Poll: Retirees, how many nights/week do you eat dinner out?

[Semiretired2008]

I put two because we travel a lot and sometimes we pick up meals or parts of a meal to bring home. Hardly ever eat out on weekends unless we are out of town - we barbecue almost every weekend... Our budget for eating out is $160 a month, so you can see we eat light when we do (not much fast foods though)...

 

[Mulligan]

I know how that is! Our goal is to keep our restaurant lunches to around 500-600 calories. Usually we split the most virtuous dish on the menu, whatever that might be. I just checked, and so far this month we have split our lunch 70% of the time, and otherwise I try to take half home. We also don't get appetizers, drinks, desserts, or other extras.

You are doing it the smart way. I only have an opportunity to eat french fries when I eat out and I don't want to share them even if Im gorged.

 

[lemming]

You meant lunch or dinner didn't you? I never go out to dinner anymore but have lunch out quite often.

 

[Midpack]

You meant lunch or dinner didn't you? I never go out to dinner anymore but have lunch out quite often.

You're right, it appears I shouldn't have specified dinner. I was afraid results could be unusable if the basis for answers varied between 1, 2, 3 or more meals/day...hindsight is a wonderful thing. Should I do a mo' better poll? Guess it should have been, excluding breakfast, how many times/week do you eat out?

 

[W2R]

To be honest, I've seen one or more members who have reported lower living expenses than ours, who has also mentioned eating out every day. And I wondered what we were doing wrong, we eat out most Sat & Sun's, and I can't imagine how we'd afford to eat out more often - with the caveat we rarely eat fast food or the like. Our budget is $70/week eating out, and we never seem to have a gain on that expense item, always a loss... Fortunately we both enjoy cooking somewhat.

I don't think you are doing anything wrong.

I have been keeping records (to the penny) of what I am spending on eating out this year, and balancing my records to the penny with the cash left in my wallet each week since we pay in cash. Because of the question you raise, I pulled up the exact amount spent eating lunch out every single day this year so far and computed the average amount that I have spent eating lunch out.

For each of us the cost of eating lunch out every day averages $60/week, including all charges and tip. So, for both of us together that would be $120/week, considerably more than your $70. However, I only pay $60, my share since we keep our money separate.

We have not eaten fast food for even one of our restaurant lunches this year thus far. Fast food is not only a nutritional disaster IMO, but also not all that fast and often more expensive than regular restaurants here. Not to mention that fast food is more fattening and doesn't taste very good to us (we're spoiled and enjoy our local NOLA cuisine! ). We also don't eat at high rolling tourist places, but usually at local Cajun, Creole, and especially Italian neighborhood restaurants that would probably horrify a tourist. We enjoy the food at these places, though, and enjoy the warm down home atmosphere and being treated like family.

We try to eat sensibly, and this surely lowers the amount we spend - - we are not celebrating and killing the fatted calf, but instead we are eating every day lunch in a restaurant. We enjoy splitting one entree between the two of us most of the time. When we don't, I try to bring half home for dinner (but that is also included in the expenditures on lunch that I listed, as though I ate it for lunch). We take advantage of weekday lunch specials at least once a week, sometimes twice.

We never order alcoholic drinks, appetizers, desserts, side dishes, and so on, since we do not drink and since the rest we regard as more for celebrations than an every day lunch. Lately I have been ordering water instead of diet Coke because the caffeine is bothering me. Just TRY to get something to drink without alcohol, sugar, or caffeine in a restaurant. Usually it seems like water is the only choice.

 

[73ss454]

We never order alcoholic drinks, appetizers, desserts, side dishes, and so on, since we do not drink and since the rest we regard as more for celebrations than an every day lunch. Lately I have been ordering water instead of diet Coke because the caffeine is bothering me. Just TRY to get something to drink without alcohol, sugar, or caffeine in a restaurant. Usually it seems like water is the only choice.

I think you need to take your SS and enjoy yourself a bit.

 

[W2R]

I think you need to take your SS and enjoy yourself a bit.

It's not the money - - it's my waistline, plus aging metabolism! But we do celebrate a few times a year, when it is merited.

But yes, I am thinking about taking SS next year.

 

[Bluemoon]

Between eating out and ordering in I estimate between 3-4 (I put down 3). That's as a couple, my partner usually has lunch or dinner with her friends an average of once a week.

 

[73ss454]

It's not the money - - it's my waistline, plus aging metabolism! But we do celebrate a few times a year, when it is merited.

But yes, I am thinking about taking SS next year.

Ah I see, one more year syndrome.

 

[JakeBrake]

We rarely eat out at night because the lunch time deals are so much better.

Also, unfortunately, I don't see at night for driving as well as I used to.

 

[Nords]

We don't eat out very often in restaurants but we do get take out once a week.

We bring a Costco pizza home every week, but we only eat out 2-3 times per month... usually lunches.

Worse than that, I'd say that only one of those monthly meals is with spouse-- the others are usually with friends for investment discussions.

Come on, what is the big deal about flipping some store-bought meat cuts on the stove, or rinsing and then chopping up some clean produce before putting it in a pot? It is fun, and we make it the way we like it.

Perhaps it's fun to you, but to us it's a chore. The value we add to food doesn't even equate to minimum wage.

We have a neighbor who cooks for us whenever we help her out with home repairs or paperwork. She loves to cook, and we love to eat her cooking-- it's the perfect symbiotic relationship.

 

[ohyes]

DH and i eat dinner out 2-3 times/week and call it entertainment. I think (rationalize) that it is because we so seldom ate out when the children were home. When we became empty-nesters, it was HEY, PARTY ON.

We use coupons, including QPON phone app, watch for specials and always have beer, which helps us forget any guilt. One place we frequent has $1.00 delicious tacos on Thursday night. We did not go there tonight ....because a roast slow cooked in oven allllll day.

We may very well have to cut back on this practice soon. Right now, we are newly retired and definitely enjoying it.
...and i very much enjoy cooking....and do not need the added salt from restaurant meals.

 

[NW-Bound]

The value we add to food doesn't even equate to minimum wage...

Oh, but people do so many things that have economic values below minimum wage.

Speaking for myself, I have done plenty of things around the house that are of much higher economic values than my cooking.

But there is really nothing that pays me as well as my w*rk! And I am talking of retiring early. Ironic, isn't it?

PS. Just now notice that the OP placed this thread under "Health in Retirement", not "Life after ER" nor "Finance". Does he imply that eating out is less healthy than home cooking? Or the other way around?

 

[MichaelB]

Cause DW still works full time, but I am sure we'll take your suggestion eventually. We also have lunch out instead of dinner sometimes as others have suggested, and I am sure we'll do more of that when DW retires in 2014 (her estimate)...though then we may have to compete with diners on expense accounts in a big hurry Mon thru Fri!

It is hard to dine out during the week when one works. No need to compete with the expense accounts, though, because they have to get back to work.

 

[ksr]

We eat a late lunch at restaurants every day, so after that I seldom want to eat dinner out as well.

We do pretty much the same thing - eat a late lunch/early dinner out every day. We almost always go to a casual place (like Panera). I didn't vote because I'm not sure whether to consider this a "0" or a "7".

 

[Walt34]

I voted 0 because even before I started a job again we rarely eat dinner out - at most once a month. It has more to do with whether we're with friends/family and happen to be out at dinnertime.

No expense account for us anyway.

 

[theOAP]

We only dine out at lunch, and rarely in the evening unless it is a special occasion. I go maybe twice a week. Wife 'lunches' at least 3 times a week. Generally, we go to 'gastro-pubs' (very decent menu circa $100 for two).

Before I retired, the wife suggested we may be doing this regularly. I was not convinced, and thought it was not something I would enjoy. I was wrong. I've grown to really enjoy it. The only downside is due to the strict drink/drive laws where we live, so I end up with a few sips of one of the wife's wines.

We frequent 5 or 6 different establishments where the owners only expect one sitting per table at lunch, so no time limit. We've come to know the owners quite well which can have some definite advantages. For a group of 6 or 8 of us, it is not unknown to have a 4 to 5 hour lunch (and that's not 'hyperbole'). One of our main pleasures is watching all the business people with their clients, and thinking how lucky we are to be retired and not having that routine anymore.

Yes, it can be a bit expensive, but we've found we would prefer to do this than replace the 10 year old TV or other latest gadget (I'm typing this on a 6 year old computer, not a 'pad' of some sort) whilst we are financially able. It's come to be one of our dependable pleasures and something we look forward to.

 

[Midpack]

I wish I could close this wayward poll, I started another...

 

[antmary]

I would say, "0." There is a great Chinese restaurant in town that serves lunch specials, and that is what we get - maybe once per month. I cook, and enjoy food from the garden. Also, many times I put beans, stew in the crockpot in the morning - and there really is no cooking for dinnertime.

 

[Danmar]

Eating out is entertainment for us. We enjoy each oher's company, like a date really. Being at a restaurant gives us an hour or two of conversation not interrupted by chores or other things. We budget about 3-4% of our total spend for eating out but are over budget a bit YTD.

 

[Nemo2]

Eating out is entertainment for us. We enjoy each oher's company, like a date really. Being at a restaurant gives us an hour or two of conversation not interrupted by chores or other things.

Replace 'eating out/restaurant' with 'cooking/eating at home', and that's us.

 

[NW-Bound]

Eating out is often good entertainment. Even an INTJ introvert like me will admit to that.

Our problem is that it is difficult to talk ourselves to get out of the house in this 115F (46C) temperature, drive several miles in crazy traffic to get to a restaurant. The fun in dining is often not enough to cancel out the hassle.

Perhaps that's why we enjoy eating out more when on vacation in large cities, where many restaurants are within walking distances from where we stay.

 

[Danmar]

Agree sometimes it's a bit of a hassle. If we feel that way we just stay in. We like to people watch while sharing a bottle of wine. For us the ambiance of a restaurant and service is more important than the food really. Some great restaurants down here in Scottsdale/Phoenix. A little hot this time of year though.

 

[audreyh1]

I really enjoy the people watching aspects down here in south Texas - which really is a whole 'nother country (Sometimes I think of this as the Republic of the Rio Grande, which lasted about 10 months in 1840, alongside the Republic of Texas, but was never recognized by anybody LOL!). The groups and families that go out to eat here are very interesting and fun to watch, and going out to eat en familia is a huge tradition here along the border, and sometimes involves some serious dressing up - at least among the ladies and children.

We only go out to eat really good food. Fortunately there are plenty of places around that serve really good food, even if not every type of food is available. It took a while to learn some of the area specialties, but no that we have figured them out, we thoroughly enjoy them!

 

[Dawg52]

We rarely eat dinner out but eat lunch out 2-3 times a week. Many restaurants offer lunch specials on weekdays which usually keeps our expenses to under $60 a week.

Yeah, I do more eating out at lunch than at night. I voted once a week, but now that I think about it.......on average maybe 2 times a month. Just so happens I am meeting a buddy later after he finishes work. Kind of in the mood for a shrimp po-boy.