I got a little lazy busy last week and it cost me. We ate out several times during the week and I ended up spending $90.00 eating out…..on only 3 meals!! That is enough to make you broke and bloated! ;)
I can make 5 dinners for 5 and a week of lunches for 2 for $90.00!! I will not be too “busy” again! That $90.00 was on 1 restaurant meal and 2 fast food meals (for 5 people).
Now my refrigerator looks like this…..
and my slow cooker looks like this…..
That is slow cooker BBQ Beef that will be served with Cowboy Cornbread. Recipe and pictures coming soon. :)
I have a challenge for all of you. Save your receipts for groceries and eating out for one full week. Add each one of them up at the end of the week. Then come back here and post in the comments how you did. The winner (picked at random) will get to choose any ebook from my store for FREE!!
This is just for fun. There are no right or wrongs here. I am just curious what the average person spends on eating out each week.
Contest starts today and ends next Sunday July 29th at midnight. One entry per person.
School will be starting very soon. Are you ready?
The brown bag ebook can help you organize school lunches so the kids can pack their own each morning. Read all about making lunches in bulk here.
Okay! Last week, July 15-21, my hubby was going out of town, so it was just darling son and me for the week. I also got lazy (not sugar-coating it – TOTAL laziness on my part) and didn’t do my usual plan. I slapped together a lunch for my son every morning, frantically, while having him enjoy a granola bar breakfast before we headed out the door to work & daycare. Not how I like to do it; I hate that morning rush feeling. We ate out 3 times, eating the leftovers the other nights (pizza, fried chicken, that type of food). The week cost me $176.48. For two of us. EEKK!
Yesterday, I got back on track. I planned for the week, including breakfasts (which I make in advance for the week). Hubby will be back tomorrow, so I did 4 of the five meals from the July week 4 menu (with only 3 of us, we usually only need 3 or 4 of the meals, then have leftovers), and I made all the lunches for my son for the week. On the menu:
Breakfast – Bacon egg-white muffins with peanut butter honey bites
Lunches – Turkey & cheese sandwiches OR PB & J wraps, with tomatoes OR mini sweet peppers, grapes OR white nectarines, and Chobani
Dinners – everything from the menu but the slow-cooker black bean burritos.
I purchased organic produce and cage-free eggs/free-range meats, because it’s important to me (no judging, here, just sharing) and made extra of the salmon packets & brown sugar chicken drummies for freezing. Total grocery bill = $115.89. Total time in the kitchen, prepping = 1.5 hours.
$176.48 versus $115.89. I can’t get lazy again!
I LOVE 5 Dinners in 1 Hour! It has totally changed how we do meals in this house. It’s cheaper for us, I can spend time after work with my family, NOT in the kitchen cooking, it’s healthier, and we eat 2 meals everyday TOGETHER (breakfast & dinner), which is AWESOME! LOVE IT!
Gwen
Gwen, Where do you purchase your free-range meats and what’s the cost where you are?
I’ve been very lazy lately. Spending money on groceries, then wasting them, because I went out to eat instead of cooking. I have not used your plans yet, but I love this site. I saved my receipts because I am trying to be more aware of what I am spending my money on.
My total from July 19 – July 25 for groceries is 127.11
My total from July 19 – July 25 for going out to eat is 50.39
That is for 3 adults and 2 kids. The out to eat would have been higher, but I used two groupons that were previously purchased, so I didn’t add that into my out of pocket cost.
I’ve been grocery shopping for the week & the grand total was $63 for 4. I have been trying to see if I can keep it around $75 for the week. I did shop my pantry/freezer first.
Breakfasts options: yogurt, toast, cereal + a piece of fruit
Lunch- leftovers or sandwiches
Supper– Wed– Roast, potatoes, carrots
Thurs– Beef stroganoff using leftover roast, veggie & bread
Fri– Stir Fry
Sat– Black Bean Burritos
Sun– Whole Chicken in the crock pot, mashed potatoes, & a fruit salad
Mon– Chicken spaghetti using leftover chicken from Sun, salad & bread
We spent $199.64 on groceries because we did our big monthly shopping trip. We fill in with fresh produce and dairy weekly. We only ate out once this week because I was starving after a movie that we saw. We spent about $40.
I spent 62.26 at the grocery store. That included the items needed for most of the sample menu! I also bought 15 pkgs of Goldfish crackers(runs in shame…..) but they were 89 cents a piece and my 2 young kids like them. I am guilty of stopping on the way to work for a tea and a breakfast item..I really need to stop this but the 1$ drink promos suck me in every time! I probably spent about 45.00 there…
I just found your website via I heart organizing. I don’t really cook at home but my meals out are usually $8 to $9. I know most of my budget goes to food. I’m excited about trying some of your recipes.
Our local fair was last week. Normally I would have brought food for us to eat at the car. I even bought a small gas grill to use, to make the meals more than just lunch meat. I used it at a cattle show earlier in the summer and served hamburgers, broccoli salad, cookies, and sweet tea. I had it all planned and it was a nice meal. We have been in a severe drought and it would have been miserable to have brought the food and ate at the car, let alone used the grill. (Our kids show cattle and hogs, it is not wise to eat in or near the barns) So we ate fair food the whole week. There was one or two times I picked something up at McDonalds, which was a bit cheaper. I don’t even know how much we spent, I don’t really think I want to. We are a family of five and I am sure it was a large sum. I am off to the grocery this morning to get food and start planning our homecooked meals again. Thanks for a great site to help encourage us to keep planning and saving!
It’s after the fact but I thought I’d chime in since I just finished going over our spending for the month and it’s fresh in my mind. We spend an average of $250/every two weeks for groceries to cook all of our meals at home from scratch. I’ve been pretty good about not eating out for a couple months but I had a rough week this month when my husband was away for a few days and things were particularly frantic around here. I spent $57.90 on eating out that week for four meals out (pizza/fast food, supplemented with fruit/fresh veggies for snacking later at home) I was shocked to see how quickly those cheap burgers and pizzas added up, it seems cheap in the moment but not so much looking at the receipts!