On average, including weekends...

How many nights a week do you eat out/order in? We're DOWN to about 2-3 (from 4-5). I honestly don't see any savings to shopping/cooking with all the waste. Not to mention the time it takes to cook/clean up/shop.

Do you find being a family of 2 that eating out/take out is just all around better for you?

Re: On average, including weekends...

We used to eat out about 4-5 nights a week, but the takeout
where we moved is not so great! So we eat out about 2-3 nights now.

My DH will eat left overs and take them for lunch so we don't waste too much, but I feel that it is a lot of work planning meals and making sure they don't go bad.

Re: On average, including weekends...

I love to cook and used to cook all the time but we eat out A LOT more often now that we are in NYC - in fact, in Jan we ate out at least one meal pretty much every day. (combo of BIL visiting, restaurant week, and forgetting to order groceries)

I think it's mainly because grocery shopping is such a PITA in the city (and wayyy more expensive) and we have so many food options near our apt. We cut back A LOT in feb because we were sick of eating our and missed home cooking but we usually eat out dinner 1-2 nights a week and then eat out a few times on the weekend as we wander around the city.

We looove leftovers and having too much food is never a problem for us.

Message edited 2/20/2010 2:17:34 PM.

Re: On average, including weekends...

we eat out 2 nights a week.... friday and saturday nights.every once in awhile we'll go out during the week, but thats pretty rare.
we do a lot of leftovers, so we don't waste much food. we'll make something in the crock pot ( soup, chili, beef stew) and eat it for 2 nights ( not in a row though )... that kind of stuff reheats really well, so we don't feel like we're eating leftovers. we'll also do a big pot of pasta and get 2 dinners out of it. or we'll make a bunch of taco meat one night- have tacos with some of it, then save some for another night to make taco salad or baked nachos with it. this way we don't actually have to cook every single night, a lot of nights we're just reheating stuff
i think its just a matter of planning- we take a few minutes every sunday to plan out what we want to eat for the week and then go food shopping... works out pretty well for us!

Message edited 2/20/2010 2:21:53 PM.

Re: On average, including weekends...

A lot of our eating out is casual though... ex: i brought lunch 3 days this week but bought soup at hale&hearty and then bought cart food.

then last night i was craving chinese so i walked down the street and picked up a quart of egg drop wonton to go for $3.85 which I had last night and finished for breakfast this morning. Tonight we are going out for a sit-down dinner with friends

Re: On average, including weekends...

we've actually cut way back on eating out. We used to eat out 4-5 nights during work week and then breakfast and dinner atleast one day on the weekend.

Now since Im going to school and only working part time, I've been trying to cook a lot more. We tend to enjoy eating in more now a days. I just cook really simple meals and I always halve the ingredients if needed to make it last for either a night or two so we waste less food.

We save atleast $200-300 a month, if not more, now a days just by cooking at home.

Re: On average, including weekends...

since dh does all the cooking, if he comes home and he's tired or hasn't shopped, we're doing take out. usually 2 nights a week. he'll take leftovers for lunch if we do.

at one point we were trying to be really good by planning our meals on sunday and doing the shopping. it worked out really well for a few months then we fell off the wagon

Re: On average, including weekends...

A few times a week, sometimes more.

Re:

Message edited 3/6/2010 11:31:37 PM.

Re: On average, including weekends...

We eat out 2-3 times a week but for the last 3 weeks its seems we have been eating out like everynight. So this week we will be eating home most of the week. thats the plan now if I can just stick to it....

Re: On average, including weekends...

about once a week and it becoming less and less. my inlaws have a restaurant that we order from every friday, but other than that maybe one other time.

Re: On average, including weekends...

I cook M-thursday. We usually go out friday night or order in. Sat and Sun we often have something going on--if we dont we usually go out. So I would say 2-3 meals a week we eat out/order in.

Re: On average, including weekends...

Zero. On average, I would say we eat out or get take out once every 4-6 weeks.

Re: On average, including weekends...

1 at the most.

Re: On average, including weekends...

We rarely eat out/order in for dinner. Maybe two to three times per month.
I do a lot of cooking, and don't really mind it. I keep a stocked pantry and freezer so ther is always something that can be put together for a meal.
I take breakfast and lunch to work with me, occassionally will buy lunch out. I'm bored with the food in my area, and I refuse to pay $8 for a salad.
DH usually buys both breakfast and lunch.

Re: On average, including weekends...

Now, 1x a week at MOST do we eat out. Usually it might be on the weekends when we are hanging out with friends & family. But for the most part if we're with friends, we just go over to their place for dinner vs. going to a restaurant.

For me, meal planning is definitely a money saver.

I will buy a package of meat such as boneless chicken breasts, and then when I come home I will take that and portion out 2 servings of meat in several freezer bags. Sometimes I will go ahead and season it right then, depending on my mood.

When I'm done I have tons of freezer bags full of meat and ready to be used for dinner on any night. I'll just grab a bag and take it out of the freezer to defrost in the daytime, before I leave for work.

Cooking 2 pieces of meat on the George Foreman or sauteed in a pan doesn't take much time at all. Then I will serve it with some steamed veggies. (Usually get the steam in bag ones on sale or I'll just boil frozen veggies on the stove in a small saucepan.) Or sometimes a side salad.

I cook and DH cleans!

Message edited 2/22/2010 11:02:34 AM.

Re: On average, including weekends...

We do take out 2-3 times a week and go out to dinner at least once a week.

I just hate cooking on a weeknight.

Re: On average, including weekends...

Usually, just once a week.

Re: On average, including weekends...

we usually order in once a week and will eat out once a week also

Re: On average, including weekends...

Rarely anymore, to save money. We used to go out 1 or 2 times a week, at least. I HATE IT. But it is cheaper, if more freakin work!!!

Re: On average, including weekends...

not often at all... i went on a major diet about 10 months ago and my eating out and take out came to a big hault.
dh and i work opposite shifts and are only together 2x a week for dinner... i like to cook on those nights. the other nights he's at work and it's a "fend for yourself type" type of deal for me. i usually eat something small.
i think if we had normal schedules and were eating together every night, we would have a really hard time

Re: On average, including weekends...

Re: On average, including weekends...

We usually only get take-out on Friday's and/or Saturday's but it depends on the week. We're watching our weight and we tend to overeat when we go out so unless we have plans to meet someone we cook at home.

Some weeks are better than others...this month we're averaging 3-4 nights a week since we've been going out with a lot of friends & family lately.

Re: On average, including weekends...

depends if we were home doing normal house work, relaxing never. But since there is so much work going on its hard for me to cook every night and DH gets into his bad food binges. So sometimes two times a week.

Re: On average, including weekends...

usually only twice a month....but we used to go out twice a week. it's hard but we've saved a ton of money