I was wondering about percentages of food budgets (cost) and what % you have set for eating in vs. takeout or dining out. Do you combine take out and dining out in one group and dining in costs in another?
I would say across the board 98% of our food budget cost is for in house dining. We rarely eat out, it’s just for our birthdays and anniversary.
Just wonderin’.
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We haven’t eaten out in over 2 years – just can’t afford it.
I do try to make anything Sunshine asks for –
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This would be a great standalone thread topic (if you want to ask the mods to split it off)
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Most weeks, I spend around $330 on groceries for 3 adults ( around 1/3 on my requirements), $20 on coffee out (3 or 4 cappuccinos or cortados), and around $80 on restaurant or bakery take-out meals most weekends. I have started keeping closer track of the cost of each restaurant meal and what i ordered.
My $100 share of groceries covers 5 days of meals for me. $80-$100 of take-out is 2 nicer quality take-out dinners.
No shame in that. We got out of the habit years ago. It was one of major things we did to ensure our financial security. As a bonus, we eat better (taste, nutrition, variety, yada yada…) and learning to cook the food we love to eat has been a fun journey (and a good skill to have).
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Sure. Mods?
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I have one budget for groceries and another budget for “entertainment”. The entertainment budget is for meals out, movie admissions, and museum admissions when I have to pay (a lot of museums where I live are free or they have times when they are free - usually Thursday evenings). I decided when I started working that I would brown bag lunch Mondays through Thursdays then buy my lunch on Friday as a treat for getting through the week. Also to have a break from making lunches six days a week. I used to get take out on Saturday nights but I joined meet up a few years ago so when I go out with my meet up groups there is usually a meal out tied in with whatever activity we are doing so my dinner out budget goes towards that instead of take out on Saturday night. I limit my dinners out for a couple of reasons - mostly for health reasons but also because eating out a lot could cost a lot of money.
I don’t calculate my dining out budget by percentage. I know how much my take home pay is each month then calculate how much I need to pay rent and utilities then divide up the remainder of the money for groceries, toiletries, Friday lunches, etc. I leave a little aside each month to invest in mutual funds.
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No real budget here. I attempted to create a worksheet in Excel for at least our grocery shopping & lost interest almost immediately. The thing is, we don’t buy a lot of ‘splurge’ items, and since we’ve both cut down significantly on drinking, we’re already saving TPSTO money each week.
We also very rarely go out for restaurant meals, unless we are traveling.
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No budget - just buy what I like, but it’s not insanely expensive.
And I’d say that 97% of the time, I eat in - food I make. Sometimes for lunch, I’ll pick something up at a local restaurant. As for eating out at night? I haven’t done that in many months due to health reasons and I’m jonesing to do so very soon. But it’s usually just my favorite restaurant, and I go there (on average) once every 2-3 months.
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I don’t have a budget - I just keep an eye on my finances and act accordingly. I eat a meal out (lunch or dinner) about 10X/month. The rest of the time I cook for myself. I haven’t had a meal delivered in many months because of the cost - it ends up more expensive than eating in a restaurant. And I never get takeout.
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We are very fortunate that our pensions and savings permit us to feel financially very comfortable. We don’t work to a budget although we are conscious of whether we are getting value for money.
Like probably everyone else on this forum, food is important to us. Some other costs aren’t (which is why we both drive Skodas, rather than more upmarket vehicles). But as to the original question…
…On average, the weekly supermarket shop is about £110 but we also spend elsewhere. For instance, we buy much of our meat online from animal higher welfare suppliers. And most seafood comes from the fishmonger rather than the supermarket. So, let’s say the average food shop for eating at home is maybe £140 per week.
We eat dinner out once a week. Sometimes neighbourhood bistro, occasionally more upmarket. Probably averages out at around £110 per meal.
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Eating out is “entertainment” budget, and is maybe 2x monthly. A lunch out is equal to 15% of our weekly groceries cost. A dinner out costs more like 40 - 50 percent of a weekly grocery run.
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How is restaurant food that’s delivered different than take-out?
I pick up my own food at restaurants that are full service restaurants.
I still call those restaurant meals take-out, whether I deliver it or a 3rd party delivers it.
I’ve only had one meal delivered in the past 11 years.
I get take-out restaurant meals from full service restaurants 4 or 5 times a month. I get take-out faster meals, such as breakfast sandwiches from coffee shops or shawarma/tacos/slice of pizza, once or twice a week.
Take out is when I go to a restaurant, order food, have it packed up, and take it home with me.
Delivery is when I use an online service or my phone to order food so a guy on a bike can bring it to my house.
It seems from your post that you know the difference already, because you say that
I occasionally use some of the same online apps as the delivery apps. Mostly DoorDash lately, and in the past, Ritual.
I click pick up on the app , rather than take-out, then pick up the meal myself.
Lately, if a restaurant isn’t running their online ordering through Ambassador or Square, I call and place an order.
Quite a few restaurants in Toronto are charging a few dollars more per dish, on top of whatever service fee I’m paying, especially through Ritual.
A few restaurants asked me to call them direct to place orders, rather than using an app.
When you said you don’t eat take-out, I wasn’t sure if you meant take-out from restaurants set up mostly for take-out, like pizza shops, shawarma shops, or Chinese restaurants that only have a take-out business, and don’t have tables.
This sounds like us. We typically have at least one dinner or meal out per week (I’m doing the vast majority of the cooking/meal planning/shopping). And we often get coffee once or twice a week. We don’t budget per se, but we also don’t splurge a lot. Buying fewer drinks out sure saves money.
I personally hate takeout and delivery. I prefer food at its optimal temperature and texture, abhor plastic, and If I’m going to be tipping, I might as well have someone cleaning up after me. 
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No, I just meant take out. As when you take the food out with you.
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Got it. 
We live in Hawaii where the cost of living is “dear” to say the least. My wife is retired, and I am semi retired. Being a member here, and of Chowhound before…we both love food, and i love to cook. Being of the “retiree” mindset, we go out to eat much less now, and when we do, it’s usually for our favorites, or things that we dont cook at home much or at all. We go out for lunch a lot more than we go out for dinner, and most of the places we go are relatively modest, that is not “fancy”. We are not so much financially limited, but just of that penurious mindset. We both cook pretty well and our range of foods is pretty much all over the globe, with a bend towards asian cuisines. We do take out lunches of local Hawaiian food…aka Plate Lunch occasionally, but only go out to eat every few weeks and rarely rarely do take out dinner. Cooking is part of the adventure along with eating food…so we enjoy that part of the experience as well.
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I’ve eaten out in a restaurant perhaps 3 times since Covid. I get groceries delivered often, but not take-out or restaurant food. Restaurants I’ve done exactly twice in 5 years. I miss the socialization, but I was definitely surprised-but-not- not surprised at how much the menu items had gone up in price last summer when I had one lunch out. I think it’s only going to get much, much worse.
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