Eating Out?

It'a hard to believe that eating out is cheaper....you must be buying a lot of prepared foods. I usually make a pasta dish on Sunday, but I make enough to last for two separate meals. That way, I only cook once. You should do a few meals like that where you can make double portions and eat a couple of times. You can also do this with hearty soups, chili, etc.

It is cheaper for me to cook that eat out. But it is just me and a teen boy.
I buy on sale and build meals around what is on sale - we eat lots of chicken! I stay away from convenience foods - except for a frozen pizza or two that I keep around for my son to cook when I am at work and there are no leftovers for him to eat.

Since I work 1.5 jobs right now, I try and cook on my time off and have left overs for him to eat the next night and for me to take for lunch. Crock pot beans, chili, spaghetti sauce, and live by the Rachel Ray theory of 30 minute meals.

I'll just second (or third or fourth) what is said below. THIS is why there is an obesity epidemic in our country.

We had a budget crisis this pay period.... the FIRST thing I had to cut out (because I've already cut out fluff, and extra's to the point that I'm plucking a string as it is) was SALAD as a part of dinner.

The first week I cut out the fresh veggies that go into the salad (cucumber, tomato, green pepper etc). The next week, didn't even buy the lettuce. would have added 10 to my budget for the week and I would have ended up with JUST salad and dressing.

we cook everything at home. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. My husband takes left over dinner to work for his lunch. I pack my lunch (changes daily depending on what I can whip up, lol). We eat out maybe 3 times a month? We are a family of 4 and spend around $150 a week on food. I make a calendar and plan out ALL meals so there is no questions and no wasting time trying to figure out what to make. It's also a lot healthier than eating out. We also use our crock pot 2-3 times a week. I make mostly chicken (we don't eat red meat all that much, maybe once a month). There are SO many different ways to use a crock pot other than a pot roast. I will cook up some chicken with garlic, onions, chicken broth, and some italian seasonings and then shred it and use it for tacos or I'll make wraps for lunch with it or put it in a salad. I also make speghetti sauce in my crock pot with ground turkey, potato soup in the crock pot is also amazing! So there are a TON of things to put in the crock pot and they only take a few minutes to put together.

We once added up (before we started doing a strict budget using the envelope system) all our eating out for 1 month and it totaled around $1000!!! That was an eye opener! Now that we use the envelope system for EVERYTHING (thanks to Dave Ramsey) we actually have savings now and cut back our eating out to only $80 a month.

You sound very, very busy and I get it that's it's easier and faster and tastier than coming home to more work in the kitchen.

I would recommend that you try some simple menu planning.

Look through the grocery flyers every week and make a menu based upon what is on sale.

My quickest go-to meals are:

Baked chicken legs, baked potatoes, veggie & fruit

Pan-friend salmon patties with lemon pepper, rice made with V8, veggie & fruit

Lasagna with ground turkey, cottage cheese, red pasta sauce.

Baked white fish, rice, veggie

Spinach raviolis with Italian sausage

Costco potstickers wrapped in lettuce leaves

Tacos

Mashed potatoes with half cauliflower and garlic, pork chops

Our favorite steamed veggies: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, green beans,.
Our favorite fresh veggies: cucumbers, celery, carrots, tomatoes, spinach
Our favorite frozen veggies: peas, corn, mixed vegetables

For example tonight's dinner took 20 minutes to cook:

Mashed sweet potato/carrot medley with lime juice, paprika, butter, S&P
Steamed green beans with garlic pepper
Reheated rotisserie chicken, sprinkled with lemon

There are yummy veggie leftovers for lunch. Add a piece of protein and your set.

After dinner I threw the chicken bones, lemon rind and a bag of veggie ends I don't use into a crockpot, with bay leaf, S&P...I know have my next 4 cups of stock for rice, soup, whatever.

The long term problem with your choices is that it's ALL processed foods. Whenever I eat at Subway, I feel bloated for a few days. Whenever I eat over cooked pasta from pizza places, I feel lethargic. Same with pizza, it's sooooo high in sodium and nitrites, especially the pepperoni.

So, with time, start to think outside your busy life and figure out where you can squeeze in a home cooked, family meal.

Wow. For us it's much cheaper to eat at home. We usually eat out about twice a week, once fast food, and once at a "real" restaurant. The fast food place usually costs us about $25, and the restaurant costs us $50 or more (family of 4).

We decided to try an experiment for February, and probably continuing throughout Lent. We aren't going to eat out at all, not even to drive through to pick up a drink.

To make it easier, I planned a menu for the entire month. I actually started it this week, the last week of January. I LOVE it! It made it so much easier to do the grocery shopping, and I loved knowing what to make each night. Also, we are going to be eating such a variety of foods all month. I was able to vary the menu throughout the month. I am a planner by nature, so I think I'll continue doing this forever. My husband said he couldn't believe I hadn't started doing this years ago! :)

We want to see how much money we'll save by eating at home all month. It should be quite a bit. Also, since I know what we'll be eating in advance, I'll be able to buy things ahead of time if they go on sale. We're all excited about it!

We usually only go out to eat on special occasions, like when family is in town or for someone's birthday. That averages out to about two or three times a month. But we rarely do fast food, other than the Mexican walk-up place when someone has a craving.

The fact that fast food is so cheap is why so many people with low incomes are obese. The most affordable food is the least healthy.

Is there a way that you can make food ahead of time, like on the weekends, and freeze them? I feel there is a lot of wiggle room in your schedule if you have two hours between bath and bed. Perhaps push your dinner time back to 6:30 and shorten the wind down time.

Good luck. I get it. I hate cooking.

Yuck, glad I'm not one of your kids. Sorry that's harsh but your eating out and my eating out are 2 different things. I eat out to get something delicious that I can't make at home and it is usually costly. We rarely do fast food. Our meals look like yours about twice a month and it would just be the pizza. I know u r tied but if u put your mind to it and make a plan over the weekend u can put some quick, easy, cheap, and most of all nutritious meals on the table. Your family will thank you when they r older and not battling weight or health problems,

One if my favorite websites is skinnytaste.com she has tons of simple recipes that are easy to make. I get bored easily and she posts a new recipe everyday. When u learn to plan your meals out ahead of time the grocery store will become your friend and you won't want to eat subway for dinner anymore.

Ex. Last nights meal took me 15 mins.
Spaghetti squash with chicken, bacon and pesto sauce. Total meal cost about $12 and fed 2 adults 2 small children and still had leftovers.

You can be a healthy cook I know you can! Do it for your family's health.

Eating out this way might be cheaper than cooking, but you are not getting the nutrients your busy family needs. And even worse are the bad eating habits you are setting. You can cook just as cheaply, quickly, and get some great nutrition. Here are some ideas.

1) On our busy nights, I'll pack a picnic lunch and stick it in the cooler in the morning. We'll get to karate or dance 5 minutes early and have a nice meal of turkey sandwiches, carrot and celery sticks, some kiwi or banana, and pretzels. Costs me about $5 to make this meal for the 3 of us.
2) Google 'frugal meals in crock pot'. You can make a lot more than a roast in that baby. Toss a bag of frozen veggies in the microwave and 6 minutes after arriving home dinner is served.
3) Cook ahead. I made a great beef stew Sunday. Served the 4 of us for 2 meals. Cost me a whopping $8. $6 for the meat and a buck each for the potato and carrots. I also cook a lot of chicken and rice ahead of time. It keeps well, is really inexpensive, and can be used to make a quick aisian or mexican dish. You can wrap almost anything in a tortilla! Really pressed for money? Throw in a can of black beans and you have just stretched your meat 2x as far.

You can do it!

The kids and I have been eating fast food once a week, on a day when we are rushing from one activity to another and don't have time to go home in between. We try to go out for a family meal once every couple of months, and I try to go out to lunch with my husband once every couple of months as well. I am a SAHM so I have more time for meal planning, shopping and cooking, and less money for restaurant meals. Many of the items you mentioned that you eat in restaurants can be made quite quickly and for less money at home (pasta, subs, tacos, etc) Planning ahead is the key.

I feel you. We are out for activities at mealtimes multiple times a week also. Husband isn't always at home at dinner time, so we usually pick something up. We TRY to eat healthy, but I don't always make an issue of it, since them meals we do eat at home are pretty healthful.

And eating OUT healthfully is a lot more costly. Salads, tacos/burritos (from a fresh mex place like a Chipotle's or something along those lines)...
I know what you mean about the crock pot too.

You can do an easy pulled pork barbeque in it though. Add buns, BBQ sauce and slaw and you are done. (pork roast, 1 cup of brewed coffee, salt/pepper and some beef broth).

Or make tacos at home with your own seasoning. I have a seasoning recipe that I make at 3x the normal amount. So once made, I can whip it out on ground beef at any time I want--no measuring required- and no additives or anything either. Not even any salt in it.
The kids like to make burritos or tacos or taco salads with the meat.

Many other things in the crockpot, are very "saucy" and we just don't do a lot of saucy/gravy type stuff at our house. But, you could always make breakfast for dinner. Scramble eggs, some ham, peppers/onions, black olives, broccoli, whatever. Or make omelets with everyone's fav ingredients. cheap, easy, quick. :)

O. (maybe two) nights per week.
I just really hate getting fast food. And we get sick of it, too.

I feel better cooking stuff myself--healthier, kwim?

But, you know, people are busy, sooooo...try to add salads, veggies, etc.

for us its a once a week thing.. maybe 2 times if we have a busy day or some other circumstances make it so they neither i nor my mother are cooking that night.. our fav. pizza place does a large pie for 8.99 monday-thursday... i cant even remember the last time we actually went somewhere and sat down to eat, probably last year on my birthday.. but if it does happen that its a twice a week event the second time is either chinese or subway.
here are my go to not expensive dinners.. tilapia- i buy it already breaded in a box from costco, its only 13$ and then i buy 2 packages of rice which are like 1$ a piece.. meatloaf and baked potatoes.. chilli-so easy! and when the chopped meat is on sale its pretty inexpensive.. i just buy the white rice that you boil in the bag and some shredded cheddar to go on top... really i look at whats on sale in our grocery store that particular week and go from there.. i do a pretty good amount of chicken.. cutlets for chicken parm. chicken casserole- just chicken broccoli cheese &stuffing mix.. sloppt joes r a fav, too- the meat kind not the coldcut kind

i know its a pain in the butt but i find that i spend less money going to thee store just for dinner stuff 4-5x a week than i do if i go once and shop for the whole week.. i get what i need for dinner n get out.. it also limits the amount of junk food i end up bringing home

We eat out at most a few times a month, if that. I make sure I cook daily. Some of the meals last for at least 2 meals. For example, on Monday I made potato soup with broccoli, and celery - we had more than enough to last three of us 2 nights plus lunches. I tend to use my crock pot for all kinds of meals not just roasts. I love to throw seasoned chicken and vegetables into it for an easy dinner. I make our pizzas and that way we can control exactly what goes into them and it takes the same amount of time if I were to order and it costs less money.

I'm all about keeping things simple and easy but not sacrificing the extra cash or honestly our health by eating out constantly. Try to get your husband in on things and each of you can do prep work or make ahead meals that you freeze for when nights are going to be hectic. There's nothing wrong with eating out occasionally. Get your kids in on the action too if they're able to help.

Make sandwiches.
Cut up fruit and veggies and put in ziploc baggies.
Crock pots work for oatmeal, too.
Hand them a yogurt as soon as you pick them up, that will stave their immediate hunger.

I have a rule abut eating out like this (fast food, not decent restaurant food), watch portions and try to fill them up on fruits and veggies beforehand (or at the very least, after. I've been known to feed apples to my kids at bedtime.) I insist on a large salad before eating pizza, for example. It's hard not to take advantage of the $5 pizza, trust me, I know. Pizza night is Friday here, and I buy two to feed my brood. Taco night is Sunday but we make it at home, with every fixing imaginable. Occasionally I will give in to a SMALL burger when we're out and can't get home to eat, but a salad and milk or juice always go with it.

I only had that kind of schedule for a few years, and it was very difficult for me to keep up. But eating well was very important to us, so we found those ways to avoid depending on too much processed food. Balance. A week here and there exactly as you describe is not really all bad. But every week or most weeks? More fruits and veggies and fewer chips :)

I agree that eating out can sometimes be cheaper-I think that often at the register. I bet the people who do best with grocery shopping are the meal planners and the couponers.

We use to eat out or do take out once a week.
It's too expensive and fattening.
The foods we like to eat when eating out are full of fat and salt.
It's ok once in a great while but all the time is just not good.
When we cut back on it we all lost a few pounds without even trying.
We save so much money by cutting the eating out to once every few months and for special occasions.
You can cook a lot more in a crock pot than just roast.
Stew, soup, chili, etc.
You can use it every day of the week without repeating yourself.
And who says you have to eat dinner food for dinner all the time?
Scrambled eggs with some veggies with or without meat is a perfectly good supper and it doesn't take long to make.
Depending on how old the kids are they should be helping with meal prep and putting dishes into the dishwasher to help keep things moving along.
Make and freeze casseroles on the weekends so you just have to warm them up when you get home during the week.
Make effective use of left overs.
If you have chicken one night, then you use left over chicken to make chicken pot pie or chicken and dumplings the next night.
A good sized ham should give you several meals - you can use ham in pretty much everything except maybe desserts.

I know a lot of people that eat out constantly - lunch and dinner - and it always amazes me that they have the money. I find cooking at home a lot cheaper.

We get paid twice a month. We go to a pizza place on payday. For our family of three, we spend $15.86. If there is something to celebrate or my son deserves a treat, we add a lemonade to his order. Otherwise, we all have water.

But I totally get your defense that it is easier to grab something on the way home. That may be because the decision is being made at that moment. Even just a smidge of planning ahead (like just knowing what is in your own fridge/cabinet that takes 20 minutes or less) can break that cycle.

One thing that helps me is my husband is in charge 2 nights a week. I don't care what we have as long as he makes it and it appears at dinner time. Even he can manage to whip something up after he gets off work. It's not fancy, and neither are my meals, but with a little effort, it gets done. Even something as simple as pasta and sauce tastes great, doesn't require a lot of effort or prep work and usually makes enough for leftovers.

I do spend a bit more for some of the prepared things, especially the mirepoix (diced carrots, onions, carrots) from Trader Joe's. I can get two good meals out of that in no time, usually meatloaf and vegetable soup. Buying butternut squash or sweet potatoes already cut up is a huge time saver too and I always find them difficult to cut anyway.

On weekends I make a huge bunch of pancakes or waffles and freeze them for quick starters during the week. Just add some fresh scrambled eggs, sausage and smoothie and it's a meal for any morning or night.

I'm a vegetarian and am in the trap of some of the packaged fake meat items. They are my husband's go-to but I don't mind. He pops a chick'n cutlet in the oven, picks a vegetable to heat on the stove and usually rounds out the meal with some beans or potato.

I think we save a lot of money eating at home. We have some healthier choices that way, too. And really, I don't like the few times we go out a lot in one week (like birthday dinners, parents taking us out, etc). It seems to take up even more time and hassle.

We usually do meals out once a week. Even a nice cut of salmon and some veggies will cost us less than going out. Our usual pub bill (where we usually go for a meal out) is about $36-$40 depending on drinks (I am not going to the pub and NOT having a beer-- I love a good craft beer!); if we do takeout Thai or something, that runs us about $20 or so with tip.

Like Manda, we spend about $400-$500 on groceries and all household items every month. We don't spend money on fancy vacations, going out to movies and such; we do spend money on good fresh foods. We're not foodie snobs, it's just really worth it to me, and I have some food intolerance issues so some of the less expensive foods I used to love (like beans-- god, I miss beans!) are not an option for me.

We eat out about 1x/month. My husband is gluten free so fast food or pizza really isn't an option. I cook from scratch and the only way I can do that with my work hours (I get home between 5:30 and 6 pm is to have the menu planned for the whole week. I spend $100-$150/week on people food (the pets add a fair amount to our weekly budget) and that includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner and snacks for 3 people. That works out to about $2 per meal per person. And it is good quality food. We eat vegetarian about 2 days per week and all the lunches and dinners have a strong fruit and vegie component to them.

Do you have a good crockpot recipe book because there is so much more you can do with a crockpot than cook a roast.

Good grief, I can have a steak dinner for 5(my kids are 3, 7, and 10) for what your Subway costs....

Steak (1 lb sirloin sutter and dodge black Angus at target) - $8
Potatoes - $1.50
Green beans(I get 8+ meals out of an organic $6 costco bag) - $1
Loaf of brown bread(similar to outback) - $1
Milk for kids drink - $1(prob less than that)
$12.50

By the time you add your soda and chips, you prob spent more...

I cant justify the $30 it costs for a family of five to eat at Mcdonalds when I can have a steak dinner at home for less than half. Take a few minutes to plan a weekly menu and make it a priority - your family needs far better nutrition.