Eating out at restaurants can be part of a financially balanced lifestyle. A fancy dinner out can allow you to celebrate milestone moments. Getting takeout as a treat can be a delight. And trying new foods can spice up your everyday life.
But, mindlessly eating out too often can totally sabotage your finances.
It’s no secret that eating out costs more than cooking at home. The average home cooked meal costs roughly $4 per serving, whereas the average meal out averages a whopping $20. That’s a 5x difference, per person, per meal out! And don’t even get me started on delivery fees, tips, and restaurant “convenience charges”.
So, how can you maintain a good balance of enjoying restaurants while still making sure you’re saving enough money for other big financial goals? Today we’re going to walk through some frugal tips to help you right-size your restaurant budget without sacrificing flavor or fun!
1. Reflect on your habits
Before trying to fix any problem, it’s really helpful to understand why the problem exists. Start by asking yourself why you’re eating out so much and why you want to stop…
Are you buying takeout purely for convenience? Maybe you need to build more time into your schedule for meal prep.
Do you like restaurants because of the food variety? Maybe it’s time to experiment in the kitchen a bit more and brush up on those cooking skills.
The more honest you are about your habits, the more likely you’ll be to discover the root cause. Then the solution will be easier to come by so you can more easily save money eating out!
2. Plan meals in advance
One of the most common reasons cited for eating out is not having a plan for your meals. After a long day of work, decision fatigue takes over. Figuring out how to make a dinner with the hodge podge of ingredients left in your fridge is exhausting, and takeout is often the quickest default answer..
One easy solution is more organized and intentional shopping. Having the right ingredients or pre-made foods ready to eat at home will curb that expensive impulse. Quick eats at home helps you avoid making food decisions when you come home tired, hungry, or busy. That’s a recipe for disaster.
Planning meals is pretty easy. Just sit down every Sunday with your schedule for the week and figure out what you’re going to eat each day. If you live with family, it can be a great idea to get everyone involved.
When meal planning, it’s important to plan according to how much time you have each day. If you’re working a 12 hour shift and then driving off to your ballet lesson across town after that, don’t plan on making a Thanksgiving feast. Instead, plan on making 15-30 minute recipes on your busiest days. You can play around with more involved recipes on the weekends!
3. Get into meal prepping
Meal prepping is when you make a whole bunch of meals in advance so you don’t have to cook anything on the following days. Most people do this over the weekend, making ready to go meals for the upcoming week.
You can be as extreme or relaxed with meal prep as you want. While some people choose to cook five days worth of breakfast, lunch and dinner, others might just make a few days worth of meals. You can even scrap the cooking altogether and just pre-chop all the herbs and vegetables and start marinating your proteins to make weeknight cooking easier.
If you’re new to meal prepping, the key is to keep it simple. Follow these budget meal prep recipes, or just start by cooking one grain, one protein, and one vegetable over the weekend. You’ll naturally stop eating out so much because meals are already mostly made.
Pro tip- can’t stand cooking after work? Don’t. Check out a few “no cook” recipes to cut back even further on time spent in the kitchen!
4. Eat your leftovers
No hate, but I just don’t understand people who don’t like eating their leftovers! You get to enjoy two delicious meals with half the work. Fewer dishes, minimal cleanup, less time spent in the kitchen. What could be better than that?
Aside from the more subjective things I love about eating leftovers, you are throwing away money if you’re tossing your leftovers. Every year, the average family of four throws away $1,500 worth of food. That’s no chump change! You could put that money into your Roth IRA, or even use it to take a sweet family weekend trip. Eating your leftovers can stop you from eating out so much, and helps you to reclaim that wasted cash.
If you struggle to enjoy leftovers, it’s possible that you’re cooking meals that just don’t keep well. Things like fried foods and sandwiches can get soggy, whereas meals like soups, stews, and chilis can taste even better the next day!
BTW, leftovers doesn’t mean eating the exact same meal again. Almost any food can be turned into a different type of meal with a bit of creativity. Soups, stews, scrambles, bakes, etc. can all be made with a base of leftovers 😉
5. Double the recipe
Taking leftovers a step further… What if you started making leftovers on purpose?
Instead of cooking 7 different meals each week, just choose 3 or 4 and double the recipes. This can create an extra serving for everyone in your household, and provide a quick meal to whip up in a pinch. Making bigger portions cuts your time in the kitchen in half, while still maintaining some variety in your weekly menu.
6. Make a collaborative Pinterest board
One of the best ways to stay excited about eating at home is to get inspiration from your friends and family.
Personally, I get nearly all of my recipes from Pinterest. You can make collaborative boards, saving recipes you’re interested in and also getting new ideas. It can be a good idea to create a collaborative Pinterest board with your friends or family, and everytime someone tests out a recipe and enjoys it, they can add it to the shared board.
This is such a fun way to try new foods you wouldn’t normally gravitate towards, and you’ll be able to cook recipes that have already been vetted by your friends.
Instagram is another great resource for recipe ideas. Don’t get too fancy and follow chefs that use overly expensive ingredients. Just add a few fun influencers to your feed and try the simple ones first. Here’s a couple to check out: Ashley Alexander (@gatherandfeast) and Cooking for Peanuts (@cookingforpeanuts)
7. Make your house look like a restaurant
This might sound silly, but hear me out… According to a poll by Statista, the atmosphere is the number one reason why consumers eat out. If you fall into that category, we have an easy fix for you. Just make your home look like a restaurant!
One of the best ways to save money on going out is to actually invest a small amount of money into living spaces you actually want to hang out in. Turning your eating area into an aesthetic dining experience will curb that craving to seek that excitement elsewhere. Plus, you can spruce your home up on the cheap.
A few simple changes can help you to liven up your dining area on the cheap. Lighting some candles, or putting out a nice table cloth can help to give your kitchen a romantic feel. Getting a fresh bouquet of flowers every week is inexpensive and can add freshness and life to your table. And don’t underestimate the power of lighting either- color changing bulbs can help you to set a ton of different moods depending on the day and meal.
If you have outdoor patio space, don’t forget to take advantage of it as well. When you feel like shaking things up, eat dinner outside, especially during warmer weather. Just be sure to light some citronella candles to keep the bugs away!
8. Try a no eating out challenge
For some folks, slowly cutting back on eating out can be the best approach. Others may benefit more from a more “cold turkey” approach where they stop eating out immediately and never look back. If this sounds like you, a no eating out challenge could be the best way to stop eating out often!
A no eating out challenge is exactly what it sounds like- no restaurant meals or takeout for a specified period of time – like an entire calendar month. You can even plan to treat yourself on the cheap should you reach your goal date without succumbing.
What’s nice about a no eating out challenge is that you have an end date in sight by which you can return to your normal behavior, making it feel more doable. However, you might find that you’ve formed healthier and more frugal habits in the process!
A good goal to start with is to stop eating out for one full month. Take note of how you feel throughout the process, and at the end of the month see how much money you’ve saved. Then, once you’ve broken your eating out habit, you can re-implement a few restaurant meals back into your lifestyle without overdoing it.
9. Use “Copycat recipes” to recreate your favorite meals at home
You don’t need to go to Taco Bell to enjoy a mouthwatering burrito, or even to McDonalds to chow down on a Big Mac. Instead of grabbing your restaurant favorites out, try making them at home!
Look for “copycat” recipes for restaurant favorites, and start cooking them at home. Once you realize you can make Chinese takeout even better at home, you may not even want to eat out anymore. Getting good at making your favorite restaurant meals can help to eliminate the temptation to eat out altogether, and can often be much better for your health.
10. Stock up your freezer with backup meals
Although we encourage you to plan your meals as best as you can, sometimes life happens. You get out of work late, your kid throws a massive temper tantrum, or maybe you get sick and can’t stand the idea of wobbling to your kitchen to whip something up. Sometimes cooking just isn’t in the cards for you. But that doesn’t mean you need to open up your Doordash app…
When you’re trying to cut back or stop eating out so much, it’s important to always keep your freezer stocked with easy, ready-made meals that can have your back on the busiest days. Things like frozen pizzas, tv dinners, and even frozen leftovers can keep you fed on days when you just can’t deal with breaking out your pots and pans. Trader Joe’s and Costco have really great frozen meal options!
Sure, a frozen pizza might not be the healthiest meal, but chances are it’s no worse for you than most takeout. Plus, you can always serve some extra frozen veggies as a side with your frozen dinner. Frozen vegetables are a great option, and are just as nutritious as fresh ones!
11. Fall in love with your crockpot again
Controversial take, but there has been WAY more crockpot slander on the internet than I am comfortable with. Crockpots are a great way to save time and money on your meals, keeping you from relying on takeout and restaurants.
Before you leave for work in the morning, just dump all of the ingredients for one of these crockpot recipes into the pot. Then, set the crockpot to slow cook for 8 hours. When you get home, you’ll arrive to the amazing smells of the incredible meal that essentially cooked itself. Better yet, you’ll enjoy minimal cleanup after dinner!
12. Be realistic with your goals and budget
Change doesn’t happen overnight. If you’re ordering takeout 7 days a week, it’s unlikely that you’ll just quit cold turkey and make a 180 degree life change overnight. A more realistic goal would be to cut out just a few nights of restaurant meals, and slowly build up a cooking habit.
The ultimate goal is to find balance, eat healthier foods more regularly, and make sure you’re saving enough money for longer term financial goals. This looks different for everyone, so you’ll need to play around and see what works for you.
So how much money could you save?
When you stop eating out, you’ll save meaningful money. But just how much?
The answer depends on how often you currently eat out. And the size of your family. Obviously the more you eat out currently, the greater potential savings you’ll be looking at when you stop eating out so much!
For example, say you currently eat out 3 times a week, spending an average of $20 on each meal. Choosing to eat at home could save you around $240 each month. That’s $2,880 per year!
For families, the savings is even bigger. For a family of 4, you’d save $960 a month. Or a whopping $11,520 a year. Wow. Those restaurant visits add up, folks!
But the real magic happens when you take those savings and put them towards your biggest money goals. The rule of 173 allows us to estimate how much our monthly savings would be worth if we invested them over a period of 10 years. Using the $240 per month figure, that could become $41,520 in a decade!
The Bottom Line:
Eating out can be worthwhile for many folks, especially if it’s your craft beer equivalent! But restaurants and takeout become a problem when they are the default food option. Being more intentional with meal prep and shopping can help you eat more meals at home, saving you lots of money over time. You can still enjoy delicious eats, while also building wealth!
Remember, it’s OK to treat yourself and enjoy the finer things in life! But just like Barry White said, “too much of any one thing is not good for you baby”… Keeping restaurant meals and takeout to a minimum will preserve the experience and let you enjoy it more when you splurge.
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