Needless to say the months when we are traveling, the Eating Out costs pile up.
Back in May when we road tripped to Louisiana we racked up charges of $545.87 for eating out/take-out. Add in $105.44 in "non-trip/regular" eating out/take-out that month(1 dinner out when picking up College Boy from school, 2 nights of Chinese take-out and 3 Subway sandwiches another night)and we clocked in at $651.31.
July wasn't much better either. In fact it was worse!
With 2 short trips to Virginia to help Eldest son relocate the budget took a hit again.
Add in a few nights out while Eldest was home too....hey it was his birthday! lolz......and we ended up forking over $746.35 on Eating Out(including tips).
Gulp
The regular eating out spending came to $95.00 in July. That was stuff like Chinese take-out and Subway sandwiches brought home. We did dine out twice last month as part of our regular "normal" routine-1 trip to a Chinese buffet restaurant and 1 lunch out at Red Robin.
$95 is pretty typical for us in a month. I like to keep it under $100 so this doesn't concern me.
The "extra" because Eldest was home came to $203.73. This included dinner out at a steak house(4 steaks + drinks + dessert-we don't usually do the whole enchilada like this), a trip to the craft brewery(drinks + pizza)and a lunch out for me and him only.
Then we add in the 10 meals while traveling and it gets ugly.
And adds another $447.62.
Could we have spent less and not eaten at such expensive places?
You bet!
And believe me, some of what we had was NOT worth what it cost(I'm looking at you Poco Loco!)
But it could have been worse if not for "free" breakfasts at motels 3 times last month and that we were treated to lunch in Maryland when Eldest and I stopped to meet a fellow blogger on the way to Virginia. 8-)
So what did I learn from this?
Not much.
lolz
Possibly that I may find it helpful to the budget to keep a running tally during the month on variable spending like this, rather than waiting until the month is over to look at the numbers?
If I had seen how high these costs were running I may have opted for some lower cost meals out at some point.
And that eating out can bust your budget right quick these days if you opt for "real food" out and not just fast food all the time.
August should be a much calmer month in the Eating-Out arena around here.
No trips planned except a one-day "get College Boy back to school" run. Hubs is doing this alone so I am figuring they'll eat a meal out after the load-in before Hubs comes home.
We've already made a dent in the Eating-Out/Take-Out budget for August as I've been feeling under the weather. There has been Chinese take-out and a trip to Denny's so far this month. Tonight might be Subway and then I am back in the kitchen cooking from scratch much to the relief of our budget. ;-)
So how much do you spend on eating out/take-out per month?
Trying to keep it under $100 for August,
Sluggy
