Just curious...

I count in this: going through a drive thru (for anything), eating a meal at a restaurant, eating a prepared sandwich or salad from a deli case at the supermarket, etc. Anything where you go buy the food and without any additional preparation, consume it as a meal.

I'll answer in a reply.

Rarely, maybe twice a month.

One of those times it's probably for convenience sake, and the other, a planned thing, but usually with a coupon or on a discount day.

It is hard for me to justify the cost for our household. There's so many other things I'd like to have or do than to have money be gone in an instant. I know others that place a value not having to prepare a meal, and I certainly don't negatively judge them.

it varies a lot here.
When I'm off maybe once every other week.
when I'm working two or three times a week.

(my schedule is work for a few weeks, have a couple of weeks off and then I have the summers off)

We like to eat out though, and honestly would eat out more if we had better food options here. the one thing I miss about orlando is the good abundant affordable restaurants and the ease of finding non meat choices. We are in podunk maine now which I love love love other than the lack of restaurants, lol

Oh, Storm, I know what you mean, believe me! ;)

We eat out about once a month if that. Probably average once every 6 weeks.

Now with Matt needing to be completely gluten-free, that is going to go down. In the past months our only restaurant meals have been when we go to our Lyme doc and have to eat something w/our meds before we drive home...

We pack a lot of meals if we know we'll be out around mealtime.

I want people who eat out often to feel okay about replying too...I just want to hear...I was thinking we were not in the norm and that most eat out more. But not judging. :)

A LOT. :p
I think I saw a statistic once that the Dallas area has more restaurants per capita than anywhere else in the country. We are frequently out at lunch time and tend to stop and eat.

(When we lived in VT, we hardly ever ate out because there were so few options and the kids were so little....it was a VERY rare occasion.)

Once a week and a very rare rotisserie chicken. But really just once a week. It's part of our family day together.

We mostly go to In'N'Out, Chipotle (my favorite), and La Salsa. So never more than $25 for our family.

Well I will be one of the more frequent ones, we eat out at least 1x a week and usually more (2-3x week).

I hate to cook and clean up. As in dispise it with a passion. It is funny because I am actually a pretty good cook but it is a stress point for me so I don't enjoy it and I avoid doing it at all costs. So because of that eating out is a real treat for us and especially for me.

We live 30 minutes from the nearest big town so it is almost impossible for me to schedule a trip to town without running into lunch or snack time. Therefore we usually just plan that to be part of our trip.

We get either Wendy's, Burger King or MacDonalds once every other week or so. We eat at a mexican or chinese restaurant every five or six months. I get indian food for myself about once a month.

I like to get Subway sandwiches for my birthday meal each year.

Uh........I think that's it?!

I am not even going to say, but it needs to come to an end for so many different reasons.

We have a weekly family dinner out every Sunday. We take turns picking the restuarant, and it can be pricey depending on the location. It causes a bit of financial guilt because of the cost, but it provides an enjoyable family experience so we're keeping it for the time being.

I also go out for breakfast or lunch two or three times a week on workdays, but I'd like to cut that down.

Oh, I wanted to say, we don't have many options here at *all* as far as places to eat. And in Florida the kids were small and Jake's autism (in retrospect) made it hard to get through a meal at all. I remember Matt's parents taking us out and us dreading it because we'd take turns walking Jake and trying to keep him calm. It was like torture.

On top of that, dh loves to cook and whips up meals better than most I've eaten in top-notch restaurants.

We mostly go out when it is dh and I alone without the kids, so that alone limits us severely.

We get takeout (payday, LOL) 2x a month or so, hit the Mexican restaurant on birthdays, and I have a guilty habit of going to Sonic on Wednesdays while traveling for work. DH goes to BK occasionally when he forgets lunch(2x/mo). We always get a Rotisserie chicken when we go to Costco (1-2x/mo). So, I think that might average a couple of times a week or so....but only 2x a month for the whole family. It has been a little more this busy holiday season, and I want to get back to just the takeout and special occasion Dinners out.

I feel pretty good with this amount, though, because it is a relatively small part of the budget, and I need the occasional night off. Minus the fastfood. That always happens because of a lack of planning on my part, I never actually plan to go there, KWIM?

That is a good question, Lauren!

Let's see - I would say pizza - maybe 1-2 x's per month. I make our own, too, but we still wind up getting comercial pizza. :(

Taco Bell - I would say Garrett eats it maybe 4 times per year. I, personally eat it 1-2 times per month. Ugh. That is bad. Shame on me. :wah:

Chinese food - maybe 2x's per year. Not very often, although that is the healthiest bet imo for a vegetarian. Not organic, though, which is also a concern to me....

Now, there is this restaurant an hour away (we are going to that town for several other reasons) that we hope to hit tommorow. This is REAL food - all vegetarian, mostly organic. That to me isn't too guilty health-wise.

There is a another restaurant in the same town that is also pretty healthy, although there organic ingredients are mostly seasonal, so right now, they don't have much. But, it's also a locally owned restaurant which serves whole food from scratch (mostly burritos of many types.)

Moneywise, of course, eating out is never too smart, though.

I would like to see the Taco Bell and pizza decrease for sure. :help:

Honestly, I think it's about me missing cheese. I'd be better off to buy organic cheese and keep it at home (our kitchen is vegan.)

It probably averages about once a week for us. Sometimes less. Dh eats lunch out every day.

Well I will be one of the more frequent ones, we eat out at least 1x a week and usually more (2-3x week).

I hate to cook and clean up. As in dispise it with a passion. It is funny because I am actually a pretty good cook but it is a stress point for me so I don't enjoy it and I avoid doing it at all costs. So because of that eating out is a real treat for us and especially for me.

Same thing here. I go on buying trips (for ebay) at least 1x a week and we are almost always gone for hours, including lunch time so I tell myself it's neccesary. HOWEVER, I'm going to start making bento boxes for the kids when I bring them along so that they can eat those and maybe bringing along a salad for myself. Won't work so well in the Summer unless I buy a cooler to keep cold things cold.

We only eat out maybe once every couple of months. If we are going to be out around lunchtime, I pack sandwiches or something. In fact, the boys and I tend to be out around lunchtime a few times a week, but I always make sure I have something to grab and pack. I always have some sort of snacks in the van, too (crackers, nuts, trail mix, etc) to sustain us for a while.

I hate eating out. I hate having no control over my food (what's in it and how many calories, etc) and spending way more than the food is worth. And if we *do* eat out, we make sure we pick somewhere that I can't easily make the food we are paying to eat, like Famous Dave's (I love that place--the brisket is TDF!) or chinese (I have yet to master an authentic chinese dish myself lol).

It is usually between 3-5 times per month. It typically coincides with a shopping trip to town for us.

I will share some tips we have learned as far as packing food, because it seems many who've posted do eat out frequently, esp fast food, and esp because you're out and about and don't have anything packed already.

You don't need a plug-in ($$) cooler. Just pack your food in a picnic cooler or in everyone's smaller lunch bags and use ice packs. (We get ice packs w/J's meds and save them for a few uses - then they usually bust a hole and get tossed.)

I generally buy prepackaged snacks (like a large box of Goldfish or TLC crackers) only for school lunches or eating on the road. I pack them into individual baggies as needed.

Deli meat is great to pick up when out and about if you need a quick meal. We just roll up turkey and cheese and eat it like that, no need for bread or making "sandwiches." If you're in a pinch, you can stop at almost any grocery store and have "turkey and cheese rollups" for everyone for less than the cost of one person's meal out.

Keep a stash of paper cups, plates and a box of forks/spoons/knives in a box in your car/van. Oh and a roll of paper towels. :)

PBJs are quick and easy on the road. Just pack bread, PB, jelly and a knife and you're in business.

Invest in containers for food and drinks. We have water bottles and a few travel cups for coffee, plastic (yes, the safe kind) containers for food itself (we don't heat in them, and I'd like to switch to stainless but haven't yet), ziplocs (actually fairly safe plastics-wise), stainless thermal jars for hot food, and large water bottles for long trips (we have a half-gallon insulated plastic container like you'd get for sports).

I am not even going to say, but it needs to come to an end for so many different reasons.

:agreed: same here.

Yes, I definitely always pack when we're out for lunch. That is normally just Anders and me (and the baby). I take leftover pizza for him (we have homemade pizza every Sunday). I don't use any kind of cooler bag or ice pack. He's still alive. :lol: Then I add in whatever else we have at the time, always trying to be heavy on the fruit.

For years and years we NEVER ate out. Last year sometime we decided to make it part of our family day. It gives me a "day of rest" from thinking about food, and it's just fun for our family--a nice family tradition. I am all for conscious choices in eating out. And I think it's cheaper to get good meat at Chipotle (because they use good meat) than it is to get it at the store. ;)

We do a fair amt., although less than what we did say a year ago. Dh is gone all week long, so it's much easier to step into a restaurant and get food rather than trying to figure out what to make for just two of us. Lately though I've been cooking more, and finding more meals that both Duncan and I like. We usually eat out or order in on the weekends, it's part of our family time. And I try to keep costs down during the week so that we can spend a bit more on the weekends, less planning for us so we can kinda do as we please and make the most of our weekends.

We do drive thru once a week, the same night we go to the store. We ate out a LOT the year we lived with dh's family, it was a kitchen sharing issue. We are planning on cutting our store trips down to every other week, which should cut our drive thru consumption in half. We spend $20-$30 each time (depending on where we go), so I had ds do the math (he was disappointed at less fast food) and he figured we could save $600 in one year. He was okay with it after that.

During Faire, everything goes out the window. We eat fast food on shopping night, then friday night on our way out to Faire, and yet again sunday night on the way home. And during setup it's worse, we'll end up with fast food sometimes for lunch, AND sat and sun night, because we'll stay out there building and painting until the sun goes down. I did really well last year, I took lunch for us during setup, so we didn't have fast food for lunch, not once. I get so tired of it.

Grace and I eat out every Tuesday night after dance class. It's my time to visit with my friend plus she has dance from 5-7pm so she's starving! I eat out lunch 1-2 x's per week. DH and I have a date night about once a month.

too many....

though not any more... our goal is to go out no more than 2 x / month

Used to a LOT - now, nearly as much.

I think that's largely due to not having extra money for it - or for the shopping days that would leave us out in the city, with poor timing on our parts, in need of a meal.

LOL Okay, I'll say it. Almost once a day. On average, definitely once a day. And honestly, budget wise, it isn't too bad (a drive thru meal costs us about $10 and a store meal costs us about $10) but HEALTH wise, HORRID. I mean, just horrible. Not to mention the terrible eating habits I am teaching my kids. I squarely blame this on my dh who LOVES fast food. Then, on top of that, budget busting, is that dh and I do go to lunch together, frequently. It must come to an end. Must, it is ruining our health and keeping us from saving for truly important stuff. We don't even have "good" places to eat around here.

We have been doing this SO much this last month. I actually calculated it last night that we spent next to $250 on quick meals (bought and brought home, or sit down) out. And HOW SILLY! On average we were eatong out twice to three times a week in Dec! That is TERRIBLE for us!

So I told Don that we have two planned date nights and those are the only ones for this month. One is on coupon and one is on a gc from Christmas. Here's hoping it works! (He is worse than me, but I gotta say, over the last year, this has gotten really bad for me too.)

Now that we've moved and I don't have friends to go out with? :hahaha: Twice a month, maybe, unless we're roadtripping. When it's just me and the kids roadtripping, just once a day, if that, and I stock up on easy car food. When it's a roadtrip with DH, more. :rolleyes:

I would say as a family or couple we eat out about twice per month. Dh also does breakfast with a men's group twice a month (about $5 each time, he orders cheap) and I do coffee with girlfriends about twice a month (sometimes I do tea and its super cheap, other times I have a GC).

Sarah

I will share some tips we have learned as far as packing food, because it seems many who've posted do eat out frequently, esp fast food, and esp because you're out and about and don't have anything packed already.

We keep a case of granola type snack bars in the car at all times and water bottles in the back of the van. I also have some packets of EmergenC and tea bags in my purse at all times. These really help for those unplanned long outings when fast food is oh so tempting. The biggest deterint for fast food for me though was just keeping a book open all the time (even if I am reading slow) on nutrition (Dr Sears Family Nutrition, SuperSize Me, ect), suddenly it all doesn't look nearly as tempting.

We park in our garage and have our pantry IKEA shelves out there so its easy to grab some items on the way to the car. I also make PB&J sandwich pockets with the Pampered Chef cut and seal and freeze in individual snack baggies. These are SUPER easy to grab for a day out and are thawed by lunch time so no ice packs are needed. A couple sandwich pockets, water bottles, and some granola bar or baggie of pretzels make for a decent lunch when we are out and about (also those easy peel clementines are good 'packed lunch' food).

Sarah

Maybe 6 times a year. (where we pay for it) This is only when we are traveling for medical or for the special birthday treat of non-frozen pizza.

Dh and I sometimes sneak out for a lunch deal at the local mexican restruant. I'd say we do this about 7-9 times a year max.

Our parents always take us out to eat when they visit since they know we hardly ever do this and it is a big treat for our family. :)

Michelle

Hmmm, we have three local Mexican places that have a $4-5 lunch, (including drinks on the $5!) so I meet a friend on her lunch hour every other week for that...I'd like this to be weekly, it's like therapy for $5! :) When schools not is session my teen dd and I do the same. A also do coffee at Quick Trip, about $1, 1-2 times a week. Lattes I've cut back to about 1-2 a month. (still miss them)

One of my teens will babysit and dh and I will have a cheap lunch sometimes on the weekends, usually $5.50 Chinese buffet. We can get it for the same price carryout and two will feed all of us ( I make jasmine rice at home) We plan to do date nights but I can only think of two we've had in a long time....

I do rotisserie chicken about twice a month when I go to Sam's. If dh can get lunch sometimes we do that while I'm in town, once a month. We have a lot of BOGO coupons that we use so it's not super expensive.

We've cut way back, for us all six of us to go out to a sit down chain is pricey, and my teen dd is the only one of the kids that really enjoys it, so that is very seldom these days. Inexpensive lunches, a little takeout.... My teen ds works at a pizza chain now so we get half price pizzas, probably about three times a month. (sometimes a free pizza!)

I don't like fast food, sometimes we'll do the drive thru dollar menu somewhere for a few things to tide us over.

Dh has an 'allowance' that he can use for lunches or on anything he wants, I'm not sure how often he lunches. He does pack leftovers often, he likes to spend his allowance on his hobby stuff :)

I'd like to cut back a little, for health/weight reasons.
Anne

I am proud to say that we did not eat out once this week. :) I will try to keep it going, but with dh home all the time, well, we will see how far that goes. He is on vacation for the next three weeks. And when he is home, I have a hard time not just giving in to his terrible food habits.

Wait! I have to amend that... we ate bagel sandwiches and an oatmeal cookie at the airport (cost like $15 for just me and Cyan too!) because Alex's flight got in at 5:30pm, and we had to be there by 4pm, and then didn't get out until after 7pm ((I almost called you Sarah. lol...) their bags take FOREVER and unaccompained minors are the last off the plane, every time)... so we did have to buy food that time. No food can come past security anymore. I was trying to think of what to bring that was under 4oz... lol... I DID see a woman bring bagels in a zip lock and then just buy the cream cheese from the bagel place we were at. Thought that was brilliant! I will remember this next time... cuz, if she was at the bagel place, they obviously let her through security. Could have been a miss... but at least, it is worth a try.

Val

Maybe 3 or 4 times a year.

About 5 or so years ago we decided to pay off all of our debts and save everything we could in order to purchase a piece of property and build a home without taking out a loan. So we stopped eating out at all.

By doing this we found that restaurant food just doesn't taste good to us anymore. Fast food literally makes us sick. My dh even learned to make sushi.

Right now I have a couple of $50 gift cards to various restaurants that we have been given as gifts that we haven't used just because we don't care for the food. I think I am going to give them to my niece after she has her baby next week so that her SO can pick up some quick meals for them.

Maybe every couple of months. Would love to be able to eat out more! We pack lunches and snacks every where we go or plan around lunch/dinner time. Ever since we watched Super Size Me (the extras at the end is what did it) we don't eat out at fast food restraunts. It has been 3 years. Sometimes I just wanna stop instead of making lunch but my mind won't let me. :lol:

[QUOTE=craftymama;2794138 Ever since we watched Super Size Me (the extras at the end is what did it) we don't eat out at fast food restraunts. It has been 3 years. Sometimes I just wanna stop instead of making lunch but my mind won't let me. :lol:[/QUOTE]


That is another reason I don't want to eat out. I tend to watch too many cooking shows like that Gordan Ramsey one, Kitchen Nightmares, I believe. And Top Chef, have you ever noticed how much some of those guys are sweating into the food.

We did almost eat in Olive Garden several months ago, but got up and left before any food was served. The amount of flies in the dining area skeeved me out. I could only imagine what the kitchen looked like.

A lot. Way more than I'd like.

This is for me, not my kids or my dh (dh eats out all the time). I generally have a coffee shop latte to go around 1-2x/week. I buy convience food (usually an Amy's burrito from WF) for three meals a week (my job pays for lunch, but wouldn't pay for me to make my own lunch).

Then, I always have take-out pizza on Fridays (this is my number one thing to change; I'm going to start making, rather than buying, the pizza). Then, we usually eat out for lunch on Saturdays. During football season, we have take out from random places for foodball snacks (Chinese food, wings, sliders) and then take out smoothies for dinner.

Then, dh and I usually go out at least once a month.

Oh, and we probably travel one long weekend of every six, and that is all eat out.

This is my new year's resolution. I'm fine eating out once a week, but not getting nearly half our food as take out. My biggest issue is that I'm the only one of the four of us who can eat out and have it be relatively healthy.

I admit that the fact that dh and I have worked in restaurants and know how nasty the kitchens and walk-ins can be, definitely has affected our desire to eat out anywhere. *shudder* When we do eat out it is only at higher-end places as a special occasion and food we don't make at home. Dh can now make Pad Thai better than any Asian restaurant in this area, so we enjoy a night of Thai cuisine at home instead of paying $20+. Plus then the kids can eat what they want; the only thing J likes at a Thai restaurant is Chicken Satay. :) We usually have to get 2-3 orders for him!

I cannot remember the last time I ate fast food.

I'm not saying we're so virtuous, but I do want to acknowledge to myself and dh that we do really well in this area. I can't even remember the last time I had a frozen or prepared meal. The most "convenient" I get is a can of beans or can of soup (the soup not so much) or a box of prepared MSG-free stock.

Not having take-out options whatsoever has really cut back on that. But mostly I think I'm lucky because dh loves to cook and finds it relaxing to come home from work and prepare dinner! I just try to have the kitchen clean and ready for him. :)

I worked at McD's as a teen for a few years. Uhhhhh, all I can say is "yuck" because some of the stuff I saw was GROSS! :nono: Same goes for the nearest BK where my boyfriend and a few other friends worked. You can't get a bunch of crazy teenagers together and expect total cleanliness or responsibility.

I worked at burger king and I worked at Baskin Robbins - both during my teen years - and I never saw anything that would make me want to avoid either. The craziest thing we ever did was make a shake out of every single flavor and make the newest person drink it. But, as far as cleanliness/customer care/food prep, honestly, there wasn't ever anything that was inappropriate.

We go maybe 2x a month.

We tend to go to a restaurant on someone's birthday. If we are super lucky we can get babysitting and DH and I can eat by ourselves on our anniversary! (Only twice in the past 8 years has that happened.)

I have four children and it's too expensive to eat out for us.

I have been known to buy my youngest a "Happy Meal" after a stressful doctor's appointment. We'll probably get him one next month after the neurology appt. We go to speech therapy and occupational twice a week but we never eat fast food after that because it would set up an expensive precedent.

Sincerely,
Debra, homeschooling mom of 4

I'm not sure how often we go out. My focus this year is to absolutely stop going to chain restaraunts. (which will be a little harder now that my mom bought us Panera bagels & chai last time she was here. gosh they have yummy bagels! So many flavors! LOL - and they are located just 2 blocks from here.sigh....). But even stopping the chain restaraunts wont make much of a dent I dont think! We usually eat local ethnic anyway!

Going out as a family of 7 costs too much to do it much, but dh will always try to make an excuse for us to go out as a couple (well, with the baby, and sometimes one of the other younger ones) - I think he just wants to eat meat!

Dining out and fast food has been a real problem with us. We have eaten out ONE time since Christmas, and it cost a whopping 3.25 (I had freebie cupons for Double Dave's, and we drank water.)

Not eating out in over two weeks has been the most mentally gratifying treat for us. We are all high fives and X's on the calendar at the end of the day.

We now have a sushi resturant right down the street, and also an organic bakery. Both are spendy (about $20 minimum) but I am trying to support them... and not fast food... at all. That is my first goal this year. Next will be to nicks eating out at all... but with Alex's surgury and his plane flights, Don being on vacation, and the change of Don's work schedule (from Swings to Graves... bleck!), this has only been partially possible.

Working on it. Still only three times since Christmas. That's not bad... for us. And one was a gift card. Didn't pay for it.

Val