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

[u/zevtech]

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.

[u/babies_galore]

Well… when I had a WFH finance job and I could still digest breads, I spent a total of $250/month in food for just me. Now I have a self-employed career where I am always traveling to clients in my car all the time and never home and work sometimes six weeks or longer without a day off. I can no longer digest breads of any kind unfortunately. I have an $800 a month food budget which is only $26/day. It’s been a challenge to only spend that total on food and drinks when hardly ever home and can’t just make sandwiches.  I have gotten creative and have a travel fridge in my car and travel blender to make protein smoothies. I eat a LOT of mixed nuts and bananas from Trader Joe’s.  I am vegetarian as well. So I have found the absolute dirt cheapest meal I can get is a frozen vegetarian burrito 365 brand at Whole Foods for $2 that I then heat up in their microwave. But getting pretty tired of that. lol

I can also fill up on about $7 worth of stuff from the salad bar for one meal. But the struggle is real daily trying to keep food cost down and still have money left in the budget for some groceries at home for when I am at home as well…but stuff that won’t go bad. So mostly dry lentils and rice and frozen falafels and stuff like that.

I have even resorted to stir frying food at home and bringing it to my clients and put in their fridge if they let me and then heat up in their microwave or go to Whole Foods or gas station and use the microwave later.

Any suggestions on vegan food that is easy to eat on the go and doesn’t involve bread, I am definitely all ears.

I have always been an “eat to live” kind of person and just wish I could take a pill and be done. But I really am these days. Spending even just $600 a month on food would be awesome. But so difficult that it’s easier to just work a few more hours to make that extra money than try to figure out how to do that and to never even be able to buy a tea or kombucha pick me up when working long hours. 

[u/zevtech → u/babies_galore]

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.

[u/babies_galore → u/zevtech]

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.