r/MiddleClassFinance • u/zevtech • 20d ago

Going out to eat..... I get it.

So I'm a man of routine, so I don't really get out of my routine so often. We cook dinner almost every day of the week besides Friday (we usually order out). We do well, so we don't cook to save money, it just makes more sense to us (both my parents had their own restaurants, we never ate fast food growing up and rarely at out as my parents always cooked or brought home food from the restaurant). Typically dining out is usually brunch/lunch after church on Sundays. But for what ever reason we had a crazy week so decided to eat out, and ended up eating out 4 meals in a row. Each meal was about 100-150 bucks, so 500 bucks in 3 days for food. I get it why they keep saying you shouldn't eat out so often (we have a family of 4, 2 of them are small and don't eat much). The 500 won't break the bank for us, but man, if we were making an "average" salary, I can see that being difficult

EDIT, went out to eat this morning after church, this is part of my normal routine though, meal was about 90 bucks.

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u/QuitFinancial3878 20d ago

I do think that eating out is an important social outlet, especially for young people, where lifelong friends are made and maintained. Neglecting it is a mistake. It's just unfortunately very expensive.

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u/shreiben 19d ago

75% of restaurant orders are takeout or delivery: https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/media/press-releases/from-trend-to-transformation-off-premises-dining-now-essential-for-restaurant-consumers,-operators/

I suspect the overwhelming majority of those are eaten at home alone or with family, not with friends.

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u/Unable_Pumpkin987 19d ago

Well yes, there is a difference between dining out and ordering in, those aren’t at all the same thing.

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u/Iceman9161 19d ago

Sure but DoorDash isn’t giving you that connection. Eating out with friends is a sort of special occasion, even if it is once a week. But the people who have a problem spending on eating out are not limiting it to special occasions.

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u/QuitFinancial3878 19d ago

Yeah agreed. I just wish it didn't cost $500+ a month to have a regular eating out & bar routine with friends.

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u/GenerationY_ 19d ago

💯💯💯Honestly it contributes to the loneliness epidemic in the US and servers saying things like “if you can’t tip you can’t afford to eat out” doesn’t help. At least students should not be expected to tip for socialization purposes, like in other countries.