Meals away from home - Poll

[pb4uski]

I typically will have lunch after golf twice a week, go to wings night at a neighborhood watering hole for a light dinner of a half dozen wings and a salad for $8 and usually dinner at the club after golf on Sunday afternoons. DW is pretty much the same except one of her after golf meals is dinner rather than lunch.

So I would say 2-5 times a week for each of us.

 

[MRG]

Great topic. When w*rking I ate out at least once a day, it was sanity preservation. Since I retired I go out once a week DW and I about once a month. That's if we're home. I've been cooking better foods thanks to some people here and I'm finding restaurant food stinks of salt. We were gone most of last week, ate every meal out. A few were good, the two days of driving was horrible for food. Nothing but fast food junk and energy bars. Next time I'll pack breakfast and lunch for the road.

 

[rodi]

We eat at home most of the time - eating out about 2x/month when at home.

On our current vacation we are renting apartments... we're eating 1 meal out per day... depending on the day we bring sandwiches with us and have dinner out - or have lunch out and cook at our rental. It's the only way to keep our vacation spending under control.

I also found that the local grocery store wine is MUCH cheaper than ordering at a restaurant... so that also saves money.

 

[foxfirev5]

I've been travelling for 35 years fulltime. My answer is "too many".

 

[Amethyst]

You didn't specify time period. Meals per year, month, week? Day?

 

[Amethyst]

Holy crow. We spend about $250 per month per person for everything one buys at a grocery store, including paper/cleaning products. We eat lots of produce, and are neither overweight nor skinny. We seem to have to buy organic whether we choose to or not - it's starting to be all that the box store carries.

That $250 is up from less than $200 per person per month five years ago, even though we cut out soft drinks and snack foods (crackers, chips).

our food bill last month was $1723 for 2 people. .

 

[kcowan]

One thing that amazes me is the number of families that bring a meal home. They have these beautiful granite kitchens, but only use them to reheat the purchased meal. Must be a generation thing.

We eat out 2-3 times a week NOTB and 4-5 times in MX. That includes dinner parties and charity fund-raisers. We never do take-in meals.

 

[youbet]

Since the question is "meals away from home" and not "meals at restaurants," I'll go with 5 - 10 per week average. At home, we do take-out more than dine in and, at most, twice a week. But we've been traveling up to 10 weeks per year (camper) and all those meals are "away from home." They're in our traveling home, our camper, but OP was pretty clear he meant meals away from your "home base."

 

[Walt34]

We eat most meals at home, going out at most once per week if that. Over a year's time I'd guess it averages out to once every other week we eat out. Neither one of us is a big fan of restaurant meals but DW does get a bug for one once in a while.

 

[grasshopper]

Since the question is "meals away from home" and not "meals at restaurants," I'll go with 5 - 10 per week average. At home, we do take-out more than dine in and, at most, twice a week. But we've been traveling up to 10 weeks per year (camper) and all those meals are "away from home." They're in our traveling home, our camper, but OP was pretty clear he meant meals away from your "home base."

We live in the land of potlucks are mo better, in this case I may have to increase my meals away from home to 3 a week.

 

[FIREd]

We almost never eat breakfast out as I am not a morning person. We eat dinner out maybe once every couple of months. We do eat lunch away from home about 3-5 times a week, but it is often food prepared at home that we bring along with us to a park, the beach, or on a hike. We don't travel a lot but, when we do, we usually go to our home base in Europe and stick to our routine of eating meals at home. The rest of our travels is camping-style and, again, we tend to prepare our own food at the campsite.

 

[Amethyst]

So, lunches brought to work or school count as "meals out"? Somehow I find that odd. They are meals, but we prepared them at home....

 

[youbet]

So, lunches brought to work or school count as "meals out"? Somehow I find that odd. They are meals, but we prepared them at home....

OP said:

For purposes of the poll... How many meals "away from home"... for whatever reason. Meals at w*rk, fast food, sandwiches, restaurant or business meals. And... because so many travel... average in the number of meals that you eat while you are traveling or on vacation.

It's his poll............ He was pretty emphatic that he didn't mean only meals eaten in a restaurant but rather "away from home." Maybe he'll clarify one more time?

 

[NW-Bound]

I took it differently, that the OP meant meals prepared by someone else, and answered accordingly.

And even if you eat at home it could be delivered pizza, and how should that be counted?

Should we start another thread? Good thing we are not writing laws, which require unambiguous language.

 

[nash031]

Not yet retired:

I'd guess the high end of 5-10. 5 lunches at work, usually one or two dinners out is an average week. Then add in travel to get us up around 8-10. Looking at our spending thus far this year, we've spent more at restaurants than we have on groceries. That's eye-opening... but it's been a travel-heavy year thus far. I'd guess it'll even out.

Now, if you ask how many meals I *buy* away from home, that's in the 2-5 range because I pack lunch daily... which makes that restaurant vs. groceries spending thus far this year even more alarming.

Of course, I didn't count in deployments in which case I'd be in the 15+ range...

 

[ERD50]

...

Should we start another thread? Good thing we are not writing laws, which require unambiguous language.

I don't think I've ever done a poll here, but if I decide to, I plan on starting a thread first to wring out the selections, and then construct the poll, using that feedback. It's pretty rare to find a poll that doesn't end up with a lot of questions about what was meant, this doesn't fit that, etc.

I do not have NW-Bound's superior memory, but I think it was Midpack who got frustrated with all the critiques of a poll he put up, and attempted to make a simple one that said only "Did you answer this poll? __Yes __No".

I don't think he was amused when I answered "No", he expected the only valid answer to be "Yes". But I explained, at the time I was making the entry, I had not answered it yet, as to answer you need to hit the SUBMIT button. And once I did that, I was locked out of answering twice, so I could not go back honestly answer saying that I had answered the poll ("Did you" is past tense).

It's not easy.


edit/add: I think you mean laws should use unambiguous language. They often don't.


-ERD50

 

[NW-Bound]

Yes, it was Midpack whose polls for a while were often questioned by posters asking for clarifications. I think they were just teasing.

At about that time, I made a tongue-in-cheek poll which was not at all related to Midpack's frustration with fastidious posters.

My poll asked: "Will the next word you say be 'no'?".

I was demonstrating that a paradox could be created by a simple question. If you reply "No" to my question, then your answer should have been a "Yes". And if you say "Yes", then the answer should have been "No".

The problem is not with the answerer, but with the question because it forces the answerer to contradict himself. I guess you can answer "Maybe" or something else, but then it still implies a "No".

I love mathematics for its preciseness. Mathematicians are extremely careful to ensure that their definitions do not create a built-in paradox. And mathematical properties and truths are always stated in concise and precise statements. Even legalese is too loosey-goosey when compared to the language of mathematics.

 

[imoldernu]

OP here...
Am consulting with my legal advisor.
Goes to explain why the US Constitution is about 4500 words, and the recent TPP contains 800+ pages.

Original post was inspired by a short article that said the average adult "eats out" ten times a week. Couldn't find any substantiation so thought to ask the experts. I guess the "sandwiches" bit threw a curve. Inarticulate me was thinking Arbys or Walmart or store boughten kinds.

Certainly glad that the question wasn't "compare the per meal cost at home versus away".

... and, as to this:

It's his poll............ He was pretty emphatic that he didn't mean only meals eaten in a restaurant but rather "away from home." Maybe he'll clarify one more time?

That was interesting... When I was looking to verify the "eats out"... every website seemed to refer to this as "restaurant meals"... not to include fast food etc. Mostly, the statistics from the BLS and other business based survey sites are based on full service, sit down restaurants. Thus my imprecise wording of "away from home".

Be careful... I have a son and a daughter in law who are both lawyers.

 

[tmm99]

When i'm on a job I am locked into a building 24 hrs a day for sometimes 2+ weeks straight.

What kind of job requires a person to be locked in a building for 2+ weeks straight if you don't mind me asking?

 

[FUEGO]

I went with zero to 1 per the OP's instructions. We get take out pizza or chinese (or something similarly cheap) maybe once per week, but eat at home. We probably eat out 1-2x per month while we're living at home.

While traveling, we probably average eating out 5x per week. Most breakfasts at the rental house/hotel and maybe 1 lunch or dinner each day out of the house.

The only time we eat out a lot is when we are on a cruise (maybe 1 week per year on average). Then it's 21x per week. Or more honestly, 25-30x per week. Except sometimes it's just one long continuous grazing session all day.

 

[Lucantes]

My poll asked: "Will the next word you say be 'no'?".

But if it was a poll done on this website, the person wouldn't actually have to "say" (speak out loud) "yes" or "no" to answer the poll, they could just click to answer in which case they could answer "no" and be correct as long as the next word they "say" isn't no.....no? And of course they could answer "yes" and be correct also.....yes?

 

[NW-Bound]

But if it was a poll done on this website, the person wouldn't actually have to "say" (speak out loud) "yes" or "no" to answer the poll,...

Very good. As the response was not verbal, the answerer avoided contradicting himself.

I looked back at my thread, and the actual question in the poll was: "Is your answer to this question a No?". See: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/poll-yes-or-no-59734.html.

And earlier, I said that my poll was not related to Midpack's "Yes or No" poll, the one that ERD50 recalled earlier, but it was. So much for my superior memory!

See Midpack's poll here: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/poll-did-you-answer-this-poll-59727.html. Midpack intended that only one answer to the poll would not contradict itself, but then ERD50 raised the problem with the past tense of the word "did".

 

[hnzw_rui]

Well, I eat at least 10 meals a week away from home (breakfast + lunch) when at work but I brown bag so I'm not sure if it counts.

Dining out or take out is around 2-3 meals per month but we usually spend just around $40-100 per meal for a family of four. Less if you consider that leftovers become lunch/dinner for the next day or two.

While on vacation at Disney/Universal, the food budget is pretty high (~$50/day per person). While traveling in the Philippines, it was ~$10/day per person (~$1-5/meal per head) but we usually spent maybe half that.

 

[Moemg]

We eat out twice a week for dinner and because of huge portions we usually split one meal . I also have lunch out most fridays with my gal pals .

 

[Amethyst]

Presumably, though, you were not paying for meals while deployed!

Of course, I didn't count in deployments in which case I'd be in the 15+ range...