The price of restaurants! Ridiculous but I get it.

TinaM

TinaM

Member
So I know prices are going up but it seems so extravagant. My son is retired military and is visiting me for several months with his wife before moving to South America. I told them while they are here, I’ll take them out to eat every week. We’ve tried everything from steak restaurants to ethnic restaurants to brew pubs, etc.

For the 3 of us, and this is only for lunch, I always spend at least $75 and usually a lot more. And these are not fine dining restaurants, just every day. I don’t know how regular working families do it. I will be back to budgeting and doing all my own cooking after they leave.
 

TinaM said:
So I know prices are going up but it seems so extravagant. My son is retired military and is visiting me for several months with his wife before moving to South America. I told them while they are here, I’ll take them out to eat every week. We’ve tried everything from steak restaurants to ethnic restaurants to brew pubs, etc.

For the 3 of us, and this is only for lunch, I always spend at least $75 and usually a lot more. And these are not fine dining restaurants, just every day. I don’t know how regular working families do it. I will be back to budgeting and doing all my own cooking after they leave.
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I know, it's horrible!
 

dilettante said:
Working class people didn't even hit a hot dog stand once a week. For that matter most lower middle class families didn't go out to eat weekly either.

It feels like a lot of upper middle class people are confused and really do not comprehend their level of privilege.
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we never stepped foot inside a restaurant when I was growing up, much less eat in one,.. and that was long before prices were so high..
The biggest treat for me was on the odd occasion my mum would take me shopping to town, and she would stop at the Top Hat cafe.. not as grand as it sounds.. where she would have a cuppa tea and a cigarette, and she would buy me a coke.. or a knickerbocker glory....but that was rare, however I treasure those memories

Even my granny who took us 4 kids on a day trip once a year to the beach... couldn't afford the prices to sit in a cafe .. she'd buy us ice cream cones.. or chips ( french fries ).. and we'd sit by the ebach wall and eat them, and even if it was raining we'd sit in the bus shelter.. because we were just working class people...
 
Cooking is one of the easiest things I do, so the convenience of fast food or a restaurant means nothing to me. In less time than it would take me to get dressed and drive somewhere, I could have already prepared a full meal at home.

The only reason I ever eat out is for socialization with others. For that experience, I'm willing to pay the average fast food total ticket price of $12. When my group goes to a sit down restaurant which averages $30 a ticket, I just say no thanks.
 
hollydolly said:
we never stepped foot inside a restaurant when I was growing up, much less eat in one,.. and that was long before prices were so high..
The biggest treat for me was on the odd occasion my mum would take me shopping to town, and she would stop at the Top Hat cafe.. not as grand as it sounds.. where she would have a cuppa tea and a cigarette, and she would buy me a coke.. or a knickerbocker glory....but that was rare, however I treasure those memories

Even my granny who took us 4 kids on a day trip once a year to the beach... couldn't afford the prices to sit in a cafe .. she'd buy us ice cream cones.. or chips ( french fries ).. and we'd sit by the ebach wall and eat them, and even if it was raining we'd sit in the bus shelter.. because we were just working class people...
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I remember my mom bringing out the wax paper wrapped sandwiches on road trips. Our big excitement going out was McDonald’s and that was rarely.
 
I agree with others the high price of eating in a restaurant. Even here ordering a cheese steak sandwich, 6" is over $12.00. Granted it is very good but that is a lot of money to me. I do not go into sit down restaurants due to husband's disability, so we just order from take out, where I can go in and get the food. It really is just a treat for us.
 
Rae said:
I agree with others the high price of eating in a restaurant. Even here ordering a cheese steak sandwich, 6" is over $12.00. Granted it is very good but that is a lot of money to me. I do not go into sit down restaurants due to husband's disability, so we just order from take out, where I can go in and get the food. It really is just a treat for us.
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yes and ridiculous priices for a coffee... I was behind an older guy in the coffee shop a year or 2 back.. he asked for some concotion of coffee ..and it was £12.00...for ONE coffee with a little extra added..I nearly passed out standing behind him... I only ever drink a skinny latte.. and that's £3.80..or more depending where I go... but £12... which is approx $15 US dollars :eek:...and remember in the UK we don't get giant cups or portions like the US, all our cup sizes and portions are small..or pretty much
 
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TinaM said:
But not for a $12 burger and fries. I’m talking restaurants like applebys or local Mexican or Thai.

We went to a Mongolian bbq where it’s just a bowl of noodles, meat, and veggies and it was almost $30 a person.
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Just go over the menue and you will see where your money goes. Applebee's - Menu With Prices
The local TexMex has nothing for lunch under $15. Add a drink and you are at $20. Noisy, crowded and the Sysco truck is a regular.
 
TinaM said:
I remember my mom bringing out the wax paper wrapped sandwiches on road trips. Our big excitement going out was McDonald’s and that was rarely.
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Same Mom, obviously....LOL.

My mom would bring a cooler with everything we needed for the trip. If, by any chance, we were staying in a motel, she'd bring the toaster, coffee pot, and a hot plate and a skillet, so we could have toasted cheese sandwiches with fried baloney. I had unattainable dreams of stopping at a Stuckeys, just once to eat. Such elegance, I thought. Never happened.

I'm OK with restaurant meals if I have leftovers to bring home for lunch or dinner the next day. Some places give you such big portions and if you can spread it out over two meals, it can be a bargain.
 
jujube said:
Same Mom, obviously....LOL.

My mom would bring a cooler with everything we needed for the trip. If, by any chance, we were staying in a motel, she'd bring the toaster, coffee pot, and a hit plate and a skillet, so we could have toasted cheese sandwiches with fried baloney. I had unattainable dreams of stopping at a Stuckeys, just once to eat. Such elegance, I thought. Never happened.

I'm OK with restaurant meals if I have leftovers to bring home for lunch or dinner the next day. Some places give you such big portions and if you can spread it out over two meals, it can be a bargain.
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I do remember stuckeys. I would beg my dad to stop when we were on road trips. I would get a pecan log and then we would be on our way again.
 
jujube said:
Same Mom, obviously....LOL.

My mom would bring a cooler with everything we needed for the trip. If, by any chance, we were staying in a motel, she'd bring the toaster, coffee pot, and a hit plate and a skillet, so we could have toasted cheese sandwiches with fried baloney. I had unattainable dreams of stopping at a Stuckeys, just once to eat. Such elegance, I thought. Never happened.

I'm OK with restaurant meals if I have leftovers to bring home for lunch or dinner the next day. Some places give you such big portions and if you can spread it out over two meals, it can be a bargain.
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Jujube..staying in a motel ?...you were posh !
 
hollydolly said:
Jujube..staying in a motel ?...you were posh !
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The kind of motels we stayed in can hardly be described as posh....LOL. And that was only once in a blue moon. My parents either drove straight through to where we were going or we slept for a few hours in the car.

They took us to Washington, D.C. once for a couple of days on our way to my grandparents in Virginia. Mom had made reservations at a motel that was near a bus line that would take us wherever we wanted to go. It turned out to be in a very bad neighborhood, but we stayed there anyway. Because there were so many of us in the station wagon, suitcases, fishing poles, beach equipment, etc. were put on top of the car in a car-top carrier.

We got back from sightseeing the first day and, oh no! everything was gone on top of the car. We rushed to our room and there was everything sitting there. Pop went down to the office and was told that "some bad characters were looking too long at your car, so we unloaded everything to keep it from being stolen". How grateful we were!
 
You do understand the increase in cost for eating out. So that point is mute. Not really clear how often your son visits. Once a week to take you up on the offer to eat out or more often & the offer is something you do to build memories with.

According to what you write this offer to eat out seems like it's a financial hardship. If so why continue? You could change the offer to home cooked meals. You mentioned variety. That same variety can be achieved easily with recipes found on the internet. The main difference you can prep those meals using better ingredients for less cost.
 
Knight said:
You do understand the increase in cost for eating out. So that point is mute. Not really clear how often your son visits. Once a week to take you up on the offer to eat out or more often & the offer is something you do to build memories with.

According to what you write this offer to eat out seems like it's a financial hardship. If so why continue? You could change the offer to home cooked meals. You mentioned variety. That same variety can be achieved easily with recipes found on the internet. The main difference you can prep those meals using better ingredients for less cost.
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You totally missed the point! He is here in the US just a few more weeks. While here, I wanted to treat them every week until they leave. Then I won’t see them again. I am spending the money because I want to.

I just can’t believe how much prices have skyrocketed. It’s just a shock to me. I was just being nostalgic about how it used to be.

The food and service hasn’t changed, in fact, in a lot of places it has gotten worse. But everything costs 4x more than just a few years ago.
 
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