In the end, I was still spending around $100/week, eating out 5 days/week, and just having a snack in the evening.

    • bakachu
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      1 year ago

      Found the same results from eating out! A lot of times I’ll just have the small leftover portion from lunch for my dinner.

  • alex [they, il]@jlai.lu
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    1 year ago

    I used to eat out almost every night and it cost me nearly as much as my rent.

    Since then, I learned some cooking, some 10-min stuff, and did a lot of personal work on emotional eating. I really tried to treat it like an addiction, learning alternatives but also, recently I moved to a less urban area where I’d have to walk 10-15mins to get decent food, when I used to have an all you can eat sushi place on my street. That helped more than anything else!

    Finally, I gave myself a couple of special things: given how much I was spending on restaurants I never hesitate to spend a lot on cookware or ingredients, and when my partner comes over we often choose a cool recipe to try out, in order to prove to myself that food can be really great even if it’s not made by someone else.

    Now I go out for dinner only if I’m with someone, and I make sure it’s always a special occasion (including a date with my partner, it doesn’t have to be super special, just not “I don’t feel like cooking”). It’s still very hard not to go out when I’m having a tough day but I’ve never done so well :)

  • frogfruit@discuss.online
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    1 year ago

    About once a week. We’re more concerned about the impact on our waist lines than our finances.

    One thing we try to do to save money is to order meals for leftovers. As an example, a $14 burger will almost always be one meal, while a $14 Thai curry typically lasts for 3 meals or more. Even within specific restaurants, bowls or plates offer more bang for your buck than sandwich entrees.

    We also often roast vegetables or other side dishes in the oven while waiting for delivery, mainly for health but it’s also typically cheaper.

    • transientDCer@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I want to start doing more oven roasting, but my oven takes absolutely forever to heat up. I’ve even replaced the coil inside of it (electric stove). I’ve been debating on buying one of these new stoves that has two ovens, like a tiny one that should heat up fast and then the bigger one.

      • frogfruit@discuss.online
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        1 year ago

        We bought a countertop convection toaster oven that preheats within ~5 minutes. As a family of 2, it has pretty much replaced our oven usage, but a larger family might not like it as much. It can fit up to a 9x13 pan so that’s a small sheet pan or most casserole dishes.

        It’s really nice that it doesn’t make the kitchen hot. It can also air fry decently, not as nice as a standalone air fryer, but it’s way more versatile. Ours is a ~ $300 Calphalon, pricier than most, but we use it almost daily, and the cheap Oster one we had before only lasted about a year. I’m sorry this sounds like an ad.

        • transientDCer@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          No that’s fine, I have a Ninja grill/air fryer combo and I use not all the time. My wife has a set of Calohalon pans that she really likes, so I know they’re a good brand.

      • tburkhol@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Also consider a toaster oven. They come in sizes up to 12" or so, definitely big enough for 9x11 pans, and the small chamber means they heat up super fast. I have a gas range, but I keep an induction hotplate on top of one burner and a toaster oven, with convection, in the next room for smaller jobs. Keeps the CO2 and the heat down in the summer.

  • thrawn@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    My fiance and I eat out about once a week, and we often choose local places where we know we’ll get 4 meals off of a $15 platter of food. It’s certainly not as cheap as cooking at home, but sometimes you want a giant pile of orange chicken, and not the bother of prep/cleanup.

    • bakachu
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      1 year ago

      YES. I leave anything deep fried to the pros and their kitchens for cleanup.

  • Alchemy@lemmy.team
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    1 year ago

    We eat out about once every 2 weeks. We used to eat out quite a bit as I got really bored of the food at home.

    I do really enjoy cooking, but its hard to come up with meal ideas. We then started getting meal kits (Gousto) and now we’re really happy to eat at home as the meals are fresh, easy to cook and always different. I could get the ingredients cheaper, but its very convenient as a meal kit and theres no waste.

    Because the meal kits are very tasty, it does mean however when we do go out we find cheaper places are now poor quality, so will go somewhere nicer to eat. Still cheaper than eating out as much as we did before though!

  • Valdair@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    We typically spend between $800~1400 between two people on all food in a given month. Granted that’s high, but considering that includes everything from grocery trips, meaning paper products, cat food, alcohol… one thing that was interesting for me looking at the data is our ratio of spend on eating out doesn’t strongly correlate to the total we spend for the month. For instance:

    Month: May June July August (proj.)
    Groceries: $640 $500 $860 $820
    Eating Out: $250 $400 $570 $120
    Total Spend: $890 $900 $1430 $930
    Ratio (eating out/total): 28% 44% 40% 13%

    July was a super high outlier overall, but it was driven by our grocery spending more than our eating out spending. Major contributing factors were meeting friends more often than usual (four weekends of providing alcohol) and a Costco run. Our eating out generally constitutes lots of runs to e.g. Subway, Chipotle. I get a $6 coffee ~once a month, my wife doesn’t drink coffee. We very rarely go down to sit-down restaurants and have a $50-100 meal, basically only for birthdays or anniversaries. That also hit in July (anniversary).

    Part of what’s going on is I think rapidly fluctuating food prices and the fact that for the last ~year groceries had been so much more expensive than normal and a lot of “fast food” at least hadn’t appeared to update their prices at a comparable rate. So we might be spending $10 to make a meal for two at home or $20 to eat out together. So eating out ~twice a week vs. ~once a week barely registers on a typical monthly food spend.

    • bakachu
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      1 year ago

      Current grocery prices have thoroughly discouraged me from any potential savings that may be had. My go to cheap homemade meal are chicken enchiladas and the 3 cans of enchilada sauce I needed were $4 apiece. $45 to make enchiladas all said and done, but more if we include gas and time. I could’ve gotten an overloaded enchilada plate from the Mexican restaurant down the street for $13. So completely agree with you on restaurant pricing seeming to be less affected than grocery pricing.

  • ickplant@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    My husband and I go out for breakfast every Sunday to a small local place. It costs us $25, and it’s totally worth it. My husband also eats out on Thursdays for trivia at a dive bar where he is a regular and gets $2 rum and cokes and cheap food. That’s another $25. About once a month we will either take ourselves or our adult kids out for a nicer meal, about $150 on average. So that’s roughly $350 a month excluding special occasions and travel.

    We would be better off financially if we ate out less, but we both enjoy it tremendously. The value it adds to our life is worth the money. This is why we work.

  • bakachu
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    1 year ago

    Single person here. I eat out nearly everyday but not necessarily at full service restaurants. A lot of times it’s fast casual fare that has fresh and healthy options - think Mediterranean plates, poke bowls, deli sandwiches, etc. A typical day is $15-$25 that covers two meals.

    Yes, I could be saving some money by cooking at home but the time, gas, and energy I would need to spend makes it not worth it. I’ve also found that my attempts at cooking leads to a lot of food waste. A 2.5 lbs roast is equal to 2 weeks of meals for me and even though I could freeze some of it, I know from past experience that ill never pull it out of deep freezer storage. I’ll get bored of eating the same thing after a few days and then abandon everything.

    I like eating out because I get to do a variety of foods throughout the week, enjoy the social aspect, and like to support good local businesses with my money. Some tips if you go this route:

    1. I always bring my containers for leftovers. I get to pack things my way and I’m 90% more likely to eat my leftovers.

    2. I always bring my own drink (when possible), usually water to cut down cost.

    3. Sometimes I’ll bring my own dessert, like a snickers bar, to not be tempted to buy their desserts.

    4. Less/no tip for fast casual

    • rar@discuss.online
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      1 year ago

      If you don’t mind sharing, how much do you spend on your food (eating out) compared to your income? Compared to other essentials like house/apartment?

      • bakachu
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        1 year ago

        So to share a little more, the $15-25 per day spend isn’t the entire food spend picture for me. I typically will have at least 3-5 social/splurge events per month that will range between $60-$120. I live in a HCOL area so my housing cost is $3500/mo. If we calculate on the higher side if things (5 days × $120, and 25 days × $25), I spend about 35% of my housing cost on food so it is significant. However, it’s also the main source of my social entertainment so I justify my spending based on both that and eating necessity. I try to keep my daily food spend on the lower/reasonable side because I know I’ll have my splurge days.

  • praxi
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    1 year ago

    I eat out only once or twice a month and usually it’s with friends or family if we do go out.

    Reasons to go out include socializing or trying foods I wouldn’t cook at home.

    Reasons I tend to prefer pickup rather than dining in the restaurant include a better atmosphere at home and not having to deal with the hassle of tipping which jacks up the cost of food by 20% or more.

  • xyz@lemmus.org
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    1 year ago

    I almost never eat out. I prefer home-cooked food. I’m not sure about the financial impact.