Is eating out a waste of money? The top 10 reasons why people eat out. Ways eating out could be sabotaging your budget and how to avoid them. Learn how to acknowledge the signs.
Find out the real reasons why you are eating out and learn how to fix it! Not eating out can save you thousands!
Eating out is not only bad for our health but it is also a huge budget buster.
From 2015 to 2016 Americans spent more money at restaurants than eating at home.
Almost $55 billion dollars was spent eating out and only $52 billion dollars was spent on groceries.
Today I want to give you some reasons why you eat out, why you shouldn’t, and how it can save you thousands of dollars.
Hurry/ Poor time management
A huge reason why we eat out is, we are in a rush. And we are in a rush because we don’t manage our time well.
If you prepare meals ahead of time, plan dinners in advance, and use your free time wisely eating at home won’t feel so impossible.
A reality check is that it might mean getting up earlier in the morning to make breakfast.
Setting up the coffee pot the night before.
Buying some nice Tupperware to take leftovers in for lunch.
Even picking out your kid’s clothes the night before can give you that extra second to grab a yogurt!
I keep a box of protein bars in my locker at work because no one is perfect.
Remember you only have room for priorities, not excuses.
Celebrations
Special occasions are one of my favorite reasons to eat out.
Why?
Because we never eat out!
Instances that are not worthy of celebration include getting through your 10-hour workday, your kid losing a tooth, and you not killing your coworker.
Birthdays, graduations, holidays.
Those are reasons to celebrate.
Even if you are going out with friends skip the expensive route of a restaurant and invite people over.
Have a potluck. Get some cheap wine, ice cream, and fancy cheese.
You don’t have to go out to eat to celebrate everything.
Don’t feel like cooking
This is my #1 weakness. Tell me this is one of yours too!
On days I’m tired or I have been really busy sometimes I just don’t feel like cooking.
I have learned to combat this.
Frozen pizza. Yup just being honest.
When you are someone that eats healthy and cooks homemade meals most of the time you won’t feel bad about this.
Keep those hot dogs on hand, ramen, and frozen burger patties.
This is how you are going to save yourself when you don’t feel like cooking.
Eat your kid’s mac and cheese and if you feel bad about not eating healthy, add some broccoli and fresh tomatoes!
Nothing to eat
Guilty again.
I am so proud of myself when I get to the end of the week with an empty pantry and fridge.
Until I realize I have nothing to eat the next day.
I always try to keep things like oatmeal, pasta, tuna, eggs, and easy to make foods on hand.
This does take a little extra planning but it is essential to keep you from eating out.
There is no reason that your meals need to be elaborate or even make sense. Scrambled eggs and rice?
Yup, I’ve done it.
Make sure you have emergency foods on hand.
Sometimes we just assume we have nothing to eat when in fact we do.
The perfect emergency food…peanut butter and jelly.
Atmosphere
Sometimes going out sounds good just to have someone deliver your dinner.
We like to go out and visit with friends for
The Atmosphere of going out sometimes just sounds fun!
While this is true it can be very costly to eat out just for a change of scenery.
Try making yourself a fancy dinner.
Plate your food, light a candle, get out your fancy wine glasses, or sit on your patio.
A lot of what we do for our meals is so regimented so try something new!
Want a fancy meal?
Treat yourself and buy a nice steak or go to your fishmonger. It will be half the price!
Can’t cook
Now, this is an excuse like I have ever heard one.
Not everyone is a great cook or even a good cook but if you can read you can cook.
No one said you have to cook anything fancy or with ingredients, you can’t pronounce. Start simple and go from there.
Work/meetings
This is a hard one. Sometimes you have to go out to eat for work.
Or so you think.
If you are someone who sets appointments for a living there are other places to meet other than restaurants.
I have gone to coffee shops and not ordered anything.
You can also consider common meeting rooms or co-working spaces.
Even places like hotels and libraries are an option.
If your coworkers are somehow persuasive enough to get you to order Pizza Hut every day then you need to stand your ground.
Pack your lunch and don’t be ashamed of it.
Bring something you actually enjoy eating.
If you pack something tasty pizza won’t be so tempting.
I worked at a restaurant for years and brought my own lunch because the food wasn’t free.
Socialize
So many people go out to eat just for the social aspect.
Your friends invite you out and your one glass of wine costs just as much as the entire bottle.
This is when we need to learn to say no. I am totally guilty of bringing my own food to someone’s house when they order pizza.
If they are truly your friends they won’t judge you.
Don’t be afraid to tell them your busy or can’t accept the invitation.
You can just as easily socialize at home as you can in a bar.
Invite everyone over instead.
Instances where I have gone out to eat to socialize, include visiting with friends that I haven’t seen in a while, or if we haven’t spent all of our eating out money for the month.
Relieve Stress
How many times have you ordered take out because you are stressed?
Work?
Kids?
Breakup?
Stress is part of our lives but we need to learn to cope in ways that don’t include food.
Not only because half the Chinese takeout menu is not healthy, but it’s expensive!
We all get stressed all the time it is part of life. Let’s not use our hard-earned money to make us feel better.
Talk to a friend, spouse, family member.
Start working out. Go for a walk, run, or swim.
Do something you enjoy. Read, journal, listen to a podcast.
Again this is a great time to have those emergency foods on hand.
Make the kids some frozen pizza and it will be no added stress on you.
Entitled/ Deserving
If we have had a bad day we feel like we deserve to eat out.
If we had a good day we feel entitled to celebrate. Did you kill your workout and decide you should get ice cream after?
All of us are deserving of eating out all the time.
The difference is knowing when you should actually justify eating out because you earned it.
How about getting to the end of the month and not eating out once.
I think you won dinner out.
If you set a goal to bring your coffee every day to work for 15 days and succeeded. I think you can justify giving yourself a little treat.
Learn how to set goals to make going out to eat well deserved.
Just because it’s Monday is not an entitled reason to eat out.
There you have it friends the top 10 reasons why people eat out and how you can avoid them to save money.
Eating out is often one of the biggest issues people have with budgeting.
As you can see there are so many life instances that can cause you to eat out.
My biggest advice is to practice, prepare, and prioritize.
Practice saying no to your friends and invite them over.
Be prepared for things like stressful moments, and long days.
Prioritize your time so that you are ready for those weak moments because your money is important to you.
What is one of the reasons why you tend to eat out?
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Check out the Dave Ramsey endorsed Every Dollar website and their tips on saving money while eating out.
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