I take home an average of $660 per week or $2640 per month.
All expenses & debts minus food are average of $700 per month.
$542 per month or $18.10 per day has been on 2 daily meals because I was buying out and getting expensive coffee everyday.
700 = everything but food
$542 = food (mostly takeout/dining)
Insane of me. I stopped my spending immediately and am going back to cooking/buying bulk coffee pods.
How much do you spend on take out? I’ve been waaay overspending.
byu/Zestyclose_Pace7181 inFrugal
Posted by Zestyclose_Pace7181
28 Comments
About $3.50.
Damn that’s crazy, I spent $2,300 total on dining out last year and I wasn’t particularly cautious about the spending in that category lol
either zero or $8/month. i occasionally get a pizza once a month when my local mom and pop sends me their monthly 20% off coupon. otherwise i never eat or order out and cook every meal at home.
I would say maybe $10 every couple of months if I need something quick while I am out. I have found that quality and portions are not worth the price most places in my area are charging.
I get takeout once a week. Start meal prepping
When I order takeout, it has to last me for at least 2-3 meals. I generally order once a month and for around $30.
It’s a lot, but even switching from takeout to making it all yourself, that food budget isn’t going to $0. But you can probably get it down to $10/day, or $15/day if you’re eating well with high quality ingredients.
Neat story
About $50 a month.
You do not make enough money to be eating out that much full stop
Almost zero. We don’t eat in the car and it is a half hour drive to get home from restaurants.
660 a week? goddamn how much are y’all earning? i’m POOR
I order take out about once every 2 months.
Break the food and takeout categorizes apart.
My budget is about $50 CAD for take out / snackies / corner store. This covers about 1 nice meal or delivery once a month, or if I wanted a coffee and snack every weekend.
Figure out what you order and where, and get it cheaper. Are you prone to getting coffee out? Get some nicer coffee mix things for work. Do you forget breakfast and buy it? Pre-make those. Do you order $40 of pizza to get dominos to deliver? Walk across the street and get 4 frozen pizzas and drinks for the same cost. Do you hate when you try to make stirfry because it is just frozen veggies and rice? Buy the sauce you scrooge.
And set a limit, I am going to go out for dinner for my sisters birthdays. So I budget for this. I will at some point be sick or hurt and order food. I will end up being in the middle of summer wanting to walk to get an icecream cone. You gotta make it intentional. Sometimes you do the more expensive thing but it shouldn’t be habit, it should be a treat.
I get fast food once a month. This is crazy to me.
I own a home and my dining out budget has drastically reduced.
Going out for coffee? McDonald’s $1 coffee or I wait until I get home rather than the $4-6 a latte would cost at a shop.
Other little snacks or whatnot while out used to be like a 1-2 times a week thing, now its more like a couple times a month.
We’ve gone out to a sit down restaurant once in the past 9 months and only because we had a gift card. Every other “dinner out” has been take home Indian or pizza. And even then the pizza was $8 USD for carry out, and you can hardly get a frozen pizza for that price nowadays.
I buy my college kids lunch about once a week, often takeout, which averages $30/week. I never get takeout for myself but I’m whole food plant based and there are really no places that cater to my lifestyle.
Are you investing as well?
I actually like instant coffee. Keurig with selectable amounts of water, ie with a big water tank. Coffee pods are expensive by comparison. You can also buy liquid sucralose, even cheaper than the packs… So my outside coffee is around 0. I do buy every now and then when I’m in a rush, but that’s the exception not the norm. You just gotta find the right type and amount. I use a little 5 ml coffee scoop/stir to make life easier. Prob one of the best things I bought lately.
Take out / delivery, also 0. Lol, but I do like eating out, 2-300.
I don’t. You also should not. I got really into cooking though, and if you stick with it, you’ll start not missing food out.
Mom advice,
You need to track everything on a spreadsheet, include your income, expenses and all spending, You need to know where every little dollar is going.
From there you can see where you you are overspending AND see exactly what you’re wasting money on. Now that you know that you were wasting $ on take-out, pizza and coffee, you’ll be surprised how fast you’ll start growing your savings!
Also- check out LifebymikeG on YouTube – he has a great video called This $50 Meal Plan Feeds You for the Week – which might give you some frugal ideas for making a week’s worth of food. I replicated the same list for about $75, I live in Austin, TX.
Good luck!
Myself personally? Probably $40 a month. I play TTRPGs at a game cafe and you’re strongly encouraged to buy food and drinks from there, so I’ll get a latte and a sandwich or something.
$0
None.
If you want to call it “take out” about 2-3 times per month I will get a boudin Colachie on my way to work. They cost $4.
One meal out a month or so.
Yeah that’s definitely on the higher side, but also pretty easy to fall into when it’s daily habits like coffee + meals out
The way I look at it is less “total monthly spend” and more *per meal,* because $18/day doesn’t feel crazy in the moment, but it adds up fast over time
What helped me was not cutting it out completely, but setting a rough structure, like cooking most meals and keeping takeout to a couple times a week so it still feels like a treat, not the default
Also coffee is a sneaky one… that alone can be a huge chunk without realizing it
Maybe $25 or $50 a month total for 3 people, depends on if it’s pizza or a special occasion at the local diner with fish/shrimp.
Zero. I have celiac disease and multiple food allergies. It’s just easier to cook at home, plus I’m a good cook.