Grocery Money - Food Only

[NW-Bound]

I have never had Mexican chorizo. As the touch was mushy, I knew it was not right.

Anyway, I have made paella and fideua without the sausage, so this time it's a step up.

 

[youbet]

The food can be reasonably priced, but the alcohol bill is what gets me...

There's a lot of truth to that. Still, if we're going to bother jumping in the car and going out to dine, we like to have an enjoyable experience. Splitting a meal (esp where DW gets the good stuff and I get the carbs!) and washing it down with a glass of water probably wouldn't appeal enough to us to bother making the trip.

We ate at a local Mexican restaurant yesterday. Our town has a large Hispanic population and we have a wide selection of Hispanic ethic restaurants from which to choose, almost all independents.

In round numbers, we spent $18 on two entrees ($8.95 ea if I recall) and had one Carta Blanca each which cost $6 (beer of the month on sale for $3 a bottle). So, skipping any appetizer or dessert and holding the beer bill to a minimum, we spent $24 plus $4 tip = $28 for the two of us.

It was a good meal and worth the trip. We would have enjoyed a margarita before dinner, perhaps split a dessert afterwards, and, of course, the more interesting entrees were priced in the low teens but we wanted to keep the bill down.

As I said, it's just tough to dine out in this neck of the woods without spending over $30 and having the experience be worth the trouble vs. just whipping up something quick and simple at home. And, yes, alcohol is a big factor. If you enjoy a cocktail before and a glass of wine with dinner, you really need to think about dining at home.

 

[haha]

I have never had Mexican chorizo. As the touch was mushy, I knew it was not right.

Anyway, I have made paella and fideua without the sausage, so this time it's a step up.

I basically lived on breakfasts of juevos revueltos con chorizo when I first moved to LA and lived on Brooklyn Avenue in Boyle Heights. I often fed it to my kids too, with rice and beans alongside. They loved it; it was our Saturday morning special. Don't make the mistake of reading the ingredients. Lymph nodes are prominently featured.


Huevos revueltos con chorizo - YouTube

Ha

 

[NW-Bound]

We do not eat out every week. So when we do go out, I do not mind spending $100+ for two.

And speaking of hamburgers, at the end of 2-week trips in Europe, I never had a McDonald hamburger that tasted that good! So do not knock them. You don't miss them until you can't have them.

 

[HFWR]

If you enjoy a cocktail before and a glass of wine with dinner, you really need to think about dining at home.

Aha, I've found my problem...

Beer is often less expensive. A small pub where a buddy and I often wind down on Friday evening has $2.50 Shiner Bock. Wine is more like $8 there, and usually even more at "finer " restaurants.

So, $12 for one glass, or $12 per bottle at home. Hmmm?

 

[youbet]

Aha, I've found my problem...

indeed!

When I said "a" cocktail and "a" glass of wine, I was trying to understate the scenario a bit. Don't want the FIRE forum folks thinkin' I'm a lush........

I went to a local sports bar with some fellow MegaCorp retired geezers yesterday to watch the Bears game. We picked the place because they serve a great, free pizza buffet at half time. As you probably heard, Illinois had tornadoes and storms yesterday. The game was suspended for two hours before half time. Therefore we were at the bar a long time, about noon to 5:00 PM.

Long story short, I ran up a $35 beer bill! The fact the pizza was free (and great stuff!) helped but the beer bill was the telling story.

 

[youbet]

We do not eat out every week. So when we do go out, I do not mind spending $100+ for two.

There's the clue........ Eat out less often and really enjoy it when you do. From time to time, that plan works for us.

For example, this past September DW and I camped in Yellowstone for a week. We ate all meals except one at our campsite and thought that was just fine. But we made reservations and ate one terrific meal (with wonderful ambiance) at the Old Faithful Inn where we spent $130. Cocktails on the deck overlooking Old Faithful before dinner. A bottle of wine with dinner. An Irish coffee at the bar after dinner. Decent food at dinner. It was a really great experience.

 

[NW-Bound]

Well, I take that back. I do go to casual dining places too. About once or twice a year, I would have a craving for a shredded-beef chimichanga. While I probably can learn to make it, it would take a lot of work and not worthwhile unless I make enough for an army. So, I do go to a Mexican joint to get my fix.

And one time I suddenly wanted some Indian food. I can make simple curry dishes, but there are other dishes too. So, I called up my daughter on a Friday, picked her up at work and we had some quality time together for lunch at a local Indian buffet. I had my craving for Indian spices satiated for a while. It's just not worthwhile for me to make goat curry at home.

Ah, such impromptu things are what make life more fun. I can see myself calling my daughter up and do another Indian lunch soon.

 

[NW-Bound]

Well, that paella or fideua (not sure what to make yet) will have to wait till this weekend, so that my son and daughter can share it with us. And I still have that lamb shank waiting...

But for dinner tonight, it will be stuffed cabbage. I just picked up a can of sauerkraut for that too. Some recipes call for sauerkraut, some don't. I just feel like putting some in this time.

 

[NW-Bound]

I basically lived on breakfasts of juevos revueltos con chorizo ...

Don't make the mistake of reading the ingredients. Lymph nodes are prominently featured.

I do eat organ meat occasionally, like calf liver or "head cheese" (no, head cheese does not have brain like many think). I have made Pâté and terrine. I once ordered a kidney meat pie in Australia.

But lymph nodes? Hmmm... This is worthy of some research.

 

[RetiredAndFree]

I stand pat on my statement- there is something a little unusual about millionaires eating on a budget very similar to SNAP recipients. It is absurd to categorize this as "living to eat". If I were living to eat, I wouldn't weigh the same as I did in high school.

If people with plenty money prefer to save it, or spend it on travel, hooray for them. But there is no inherent virtue in this stance.

Ha

Are we possibly confusing eating a diet heavy in produce, rice, beans and nuts, which is economical by default, not design, with what some else referred to as an artery clogging diet of poor quality, cheaply processed foods?

Millionaire or no, I see no problems with the first, and millionaire or no, I see big problems with the second.

 

[calmloki]

Away in Oregon all summer and what did I miss from down in La Quinta? In n' Out Burger. The two of us go and a couple cheeseburgers with grilled onion and an order of fries, medium well done, two waters comes to $6.50. But they do them so well! - Plump buns, lovely tomato and lettuce, good meat, just the right size.... perfect. Expensive food needs to impress me, and it normally doesn't.

 

[Walt34]

Ewww!!! If you are going to eat a burger, why not just cook up a couple at home like NW-Bound? I can't eat that type of food.

Well, it contains one of the four basic food groups. You know, sugar, salt, fat and alcohol.

While I don't do it often I do like a bit fat burger once in a while.

 

[Katsmeow]

We also don't order just *anything* we want on the menu; that would be a fast way to extra pounds too. I have lost 42 pounds since last spring, while eating lunch out every single day. For me, wise choices and portion control are more important for weight loss than whether I eat at a restaurant or at home. Eating sensibly at restaurants also keeps the cost down.

Great results, W2R! DH and I are working on controlling/losing weight ourselves, following Weight Watchers. DH is within 10 pounds of goal and I have, ahem, more to go. We just talked about the above this week.

The past 6 months we haven't been losing much weight (not gaining, just sort of staying in place). DH pointed to the fact that we had moved from eating out twice a week to 3 OR 4 times. I told him I didn't really think it was that. Rather it was not making as good choices. We happened to be at Chili's at the time. I pointed out that there are plenty of things at Chili's (or Panera - another favorite) that I could eat every day and still stay within my WW points. That day, I went in and scanned the nutritional information for Chili's (on my iPad) and just didn't even look at things beyond the amount of calories I wanted to eat. I know when I go there that there are 5 or 6 things that I can eat every day with no problem. Same thing at Panera. I could eat there every day as long as I stick with the several things that work well for me (usually a pick 2 with a salad and soup or rarely a lesser calorie sandwich).

So it isn't the eat out a lot that causes weight gain (or not losing). It is eating out a lot without making the best choices.

 

[HFWR]

Away in Oregon all summer and what did I miss from down in La Quinta? In n' Out Burger. The two of us go and a couple cheeseburgers with grilled onion and an order of fries, medium well done, two waters comes to $6.50. But they do them so well! - Plump buns, lovely tomato and lettuce, good meat, just the right size.... perfect. Expensive food needs to impress me, and it normally doesn't.

To each there own, and I suppose In n Out beats most fast food burgers, but I'd give Five Guys the nod. Fuddrucker's is slightly more pricey, but better than both, and they have bison burgers, if you're into really lean meat.

Though plump buns are a good thing...

 

[AllDone]

Arborio rice is what they carry, but every store carries that. I did a bit better with chorizo sausage. Not imported, but made in USA to Spanish style. Hmmm... It's more expensive than the typical Mexican chorizo, so it's better be good.

The regular grocery stores in SoCal care Portuguese linguiça which is very similar to Spanish chorizo. I like to make paella on the BBQ, but I have no good advice for the bomba rice.

 

[W2R]

Great results, W2R! DH and I are working on controlling/losing weight ourselves, following Weight Watchers. DH is within 10 pounds of goal and I have, ahem, more to go. We just talked about the above this week.

The past 6 months we haven't been losing much weight (not gaining, just sort of staying in place). DH pointed to the fact that we had moved from eating out twice a week to 3 OR 4 times. I told him I didn't really think it was that. Rather it was not making as good choices. We happened to be at Chili's at the time. I pointed out that there are plenty of things at Chili's (or Panera - another favorite) that I could eat every day and still stay within my WW points. That day, I went in and scanned the nutritional information for Chili's (on my iPad) and just didn't even look at things beyond the amount of calories I wanted to eat. I know when I go there that there are 5 or 6 things that I can eat every day with no problem. Same thing at Panera. I could eat there every day as long as I stick with the several things that work well for me (usually a pick 2 with a salad and soup or rarely a lesser calorie sandwich).

So it isn't the eat out a lot that causes weight gain (or not losing). It is eating out a lot without making the best choices.

+1

I couldn't agree more! I am following WW also, and choices are so important for me when eating out. Also, most of the restaurants that we eat at, do not have nutritional information online since we prefer "mom 'n' pop restaurants" rather than chains. So, figuring the points is a puzzle. My approach is to always try to over-estimate the WW points of the meal I select. I just assume that the chef wasn't thinking about my waistline when he prepared that gumbo or grilled that chicken breast. That approach seems to be working for me, although I have been on a plateau for a couple of weeks. I am hanging in there and this too shall pass.

And thanks!

 

[Moemg]

We are lucky in that we have a lot of restaurants so tons of competition including drink prices . We usually eat out once or twice a week . We also split the meal or just get appetizers to save calories .I enjoy cooking ( not to the extent of some of our posters ).What frustrates me is "What to cook " . If my So would post a weekly menu I would gladly cook it.

 

[MDJO]

About 800/mo for just food. Feeding four adult appetites on that amount

 

[SumDay]

Between $500 and $600 for the two of us, not including dining out, which we do about 2-3 times per week.

 

[NW-Bound]

To each there own, and I suppose In n Out beats most fast food burgers, but I'd give Five Guys the nod. Fuddrucker's is slightly more pricey, but better than both, and they have bison burgers, if you're into really lean meat.

Though plump buns are a good thing...

We usually do not go out for burgers, but recently tried Five Guys because my daughter said it was a hot thing. Not impressed, but could it just be that store near me? Not too many people there either. I thought In-n-Out burger was better.

The regular grocery stores in SoCal care Portuguese linguiça which is very similar to Spanish chorizo. I like to make paella on the BBQ, but I have no good advice for the bomba rice.

All I have read say arborio makes an excellent substitute, and that what I used before. I just wanted to "kick it up a notch" this time with the real thing, if I could get it.

I enjoy cooking ( not to the extent of some of our posters ).What frustrates me is "What to cook " . If my So would post a weekly menu I would gladly cook it.

My wife used to complain that she ran out of ideas. So, ever since I learned to cook about 10 years ago, I would help her out with suggestions. And whenever I start to cook in the kitchen, she feels like her domain gets invaded. So I usually start the preparation then she eventually takes over.

I've just got golabki put in the oven. I made the filling, the tomato sauce, and seasoned everything. My wife then took over with rolling the cabbage. She surely got a better handling of that than I would.

Dinner will be served in 1 hr. Man, I am salivating already.

 

[Live And Learn]

ARGH - I thought I was pretty darned economical when it came to my grocery bill. We avg 520 / month for two including "non grocery items" (mostly paper goods and cleaning products). Lets call it 500 for food alone. We have pizza delivery 1x a week for 'date night' so that 500 is for 4 nights a week. We have meat 3x a week and pasta meal 1x a week. To give you an example of my frugality - I've made 3 turkeys over the past 4 days since the price is now 59 cents a lb. Each 14 lbs. I froze them into meal sized portions after they were cooked. I've done the same for the past two years. I don't get it ... I thought I was so good. Maybe I'm not segregating food vs non-food categories well enough, but still ... .

 

[calmloki]

To each there own, and I suppose In n Out beats most fast food burgers, but I'd give Five Guys the nod. Fuddrucker's is slightly more pricey, but better than both, and they have bison burgers, if you're into really lean meat.

Though plump buns are a good thing...

Yah, different tastes - wanted to like Five-guys after reading glowing things about them, but with all the options I pretty much ended up with a soup sandwich - just way too sloppy for me. we do agree on plump buns - those flat wrinkly ones just don't do it for me. you know, like Carls jr.

 

[NW-Bound]

We never really bother with figuring out our food cost. For example, what is the cost of my dinner tonight?

My package of ground pork is around $3, and I used only 1/2 of it. To the filling, I added 1/2 cup of old white rice, 1/2 of a chopped onion, a couple of teaspoon of garlic. How much is the rice? Beats me. The onion, we have paid as little as $1 for 3 lbs. So what's 1/2 onion? Do I care? The cabbage, we bought today so I still remember the price: $1. We used 1/3 of the head today.

For the tomato sauce, we had 1/2 can of sauce left in the fridge. It was not enough, but there were some fresh tomatoes that were past their prime for salad. Smashed up and into the sauce they went.

So, how much was this meal? I guess I could painstakingly price everything, including the salt and pepper, the pinch of thyme, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, but I do not care to.

PS. Even when we cook for 20-25 people in the family for Thanksgiving and Xmas, we never bother with the cost. All we know is that we can feed a houseful of guests for about the same that we spend for a nice dinner for 2 at a French restaurant. Well, the drinks for the guests add up to a lot more, but they usually bring a bottle or two.

 

[NW-Bound]

By the way, speaking of New Orleans, when we were there on an RV trip 6 months ago, the stay was not long enough for us to explore small local neighborhood eateries, though I intended to.

However, we did enjoy lunch at restaurants in Uptown/Carrollton. These were small family-run restaurants that were converted from a residence, and of course were right inside small charming residential neighborhoods. The lunches were not too expensive ($35-50 for 2, IIRC as I drank and had dessert). At one place, I tried to get reservation for dinner but was told they were booked solid for the next couple days that we were able to go. After lunch, a walk around Audubon Park was great for an exercise, as well as for viewing the grand homes surrounding the park.

A restaurant we tried in French Quarter was a disaster. I think they are all tourist traps. Uptown/Carrollton restaurants were much better. We did go to a low-key place to get crawfish to go, as recommended by the RV park owner. Driving around and not knowing where to go can be a bit scary in some neighborhoods.

Before getting to NO, in Baton Rouge we went to Parrain's, the place rated #1 in Yelp. It was good, not expensive, and I got my fix of Cajun food there first. That place was busy with the locals.

I did not get to explore NO as much as I thought, but this time with the RV was a lot better than my 1st visit 15 years ago when we stayed for only about 4 days.