Husban-dito and I eat out with alarming frequency–four or five nights out of seven. I don’t like cooking and hate to make a mess in the kitchen. We don’t like the same kind of foods–he likes flavors and I shun everything seasoned, so eating out, like white sofas, works for us in our kid-free life.
Last weekend I decided to try an unscientific cost-analysis of eating in versus dining out–why? Who knows. Based on recent receipts, we spend an average of $25 per meal eating out. Most nights, I come home from dinner with leftovers that furnish Huzz with lunch for the following day, so technically we get three meals on $25. Over the course of a week this adds up to $125, plus the $50 or so I spend at the grocery on bread, fruit, and lunch meat to see us through the remaining dinners and lunches.
I planned my menu and shopping list for the week:
- Monday: Panko & Parmesan encrusted chicken breast with creamy orzo pasta
- Tuesday: Turkey chili with oyster crackers and cheese
- Wednesday: Sloppy Joes (eww) with smashed and broiled red rosemary potatoes and broccoli
- Thursday: Chicken Fajitas with rice
- Friday: Chicken salad sandwiches with whatever was left over from the week
Armed with the shopping list, I ventured to the store. I didn’t stray from my list except for a breakdown in the cookie aisle that resulted in 2 packs of Pepperidge Farm cookies being added to the haul. And the result: $161.94 spent!
Not only did I lay out $162 dollars for food, but now the daunting task of PREPARING it loomed on the horizon. The last few nights were fraught with minor kitchen disasters and injuries here at Chez CWG. Dishes were broken, fingers burned, shirts stained–and all in the name of my stupid cost analysis. It was hell.
The aftermath of the meals was the worst part of all. Every pot and pan in the house, stacked and teetering precariously in the sink; the stove top splattered and speckled red (pasta sauce, chili, and/or blood), like something from a slasher movie; the floor littered with diced onion fragments and other detritus.
And for what? To save a measly $13?!! Never again! Tomorrow we’re going OUT to eat; chicken salad be damned!
Whew! Enough about me. How about you? Do you eat out? How often? Do you prefer eating in or out? Inquiring minds want to know.
*Hey, that little link below, “possibly related posts”, I’m a Freaketarian is actually HYSTERICALLY funny. I strongly encourage you to read it–the author quite the wit!*
I get bored with eating out. I like my homemade food, even if it is only pasta and butter. With a little bit of parmesan. mmmm.
CWG says: i think that’s what inspired me to with my little “cook-in”. we’d been eating out like CRAZY of late…and i was craving some home cooking. but i’m cured now.
Ah well, you know the old expression, “curiosity broke the dishes, burned fingers, stained shirts, dirtied the dishes and littered the floor with onion fragments”.
CWG says: i know it well because i coined it. i’m never doing this cooking shenanigans again! remind me next time i try to do this.
We go through this every summer. Since we can’t even boil water from April – October, we tend to eat out quite a bit. We keep telling ourselves that buying a house (with central AC and a decent kitchen – you know, with a counter bigger than a breadbox and an oven timer that doesn’t buzz 24 hrs straight!) will undoubtedly save us buckets of money…so we keep telling ourselves.
CWG says: too bad you don’t live closer…i have a barely used oven/stove thing in my garage that i have to put it up on craigslist…but i’ve been a bit lax. when we redid our kitchen i got a new stove with a warming drawer (never used) and a griddle thing (also never used). hahahah. i just HAD to have it.
I’ve found the same thing! If I buy all the elements to prepare a meal at home, I spend more. And then I have a random assortment of leftover inputs that tend to get wasted. I think we eat at home at least four nights a week, but those are the basic meals, the old standbys, that are easy to make and clean up.
And boy, do I love the crock pot! Makes me happy to have food baking on the counter with only one pot to clean up. (Have you visited that blog of 365 days of crock potting? It’s a hoot! And good recipes.)
CWG says: you are SO right about buying things never to be used again. it’s so wasteful and i have a cabinet full of stuff to prove it. i do have a crockpot, but fear fires. i can’t leave the thing on when i go to work. we had a small fire in our house last august and i STILL can’t sleep through the night, so crockpots are OUT unless i’m home.
You are a silly, silly person and that’s why olive-ewe!
CWG says: haaaaaaa! i’m lolz-ing…though it took a minute. it’s early over here.
P.S. I heart cooking, messes and all… I just get so flustered when we go out and end up paying $10 (not inc. tip) for two pints when we could have bought a sixer for $8.
Plus, The Mister doesn’t do leftovers. I cannot convince him that spaghetti parm is 100% better the next day.
CWG says: ahh, we don’t drink when we eat out…i guess this helps shave some $$ off the meal price. once in a while the huzz will knock back a few, but not on ’school nights.’
and for the record, i did figure out that eating in over the course of a YEAR will save us roughly $675. it’s still not enough of a savings and doesn’t make up for the aggravation and mess (and probable trips to the ER).
We spend more because we get tired of the cheap places like Fazolis and burger joint. We ate out a lot last month and we are broke as a result.
There are ways to eat at home that are cheap – just don’t get all fancy. What were you thinking with the sloppy joes? Do you think you are the queen or something?
I hate cooking. I would rather my husband do it. But he is such a cooking snob, that it takes all night for him to boil water.
CWG says: the sloppy joes were particularly bad. my mom NEVER made them when i was a kid, and i imagined that they tasted good. (similar to hamburger helper). i’ve since learned that they are both yucky.
I buy groceries that cover most every meal for us for seven days- breakfast, lunch and dinner. I spend about $80 a week on groceries, and am trying to get that even lower. I don’t always enjoy cooking though- that’s what pasta w/ butter and garlic or baked potatoes are for in our house.
CWG says: $80?!!? what are you buying? air? hee hee. you’re a bargain shopper…tell me you use coupons!
Can I even count the number of times I had good intentions and then had to throw away ($$$) vegetables etc. b/c I let them “overripen” in the vegetable/fruit bins!
I have learned that Rotisserie chicken and the pre-made foods at Publix are a Godsend when I would rather eat in than out. I cook meals on the weekends we are home and I have a fabulous kitchen (that I don’t want to clean) and just about every gadget you could want…
Ya just have to do what stresses you the least!!!
CWG says: hello! you were looking in my kitchen window last night, right? i had to toss a rotten pepper that was intended for the fajitas. the key lime pie at publix is so yummy. my parental units have a place in florida and when we used to go there, it was key lime pie for brekkie, lunch, & din din for me. hee hee
I’m cursed no matter what I do.
I enjoy eating out at nice places and drinking while there. When preparing food at home, I like to make and bake interesting and challenging things that require high-quality and/or exotic ingredients.
Often enough, I simply decide not to eat at all when confronted with this dilemma.
CWG says: i think i would eat cereal most nights if not for husbandito…when he’s away, it’s cereal or CORN for dinner. hahaha
I can’t stick to a ‘menu’ like that anyway!
CWG says: well, me neither. i swapped the fajitas for tonight and made the sloppy joes last night. it’s all too much pressure. i can’t stand it.
I so love to cook and like to entertain with fabulous new recipes.
Eating out can become boring. Sometimes, I just want a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup or a PBJ.
But hey, whatever floats your boat!
CWG says: i agree about eating out too much–after our road trip and something like 38 ‘restaurant meals’ in a row, i was ready for some home cooking. the only salvation was when we were staying at a B&B in new orleans and we got homemade brekkie every morning.
Totally unrelated to this post.
Question? will there be a candy corn header for October ?
CWG says: SHHHH! i’ve been waiting all year to pull that one out! i started this blog last december with candy canes…and love months with a holiday just so i can use a holiday candy.
I think if we lived in the same place, we would soon start to recognize each other in restaurants! We eat out a lot. Most days the hubby and I like to meet up for lunch. Sometimes we’ll eat out twice in one day.
I have a hard time remembering to defrost the proteins, so that is part of the problem. When I do happen to remember, there are more issues. First, I’m not a good cook. Just last night, a pot boiled over under my (lack of) watch(ing). Then, like you, there’s that dang stack of things to wash in the aftermath. The hubby even said once, “We need to eat out more. Look at all this crap in the sink!”
CWG says: HA! i was too ashamed to mention that sometimes we eat out twice in one day.
on those days, even i feel guilty.
We eat out most every meal, not that we have a choice, but if we did I’d still eat out most of the time. One the occasions we decide to dine in, we can go to friends and families.
Let them do the cooking and cleaning. 
I’m so bad. 
CWG says: for those not ‘in the know’, peter drives a tractor trailer and is on the road most weeks of the month. spidey, you’re bad news buster!
We eat out pretty often, but only because my partner doesn’t cook. I say, “I’m too tired to cook,” and he says “can I cook with my credit card?” and we go out.
CWG says: lolz…my kind of people.
Eating out is such a treat for us. I was raised that way though. I cook three meals a day and have the dish pan hands to prove it. I cook everything from scratch and keep all the basic staples stocked up so it is indeed cheaper for us to eat at home. I wouldn’t mind doing a month of eating out and trying all the restaurants in the area but in my little town, the only restaurant minus a drive through window is the Mexican place (which I love) but I always bring our tab up way too high what with the WONDERFUL margaritas they make.
CWG says: when i was growing up, we never ate out. it was a rare treat for us until we were in high school–then my mom threw up her hands and we started getting pizza once a week and maybe chinese mid-week.
I’ve been wondering about all of this for a while now. I need to conduct a similar experiment myself to see what my results are. I am a good cook… I like to eat the foods that I make. But I do not like the amount of time that it takes to cook or having to clean up afterwards. I always thought that buying all of those groceries had to come out somewhere at least close to the cost of eating out… especially if you figured in the “cost” of your labor. Good post.
CWG says: thanks…the shopping, cooking, and clean up are so horrible. i really tried to ‘clean as i cooked’ but it just didn’t work out for me. i like my mom’s cooking. maybe i’ll just go eat at her house.
Nope, no coupons. Every week I buy apples, bananas, two heads of lettuce, a bunch of spinach, carrots, and one or two other salad veggies. Then I buy bread, cereal, cheese, lunch meat and soy milk as needed, which covers our breakfasts and lunches. Then whatever I need for my dinner plans comes on top of that. I usually make two vegetarian meals and two meat meals, so that helps cut costs down some too. I typically only plan M-Th, and then we work off what we have or grab something out on the weekends. My husband can have a very unpredictable weekend schedule, so planning around it can be darn near impossible.
CWG says: hmm..maybe that will be my next experiment–the cheapest grocery bill that we can survive on for one week…sounds like a starving-good time.
DAMN Curl! $25 per meal. Where are you two eating? I am guessing it involves plastic trays and clearing your own table. We spend way more (though we do *technically* have 4 people – the kids don’t eat nearly as much as we do). Is it Philly>? I always thought this town was cheaper than some. It’s not like we’re doing white linen service. But our average meal out with tip is usually $150-plus. Are we just pigs? WHAT IS UP??? AND we spend a freaking fortune at the grocery store too. Must be all the inflated organic everything we buy.. You two are doing FINE. Don’t sweat it.
PS: I am coming over to lounge on those white couches soon. Make sure everything is dusted for me. LOVE YA! xo
CWG says: well, i said on average. some nights we’ll have mexi-cali…which is pretty cheap, some nights we’ll get sandwiches at the ‘olde tyme’ pharmacy (Nagle’s in Ocean Grove), some nights we’ll eat at a convivial bar/pub type place in Brielle. We do spend more than $25 in some places–like $35 or $45, but other nights it’s just pizza for $10.
OMG that’s funny. We definitely eat at home more and rarely out. When we go out it’s always really good and we seem to spend $100. I love to cook so we do that but our food bill is huge, probably $1000-$1200 a month becuase I buy super quality ingredients so to each his own I guess. Plus going out to dinner with kids is really not that fun.
CWG says: let me tell you, the pictures and recipes on your blog make my mouth water. i’d eat at your house every night too.
Reading all these comments has exhauseted me!…..I think I need to be replenished, so will go out to eat….like, now!
CWG says: it is a workout, right? i think i need a mini-snickers.
Good post, thanks for undergoing that experiment for us all! I’ve been wondering the same thing myself. Although with 3 people, we tend to spend more like $50 per restaurant meal. But after reading this, I’ll stress a little less each time we do it!
CWG say: why thank you! i’m never above a little sacrafice for the good of my blog. i do what i can for the people.
I have tried this whole planning ahead thing, but I never remember to thaw anything out and we all get home from work and were cranky and its time to eat and so taco bell it is! To feed a family of four for 12 dollars, cant beat it. Oh and in case my Mom (Connie) reads this….of course they are run on sentences, its on purpose to reiterate the way I feel after work! JK!
CWG says: oh, that whole thawing stuff out is a killer! i’m always afraid we’ll get some sort of food poisoning. if i try to defrost in the micro, the chicken ends up half-poached, half-raw. very appetizing.
We eat out maybe twice in a two week period. (I know! but that isn’t always once a week.) Mostly its me, dad and my daughter but occasionally the four of us will go out, (hubby and son) I love choosing my meanl but I hate it turning up and it not being what I wanted… Food is fab!
CWG says: i heartily agree…food is fab. especially if my mom is cooking.
I’m in a kid free zone here as well, but my hubby and I eat out more than you and your husbandito. I actually don’t mind cooking, it’s the mess and the lack of time. In our spare time we don’t feel like working in the kitchen and dealing with the aftermath so I’m right there with ya!
CWG says: it is SO time consuming, right? i don’t relish the idea of coming home at 7pm and having to spend an hour or two in the kitchen, prepping, cooking, and cleaning. i always have ‘homework’ to do, so i just don’t have the time.
hee hee hee, “Relish”…
I LOVE eating out. With friends, it’s such a great way to be social. Doing the only thing in life you HAVE to do to live, with the people you enjoy being around.
I would rather do that than prepare food around 10 out of 10 times!
Boy I would eat out every single night if we could afford it. I adore cooking, it’s the cleaning up I abhor.. I MISSED YOU! XOXOX
my son and i eat out a lot. he’s picky and i’m tired. it works for us.
the local italian place delivered to my parents house once and i answered the door and the delivery driver asked “don’t you live on ____ street?”
we get christmas cards from the neighborhood chinese food restaurant.
I loooove eating out! But it usually costs us about $25 per person, not per couple.
After spending two months in Australia a few years back I stopped eating out for about 6 months to save money to pay my debt. I was eating out about 3-5 times a week before that. Buying my own groceries and making my own was way way way cheaper…
After reading this post, I think we’ll go out for dinner tonight!