This will eat into your bank account.
Many Americans have fallen in love with eating out: Restaurant industry sales in the U.S. are expected to hit a record high this year at $863 billion, according to 2019 data from the National Restaurant Association. The average American household now spends nearly $3,400 a year eating out, according to data released last year by the Bureau of Labor Statistics — a 6.7% jump from the year prior. What’s more, one in four Americans now admit they dine out too much, according to a survey by Fidelity released last year.
It’s eating into their bank accounts: The No. 1 thing Americans bust their budget on is eating out, according to research released by financial company Principal in 2018 — with nearly one in three Americans (29%, up from 26% in 2017) saying that dining out was their top budget buster.
And people who don’t eat out often say it saves them a ton of loot, as a Reddit thread from this week asking Redditors, “What do you make/do yourself instead of buying/paying for that you believe has saved you money in the long run?” revealed. Indeed, the top answer was “I cook at home. I save money at the grocery store and make reasonably-priced meals, always cheaper than restaurants.” Others seconded that, with one writing: “That’s like so basic, and one of the biggest money savers.”
Some experts say they’re spot on with this advice too: “I honestly believe cooking at home, if you are deliberate about it, is the single easiest way to slash your bills,” says certified financial planner Bobbi Rebell, host of the Financial Grownup podcast and co-host of the Money with Friends podcast. Trae Bodge, a smart shopping expert at TrueTrae.com, notes that: “even if you eat at modestly-priced establishments, you’re still spending far more to have your food prepared by someone else.”
So how much can you save? That depends on everything from how often you dine out to what kinds of establishments you eat at, to how you cook at home. But for some it’s significant: One budget money blogger found that it saved her about $9,000 a year; another about $10,000 a year. For most, this will be less, but still could be significant.
There are some major caveats here though. “You still have to pay attention,” says Rebell. “That means eating the leftovers. It means shopping for food with a plan. It also means being careful with perishable foods. It is still easy to overspend if you buy prepared foods.” And Bodge notes that if you’re just eating fast food out, the cost may not be that different from cooking — though she points out that “dabbling in processed and potentially unhealthy foods” can have “its own set of drawbacks.”
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Cooking your own meals is easy – the hard part is sitting down and deciding the meals for the next week, and what you want to take for lunch.
Most people are lost at organization – but here’s how we do it:
If you don’t have a pantry stocked with ingredients – don’t worry – as you shop for meals, that pantry will grow.
Sit down and write a list of all the meals you like. You can browse a cookbook to get ideas. You will see there are some seasonal meals.
From that list decide what you would like to prepare – and make a store list of the ingredients. Meals that take more preparation we make on the weekends. For the average working person, you need a simple meals during the week.
A meat/fish,vegetable, and potatoes / rice / pasta /bread is all you need. You can pan fry a steak and make a salad quicker then you can go for fast food. Take advantage that potatoes / rice / pasta can easily be reheated in a microwave.
For lunches we figure which meals will have left-overs, and we take those for lunch.
Excellent comment- I think you nailed the real problem- the planning what to buy and to fix for the various meals- it will always seem easier to just go the restaurant and order from the menu.
I have a sister and brother-in-law who eat out 2-3 times a week, go to the movies every weekend, and seemingly have nothing but debts looming over them (college costs) as they prepare to upgrade to a larger house in the next few months. I have tried gently to point out the amount of money they waste in the eating out and the movies, but it falls on deaf ears. I mean, just a few months ago I and other relatives were hit up for a “birthday present” to make a house payment on the old house.
I mean, I just don’t get it- how can people be so wasteful?
Shit Dutch ,just eat some van camps pork and beans. To hell with cooking. …on second thought not cooking is probably the reason I got me some heart disease .
Cooking and eating at home can save you tremendous amount of money. You can save even more if you like left overs and refuse to throw out good food. (And don’t let it go bad in the first place!)
both of those are good suggestions–
here’s one 4 when you do eat out–
it’s nice to have dessert but that’s usually one of the pricier items on the menu in relation to the quantity that you receive–
when we had 3 kids at home my wife would put a pie on to bake when we were leaving & we would come home to a hot pie that just needed to be cut & have a scoop of ice cream put on top–
The other downside of restaurants like the cooking shows on Utube. They sneak in cheap oils,trans fat. overheat olive oil past smoke point. Serve you fluoridated water, lots of very unhealthy ideas.
The biggest downfall to dine out is likely the future medical bills and the associated human suffering.
I almost never dine out. Buy fresh organic raw materials, cook at home and eat mostly ketogenic diet.
Tell congress to stop eating out on your tax dollars.
https://sputniknews.com/us/201907091076198957-us-congress-set-to-ok-raising-federal-debt-level-to-avoid-national-default-mcconnell/
Looks like some people have figured out another way to slash their bills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HocfYt3EM0s
They are working to get their reading skills t 6 th grade level so they can enroll in the university. They hope to get degrees in remedial high school proficiency.
This is how you get so-called “deserts” where there are no food stores or drug stores.
It depends, can you afford eating out? are you a bad cook like me?
As the song says:
I’m workin’ two shifts eatin’ baloney,
Askin’ myself, “Why didn’t you just learn how to cook?!?!”
When you do eat out you can cut your bill significantly by drinking water instead of beverages. The markup on soft drinks, iced tea, coffee (not to mention alcohol) is huge. A nickel’s worth of syrup and carbonated water will cost over $2 every time.
Not to mention the huge savings down the line on medical costs you most likely will incur from years of overeating restaurant food and its subsequent results of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, etc.
Saving money has little to do with the reason I don’t eat out. I simply don’t trust anyone to prepare my food for me. The ingredients I use are items that I have purchased(or caught/killed/grown myself).
For example, even the occasional olive oil I use, I’ve researched to assure myself that it is in fact, olive oil. When I shop, very seldom do I need to venture away from the produce section and down the aisles stacked 6 or 7 feet high with 1,000s of items of processed food poison. Fucking keep that shit, I have no use for it.
People that run restaurants aren’t doing it as a service to you, it’s a for profit business and you better believe that they know tricks you have no idea about.
And then there’s fast “food” Are you fucking kidding? Letting pimply faced 15 year olds prepare processed foods taken to a level that’s beyond comprehension? No fucking way that shit is going into my mouth.
I will say when I lived in Denver, the only times I ate out was when I enjoyed sushi. I imagine there’s ways to disguise not so fresh fish but the couple places I did eat at had stellar reps. Now here in w Texas, I wouldn’t chance it.
Sushi fish is likely farmed fish–they belong to trash bins.
Bullshit asshole.
The ignorance of that piss ant comment speaks volumes bout your idiocy
We prepare a 5 week rotating M-F meal plan and use it quarterly. Summertime is a bit more lax so we can improvise.
Initially it was tough to set up. We looked up menus at retirement homes and hospitals to get started. After it got going we made substitutions for things we didn’t care for. We also built in nights like “Mom’s Choice” to keep it interesting.
Initially it was because my wife was repeating too much. My daughter & I were sick of tacos, Turkey cutlets and a few other things. We quickly realized were were eating healthier and saving $ at the same time.
Our experience:
If we restrict our produce purchases to organic, non-GMO, non-irradiated, fresh, and regionally grown;
If we buy only fish that is not farm-raised in crowded, polluted pools, or, if caught in the wild, that is not an endangered species or harvested from contaminated waters (e.g. from the Northern Pacific into which Fukushima continues to spill 24/7);
If we buy only beef that was grass fed and not subjected to the inhumane conditions of county-sized West Texan feedlots and industrial meat-packing factories;
If we buy only free-range chickens or those that did not spend their lives under articial lights and block-long crowded warehouses;
If we buy alternative meats such as bison, venison, wild boar, or emu…
IOW if we’re cooking and eating at home and our diet conists only of healthful, “ethical”, and environmentally friendly food sources, we spend considerably more per month than we did when we were eating out at inexpensive down-scale restaurants such at the local diner, Shoney’s, the family-owned Thai cafe, or the Chinese buffet.
It’s a helluva lot cheaper being single doing it than being married and paying for her also…..
The reason for this is the women’s movement…… Getting married is a stupid and dangerous move because most don’t cook even if they claim they do. Once married, you have to pay for them to eat out as well. Being single and very busy doesn’t allow for the time to cook most of the time as you are too tired.
In addition, a good meal from the grocery store these days is more expensive than eating one at Cracker Barrel, plus the time involved to prepare. Time is money…..
This is a sign of the times ……
We gave up the restaurant habit years ago. Not only do we save money, but after years of cooking our own meals, we find restaurant food mainly disgusting. And, not coincidentally, we’ve lost weight, we don’t get sick as much and feel better than ever. And, cooking seems to be one of those endeavors where the better you get at it, the better you get at it. Seemingly exponential. Plus remember, in the mid 90’s food service got to be the thing. Most of the crap on your restaurant-plate is food service, that is fabbed off site. There are some exceptions to this, but its why Chili’s, Olive Garden and Marie Callendars’s food now sucks so bad.