Do you eat out a lot?

We eat out once or twice a month and very rarely order take out or eat fast food. It also gets expensive to eat out.

So my question is:

How many nights a week do you cook? And how many do you go out? Do you go out for fast food? Do you order in from local restaurants?

Do you eat out a lot?

Tuesdays we tend to get take out because DH is on a bowling league. We end up eating out more on the weekends depending on plans. I'd love to eat out less, but DH and I enjoy trying new places, it's something we like to do together.

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

I don't like to eat out. I prefer to cook. We only go out once every 2 weeks as a treat when we get paid either for lunch or dinner that weekend....but even then, i prefer to take it home and eat it. It gets expensive with soda, tip, etc.

Even sometimes, instead of going out as a treat or take out, in the summer, i would prefer to spend money on some lobsters, fresh cheeses from farmers market, etc and eat that at home for dinner.

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

I would say, on average, I cook dinner (if we are defining "cook" as prepare food in the home) 5 nights a week. But of those nights, I truly cook, as in prepare a whole meal that night, 3 times a week. The other 2 nights, we either eat leftovers, or repurpose them, or just kind of use up what we have at home (eat frozen items, sandwiches, soups, eggs, etc.).

One night a week, my parents do a pizza night at our house with DS. My dad comes after work to play with him (my mom watches DS when I work most days), and we all eat pizza that night from a local pizza place, courtesy of my parents! I usually try to book my late appointments that night, since dinner and childcare aren't an issue!

Probably one night a week (usually on a weekend), we eat out because of social reasons. That doesn't necessarily mean eating/buying dinner at a restaurant... lately, we've had a lot of showers, birthday parties, anniversary dinners and the like at other people's houses or at places where food has been provided.

Other than pizza night, we don't order in much. Maybe once or twice a month we order sushi in on a Friday or Saturday and crack open a bottle of white wine.

Breakfast and lunch we most often eat at home, although occasionally, DH and I take DS out for lunch at a casual chain restaurant on a weekend if we are out doing an activity or running errands. Sometimes during the week, I will take DS for lunch at Friendly's or McDonald's as a treat, or my mom will.

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

I usually cook 4-5 nights a week, one or 2 nights will be leftovers and the other night is either going out or going to my dads. Even when we go out though, its a cheaper type local place, tex mex, sushi, pizza, etc. We never really get fast food. I recently picked up McD's for DH and my BIL and couldn't believe for 2 meals I spent 17 bucks!

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

I cook almost every night. If I don't cook it's usually leftovers or whatever I happen to have around (PB&J, cheese board with fruit & hummus & crackers, tuna with veggies, cold cuts, nuts & yogurt, etc..). We eat at my IL's every other Sunday and maybe once a month we have some occassion out of the house. We probably order in pizza or something once a month on average these days.

We do not really ever go out to restaurants as a family. I might go once every 3 months or so with friends for some reason.. but that's rare. It's just not in our budget.

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

I cook 6 nights/week and 1 night/week we do appetizers (usually Italian meats/cheeses, so it's not really cooking).

We really only eat out when people are in town visiting.

We pretty much never get takeout, again unless people are visiting and they request it.

If we had more money, we'd love to go out 1x/week!

Do you eat out a lot?

Unless we have a social event or party, I cook 7 nights a week usually 3 weeks a month. I would much rather go out to dinner once a month to a nicer place, than a few dinners out at places like Applebee's.

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

I cook/we eat something from home about 4 or 5 nights a week. The other 2 are usually pizza or chinese or one night we go out to eat. I am trying to cook more and more though, b/c it's just hard to get good quality food at places that are kid friendly.

Do you eat out a lot?

lately the rotation has been me cooking 3 nights, 3 nights of leftovers, and 1 night at our parents

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

On average (assuming we're strictly talking dinners):

Cook 5 nights, but the 5th night is usually just cobbled together leftovers.

Eat out 2 nights. I never ever ever cook on a Friday; We (DH and I plus 3 DC) ALWAYS go to a restaurant. Saturdays we either have plans/an event involving dinner, have "date night," or we all go to a restaurant. I would cook, but it really never works out that way.

We hardly ever get fast food--maybe 4x/year.

We order in pizza, Chinese, or sushi once a month, I guess.

Don't do the chain thing really at all, with the exception of the odd IHOP night.

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

I'd say 2x a month I order chinese or pizza. I will eat out on a weekend night when I don't have my girls (when I go out with friends for a drink, etc). If I do have my girls on the weekends we may eat a slice of pizza for lunch out.

The rest of the time I cook fresh meals, or we eat leftovers, or something easy like quesadillas or just pasta with jarred sauce, hamburgers, etc.

Breakfast and lunch are all from home too/eaten at home too. I may do a lunch out with coworkers once very couple of months. And sometimes work meetings are catered.

I have been trying to spend less by not eating out for years, but these days grocery prices are so high that I even buy less of the non essentials like snacks or anything that is not nutritious!

Message edited 10/9/2012 9:14:27 PM.

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

Message edited 10/9/2012 10:10:12 PM.

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

On average, I cook 5 nights a week. We usually get take out from a local restaurant 1x a week and go out 1x a week, sometimes with the kids and sometimes without.

We don't ever get fast food for dinner - but I don't consider pizza fast food so not sure if that counts, since we do get pizza probably 2x a month.

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

I cook 7 nights a week, or we eat leftovers. We go out to dinner 1-2 x a month max because it's very expensive to eat out where we live. Fast food here is TERRIBLE. We only go to nicer restaurants, so it's even more expensive. Sometimes we will find a nice pub to eat at, but even that can be pricey because we like to drink

When we go shopping in NY (1x a week) we will get either Wendy's or Panera for lunch and on rare occasions Chili's.

Do you eat out a lot?

About once a week on average.

I work until 9 pm 4 times a week, but I go in later. I try to make dinner before I go to work, so when DH gets home at around 830 pm he can do the finishing touches. If I'm not organized with making dinner before I go to work, then we eat out. We sometimes go out when I'm not working, but I prefer to cook those days because I enjoy cooking and love when I have more time to devote to it.

Do you eat out a lot?

On average we cook about 3 nights week.

We both work retail so we don't have regular schedules so we're not always both home for dinner and I won't cook a meal if we are getting home at 10pm.

We rarely eat out. I buy lunch (or dinner) prob 2x a week

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

We eat out about 3x a week....what it is varies though. We might order in sushi or tex-mex, we might go out to a nice restaurant together, we might be going to a party, or one of us might go out with friends. It really depends.

Do you eat out a lot?

Every Friday is pizza night. We usually order in but once in a while we eat out.

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

Generally, I cook (or reheat, or do quick dinners at home) about 5 night a week. The other 2 nights are either out at a friend's house/out to dinner/ordering in/we had a late or heavy lunch and dont even want dinner. The last option happens sometimes on weekends.

Also, since DH and I are CF, we are able to just get up and go last-minute, such as yesterday...DH had to pick up something from a shop in Brooklyn, a friend needed to drop something at the shop, and we ended up getting Mexican from a place in Greenpoint kind of late. I intended to cook, but what I was going to make last night will be made tonight.

This happens once every couple of weeks, this last-minute heading-to-dinner-with-friends thing.

When we do order in, its from an actual Chinese or Italian restaurant, not really take-out.

ETA: breakfast and lunch is always/almost always made at home and packed for work. 90% of the time its food from home for those meals.

Message edited 10/10/2012 8:56:15 AM.

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

I usually cook about 4-5 times a week.

Usually on Fridays we order in Pizza or Chinese food.

The weekends really depend- sometimes we are out & about all day/evening and eat out. Sometimes we have a big lunch and just a snack at dinner. Sometimes we have a party.

On Sunday's either I cook or we go to my mom's for sunday dinner.

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

Yes, I guess.

We generally eat out probably twice a weekend (either dinner or lunch), nothing too expensive, but because we're always out and about we tend to grab food more on the weekends. During the week I cook, occasionally we will grab a pizza mid-week if I'm feeling lazy.

For those that like to eat out I have found that Groupon, Living, Social, and Restaurant.com save me SO much money when eating out. I've gotten some awesome deals. Also, because we have our 4 yr old DD with us we try to pick places where kids eat free or that have larger portions so she can share with us to save money.

ETA - In addition to eating out some weekends we also get bagels or a egg sandwiches for breakfast.

Message edited 10/10/2012 11:23:51 AM.

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

we probably eat out about once a week. I don't like to eat out much more than that. Just depends on what we have going on. But eating out is something we have drastically cut down on the last few months.

Re: Do you eat out a lot?

we eat home almost every night. 1-2x a month we may eat out ot order in. Occassionally when we have company we will go out for breakfast or lunch, but even that can get $$ and unhealthy fast!

Re: Do you eat out a lot?