I see a lot of posts here about food. I have noticed that when answering questions about what your food budget is, many people only include what they spend at the grocery store but not restaurants or takeout.
Someone who is preparing all their meals at home, including work lunches, seems to spend more on food but its not an accurate picture when comparing to people who eat out or get takeout.
It's all food that you've spent money on. So why do people who get pizza every week, eat at restaurants, or get takeout not including that when telling what they spend on food every week?
I have a question about food budgets
byu/tatersprout inFrugal
Posted by tatersprout
15 Comments
If the point is bragging about how frugal you are, then yeah, not including the meals you eat out is kind of cheating. But if the point is guidance for others, like to say, this is how much you can live on, then I think it’s cool, at least as long as you say what’s going on. Like I spend about $65 a week on groceries and that gets me six breakfasts and nine or so other meals. You can do your own math!
Personally I place eating out / ordering takeout under the discretionary spending label, same as alcohol or concerts. It can be very irregular as sometimes I’ll only eat out once in a month and others it may be twice a week for various reasons.
My food budget is relatively fixed, it’s the list of staples that I need stocked at any given time. So it makes sense in a budget to separate the two.
On my budget sheet I separate groceries from restaurants/takeout. Groceries go on my groceries line; restaurants and take out go on my “entertainment” line. I do it this way so that I can see an accurate amount on how much I spend on groceries.
When I go to the grocery store and if I also buy there laundry detergent or other non food items then I put those items on the appropriate line. This way I get a more true (for me) amount on my grocery line. I do it this way because restaurants and take out for me is just that – entertainment not not a required part of my daily/weekly/monthly budget. I don’t eat out or get take out every day or every week, for me it is once a month or two when I get together with friends.
Some people rationalize their restaurant/takeout spending but thinking of it as being part of other spending categories – entertainment, mostly. Or work expenses (for lunches).
Perhaps those people don’t eat from restaurants? I mean, it’s not an impossible idea. I don’t eat out at restaurants at all. And when I say at all I mean, I don’t eat restaurant food with any kind of regularity. Maybe 2x per year so this is not worth it to put into the equation of food costs for a monthly budget. I buy groceries and cook from scratch every day.
Long distance backpackers like to get their pack weight down as much as possible. That becomes its own competition. Some people put stuff into their pockets and declare those items as “worn weight.” They do not include those items as part of their Pack Weight. Too often, someone posts that their entire pack weighs 10 pounds. They conveniently leave out the 8 pounds of items squirreled away in their pockets.
For some people, how much they spend on groceries becomes that same sort of game. They do not count food that they already own and they do not count restaurant purchases.
Pull 4 rib eye steaks out of their freezer, grab potatoes and canned veggies out of their pantry? That is free food that did not count in their budget.
I look for tips on how to save or shop different. When people start flexing and competing on how low their food budget, I assume they are stopping by their mom’s place to raid her pantry and that all gets counted as “free.”
When I say I spend $85/month on food that includes restaurants/takeout. I also only spent $25 so far eating out this year.
You make a good point! But on this sub, you might be exaggerating this part:
>So why do people who get pizza every week, eat at restaurants, or get takeout not including that when telling what they spend on food every week?
In my budget, I have separate categories for groceries, restaurants, household supplies, pets, and travel. The VAST majority of all my caloric intake is from home made food which appears in the groceries category. In 2024 I averaged about $50/mo for restaurants, so while I get a lot of enjoyment out of it, it’s not a huge budget category.
I’m more annoyed by people who include all kinds of household expenses under “grocery store” because in that case, you just cannot compare numbers in a meaningful way. If someone is including random purchases of batteries, laundry soap, pet food and drain cleaner in with groceries IMHO they have not done a proper budget.
Edit: Travel is a big budget category for me, and that’s when I splurge on restaurants. But it all goes under the heading “travel”.
I have a separate category for eating out. Groceries are rather consistent in price. Restaurants less so.
Eating out is more entertainment than food
That said, that attitude comes from a person who rarely eats out
Takeaway daily isn’t entertainment, it’s the equivalent of cheese and bread — I don’t expect it to come up in a frugal community at all (despite it’s regular appearance here, sigh)
I probably go to a restaurant like once a month
As someone who has posted my absurdly low budget here recently (under $50 for the first two weeks of Nov for two adults) – I didn’t post the restaurant expense for November because the only thing I got was one takeout pizza, which was free on veterans day for me at little caesars – it didn’t cost anything.
And no, I don’t raid my parents’ pantry, as is suggested elsewhere, my parents are both gone. I do have food in the pantry already that I use, but there’s constant ebb and flow there. I’m eating cereal from the pantry this month, but am filling the fridge/freezer with meat this month. It all balances out.
Frugal people aren’t always secretly hiding part of their budget or being supported by other people; sometimes they are just good at keeping their expenses low.
Yes it can be more expensive to cook and eat your own food vs takeout. The trade off is quality. I cook 95% of what I eat, I know what is in everything. I’m a type 2 diabetic and have maintained a 150lb weight loss for 13 yrs. It is in my best interest to cook and know that my food is not full of junk and preservatives. I also have a very well stocked pantry, I can pretty much cook anything and only have to get protein and some other fresh ingredients. This is how I keep my budget low
A lot of people in this sub *don’t* go to restaurants or get delivery or takeout. Because we are frugal.
My family and I probably eat out 1 or 2 times annually. It’s just not even worth it so we eat what we get.