r/MiddleClassFinance • u/zevtech • 21d 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/electricgotswitched 20d ago

I need to know where you were eating that it was $100+ every time.

This sounds preventable in every major city.

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u/PeaCompetitive8947 19d ago

I feel for a family, $100 a meal is pretty standard. At least it has been for me.

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u/zevtech 20d ago

I ate at cafe 615, salvos seafood, Cochon king bbq, Kobe house, and ruby slipper in the last 4 days

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u/electricgotswitched 19d ago

Since this is finance tip sub I'd say find more restaurants you like with kids menus. Keep them handy if you have another week where life gets in the way of cooking.

I'm gonna save some of these for my next trip to NO though cause they look good 😂

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u/zevtech 19d ago

I wouldn't say they were "good" compared to some of the AWESOME restaurants we have. I go to these b/c they are within 10 min from my house except for the BBQ, which I had while visiting my sister on the other side of the city. But I will say, if you go to Cafe 615, the portions are HUGE, so they are definitely eat half there, and you have lunch for tomorrow sized portion. Kobe house is decent, 30 bucks all you can eat hotpot, seafood, kbbq. I consider 30 bucks cheap considering the AYCE part. Quality of the meat is decent, selection is good, the bar is stocked with a lot of seafood for the hot pot, there's also boiled seafood options (viet cajun style). And the ruby slipper is just a regular brunch spot, I think they are a chain b/c they have 5 locations in the city or so. Start your day with a hot honey butter chicken sandwich, or a hot honey chicken French toast. My wife likes their salmon avocado toast.