To think no one eats out everyday?

Before having children, my husband and I used to eat out frequently. After the kids came along and before the pandemic, if I didn’t feel like cooking, we’d usually order a takeaway. But now, with our circumstances having changed and the cost of everything rising, we rarely eat out or order in anymore. I don’t really miss it though, standards in restaurants, in my opinion, have declined since the pandemic.

Who’s been watching sex and the city?

Now we're Empty Nesters, DH and I eat out most days, usually just a nice lunch but sometimes dinner. I have very little interest in grocery shopping or cooking and prefer to spend my time doing other things. In our fridge we have milk, fruit and a few bits from M&S, that's it. Honestly, it's bliss.

I’m a bit ashamed to say we are in this category and I do hate it. I do think it’s a waste of money, even though we can afford it, and it’s quite unhealthy. We do have breakfast at home most days, lunch at home twice a week and tea at home twice a week but I would say it does all add up. Easily £800-£1000 a month if not more. I dread to think!

I used to waitress in a restaurant and a couple who lived on the same street used to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with us. Even when the wife was recovering from surgery and couldn't leave the flat, they ordered food from us, which was wrapped up in tin foil, and I would go up later for the dirty dishes. They said it saved them so much time and gave them something else to think about other than what to make for dinner. I wish I had their money to have that choice!

I think it's quite common for people who travel a lot for work to eat out every single day, but that's usually on company expenses.

We took early retirement and whilst we don't actually eat our main meal out daily , we do have cafe trips of maybe just coffee / cake or soup or toastie out several times a week which comes to £200 -£250 average a month . We don't smoke/vape or drink alcohol at all , don't eat takeaways or buy coffee on the go so think that's reasonable .

I spend way more on food than I should.

Both of my kids are picky/eat restricted diets for various reasons.

I hate cooking at the best of times, holidays are very relentless so going out a bit (certainly not every day) breaks it up. I am otherwise reasonably careful/frugal.

😮

Maybe if you're just feeding one person but if you have a family of four for example...it would cost £40 then drinks would bump the total cost up. I could easily do a roast dinner for four for less than that. I could probably do a roast dinner for 4 for between £10-15 if making pork or chicken.

Me too ! I eat a lot of vegetables and really miss them if I don’t get plenty with every meal

My ideal would be to eat out at a decent restaurant once a week (it's more like birthdays and anniversaries here atm). I would hate to have to drag myself out every day!

I've never ordered anything from Deliveroo and I would be embarrassed to be reliant on other people for bringing me breakfast or lunch.

Our local Chinese takeaway asked us to always order direct from them (they have offered home delivery for years) because they pay a huge percentage to Deliveroo.

I have a friend who, in 6 months of being in her new flat, has never used her kitchen to cook a meal. She meal preps a yoghurt/fruit/oats combo for breakfast and a set of cold salads for lunch (no cooked chicken etc.) and then eats out every evening (either alone, with colleagues or friends.) She lives in the city centre and sometimes I think her life might actually be the plot of a romcom 😂

I think it wouldn't be much more expensive than cooking tbh. Like my local pub does a humungous beef roast with all the trimmings on a sunday at 5pm for 10 quid. I couldn't make it for that! Its 22 quid all day until 5pm so you do risk them running out. But yeh, with the price of food shopping now, and deliveroo deals I think if you were smart it would be comparable and you could still do it and be healthy I reckon.

Tbh I can see why it's tempting. When our house was flooded we had cereals for breakfast and we ate out once or twice a day.

With using Asda cafe £1 meals (they're 60p now) and kids eat for £1 at Toby Carvery, the local prem Inn restaurant and a local pub it was nowhere near as expensive as expected

There's nothing wrong with salt. Your body actually needs some salt.

I know someone who gets Deliveroo once a day, sometimes twice. But pretty much without fail every day. Actually the only time he wouldn’t is if he’s eating out.
But he’s got shit loads of money and no desire to cook.

Singapore’s a different food culture though. There’s a lot of cheap eating out to be had at hawker centres and food courts because the country grew on the back of immigrant labourers who often didn’t have cooking facilities. Cheap and tasty meals are available everywhere at almost any time of the day or night.

DD currently has a summer job in McDonald’s & has noticed the same people returning day after day! I’m not a McDonalds fan, only eat it occasionally, usually for convienence but even if I loved it I couldn't eat there several times a week.
From what I see locally there are people who get takeaway food every day, some more than once too! Getting breakfast delivered from local cafes seems to be the latest trend. Must get expensive!

My grandparents ate dinner out every day once my mother and her siblings grew up.

My neighbour gets deliveroo several times a day. Like they all order all three meals separately from each other.

Although we do have suspicions they are distributing drugs about

I used to; I was earning ridiculously well. These days, I eat out about four times a year and get one or two takeaways a year.

I love eating out, just love it! I was living in big cities, where there's endless choice and variety. It's not the same here, in Left-Behind Town so, even if I had the money, I reckon I'd quickly get bored with the options.

I grew up in singapore and we ate out for every single meal. I did a lot of that when I was in uni lol, I had an unlimited budget in university (parents just topped up bank account). Met my husband who is a good cook and married him fresh out of uni so no longer do that but we do eat out an awful lot cos of my upbringing. We live in London..

When we were on graduate salaries we were lucky enough to live with dh's family and dh's mum was vegetarian/orthodox jewish so was very strict on what was allowed in the kitchen. This meant eating out a lot was possible while still saving 70% of salary for our deposit. Then after we bought our flat pandemic happened so we mainly cooked then too.

But that’s only one meal a day for your £76? You would still have to provide other meals, snacks, drinks!