After searching for a very long while about this I want to know your guys opinion and any feedback. This is a story about me and my wife living together. Recently married, she is a stay home wife, I am a full time worker, with no kids. We love to dine out, but it is a hefty toll on the wallet so this is 3 month of our life shared. A little break down drinks are considered coffee, tea, soda, any beverage you buy. Dining out refers to eating lunch, dinner or breakfast at a sit down place, fast food refers to in and out type of place where you eat on the go. We are also not big on drinking but every now and then I get wine or beer and go BYOB. Our experience: July 2017 summary 3 drinks 10 x out No fast food(we were good in July) Total spending on food: 689$ Dine out cost = 285$ Groceries=404$ June 2017 summary 5 drinks 14 x out 4 x fast food Total = 789$ Go out = 463$ Groceries = 326$ May 2017 summary 4 drinks 8 x out 5 x fast food Total = 820$ Go out = 403$ Groceries = 417$ Conclusion we usually spend 100$/week/person on food, groceries are 50$/week and we try to eat healthy. We do utilize farmers market near our house to get fresh vegetables and they have plenty of sales and cheap vegetables. We go out 2-3 times per week. Note our highest dine out bill was 66$, we do not get drinks except tea, I usually order water with lemon. Groceries are slightly higher because we also buy other products for hygiene (shampoo, nail polish, etc). So if you like to eat a full course meal with deserts and drinks (especially alcoholic) be prepared to have a higher bill. Also note that hot and cold refreshments throughout the day can add up, from a 1$ coffee to a 5$ barista made Frappuccino. So how do you guys compare? Any tips, feedback, your own experience, etc. is greatly appreciated.
I am still single but stays with my people. But I learnt something important from my parents and that is the need to always cook at home more than dining out. See, as young couples, it is important to cook at home the more than dining out especially if the cost of food items is relatively cheap in your locality. The major reason is it will save you some money, help you choose what to eat, how to cook it and the amount of every food ingredient to add while cooking. Also, remember that habits die hard, so if as married couples, you start dining out at this early stage, then when the kids arrive, it will be difficult to adjust the trend and that means extra cost on the family finance. So, I will prefer eating-in to dining out because of the reasons I stated above.
@Barida I was more interested in the amount you spend on groceries as a single male. So if you can share that information that would be great. How does my estimate of 50$/week/person stand? Are you above or below that mark? And what is your lifestyle? I like your reasons and I will add on to the portion you mentioned about as couples cooking at home, besides money it will add to the experience of joy and creation, it will also create a stronger bond between the couple, and lastly it is fun and new which can be learned together.
I live at home with my sister and little brother, and all of us love to eat a lot. But most of the time, we cook meals at home instead of eating out, and I think it's way cheaper. Let me give you a sample of what our grocery list looks like which is good for 5 days. 1 kg of pork ribs = $2 (they were on sale) 3 pcs of smoked milk fish = $2.04 1 1/2 kg of ground pork = $3.6 1 kg of flour = $1.9 1 kg chicken = $2.5 The rest of our grocery list contains soap and other stuff that aren't edible so our food for 5 days cost us around $12.
I live with my sister and my two kids and I am on a limited budget. We don't go out to eat very much whether it is sit down or fast food. However on the rare occasion that we do go to a sit down restaurant, we go some place that has relatively affordable prices. We only order water since beverages can be ridiculously high even though they are refillable you don't get your money's worth out of it. Usually the breakdown for each person is around $10. We don't ever get dessert either since we are usually too full from the meal. On groceries, I will spend anywhere from $400-500 a month sometimes it may be higher it just depends on how much meats I need to buy. I try to buy items that are versatile and can be used for different dishes and I try to buy most items on sale. If I were to break down a meal that I make often it would probably no more than $2 per person which is much better than the dine out conversion but sometimes it is nice to splurge.
I'm sorry but I don't have that kind of control. I mean, I can control when I see that the situation is very exaggerated, but I have nothing so well detailed.
Well, i only buy what's needed then based on how much money i still have left, i occasionally buy some treats and special food to cheer myself up.
I have a budget each month that i try not to go over and it has been working quite well for me, but i do take the time to buy something nice for myself.
Wow, I guess your salary is huge, in Romania I spend around 500 dollars on food (in and out) with drinks and all the rest. Probably we would want to spend much more on food, but we don't have money. Most of our money goes on bills, pay loans and the rest goes on the food.
For the last 2 nights, my wife and I ate out due to pressing commitments that we had no time to reach home by dinner time. The first restaurant was a classy one but the food was superb. Our bill was less than $20. On the second night, we ate in an ordinary restaurant but the food is also okay. Our bill was less than $10. Obviously, eating in a classy restaurant means you have to pay double the cost of an ordinary one. But we don’t usually go to classy restaurants because we are also frugal with our finances.
I usually avoid spending out. I mostly try to purchase from the nearby stores if the amount is low. I personally think that it'd be good that way. I don't think it can be a good option to buy from outside all the time. That's one reason i think it's better to consider doing stuff at home. That should make many people comfortable.
That is a lot of money to spend on food. My suggestion would be to cut out the dining out and the coffees. Dining out should be a treat and not the norm for meals. This way you can begin to eat more healthy and know exactly what you are putting in your body. Try buying cheap foods when they are in season and on sale to save even more money. If you have a small plot of land, you can also grow your own food and save more money. We have a huge garden this year and I think I have already saved over $100 in produce costs, plus the kids love to help me out in the garden. You can prepare and freeze what you do not eat right away.
I usually have a set budget and try not to go beyond that. I also do not much prefer dining out that frequently and so does my husband. We both prefer a quiet home made meal at home, it is more tasty and wholesome. It is only during a special occasion such as birthdays, holidays etc. we might go out and eat. Usually, if my son wants to eat something different, we just order in something like a pizza or a assorted wraps etc. It is more economical and we can avoid crowds.
I live in a joint family. We are a total of 9 persons including my two kids. We find it cheaper to cook food at home. We only go out for food for very special occasions. Otherwise, we cook food at home. It is cheaper to cook food even for the small get-together that we have in our family. Sometimes we do order food from outside, but it is very rare.
We rarely eat out unless we are on vacation and then it's nice not to have to cook all the time. When at home we only eat out as an occasional treat because it's too expensive to do it all the time and it wouldn't be so enjoyable. If you can afford it though why not. I would be broke if I spent as much as you do on eating out @Masimov1
Thank you guys so much for your replies. I forgot to mention that I live in the US and the cost of food here for 1 lb 0.45 kg of chicken is 2$ and that is the cheapest sale. Meat is $4/lb or 0.45 kg (but we find sales sometimes). I should have added in the description to add where are you from as the gentlemen from Romania did. Also, I think it is partially the culture here to go out so whenever we are with friends it happens a lot.
During the first year of our marriage, we frequently dined out. We went to the resturants once in a while for lunch and dinner,. We had a good time while eating at resturants, however, the habit also emptied out wallet. During the second year, we only went to dine out when we were celebrating something. In the third year, we dined out only to celebrate out anniversary and birthdays. These days we cook food and it saves a lot of money.
This really varies a lot for me, but hopefully it is not much and I have gotten good about keeping it to a routine. Of course I do need to splurge from time to time so who knows, if it exceeds 50 a week I think I will rethink.
