A bailout, ey?
This little flyer came in the mail the other day, and the title kind of made me scratch my head. Is it just me, or is eating out not the best way to deal with a tight budget? Of course, if you're eating out anyways, you'll be better off for having used the coupons, but a tight budget can be stretched much farther by shopping at the grocery store and cooking at home.
Lest I seem like a hypocrite, let me say that I do think it's fine to eat out every now and then(we're having seafood takeout tomorrow, which we do once a year), but it is most certainly not the budget option that Hardee's would like us to think it is.
Let's take the roast beef sandwiches, for example. With the coupon, each one of them is $2.50. Let's assume that five of those sandwiches would feed my family for dinner( this includes no drinks or sides and that's not even one sandwich per person). That would cost a total of $12.50. That might not seem like a whole lot, but consider this: for $80 a week, I can feed my family breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, and include toiletries, cleaning products, and paper products. However, if we ate a $12.50 meal each night, that alone would cost $87.50 over the course of a week. So, I could spend $87.50 on five sandwiches a night(which would leave us no money for breakfast, lunch, or toiletries), or I could spend $80 and eat for the whole week. That's a pretty easy choice for me!
Granted, most people don't eat out for seven dinners a week. However, even if we only spent $12.50 three nights a week, that would still be the equivalent of nearly half my grocery budget and it would only provide three sparse meals for us.
Another thing to keep in mind is that $12.50 for six people is a very low estimate...most fast-food stops for a family cost far more than that. We could easily drop $20-$25 at McDonalds if the six of us went there for dinner. At that rate, to eat four meals out per week we'd have to spend a entire week's worth of grocery money.
Nutritional concerns aside, eating out simply does not make sense for someone who needs a budget bailout. The best food bargains are almost always at the grocery store and not at fast food joints.
I am in total agreement! We never frequented fast food places in the first place (food is rather yucky and not good for you at all!) and I certainly wouldn't start now, EVEN if it was economical.
I'm with you on that one. Cooking at home, taking your own lunch to work, making your own coffee (all food related) will save you tons of money.
Yeah, I agree in principle, but sometimes I just get overwhelmed with everything that needs doing, and then there's DINNER to cook with a 2-year-old under foot and I guess I get a bit lazy too, and I just want to go out or get take-out!
We also have separate categories in our budget for groceries and eating out/fun, so that gives a bit of moving space.
But that would involve cooking.
The sad thing is I knew so many girls (and guys actually) in college who seemed to take pride in the fact that they couldn't cook. I'm sorry but there's really no excuse as it's not all that hard. Baking is hard until you get the methods down, cooking is easy.
But if you are cooking inept, it's at least somewhat cheaper to just buy stuff from the grocery Deli. Not much but at least you can get a full chicken for like $6 to feed barely 4 people (you're on your own for sides but if you can't bake a potato I don't know what I can do for you ...)
I tend to eat out once a week or so. It used to be twice but my friend whom I used to meet weekly for dinner went back to college so she's not around so much anymore.
Franci-I certainly understand that feeling! lol I wasn't trying to say that no one should ever go out to eat...I think it's fine to do if you can afford it. I just was saying that it's not the way to bail out a hurting budget. 🙂
We don't get to eat out often, but I love, love, love those days when we're eating out/getting takeout and I don't have to cook. It's a lot of work to make meals all the time(which is why eating out is so popular in the first place!).
Battra, you posted while I was writing my comment! lol
You're exactly right about the grocery deli stuff...even the more expensive grocery items are almost always cheaper than fast food or takeout.
@Kristen Kristen, also with getting takeout/going out to eat very infrequently, I bet it makes you appreciate it that much more when you do 🙂
Absolutely!!! I was thinking of doing a post on that very topic, actually. It's sort of an "absence makes the heart grow fonder" sort of thing.
I look forward to that post, because we'll have to be cutting back on our budget soon and at the moment we eat out weekly. Oh, I'm going to miss it!
Eating out is a lot more expensive of course, but I have only just realised how much expensive.
I recorded all of my family's expenditure for the month of January and discovered that eating out four times in January cost the equivalent of half of my grocery budget for the whole month of January. That is, it cost about $400 to eat out on 4 occasions, compared to feeding my family for a whole month for $800.
Needless to say, we have decided to reduce our eating out occasions to only 2 times per month.
Non Consumer, I had a revelation like that a couple of years ago. It's really sobering when you add it up.
Franci, we used to eat out once a week too...it was hard to adjust at first, but I'm very used to it now. You can do it!
Yes, I am also a recovering restaurant addict! We used to eat out 3x/week - not expensive fare (burritos, pizza and pancakes), but it really did add up and we spent anywhere from $150-400/week for food. Now, we go out *maybe* once a month but the money comes from our "fun money" jar, not our food budget. Now I still enjoy going out, but I've even become slightly more critical of the experience - like, "I could make this better at home!" Most of all, I just don't miss it that much when I consider all the wonderful things we have planned for the money we are saving - a beach trip, a comfy chair, a king-sized bed and a Prius will all be made possible by what we are saving now that we are only spending $80/week for food. I really do see it as the *one* place in our budget that we can alter significantly to increase savings for other things. Like you, Kristen, and others, we have dramatically decreased our thermostats but have not enjoyed a dramatic decrease in our gas bill!
We are a family that also loves to eat out. Due to the economy and tight money we have really reduced our outings. I still can't give up brunch after church with fellow members. Like others we do eat out on our entertainment money not our food budget. If there isn't any money there we don't go.
BTW have you ever gotten a sour gut from eating fast food after having home cooked meals all the time? It really isn't that satisfying to put all that grease and crap in your insides.
I just wanted to share a thought with those who may be struggling with the idea of cooking more and packing lunch more and giving up takeout/eating out/fast food. An easy motivator for me was thinking about the actual food that was being consumed, i mean not many people really like the food at those chain places, fast food stops, or greasy takeout joints. Personally I'd rather save the money and eat out once in a while at a really nice place where the food is good stuff that 95% of us do not possess the talent to create at home. The takeout/chain places.. you can usually do Better at home for Cheaper!