CB's recent blog entry (January Recap) made me think about restaurant expenses.
Sometimes we eat out because it's convenient or because I didn't plan well. For those occasions of course I'd like to minimize our restaurant spending. But as CB points out in her blog entry, sometimes restaurant meals are important times spent with those close to us. We wouldn’t want to stop or reduce the frequency of those occasions. Or replace them with the dollar menu at a fast food place. But the two situations are both captured in that one budget category - at least for us. Since I keep a spreadsheet of our actual spending, I went back to 2019 to see how much of our restaurant spending was quality time spent with family.
So last year we spent a total of $3172 for meals out. [It’s okay to gasp if you need to…it is indeed a lot of money.] Of that total, $1300 (even) was spent on family celebrations at restaurants. We have a tradition of eating out on each boy’s birthday and the birthday boy gets to select the place. [The twins have to agree though because we only do one meal out in their honor.] In 2019 we also went out for Father’s Day. The most expensive meal out was in honor of DS1’s college graduation and it included 3 people beyond our immediate family. It was the nicest restaurant our kids have ever experienced. So no regrets on the $1300 total spent here.
DS3 is a competitive athlete and we travel to tournaments for him. Sometimes the tournaments are close enough to drive back and forth but usually they aren’t. So it involves a hotel and meals out when we go. It’s just the two of us and I do select hotels that have breakfast included and a kitchen with the room so we can do minor cooking. In 2019, we spent $682 on restaurant food during tournaments. I include the hotel expenses in my ‘kids activities’ budget category, so this amount is just the food. This is a grey area. On one hand I don’t want to overspend on meals out when we travel, but I do want to support DS3’s talent and passion. Maybe $682 is okay.
That leaves $1190 worth of meals that were not family celebrations or travel-related. A grand of that is probably Subway – we keep that place in business. This is where it’d be best to scrutinize. In addition to just planning better maybe I could choose a couple of healthy and inexpensive go-to meals in the Instapot cookbook that the boys like and keep the ingredients on-hand. Then the meal would be just as quick to make as a trip to the too-nearby Subway.
A Closer Look at 2019 Restaurant Expenses
February 3rd, 2020 at 01:07 pm
February 3rd, 2020 at 05:31 pm 1580751071
February 3rd, 2020 at 07:56 pm 1580759780
But you are right, meal planning is the key. When I was working, I would buy a whole chicken, cook it, and then take the meat off the bones and make chicken and noodles, chick and dressing casserole, and chicken and rice with cheese and have those in the fridge to heat up when I got home from work. Since the bulk of the work was done, it just mean heating them up and adding a vegetable and/or fruit and it was far faster and cheaper than eating out. Perhaps having some tuna in the pantry for tuna salad and keeping some crackers there too would help so Subway wouldn't be so tempting.
February 3rd, 2020 at 11:17 pm 1580771828
February 4th, 2020 at 03:28 am 1580786914
February 5th, 2020 at 01:15 am 1580865338
Are your sons old enough to be in charge of dinner one night a week? Maybe have them help plan simple meals at the beginning of each week. Perhaps come up with a financial incentive - for every homecooked meal, $X goes into Y fund.
February 5th, 2020 at 01:34 am 1580866480
February 5th, 2020 at 07:36 pm 1580931371
February 5th, 2020 at 08:25 pm 1580934312
There's one new possible strategy for cutting down on that expense: DS5 applied online to work at Subway last night! DS1 worked there years ago and I know one of the benefits is a free 6-inch sub at the end of your shift.