My niece posted this question on FaceBook the other day and the answers were quite interesting, “How often do you eat out?”
Like most people that posted I eat out (this was specifically drive thru/pizza/or Chinese take-out) once or twice a week. I usually eat lunches out because I don’t care for leftovers except pizza, macaroni and cheese, or soup. Plus I am usually only buying lunch for myself or one child so it is much cheaper than if I have to buy dinner for all four of us. I would much rather go to the store and buy a $5.00 bag of chicken strips, a $1.00 bag of hamburger rolls, and a $3.00 head of broccoli for an under $10 dinner for the four of us before I want to spend $40.00 on fast food. I admit it, I am cheap.
What most people mentioned was as their children got older and in more activities it was harder to sit down as a family and have dinner so they tend to pick something up on the way to classes or on the way home. My daughter gets a sandwich every Tuesday night because we leave for dance about 4 pm and don’t get home until after 10 pm.
When do you eat out most? Nights when the family is busy? Nights when you don’t want to cook? Nights when you haven’t planned ahead for dinner?
It is tough.
What's for Dinner Moms? 
We always treat ourselves to eating out during special celebrations like birthdays, and other family events, otherwise we eat out when we are tired or on a road trip.
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We eat out far too often on road trips. By the end the kids are usually asking me to cook dinner. 😉
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My co-workers like to eat out once in a while…. sometimes I go, sometimes not. That’s like 2x a month. Otherwise, I eat at home. There’s always some good food waiting for me.
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Nice to have good stuff waiting at home. That is part of our struggle – keeping the food on hand.
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We definitely eat out a lot, but not fast food for the most part. During the week we eat at home, but when the hubs and I are off together is when we eat out the most!
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Wanting to spend all those quiet moments together. I understand!
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Usually towards the weekend. Not as often as before.
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I understand. We try to limit the number of times we are going out too.
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Eating/take out use to be a treat and not a meal plan.
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About once a week.. usually when we just have no desire to cook… or have no idea what to cook! lol
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I so understand!
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Basically, eating out is rather expensive here. Most of all since I have to see that my little salary pays all my duties I am rather cooking at home. Eating out is a treat for me and something I want to gift myself and also the kids with. Mostly it happens when the kids and I have a holiday and I want to celebrate it with them in enjoying the luxury to eat out for lunch. But sometimes when the time is rare I order a pizza… but that is not really eating out… lol!
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I understand that! I want good real food when we eat out!
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I fully agree!
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I think the schooling system may work differently here than in the US, Marci. Our kids are usually home by 5.30pm or 6pm at the latest during the week and are able to have dinner with their families and do their homework for the next day. When we eat out it is a family dinner out at a restaurant. We often do this on a Saturday.
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School ends between 2:00 for high schools and 4:00 for elementary schools but most children have sports practices, games, or lessons after school. It almost seems now a days it is expected that your child takes a music lesson, dance lesson, or language lessons (or all three) in addition to the school activities. And if your child has not chosen their sport or instrument by 6th grade it is pretty much too late.
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We eat out very little. Eating out is difficult for us due to food restrictions — it takes some planning. Fast food is pretty much out. The closest thing to take out for us is a rotisserie chicken and salad from the Wal Mart deli. I always make my own pizza. Why suffer through a tiny gluten free pizza with a very thin crust with toppings so sparse you can barely see them when gf pizza is not that hard to make at home? We do have two restaurants in town that can accommodate us — one lunch and one dinner. We eat out a couple of times a year for “special occasions.” Living at the lake, the main problem for us is when we get stuck in town over lunch hour unexpectedly without our own food. I love to cook but do sometimes the idea of “have to” gets to me. Now that I’m getting busier Bob has taken over lunch which is a big help.
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I eat twice a week (lunch) out during working days. Probably once a month for dinner as family. Otherwise we eat home – I take simple lunch like quinoa, bulgur with veggies (you can check the recipes) to office and cook 2-3 times a week for dinner 🙂
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We usually have Sunday lunch out, and order probably 1 night/week. We’ll do Wawa often on nights when we have to rush from the train station to a meeting. Most usually we end up ordering if I get home late or aren’t feeling well and just can’t deal with cooking. Then again, we don’t have kids to provide for, so that does give us a little more freedom with it.
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I used to just once a week. Since I’ve been pregnant though it’s been more. Partly because I’ve been weird about food and partly because I get too tired to cook.
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Once or twice a week for us more if we’re traveling. My idea of fast food is a Taqueria, or deli. We don’t eat the famous hamburger fast food places often.
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I eat out the most on the weekends. I am too tired from preparing meals during the week.
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We usually eat out on Saturday nights because we mostly go for a movie. After coming back nobody in our house feels like making dinner. So we eat out!
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