How often do you take the family out to dinner?

 I'm trying to set my budget and I've been taking them out once a week
and I'm wondering what other frugal families do. Do you just budget an
amount per month and see how many dinners/lunches/breakfasts you can
squeeze in or do you just say 4 or 8 times per month and whatever it
is it is?

  Frugality aside, for health benefits sake, we eat out about once a
week. We don't cook at home everyday, but may be twice a week. We
still have to do dishes everyday... it is really lot more work than
eating out.

Let us just estimate the cost of eating out every day. Let us say it
costs about $25 (including the tip) to eat out every night for a
family of four. That is $9,125 per year. If you reduce the number of
trips by half, you would save about $4k. For a busy family (both
working with little children), that is probably a worthy expense in
return of a peaceful evening (especially if the couple doesn't share
the work).

What about the health consequences of eating out everyday? Also,
people that eat out every night are highly likely to eat out lunch
also. I don't think that is good for the health.

 skarkada@gmail.com wrote:


That health benefits claim is completely silly.


Much cheaper ways of fixing the amount of work involved than eating out.


And you would say much more than that if you dont eat out at all.


worthy expense

work).

Mindlessly silly. There are much cheaper ways of fixing that problem than eating
out.


Depends on what you choose to eat out.


Hardly frugal.


Not necessarily, I dont bother with lunch myself.


Again, depends entirely on what you choose to eat out.

 skarkada@gmail.com wrote in misc.consumers.frugal-living:


The problem is less of /where/ you eat than /what/ and /when/ you eat.

If you are talking about obesity-is-now-a-crisis U.S.A., then the American
diet is beyond poor.  I just repatriated after years abroad in a culture
and society where fresh fruit and vegetables are the main staple, and I
have never felt healthier in my life.  It is a well-known fact that
components of fruit and vegetables inhibit metabolic processes (such as
the action of liver cytochrome P450 enzymes) which actually modify
ingested substances to make them more mutagenic/carcinogenic.  Americans
do not even begin to eat the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables they
need to.  If you go out to eat, and they don't allow you to fill your
plate with uncooked fruit and vegetables, cross that place off your list.  
And hold the ranch/french/roquefort:  if you need to dress up the taste of
a vegetable mix, the squeeze lemon and pour on a little olive oil, like
the rest of the planet does.

As to when you should eat, if you are over the age of 40, it should be
apparent to you that your biggest meals should be in the morning and just
past mid-afternoon.  The evening "meal" should not even come close to
filling your plate unless it is mostly fresh fruit and vegetables, and it
certainly should not be the biggest meal of the day.  If you get up from
the table with a I'm-stuffed-to-the-point-of-sickness-or-not-being-able-
to-get-up feeling, you have violated every rule in the healthy eating
book.  You should instead feel just-this-side-of-sated feeling, and some
would say you should push away from the table with a slight appetite.  Our
mammalian ancestors ate---what?  once every 3 or 4 days?   No reason for
us to moan about needing 3 loaded meals a day.

 Rod and Winston,

I agree with both of you that one could eat at home and still eat
unhealthy. However, I still believe it is hard to influence a child
into what (s)he should order at a restaurant.

Rod, could you please elaborate on your "much cheaper ways?"

Joe, I didn't really mean to hijack your thread and lead into a
discussion of a different topic. Hopefully more people will answer
your particular question.