budget tuneup questions

[sleuth]

For those with young kids, how often do you eat out as a family?
How often do you eat out or get fast food on your own or with just your kids?
How much do you budget for groceries?

Just trying to gage where we might make adjustments. I feel like we eat out too often. Family thinks otherwise.

 

[Emerald]

I hate to admit this but since Dec. 11( I had some nerves burned out in my back) due to how painful it was and still is a bit tender we have been eating junk food way too much.. but we cut back on the groceries to compensate for it.
I am a Taco Bell junkie and tend to order the $2 meal deal and then add a bowl of the pintos and cheese and bowl of rice to go with it. it is super cheap tho. costs less than $4.50 and I get a drink and chips and usually I get the chicken burrito and with the rice and beans it really fills me up. Even sharing with the grand daughter it still fills me up.
And since the holidays and New years and my birthday are all right in a row there we have really been going out more. but for my birthday we went to a Japanese/Chinese/Korean buffet that opened this summer and I did eat healthy there.. I mean.. with all the choices of sushi and soups and seaweed salad Hubs almost had to roll me out on a gurney to the car. for $8 it was so fabulous that we are going back for our anniversary with the rest of the family for the Dinner menu.
But we have talked out our budget recently and since I have a packed pantry and freezer so once a month we are only buying the essentials like milk and cheese and a few veggies that do not last long in our house.
And since I am starting to feel much better, the back is going numb where it needs it I am gonna go back to making all of our bread-stuffs and making more meals from scratch other than just the quicky stuff like Omelet night and spaghetti night. I used to make big wet burritos once a month and my recipe makes about 9 to 10 of them (I mean restaurant big)so we have casserole dishes that we freeze most of them and they bake very well from frozen so it does make easy meals. the cost now(we didn't get a deer this year)that we have to buy meat tends to be about $30 for the whole meal. . refried beans and Spanish rice included but it makes at least three dinners worth for our small family.
Now when I see deer by the road the tummy rumbles and I almost want to run one down to get me some VENISON! haha. I miss it so much.
hope this helps a bit.. I was feeling a bit wordy today.

ETA: apparently I am a poor speller when I am feeling wordy. haha

 

[heatherlynnky]

We do not eat out more than twice a month. Most times though we do not eat out at all. My husband and I eat out on our own maybe 2 or 3 times a year. We budget $400 a month for groceries and thats for 6 of us. We are with my parents and they budget around $200 extra a month to cover their extra wants. I buy all the meat and such but they get urges for german cookies and pickles and deli meats that we generally do not eat. They love hitting the bakery and that kind of thing so they cover those costs.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I rarely have take out...maybe 4 times a month, because it costs over $30 to feed my family and I can put about 4 meals on the table for that price, usually.
Regarding eating out....maybe twice a year and it will be over $100.
I serve beans at least twice a week. I like to keep ground beef and shrimp handy for when DH is responsible for cooking, because he is more likely to come up with the main dish if I have those 2 meats to choose from. Poultry I cook once or twice a week and it comes from our flock. We do have a bit of wild game and seafood which we obtain from bartering against our eggs. Fortunately we don't have a set time of day that is the only time breakfast foods are eaten. We can just as easily eat eggs, biscuits and sausage/bacon at night as in the morning.

 

[Wannabefree]

We have eaten out 3 times in the last two years. Mostly due to food allergies, partially also due to money being scarce. After a while ya don't miss it so much Try weaning them off. Say if you eat out 3 times per week, that's 12 times a month, go down to 11 times next month, the 10 the following month, until you can get to where you want to be, rather than where you are. They'll not miss it. If you try to take it away all at once, better get out the shin guards and helmet

Currently we spend $40 a week on groceries for a family of 4, may as well say adults, the youngest is 15 and eats like a man...it's complicated. Coupons, home canned foods, home grown meats, etc. etc. but we got it down to very little. I make our bread, sauces, pastas, salsa, ice cream, yadda yadda and you'd be VERY suprised at how much you can save just by doing that. Anyway, if you want recipes or further details just PM me.

 

[moolie]

For those with young kids, how often do you eat out as a family?
How often do you eat out or get fast food on your own or with just your kids?
How much do you budget for groceries?

Just trying to gage where we might make adjustments. I feel like we eat out too often. Family thinks otherwise.

Maybe once every two months or so.

We don't eat fast food, although my teenager works part-time at a fast food place.

Monthly we average around $400, family of 4 with two teenage daughters. What we spend depends on when we buy meat, which isn't every month. This includes our summer canning averaged out over the year. We eat mostly organic and local, home grown or from the farmers market.

We used to eat out more, before we had kids. We've long been at the point where we make our own "fast food" style dinners: home made hamburgers with baked potato wedges, home made pizza with whatever toppings we want, home made Mexican food etc. It's pretty quick, and way cheaper to do our own

 

[FarmerChick]

we eat out at least 2 times per week. maybe 3. could be any meal.

hubby has 4 days off and he makes me hit the road somewhere all the time and it falls that one meal is going to be eaten out. depends on time of travel if kiddo is with us for eating out also.

We don't do fast food places, very rare. occasionally we hit it if we have the kiddo who wants something specific, I always get a salad No way I am eating that junk. Hubby and I always choose a real restaurant vs. fast food.


I love eating out and have no intention of cutting it down. But one thing is I am getting more picky in where I spend my money and the food I eat. being more low carb I love quality meals. not junky foods. some resturants we frequent are coming off my list of return. I have to say some of our old places the quality of the food is dwindling. don't like that one bit....but the ALL you can eat crab leg special at our local fish dive is absolutely WONDERFUL
That we will continue to hit alot.

 

[tortoise]

For those with young kids, how often do you eat out as a family?
How often do you eat out or get fast food on your own or with just your kids?
How much do you budget for groceries?

Just trying to gage where we might make adjustments. I feel like we eat out too often. Family thinks otherwise.

We have not been particularly careful about eating out. I'd say it's 3 times a month - 1 of those being a local sit-down restuarant when we are too tired to cook and the other 2 are fast food lunches on shopping days that we haven't planned ahead for.

I am guilty of not planning ahead for a snack or lunch at work - that's the only time I eat out without a kid.

We don't budget specifically for groceries right now (something I'd like to change). We have a "household" budget which includes everything from clothing to soap, and groceries too. I think it is about $400/month.

Our budget for eating out is $60/month. We usually go over it. The sit-down meals are the expensive ones! We don't get "kid's meal" for my son who is 5. Sometimes he'll split with me, and sometimes he gets his own. Plus my fiance will usually have a beer with the meal - sometimes too. I would guess we average $75 - 80/month eating out over the whole year. When my health is poor is is more, when my health is good it is a lot less.

I want to reduce our "impulse" eating out - a soda at the register or a fast food meal because we didn't plan ahead. I don't think we'll be frugal to the point of never enjoying eating out, but I think we will use more care in the reasons why we're eating out in order to limit the cost.

 

[baymule]

We eat out on Sundays after church. Usually a cheap, but good Mexican restaurant.

 

[Emerald]

we eat out at least 2 times per week. maybe 3. could be any meal.

hubby has 4 days off and he makes me hit the road somewhere all the time and it falls that one meal is going to be eaten out. depends on time of travel if kiddo is with us for eating out also.

We don't do fast food places, very rare. occasionally we hit it if we have the kiddo who wants something specific, I always get a salad No way I am eating that junk. Hubby and I always choose a real restaurant vs. fast food.


I love eating out and have no intention of cutting it down. But one thing is I am getting more picky in where I spend my money and the food I eat. being more low carb I love quality meals. not junky foods. some resturants we frequent are coming off my list of return. I have to say some of our old places the quality of the food is dwindling. don't like that one bit....but the ALL you can eat crab leg special at our local fish dive is absolutely WONDERFUL
That we will continue to hit alot.

I do go to fast food taco bell and wendys and subway and occasionally jimmy johns. McD and Burger king give me indigestion. I provide day care for my darling grandbabies and we budget things into our budget for them since I have them 4 (if not more) days a week.

But at least two to 4 times a year we go out to nice more expensive places like the big prime rib place or the big all you can eat seafood buffets in the casino that is about 2 hours north of us. but I can eat my weight in good seafood! lol