How much do you spend on dining out a year?

BlissfullyUnawareCanadian

BlissfullyUnawareCanadian

Member
Location
Kingston, Ontario
A discussion in the financial forum has me wondering how much people spend on dining out a year. If you know, can you say is it more than $100? More than $500?

I am Canadian, living in Canada and wondering if there’s a big difference in the US and Canada for dining out habits? I assume they are similar but I’m not really sure.

We very rarely eat out but when we do, we go to restaurants where everything is made from scratch. This doesn’t come cheap, so our bill can be over $300 with tax and tip. Keep in mind we only eat out once a year, sometimes once every two years. So that’s $150-$300/year for dining out. We never eat fast food (stopped in June of 1995), and I make my coffee at home so I can’t fathom how we could lower our dining out annual costs without eating food at chain restaurants and I would rather eat at home than do that, because the food at home tastes much better.
 

Much less since I retired and had knee surgery and Covid closed restaurants. The last time I was able to be in a restaurant was for a birthday dinner in early November-When the restaurants were open for a short time-all indoor dining has been back to closed ever since. Do takeout once a month and occasionally pick up a snack.
 

Not much. Sometimes, when we are out shopping, we may stop at a fast food place for a quick snack and cup of coffee, but that's about it. With the exception of this past year, due to the virus, most of our nicer meals away from home have been at the casinos. Their buffets are great, and free...using some of our "points". However, this virus has shut down most of their restaurants, and our trips have been rather infrequent, and will probably remain so, until this virus is brought under control.
 
In late summer I think, when my state's numbers were low, we went to a casual BBQ place for a great lunch.

Prior to that, it was at the beginning of 2020, just before Covid became a reality. I maybe spent $60.00 for the year.

Typically, I'd guess about $150.00 to $200.00.

I never buy fast food besides a very occasional spicy chicken sandwich at Popeye's. Went once in 2020, drive through.
 
I like fast food, slow food, most food. We used to eat out a lot from nice places to McDonald’s but not at super expensive places which I think are a rip off. I noticed about 4 years ago the quality of the food in the nicer places was dropping, and the wait staff had a sense of entitlement that did not reflect their service level.

It was then when we started to really cut back and never returned to that same level. In fact, we ate out less and less. With COVID, as long as it it around, we will never eat inside a restaurant again.

We occasionally get fast food, 4 times a month for sure, mostly pizza as we have our son over from the group home. I have no ideal how much we spend. But if we spent 30 dollars a Saturday times 12 that’s about 360 or so a year for pizza, pasta, and soda.

Add another 100 for McDonald’s, frozen yogurt etc so about 460-500 a year, give or take a cookie from crumble cookies or ice cream from baskin robins 🤣
 
I only eat out every two or three years so the cost per year is pretty close to zero.

I eat at home because I have to limit my choices due to diabetes and because I don't have anyone to go out and share a meal with.

For me, if the cost of dinner for two goes above $100.00 it isn't in the category of food as much as it is entertainment.

Like so many things in life, it's all about choices. Sometimes we scrimp on the necessities so we can splurge on the luxuries.

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We have take out Chinese food about 4 times a year at most...I occasionally have a KFC..( maybe once a year).. all other times we eat at Gastropubs and higher end restaurants..( probably once a week sometimes more sometimes a little less, certainly less this year) ) never thought about the cost too much , but I suppose maybe 10k ..per year :unsure:..I'm not in either Canada nor the USA
 
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Murrmurr said:
I haven't been inside a restaurant more than 3 times since moving here 5+ years ago. Lately, I'll sometimes order pizza for the grandkids when they spend a weekend and I don't feel up to cooking. I get it from a place just a few blocks away. A bit pricey but well worth it. That adds up to $50-$75 a month.
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wow!! That's up to $900 a year just on Pizza !!! :eek:
 
Wow-I need to re-evaluate our dining out habits. We have gone out to dinner every Friday and Saturday night for at least 50 years. Of course Covid has put a damper on it-we pretty much now only go to casinos because it` just too darn cold to dine outdoors. Casinos are the only places allowed to have indoor dining here. Thankfully the one closest to us has excellent food. Except for last night-terrible menu selections and prices. But that`s typical for New Years Eve. We generally fondue on New Years Eve but didn`t this year. Generally our dinners out run from 80-100 dollars.Yikes-that`s 8,500 a year! But I spend a lot at the grocery store when I cook too,so I guess it`s not that bad. I never cook "simple" stuff-I always go "all out" and the Mr. doesn`t like leftovers,so it`s something new every night. Almost cheaper for us to go out.
 
We rarely do "fast Food" Personally haven't been in a McDonalds but once in the last 3 years... pissed me off...
Got a few places in town we may grab lunch at If were both in town working... like once every other week...
We do go on for dinner on occasion... actually had 2 this fall with family were we dropped $150-200 each time.
But we have also dropped some good money on stuff for cooking for friends and family at home...
Last gathering was around $100 just for a Brisket and Lobster tails to smoke....
 
hollydolly said:
I disagree , I think $900 dollars on just pizza take out is far too much.. Murr can spend his money how he likes Natch.(y).. but almost $1k on take-out pizza is just an incredible amount to me.. when it can be bought from the supermarket and heated at home for so much less..
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It’s just not the same and the kids expect take out
 
hollydolly said:
I disagree , I think $900 dollars on just pizza take out is far too much.. Murr can spend his money how he likes Natch.(y).. but almost $1k on take-out pizza is just an incredible amount to me.. when it can be bought from the supermarket and heated at home for so much less..
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This is truly awesome pizza. Seriously. A family owned place.
But I never actually added it up before. Kind of a shock.
 
Murrmurr said:
This is truly awesome pizza. Seriously. A family owned place.
But I never actually added it up before. Kind of a shock.
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I understand that...occasionally when it's great food is worth the money... but it's like when I added up a cup of coffee every morning from the coffee house before I got into work, it came to a round £60 per month.. it shocked me... just for one cup of coffee per day .. over £700 for coffee per year.. nuts!! lol.. I soon put a stop to that and brought my own coffee from home. I'm not tight, I swear but sometimes when you stop and think, there's many other ways you could spend that same money. In my case I was able to put that coffee money away every day , ( and I still occasionally have a take-out coffee)...and bought return flights to Spain and Greece with it every year.. :D
 
We rarely eat out. Once in a great while we would go to IHop on seniors night. My hubby loves the pancakes with all the glop on them.
We did go to the casinos in Atlantic City when we had a comp room and a free buffet. All this has stopped since the virus.
I ordered Chinese for New years eve. The hubby and I love chow mein but we didn't get any rice. I don't know what it is about rice in New Jersey but it is scarce.
It is limited in the grocery stores also.
In a good year we probably don't spend more than $200.00 on dining out. If we pick up the bill when with my daughter and family it is a bit more.
Eating gluten free is always a challenge when eating out. I'd rather cook, then I know exactly what's in the food. My freezers give me a day off because I have many premade dinners stashed away.
 

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