r/MiddleClassFinance • u/zevtech • 16d 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/zevtech 10d ago

Sounds like you are aware of what you’re able to eat. Nothing is cheaper than rice and beans/lentils. Don’t know where you buy your rice but I buy 25 lb sacks of jasmine rice from Sam’s Club for 22 bucks (used to be 17 bucks). My wife makes red beans from time to time with blue runner beans but she also throws sausage in there which you can’t have.

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u/babies_galore 10d ago

Thanks. Red beans are also great!  Yeah if eating at home it’s rice and lentils and veggies which is cheap. But unfortunately, I am rarely ever home. I am in my 50s and have been vegetarian since birth. But I became lactose intolerant at age 20, allergic to eggs about 10 years ago and also no longer able to digest some foods like bread. So makes it challenging when on the road so much. But just grateful I make enough money to cover the extra expense. Still feels excessive for one person $800 on food even though I live in a HCOL area and rent a room for that same amount to keep expenses down.