I was reading Cindi's latest post over at
Thrifty At Sixty and decided to add up how much we spent at
Chez Sluggy on eating out/take-out last month.
Image credit
the BarfBlog
Usually our eating out/take-out spending is counted in the Cash Withdrawals category of our monthly spending. Cash withdraws encompass all small cash spending for the month which usually includes take-out, dining out(but that is sometimes put on the c/c instead), hubs haircuts, dry cleaning, his coffee habit and when he buys lunch at work, any incidental purchases for the home(repair items, tools, when some kid comes to the front door to sell us something for school fundraising, the Sunday newspaper, etc.)
I started this exercise thinking, "Gee, we hardly spent ANYTHING on eating out/take-out this month!".
Well I was wrong, as usual.....lol
April Eating Out/Take-Out Spending
Chinese take-out $18(we got 2 meals out of this)
Bob Evans eating out $22(used a coupon)
Popeye chicken take-out $20(we got 2 meals out of this)
Subway sandwiches take-out $12
Domino's sandwiches take-out $12
Total.....$84
Granted 2 of the meals we got 2 meals out of them so 7 meals for $84
I noticed a pattern that ALL of these meals were Weekend(does Friday night count as the weekend? lol)expenditures and all but 2 of them were Lunch meals. Only 1 of the 7 was eaten away from home.
I was going to start keeping track of this category of spending but we are on vacation in May so I KNOW most of the meals(if not all)eaten while traveling will be eaten out, so this won't be representative of our usual amount of eating out/take-out spending.
Since we can afford this amount easily in our budget, I am not looking to reduce this spending.
But I do like to know what we are spending and where.
If we ever need to cut corners more on monthly expenses, this is the kind of thing I'd target to reduce or cut out altogether.
Our eating out/take-out spending is more about a break from the routine of cooking at home for us, rather than it being about a great tasty and flavorful adventure in dining. We don't buy fancy foods when eating out, just stuff we don't make at home(fried chicken, Chinese cuisine, etc.) or a quick sandwich.
It helps that we are not paying for a family of 5 any longer when we go out. Heck even Chinese take-out for 5 use to cost us $40+!
Have you ever kept tracking of your eating out/take-out spending?
Do you have an eating out/take-out category in your budget?
Are you trying to cut down on your eating out/take-out spending?
Sluggy
