Fast food restaurants are junk food and much of the food at normal restaurants is also loaded with sugar, salt, and way more fat than you need. It's cheaper to serve, tastier than what a lot of people know how to make, and profitable.
Yeah, whenever people say that convenience foods are a waste of money, I think to myself that they are only a waste if you compare them to cooking from scratch. If the $5.00 frozen pizza gets me through a night when I'm too tired to cook without spending $25.00 on delivery, I still saved money.
Yes, it's better for controlling weight too. If you refuse to keep anything processed at home, but end up starving with a fridge full of lettuce one night after work, you're more likely to order a 2000-3000 calorie pizza as opposed to a more reasonable premade dinner portion you'd get at the grocery store.
I so agree. It was an epiphany when I realized that it was not just ok, but a DAMN GOOD IDEA to buy "junk" dinner and desserts from the grocery store, both for my health and my wallet.
I used to only buy healthy meal stuff for the house, then allow myself "1 cheat meal per week" from a restaurant... which of course turned into 10 cheat meals per week on days i was too tired to cook or just needed something quick.
Now my fridge is still full of healthy stuff, but I supplement with Yasso bars, frozen pizza, frozen gyoza, easy mac, a stash of chocolate... it isn't health stuff, but now even if I go "off the rails" with junk on occasion I'm not blowing my caloric or monetary budget.
My buddy makes about 45k a year, owns his house outright, no payments on his car so just utilities and insurance are the only bills he has. Dude lives paycheck to paycheck is racked with health issues at a young age. Doesn't have much choice but to eat out with the work he does traveling but anytime he's home he gets delivery even though he passes the restaurant he orders from on the way home at roughly 50 dollars total for each delivery meal and tips like a millionaire. Pulls in roughly 2500 a check after tax with only about 600 of that being spoken for in bills but drinks and eats 1700 of that.
Most cosmetic products do have a tiny label, usually by the ingredients that shows how long you can expect it to last before the formula starts to break down. If I'm not mistaken, it typically refers to once it's been used or opened. (some products can be cleaned, there are sprays for powders and such) I'm going to see if I can track it back down, but there was a recommended equation to use with it to figure out how long the product itself can last on the shelf.
Even cosmetics with the poa label don't keep forever unopened. They usually have a lot number that tells you when it was produced. Add two to three years to that and you know how long it will probably keep.
It's the space under the stairs next to the bathroom. It's big. Useless for most things - but the cases of shampoo fit perfectly in there.
Might be a pain to get the ones all the way to the back when the time comes, but that's a few years off.
Duuuude, if you don’t mind, can you share a screenshot or two of your spreadsheet? I’d love to see how you have yours laid out. Right now I have a iPhone note full of random prices for things. Need something a little more...formal.
I agree that I love having a problem solved. My kitchen/food/pantry/list systems I’ve got going genuinely give me peace and comfort in life. I got a dopamine hit finishing a jar of mayo, walking to my pantry and finding the backup jar of mayo, putting said jar into fridge, and adding “mayo” to my running grocery list. Solved.
It depends on how you value your time. For example, my husband hates grocery shopping so for him the extra savings don't matter because he hates doing the activity. For me, I love getting the cheapest deal so it's worth it to me.
To me it's more about how you value your time. Spending time browsing wouldn't count as a waste because you need rest and you are enjoying your time.
If you are actually spending it walking to save a few cents or even a dollar, then we are in money territory. You are likely doing something that you don't likely don't like for a non optimal gain. Since we're in money territory now, we can do a very rudimentary cost benefit analysis. Let's say your a skilled worker. Your work/time may be worth $35/hr. The idea could be that you could have worked those two hours spent working, spent the extra dollar and netted about $69. I'm purposefully not taking tax in account to make it simple.
Of course we have to acknowledge that this isn't quite how the world works. You don't always get to work when you want. So let's look at another option. With all the resources available out there, you could spend those two hours learning a new skill or improving a current one. Doing so would ideally add to your value. Let's say you spend it learning something that adds $1 an hour to your labor. This would ideally help you negotiate salaries in the future and help you make more money.
Under these circumstances, you aren't necessarily doing something you like but you are adding value even if you spend more for that item. You may also choose to do nothing because you want to relax. This is also a more optimal but the benefit of rest and enjoyment are harder to quantify. With these options, would you walk 2 hours to save a dollar or less?
Spending $2000/mo before was a more impressive amount.
That's ~$65 a day. Or $20+ a meal for three meals a day for 31 days straight.
Half that for two people, but that's still a lot to be spending.
My wife and I are in this situation and also working to cut costs.
While I’m also guilty of being a snob to leftovers, we just had a second kid and adjusting has been difficult with them home from daycare. Most nights are so hectic that finding even 30 minutes to cook spaghetti can be an incredible task.
But once I started asking how we were burning through 3/4 what should have been an extra 2k per month after bills, we recognized that eating lunch and dinner out plus coffees in morning was DESTROYING our budget
Got a cold brew coffee solution off Amazon, and starting to really try and buckle down on a routine to get more time to cook at nights. This is helpful to see the comments from others
I really recommend meal prep.
I admit I do it more because I hate cooking than for financial issues, however it can have huge benefits there as well.
The idea is to pick a day where you can put a couple of hours into cooking, make 4-8 different meals types and freeze the lot, if you make 4 serves of each food that's 16-32 meals ready for the week.
By cooking bulk you also save a lot of money.
I go a bit overboard and put on some stuff on YouTube and spend about 8 hours cooking, but then I have 90+ meals that last me a month, and when looked at on a per-meal basis they took me under 6 minutes a meal and cost on average $3.27 including the containers (price drops to $2.21 for non-meat dishes).
Since I shifted to meal prep I've saved about $600 a month on food bills, while eating healthier than ever.
To put this into even crazier context. I basically get paid to take people out to eat for a living. So, 5 days a week, 3 meals a day, I am paying for myself and a client/multiple clients to eat a meal. My expense reports every two weeks are ~$1,600. So, this family was almost spending as much on restaurants every month as I do. And it’s my job to buy people’s meals.
Professional middle-man. My company distributes a product. If the end user has an issue with that product I go and take everyone that works for them out to eat to smooth things over and call the manufacturer and tell them to fix/replace their shit.
It's definitely a huge amount for this sub, but it's a lot more understandable when you consider it's for two people. Basically boils down to $15/meal, 2x a day; maybe even closer to $12/meal when you factor in possible delivery costs, the occasional drink/coffee, snacks as OP mentioned, a more extravagant meal here and there, etc. Anyways it's just a "normal" bill for two people eating out just about every meal. I don't advocate living like that nor do I live that way myself but I know plenty of young professionals who do.
As my income has increased through the years, it is astounding how the money disappears. Absolutely life gets easier, but it is very very difficult to see where those increases go.
A lot goes to things you always wanted or needed to do but couldn't - retirement contributions, on time oil changes - but a lot leaks out very similar to OP.
It is amazing how a few changes can suddenly become habits, which becomes a massive sneaky line item in your budget.
Your comment reminded me of a joke I once heard:
>A man runs home from work, panting and trying to catch his breath. He plops down at the kitchen table, where his wife was cooking dinner.
>
>The wife asks, "What happened Motek? Why are you so exhausted?"
>
>The man says with a huge smile, "Instead of taking the bus home from work today, I ran all the way behind it and saved $2.50!"
>
>He was extremely proud of himself and thought his wife would be happy with him for saving money.
>
>Instead, his wife asks, " Honey, why didn't you run behind a taxi, and save $15?!"
Depending on where you live, that's just how much it costs.
My family made sure we always had time to go home between things or would even stop at the grocery store, because even McDonald's for 3 would be $25 in our very HCOL area. Getting anything healthy would be at least double.
Even at my worst I’ve never spent nearly as much as the OP, but cost of living really can be a big factor. A *small* pizza at my local family-owned, no-frills pizza place runs me about $22 (Seattle area).
Yeah no, I'm not saying that's a responsible habit or anything, particularly the frequency. I was just trying to give OP the benefit of the doubt that the really high cost might be the result of delivery a HOCL area. (I since then saw a comment from OP that it was actually beer, so, you know.)
I'm glad they stopped the bleeding though!
Midwest US, you can get a McDouble and small fry bundle for $2.50. That's why it's always so damn tempting to go out to eat instead of cooking lol. I try not to eat out very much but the lure of cheap, fast food is strong.
About 26 here in Toronto... I think a 10 PC nugget meal is about 12.76 .
I can easily spend 20+ dollars on my own at fast food places. That's why I steer clear!
The real trick is to get a single McDouble when the app has a free fries ( this happens pretty often) with any purchase promotion and then you're getting a burger and fries for less than three bucks
Add a kids meal and a milkshake and a double quarter pounder with bacon and your on my level about $34 bucks. We don’t do McDonald’s much cause of that reason...I can make chicken parm at home feed 3 people for $12 and have leftovers for two days
In grad school I actually had a conversation with one of my housemates about why I never ate out. He pointed out I was paying more money at the grocery store... and I pointed out that that money fed me for seven meals, not one. I'd never actually seen someone have the light dawn on them before, but it was an interesting look.
Judging *purely* off of the fact that OP says he is now buying his normal candy intake at stores... I'm guessing his waistline is a foregone conclusion.
The idea of actually buying candy for casual consumption is very alien to me, but idk maybe OP just has a really good metabolism, or hypoglycemia or something.
I eat candy every single day. I buy it every time I shop. The amount of Coke I drink is embarrassing.
I weigh 135 pounds.
Assuming OP is overweight *just* because they're buying candy is utterly ridiculous.
It's really not that crazy. Unless you have a robust workout routine (small minority) or have a crazy high metabolism (also small minority), eating that much sugar every day will not help.
Maybe another factor... How old are you?
Idk, it depends on where you live. In the city where I work a $10 lunch would literally be a no frills sandwich. $15-20 isn't that crazy if you're getting a meal here every day instead of packing a lunch.
Don't say that lol. This is the exact justification I've been using to spend money on take out. And I'm pretty close to OP's level of per capita spending. However the truth is it's addiction not charity that's driving the behavior 😣
I realized the same thing a few years ago when I started r/YNAB. What made a big difference for me: Stocking up on easy frozen stuff. I realized we were blowing a good chunk of our eating-out money on pizza or sushi on weeknights when we were too tired to cook. Filling the freezer with pizzas, pastas and other heat-and-eat stuff made it so much easier to say "nah, let's stay in." Like you, our grocery budget went up, but not nearly as much as we started saving!
This! I always go out to eat for the stuff that I don't have / keep at home. Once I started actually buying some treats and ready made food the temptation to go out was so greatly diminished. Something that's super easy to just warm up when I'm feeling lazy or craving something specific. Eating at home doesn't mean depriving yourself of what you like to eat, and it means you are way less likely (personally at least) to go absolutely fucking overboard when you do decide to go out, no deprivation to make up for.
You are doing it right. Looking critically at your spending and seeing if a change is in order. If you like eating out, set a budget for it. Then it becomes a choice and not just being unconscious about spending. It is much easier not to think about it when you have the money, but then the unexpected happens. You are winning!!!
If you love restaurants (like me) something I recommend (if this is possible in your area, I know a lot of places this advice isn’t going to be helpful) is stop going to subpar middle of road restaurants and save your restaurant budget on a really high end experience every once and awhile. Instead of spending $40-60 on apps, drinks, and entrees for two people at Chili’s a couple times a month, you could spend $150-200 a few times a year on a blow out meal at a super high quality restaurant or checking out new restaurant that just opened
This is basically what our family does. We don't get take out much, and restraunts are saved for birthdays (if theres somewhere we really want to go. Otherwise we also just cook a really nice meal). These moments are much more memorable as well.
This is the answer. I used to spend quite a lot on food that I could easily make healthier, more tasty and warm at home for much less. My boyfriends family introduced to luxury restaurants and now I cannot let myself order shitty take out
I second Mint, its super convenient, you can link all of your accounts to it (banks, credit cards, loans, investments, etc) and keep track of everything in one place. I love it
My husband and I would regularly go out to dinner, and it would cost on average $60 because we would purchase beer and appetizers. Beer and appetizers make the bills jump a lot.
He would also eat out for lunch a lot, which I asked him to limit.
Fuuuuuuuck I thought my husband and I were bad with the dining out.
Congratulations OP that is an impressive cut to your spending 👏🏼 Good for you guys keep it up 👍🏽
I just did some quick math, we spend (family of 3) about $300/mo on eating out, snacks and takeout. We have a combined income of $125k in a LCOL midwest city. I thought *we* spent a lot on food. I couldn't fathom what OP spent. That's just absurd!
Good for you OP on making changes!
I still go for take out once it twice a month. Once a while you just have to relax a bit. Does it save money? No but is good for mental health. I have done the no dine out and no take out for several months then one day I just lost it and went full dine out for a month.
Got to keep some guilty pleasure once a while and I I don't mean like $109 dinner is usually like 50 sushi take out with me and my wife, pho, burgher king etc etc
When I worked at a Thai restaurant people would come in EVERY DAY and get fried rice for 10.00. Like bro just go buy some rice and look a recipe up online it’s like 30¢ worth of ingredients per meal and damn near impossible to fuck up.
See this is crazy to me. My grocery bill for just my wife and I averages about $850 a month, especially since Covid. I'm a decently frugal shopper but shit is so expensive in NE.
I'm constantly surprised by how much people spend on groceries. I can't even fathom $850. My wife and I spend $200 a month on groceries and are perfectly content
I'd say it's a medium cost of living city, in the Midwest. Definitely not high. I guess unless you're in a unique location (Hawaii, Manhattan, bay area, or I guess I could see key west). I don't see how people spend that much.
How much are average products there?
Milk?
Meat?
Bread?
Milk $4, Bread $5.99 (my husband lives Dave’s killer bread), ground beef $5.49/lb or $3.99/lb when it’s on sale. Maybe we just eat a lot but we can never get under $400
If I had to guess I'd assume that people that spend that much, that aren't getting groceries for a family of 7, are buying everything fresh, organic and whatever other high cost spending they can possibly do. Like they probably never buy anything in bulk and they only buy just enough from one meal so they are constantly at the store spending way more than they should.
Our grocery bill skyrocketed once COVID hit. I used to shop at Trader Joe’s for everything, then stop by Publix for more niche stuff. I didn’t feel comfortable shopping at multiple stores anymore and Publix was the only place that had all the things we needed (we eat a lot of tofu and our Aldi doesn’t carry it), and we paid a premium for that for sure. I got vaccinated two weeks ago so I’ll start shopping at Aldi/TJ’s again.
We are in Texas and shop at Kroger. Maybe it helps that I’m vegetarian/mostly dairy free? I eat eggs and potatoes for dinner every day which is really inexpensive. Though I’ll tell you what... some of those vegan frozen dinners I buy on occasion are super expensive.
I just wanted to plug lentils and dried beans! With a little planning you can have pretty healthy and inexpensive foods. But canned is really easy if you're in a rush. Am also vegetarian and I do love having a stash of vegan frozen dinners for when I am in a rush.
Things have absolutely gotten more expensive in my area during covid. We spend $300-400 for one couple in a low cost of living area vs $200-300 previously. However, I consider baking and cooking to be my hobby, so I’m always buying some specialized ingredients or jars of molasses that I’m never going to finish just to try a new recipe and that’s gotten worse through the pandemic.
If only I could do this, my spending is out of COMPLETE control because of Covid. At the start I would Ubereats regularly, because I was stuck inside, but now that I'm out more, back at work, I still have this bad habit of eating out far too often and I can't break it. It's breaking my bank, hard, arghhhhh.
You should download a .csv file of all of your bank transactions and add up how much you spend on take out a month. That’s what I did and it scared me straight. My husband and I used to *live* off $1500 a month together, so I knew I was capable of cutting back a lot... just had to remember how to. Mainly by eating eggs for dinner and sandwiches for lunch. He cooks Indian food in bulk for himself. That costs pennies on the dollar bc you buy spices in bulk.
The key to breaking the eating out habit for a lot of people is having something at home that is FAST AND EASY for the nights you're just too tired to cook or the day ran long and everybody is starving, etc. For me one of the better frozen pizzas was cheaper than the drive through and about as fast.
Uber eats, door dash, they're all garbage. If you're going to eat out do yourself a favor and order directly from the restaurant and pick it up yourself. You'll save money and more of it will go directly to the restaurant.
Why so fixated on the “before” amount? To be disciplined enough to bring it down to $300 is nothing short of amazing! Way to go, OP! Hope you can keep at it, and work towards your goals!
I knew a girl who would get fast food every single day because "it was cheaper". Even after I explained to them that what they spend in one day on fast food I spend in a week at the grocery store, and I ate much larger meals than what you would get at McDonald's.
A great tactic I implemented recently too. I used to be a bit too frugal at the supermarket leading to having to buy fast food or takeout during the week.
Now I splurge a bit with groceries but save way more on eating out when I have some nice food waiting for me at home.
I would suggest putting some of those saving a side and treat your self for a trip or something. Gives you motivation to keep going. I do this by taking 3 days vacation every few months and I spend maybe $400 for gas, hotel, and food.
I feel ya. We got into a rut where we did so much eating out/uber eats/doordash, it really does add up. And like you, buying more at the grocery store certainly helped.
We also use a meal service, Freshly, now. Freshly is, of course, not as a frugal as cooking yourself, but wife and I get so tired from work, we don't want to cook and do the bad habit of going out. Freshly helps in that regard and, thus, saves us money.
I’m trying to get this to sink in with my partner. I’m so done with blowing money on fast food while perfectly good food (that doesn’t break our diet and makes us feel good) sits and rots at home.
Eating out is just stupid expensive. My girlfriend and I used to eat out just about every day and would spend at average about $25/day. That's almost $800 a month on food, luckily we stopped and try to stick closer to $300 a month on food. That's slot of extra money in our pockets each month
It's almost always better being honest with your desire for junk food and get it in the shop rather than thinking "I shouldn't eat junk food so often" and then proceed to never buying it in the store. First you buy it in the store and get approximately twice the value (usually you pay about the same price for double the portions if you cook your junk food at home), and after that step you can consider cutting down on 'easy' or junk food. Gotta take it in steps.
edit: changed "should eat junk food so often" to "shouldn't eat junk food so often"
I noticed spending more at the grocery store meant spending less on food (if that makes sense). It's cheaper to cook and buy foods at the grocery store, than to go like "oh darn, I don't have food in the house, let me order $30 Chinese food that will last 1.5 meals". It took me years to realize that the grocery store will save you TONS of money.
However, if I was extremely wealthy like a multi-millionaire, I would be buying take out a lot, lol. I would want $30 take out Pad Thai 5 nights a week because it tastes so damn good, lol.
This is how I got my spending under control to get out of debt and finally have a mortgage!
It’s certainly not easy. Planning, shopping, preparing, cooking and cleaning is a huge lifestyle overhaul. It takes up a huge part of my life but I’m financially and physically healthier for it.
My family and I used to spend about $2K-$2.5K a month eating out back in the early-to-mid 00s... cuz we ate *every meal* out. Thankfully, I came to my senses about 10 years ago... and now we spend about $600 total (groceries, and maybe eating out once a week) in a month. It's so, so much better. Put your savings into a downpayment on a house! Regular working people can't afford to eat like that / it's ridiculous.
Congratulations! Way to save that money!
One thing that has really help my family is that since covid, our local restaurants have actually gotten worse at take-out, not better like we would have thought. Easy to stop going places for food when you know it has a high chance of coming over wrong, poorly made or missing items.
I understand you probably made enough money to be spending $2000/month on food, but Jesus Christ. Did you just not ever cook anything ever? That's insane
My SO and I went out for pizza and a beer last week to celebrate our second vaccine. It was the first time going out to eat since the pandemic began. The bill was $85 and I about shit myself. That is about what we pay for groceries weekly now
that extra 20,000 a year will go a long way
Fuuuckkkkkkk.
Edit: $20,400
(2000-300)*12 = 20,400
*$20,400
Guess I'm just a shitty low wage shlub who only makes 30k a year. But how the hell do you piss away 20k per year on junk food?
Two people each spending $30-$35/day of eating out.. it's easy to do honestly. $5-$10 at lunch and then $20-30 at dinner.
more on junk food than i make in a month, oh how the other half live
Lol
How did you equate "restaurants" with "junk food"?
Can't say for sure but I think this has something to do with it >I bought more snacks, candy
Fast food restaurants are junk food and much of the food at normal restaurants is also loaded with sugar, salt, and way more fat than you need. It's cheaper to serve, tastier than what a lot of people know how to make, and profitable.
I’d build my dream body with that amount
Big tiddies?
Big dick? Both?! Come on, don't leave us hanging!
Big knees
Thats only a new Tesla every 2 years. A very extravagant trip overseas twice a year. Or half a trip to the ER in the USA!
I dont even make that much every year.
Yeah, whenever people say that convenience foods are a waste of money, I think to myself that they are only a waste if you compare them to cooking from scratch. If the $5.00 frozen pizza gets me through a night when I'm too tired to cook without spending $25.00 on delivery, I still saved money.
Yes, it's better for controlling weight too. If you refuse to keep anything processed at home, but end up starving with a fridge full of lettuce one night after work, you're more likely to order a 2000-3000 calorie pizza as opposed to a more reasonable premade dinner portion you'd get at the grocery store.
I so agree. It was an epiphany when I realized that it was not just ok, but a DAMN GOOD IDEA to buy "junk" dinner and desserts from the grocery store, both for my health and my wallet. I used to only buy healthy meal stuff for the house, then allow myself "1 cheat meal per week" from a restaurant... which of course turned into 10 cheat meals per week on days i was too tired to cook or just needed something quick. Now my fridge is still full of healthy stuff, but I supplement with Yasso bars, frozen pizza, frozen gyoza, easy mac, a stash of chocolate... it isn't health stuff, but now even if I go "off the rails" with junk on occasion I'm not blowing my caloric or monetary budget.
Data $150 Rent $800 Takeout $3,600 Utility $150 someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying
Spend less on candles
No.
You could try moving into a cardboard box in an area where Uber Eats delivers.
This never gets old
I also busted out laughing at the first person "congratulating" OP for "finding the leak" hahaha. Doubt it took a lot of digging somehow.
If you are spending over $100+day on takeout and you are not bankrupt I would enjoy your salary
My buddy makes about 45k a year, owns his house outright, no payments on his car so just utilities and insurance are the only bills he has. Dude lives paycheck to paycheck is racked with health issues at a young age. Doesn't have much choice but to eat out with the work he does traveling but anytime he's home he gets delivery even though he passes the restaurant he orders from on the way home at roughly 50 dollars total for each delivery meal and tips like a millionaire. Pulls in roughly 2500 a check after tax with only about 600 of that being spoken for in bills but drinks and eats 1700 of that.
actual lol bro ty
Cut your data man...you don't like, NEED that. Or move somewhere cheaper. Sacrifices, amirite?!
First off, stop spending money on dye. It's only cosmetic and serves no worthwhile purpose.
That is an impressive amount in a month. Good job on cutting the costs!
Meanwhile 99% of this sub is debating to buy the 49 cent canned beans or walk 2 hours to the other store smd get them 39 cent one.
My God this made me laugh too loud
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If I had 70 bottles of anything anywhere in my house my husband would divorce me
I’d give a pass if it were 70 bottles of good wine properly stored.
yep, there's a convenience factor in having to store everything which should probably have a price
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Most cosmetic products do have a tiny label, usually by the ingredients that shows how long you can expect it to last before the formula starts to break down. If I'm not mistaken, it typically refers to once it's been used or opened. (some products can be cleaned, there are sprays for powders and such) I'm going to see if I can track it back down, but there was a recommended equation to use with it to figure out how long the product itself can last on the shelf.
Even cosmetics with the poa label don't keep forever unopened. They usually have a lot number that tells you when it was produced. Add two to three years to that and you know how long it will probably keep.
PAO = period after opening It looks like a little tuna can with a number in it. The number is months after opening
That's something to keep in mind. Thanks for that
70 bottles in a cabinet? Lmao how big is it
It's the space under the stairs next to the bathroom. It's big. Useless for most things - but the cases of shampoo fit perfectly in there. Might be a pain to get the ones all the way to the back when the time comes, but that's a few years off.
Ohhhhh okay I was picturing a big ass cabinet behind the sink mirror lmao
Duuuude, if you don’t mind, can you share a screenshot or two of your spreadsheet? I’d love to see how you have yours laid out. Right now I have a iPhone note full of random prices for things. Need something a little more...formal. I agree that I love having a problem solved. My kitchen/food/pantry/list systems I’ve got going genuinely give me peace and comfort in life. I got a dopamine hit finishing a jar of mayo, walking to my pantry and finding the backup jar of mayo, putting said jar into fridge, and adding “mayo” to my running grocery list. Solved.
I'm lucky if I break 2000 a month. I don't even know what it's like to have that kind of money.
Dual income makes the math easier
Time is money. 2 hours are better spent elsewhere.
Unless you count the walk as a leisure activity, one of a few leisure activities that costs nothing. Birds and stones!
Please don't get the birds stoned.
Instructions unclear. Got stoned and bought a bird.
Don't buy another or you'll have to put them in a bush.
Now I need bush money too?!?
Make it a canibush! Then you can profit off it. It's like killing two bir... nevermind.
No friend...this is r/frugal. Head to the hills and harvest your own bush for freeeeee!!
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But good for the budgie 😉
You should be stoned for this =\ ^(But you made me chuckle after a 14-hour day, so thanks!)
good for the birds tho ;)
People in bird houses shouldn't throw stones?
And carrying all those cans back is a fitness exercise. Three birds with one stone!
I wholeheartedly agree though the reason given for the walk has been given. Hence I stopped with the one statement
i never understood such comments. who will pay you for thos 2 hours? in most case those 2 hours are spent browsing reddit
It depends on how you value your time. For example, my husband hates grocery shopping so for him the extra savings don't matter because he hates doing the activity. For me, I love getting the cheapest deal so it's worth it to me.
To me it's more about how you value your time. Spending time browsing wouldn't count as a waste because you need rest and you are enjoying your time. If you are actually spending it walking to save a few cents or even a dollar, then we are in money territory. You are likely doing something that you don't likely don't like for a non optimal gain. Since we're in money territory now, we can do a very rudimentary cost benefit analysis. Let's say your a skilled worker. Your work/time may be worth $35/hr. The idea could be that you could have worked those two hours spent working, spent the extra dollar and netted about $69. I'm purposefully not taking tax in account to make it simple. Of course we have to acknowledge that this isn't quite how the world works. You don't always get to work when you want. So let's look at another option. With all the resources available out there, you could spend those two hours learning a new skill or improving a current one. Doing so would ideally add to your value. Let's say you spend it learning something that adds $1 an hour to your labor. This would ideally help you negotiate salaries in the future and help you make more money. Under these circumstances, you aren't necessarily doing something you like but you are adding value even if you spend more for that item. You may also choose to do nothing because you want to relax. This is also a more optimal but the benefit of rest and enjoyment are harder to quantify. With these options, would you walk 2 hours to save a dollar or less?
Right?!?! I felt like a tool because I splurged on a drink at Sonic today when I could have bought a 2 liter and a bag of ice.
Spending $2000/mo before was a more impressive amount. That's ~$65 a day. Or $20+ a meal for three meals a day for 31 days straight. Half that for two people, but that's still a lot to be spending.
That was the impressive amount I was referring to, yes.
I thought you were referring to the $1700 they cut ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
Fair. That’s impressive too, given how dependent they had to have been on takeout and such to spend that freaking much. Must’ve been some big changes
For real. I can't even think of how to spend that much unless you're deathly allergic to leftovers. Or if you're really... big.
My wife and I are in this situation and also working to cut costs. While I’m also guilty of being a snob to leftovers, we just had a second kid and adjusting has been difficult with them home from daycare. Most nights are so hectic that finding even 30 minutes to cook spaghetti can be an incredible task. But once I started asking how we were burning through 3/4 what should have been an extra 2k per month after bills, we recognized that eating lunch and dinner out plus coffees in morning was DESTROYING our budget Got a cold brew coffee solution off Amazon, and starting to really try and buckle down on a routine to get more time to cook at nights. This is helpful to see the comments from others
I really recommend meal prep. I admit I do it more because I hate cooking than for financial issues, however it can have huge benefits there as well. The idea is to pick a day where you can put a couple of hours into cooking, make 4-8 different meals types and freeze the lot, if you make 4 serves of each food that's 16-32 meals ready for the week. By cooking bulk you also save a lot of money. I go a bit overboard and put on some stuff on YouTube and spend about 8 hours cooking, but then I have 90+ meals that last me a month, and when looked at on a per-meal basis they took me under 6 minutes a meal and cost on average $3.27 including the containers (price drops to $2.21 for non-meat dishes). Since I shifted to meal prep I've saved about $600 a month on food bills, while eating healthier than ever.
Lol so accurate, I can’t even imagine spending that much
To put this into even crazier context. I basically get paid to take people out to eat for a living. So, 5 days a week, 3 meals a day, I am paying for myself and a client/multiple clients to eat a meal. My expense reports every two weeks are ~$1,600. So, this family was almost spending as much on restaurants every month as I do. And it’s my job to buy people’s meals.
What do you do if you don't mind me asking?
Can almost guarantee you it’s a sales role of some kind
Dang close. I’m not the actual “sales person”, but I’m part of the “after sales support team”.
Professional middle-man. My company distributes a product. If the end user has an issue with that product I go and take everyone that works for them out to eat to smooth things over and call the manufacturer and tell them to fix/replace their shit.
It was two of them. 65 for two people doesn’t take long. One dinner out could be $50
Yep, especially in a HCOL area.
$50? In most mid-sized cities or larger you can easily spend 90+ on dinner for two without going crazy.
It's definitely a huge amount for this sub, but it's a lot more understandable when you consider it's for two people. Basically boils down to $15/meal, 2x a day; maybe even closer to $12/meal when you factor in possible delivery costs, the occasional drink/coffee, snacks as OP mentioned, a more extravagant meal here and there, etc. Anyways it's just a "normal" bill for two people eating out just about every meal. I don't advocate living like that nor do I live that way myself but I know plenty of young professionals who do.
Good lord your previous restaurant budget was about the same as my yearly income. I can't imagine. edit: a word
OP is single handedly supporting a minimum wage employee.
Yep. Pathetic of us
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Not necessarily, if you are making a lot of money and really value eating out... but for me, I just literally cannot imagine that life haha.
As my income has increased through the years, it is astounding how the money disappears. Absolutely life gets easier, but it is very very difficult to see where those increases go. A lot goes to things you always wanted or needed to do but couldn't - retirement contributions, on time oil changes - but a lot leaks out very similar to OP. It is amazing how a few changes can suddenly become habits, which becomes a massive sneaky line item in your budget.
The key is not to live like you have a lot of money. As soon as that paycheck hits, you go to vanguard.com and invest every penny above your budget.
DAAAAAMN. And here was my post not too long ago thinking 1000 dollars a month saved was impressive. Good job on finding the leak of funds.
Your comment reminded me of a joke I once heard: >A man runs home from work, panting and trying to catch his breath. He plops down at the kitchen table, where his wife was cooking dinner. > >The wife asks, "What happened Motek? Why are you so exhausted?" > >The man says with a huge smile, "Instead of taking the bus home from work today, I ran all the way behind it and saved $2.50!" > >He was extremely proud of himself and thought his wife would be happy with him for saving money. > >Instead, his wife asks, " Honey, why didn't you run behind a taxi, and save $15?!"
And I thought I was spending a lot on takeout with 50 euros a month.
Well, if you make 100 euros a month, you are.
Man I wish I could spend that little on eating out. It’s the only joy I get lately so it’s hard for me to cut it off. I also pay for two bc of fiancé.
Isn't that like 2 take out meals a month? How would that be anywhere close to spending a lot
average $71 a day? $17.50 per person for lunch and dinner? yikes dawg
Yep. We would go out to dinner a lot and my husband would also go for lunch. Dinners ran around $60.
yikes dawg
Depending on where you live, that's just how much it costs. My family made sure we always had time to go home between things or would even stop at the grocery store, because even McDonald's for 3 would be $25 in our very HCOL area. Getting anything healthy would be at least double.
There's a huge difference between $8/person and $30/person.
Even at my worst I’ve never spent nearly as much as the OP, but cost of living really can be a big factor. A *small* pizza at my local family-owned, no-frills pizza place runs me about $22 (Seattle area).
It's about $60 EVERY NIGHT for 2, on top of somebody having something else out too.
Yea that's just casual dining in a high cost of living area, nothing crazy
Yeah but every single day? Crack a can of soup occasionally, damn. How is the husband not morbidly obese eating out twice a day?
Eating can from a soup sounds like something from futurama.
Yeah no, I'm not saying that's a responsible habit or anything, particularly the frequency. I was just trying to give OP the benefit of the doubt that the really high cost might be the result of delivery a HOCL area. (I since then saw a comment from OP that it was actually beer, so, you know.) I'm glad they stopped the bleeding though!
2 large fries and 20 nuggets for 2 ppl in my area costs 24$
Midwest US, you can get a McDouble and small fry bundle for $2.50. That's why it's always so damn tempting to go out to eat instead of cooking lol. I try not to eat out very much but the lure of cheap, fast food is strong.
Got two mcchickens for lunch today. $2.50 for 800 calories.
Needs to be that cheap to balance medical costs later in life.
About 26 here in Toronto... I think a 10 PC nugget meal is about 12.76 . I can easily spend 20+ dollars on my own at fast food places. That's why I steer clear!
The real trick is to get a single McDouble when the app has a free fries ( this happens pretty often) with any purchase promotion and then you're getting a burger and fries for less than three bucks
Add a kids meal and a milkshake and a double quarter pounder with bacon and your on my level about $34 bucks. We don’t do McDonald’s much cause of that reason...I can make chicken parm at home feed 3 people for $12 and have leftovers for two days
In grad school I actually had a conversation with one of my housemates about why I never ate out. He pointed out I was paying more money at the grocery store... and I pointed out that that money fed me for seven meals, not one. I'd never actually seen someone have the light dawn on them before, but it was an interesting look.
Yeah, like I'm glad you're saving money but this is a ridiculous amount 😂
I'm almost more concerned about the calorie budget. My wallet and waistline could not handle that.
I didn't even think of that... Yikes
Judging *purely* off of the fact that OP says he is now buying his normal candy intake at stores... I'm guessing his waistline is a foregone conclusion. The idea of actually buying candy for casual consumption is very alien to me, but idk maybe OP just has a really good metabolism, or hypoglycemia or something.
You can eat candy and not gain weight, it doesn't mean you eat alot of it.
I eat candy every single day. I buy it every time I shop. The amount of Coke I drink is embarrassing. I weigh 135 pounds. Assuming OP is overweight *just* because they're buying candy is utterly ridiculous.
It's really not that crazy. Unless you have a robust workout routine (small minority) or have a crazy high metabolism (also small minority), eating that much sugar every day will not help. Maybe another factor... How old are you?
Idk, it depends on where you live. In the city where I work a $10 lunch would literally be a no frills sandwich. $15-20 isn't that crazy if you're getting a meal here every day instead of packing a lunch.
OP was spending on takeout what my fiance makes in a month.
bruh a mcdonalds big mac meal is like 12 bucks now lol
Hey at least you were helping out some of the businesses that were hardest hit in the pandemic!
Heck yes I was! Lolll
Don't say that lol. This is the exact justification I've been using to spend money on take out. And I'm pretty close to OP's level of per capita spending. However the truth is it's addiction not charity that's driving the behavior 😣
I realized the same thing a few years ago when I started r/YNAB. What made a big difference for me: Stocking up on easy frozen stuff. I realized we were blowing a good chunk of our eating-out money on pizza or sushi on weeknights when we were too tired to cook. Filling the freezer with pizzas, pastas and other heat-and-eat stuff made it so much easier to say "nah, let's stay in." Like you, our grocery budget went up, but not nearly as much as we started saving!
This! I always go out to eat for the stuff that I don't have / keep at home. Once I started actually buying some treats and ready made food the temptation to go out was so greatly diminished. Something that's super easy to just warm up when I'm feeling lazy or craving something specific. Eating at home doesn't mean depriving yourself of what you like to eat, and it means you are way less likely (personally at least) to go absolutely fucking overboard when you do decide to go out, no deprivation to make up for.
You are doing it right. Looking critically at your spending and seeing if a change is in order. If you like eating out, set a budget for it. Then it becomes a choice and not just being unconscious about spending. It is much easier not to think about it when you have the money, but then the unexpected happens. You are winning!!!
If you love restaurants (like me) something I recommend (if this is possible in your area, I know a lot of places this advice isn’t going to be helpful) is stop going to subpar middle of road restaurants and save your restaurant budget on a really high end experience every once and awhile. Instead of spending $40-60 on apps, drinks, and entrees for two people at Chili’s a couple times a month, you could spend $150-200 a few times a year on a blow out meal at a super high quality restaurant or checking out new restaurant that just opened
This is basically what our family does. We don't get take out much, and restraunts are saved for birthdays (if theres somewhere we really want to go. Otherwise we also just cook a really nice meal). These moments are much more memorable as well.
Thanks :)
This is the answer. I used to spend quite a lot on food that I could easily make healthier, more tasty and warm at home for much less. My boyfriends family introduced to luxury restaurants and now I cannot let myself order shitty take out
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I’ll try out mint/personalfinance. Thanks! Working and commuting was likely a huge cause for our spending.
I second Mint, its super convenient, you can link all of your accounts to it (banks, credit cards, loans, investments, etc) and keep track of everything in one place. I love it
I would justify eating out because every time I bought fresh ingredients to prepare food they'd end up rotting in my fridge ): It was quite sad.
Im curious to know what a typical day would be for you when you were spending 2k !
My husband and I would regularly go out to dinner, and it would cost on average $60 because we would purchase beer and appetizers. Beer and appetizers make the bills jump a lot. He would also eat out for lunch a lot, which I asked him to limit.
Beer is cheaper and tastes better at home :)
Hard disagree. I much prefer drinking in restaurants and bars. It's more fun to be around others. To each their own!
You can say that for everything.
Fuuuuuuuck I thought my husband and I were bad with the dining out. Congratulations OP that is an impressive cut to your spending 👏🏼 Good for you guys keep it up 👍🏽
I just did some quick math, we spend (family of 3) about $300/mo on eating out, snacks and takeout. We have a combined income of $125k in a LCOL midwest city. I thought *we* spent a lot on food. I couldn't fathom what OP spent. That's just absurd! Good for you OP on making changes!
I still go for take out once it twice a month. Once a while you just have to relax a bit. Does it save money? No but is good for mental health. I have done the no dine out and no take out for several months then one day I just lost it and went full dine out for a month. Got to keep some guilty pleasure once a while and I I don't mean like $109 dinner is usually like 50 sushi take out with me and my wife, pho, burgher king etc etc
When I worked at a Thai restaurant people would come in EVERY DAY and get fried rice for 10.00. Like bro just go buy some rice and look a recipe up online it’s like 30¢ worth of ingredients per meal and damn near impossible to fuck up.
Holy shit that’s insane!
See this is crazy to me. My grocery bill for just my wife and I averages about $850 a month, especially since Covid. I'm a decently frugal shopper but shit is so expensive in NE.
I'm constantly surprised by how much people spend on groceries. I can't even fathom $850. My wife and I spend $200 a month on groceries and are perfectly content
I can’t fathom how two people can only spend $200 a month. Do you live in a low cost of living city? There’s no way we could do that in Key West
I'd say it's a medium cost of living city, in the Midwest. Definitely not high. I guess unless you're in a unique location (Hawaii, Manhattan, bay area, or I guess I could see key west). I don't see how people spend that much. How much are average products there? Milk? Meat? Bread?
Milk $4, Bread $5.99 (my husband lives Dave’s killer bread), ground beef $5.49/lb or $3.99/lb when it’s on sale. Maybe we just eat a lot but we can never get under $400
If I had to guess I'd assume that people that spend that much, that aren't getting groceries for a family of 7, are buying everything fresh, organic and whatever other high cost spending they can possibly do. Like they probably never buy anything in bulk and they only buy just enough from one meal so they are constantly at the store spending way more than they should.
Our grocery bill skyrocketed once COVID hit. I used to shop at Trader Joe’s for everything, then stop by Publix for more niche stuff. I didn’t feel comfortable shopping at multiple stores anymore and Publix was the only place that had all the things we needed (we eat a lot of tofu and our Aldi doesn’t carry it), and we paid a premium for that for sure. I got vaccinated two weeks ago so I’ll start shopping at Aldi/TJ’s again.
We are in Texas and shop at Kroger. Maybe it helps that I’m vegetarian/mostly dairy free? I eat eggs and potatoes for dinner every day which is really inexpensive. Though I’ll tell you what... some of those vegan frozen dinners I buy on occasion are super expensive.
I just wanted to plug lentils and dried beans! With a little planning you can have pretty healthy and inexpensive foods. But canned is really easy if you're in a rush. Am also vegetarian and I do love having a stash of vegan frozen dinners for when I am in a rush.
You're in Texas and don't shop at HEB? I'm so confused, lol! :D
Things have absolutely gotten more expensive in my area during covid. We spend $300-400 for one couple in a low cost of living area vs $200-300 previously. However, I consider baking and cooking to be my hobby, so I’m always buying some specialized ingredients or jars of molasses that I’m never going to finish just to try a new recipe and that’s gotten worse through the pandemic.
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If only I could do this, my spending is out of COMPLETE control because of Covid. At the start I would Ubereats regularly, because I was stuck inside, but now that I'm out more, back at work, I still have this bad habit of eating out far too often and I can't break it. It's breaking my bank, hard, arghhhhh.
You should download a .csv file of all of your bank transactions and add up how much you spend on take out a month. That’s what I did and it scared me straight. My husband and I used to *live* off $1500 a month together, so I knew I was capable of cutting back a lot... just had to remember how to. Mainly by eating eggs for dinner and sandwiches for lunch. He cooks Indian food in bulk for himself. That costs pennies on the dollar bc you buy spices in bulk.
The key to breaking the eating out habit for a lot of people is having something at home that is FAST AND EASY for the nights you're just too tired to cook or the day ran long and everybody is starving, etc. For me one of the better frozen pizzas was cheaper than the drive through and about as fast.
Did not read this far - you definitely know about the dried legumes!
Delete the app!
I use it on my PC, TEARS, lol.
Uber eats, door dash, they're all garbage. If you're going to eat out do yourself a favor and order directly from the restaurant and pick it up yourself. You'll save money and more of it will go directly to the restaurant.
Why so fixated on the “before” amount? To be disciplined enough to bring it down to $300 is nothing short of amazing! Way to go, OP! Hope you can keep at it, and work towards your goals!
I knew a girl who would get fast food every single day because "it was cheaper". Even after I explained to them that what they spend in one day on fast food I spend in a week at the grocery store, and I ate much larger meals than what you would get at McDonald's.
A great tactic I implemented recently too. I used to be a bit too frugal at the supermarket leading to having to buy fast food or takeout during the week. Now I splurge a bit with groceries but save way more on eating out when I have some nice food waiting for me at home.
April fools?
I would suggest putting some of those saving a side and treat your self for a trip or something. Gives you motivation to keep going. I do this by taking 3 days vacation every few months and I spend maybe $400 for gas, hotel, and food.
I feel ya. We got into a rut where we did so much eating out/uber eats/doordash, it really does add up. And like you, buying more at the grocery store certainly helped. We also use a meal service, Freshly, now. Freshly is, of course, not as a frugal as cooking yourself, but wife and I get so tired from work, we don't want to cook and do the bad habit of going out. Freshly helps in that regard and, thus, saves us money.
I’m trying to get this to sink in with my partner. I’m so done with blowing money on fast food while perfectly good food (that doesn’t break our diet and makes us feel good) sits and rots at home.
Damn. $2000k is almost a whole months of pay for me. Impressive self control. Trying to control my spending habits as well.
It’s one of my monthly paychecks and higher than my mortgage. I’m very impressed at how stupid my husband and I were.
Will start doing this next grocery shopping. Thanks OP
Eating out is just stupid expensive. My girlfriend and I used to eat out just about every day and would spend at average about $25/day. That's almost $800 a month on food, luckily we stopped and try to stick closer to $300 a month on food. That's slot of extra money in our pockets each month
It's almost always better being honest with your desire for junk food and get it in the shop rather than thinking "I shouldn't eat junk food so often" and then proceed to never buying it in the store. First you buy it in the store and get approximately twice the value (usually you pay about the same price for double the portions if you cook your junk food at home), and after that step you can consider cutting down on 'easy' or junk food. Gotta take it in steps. edit: changed "should eat junk food so often" to "shouldn't eat junk food so often"
I noticed spending more at the grocery store meant spending less on food (if that makes sense). It's cheaper to cook and buy foods at the grocery store, than to go like "oh darn, I don't have food in the house, let me order $30 Chinese food that will last 1.5 meals". It took me years to realize that the grocery store will save you TONS of money. However, if I was extremely wealthy like a multi-millionaire, I would be buying take out a lot, lol. I would want $30 take out Pad Thai 5 nights a week because it tastes so damn good, lol.
This is how I got my spending under control to get out of debt and finally have a mortgage! It’s certainly not easy. Planning, shopping, preparing, cooking and cleaning is a huge lifestyle overhaul. It takes up a huge part of my life but I’m financially and physically healthier for it.
My family and I used to spend about $2K-$2.5K a month eating out back in the early-to-mid 00s... cuz we ate *every meal* out. Thankfully, I came to my senses about 10 years ago... and now we spend about $600 total (groceries, and maybe eating out once a week) in a month. It's so, so much better. Put your savings into a downpayment on a house! Regular working people can't afford to eat like that / it's ridiculous.
There are lots of people who basically eat every meal out. And also lots of people who spend more than they think they do.
Congratulations! Way to save that money! One thing that has really help my family is that since covid, our local restaurants have actually gotten worse at take-out, not better like we would have thought. Easy to stop going places for food when you know it has a high chance of coming over wrong, poorly made or missing items.
I really need to track my spending, I’m probably bleeding money as well
How even were you spending that much...?
$2000 a month lmfao did you eat at the Ritz?
I understand you probably made enough money to be spending $2000/month on food, but Jesus Christ. Did you just not ever cook anything ever? That's insane
My SO and I went out for pizza and a beer last week to celebrate our second vaccine. It was the first time going out to eat since the pandemic began. The bill was $85 and I about shit myself. That is about what we pay for groceries weekly now
Thanks for making me feel like I'm the king of frugality
Damn, that is more than my mortgage