How often do you go out to eat?

I rarely eat out. Like you, I just don't have the money. It's much cheaper to make food myself at home. I do occasionally go out for a treat or when I'm out and about longer than expected and need to eat. I still try to watch my budget, though.

 

At this point we only go out to eat together as a family a couple times a year. Once a month or so my kids will go out with friends (and pay for themselves) or I'll go to happy hour with friends (my favorite way to go out and not spend much money at all while still enjoying food and drinks). But, we're all good cooks and take turns cooking meals so no one gets bored and it's just so much cheaper and usually healthier to stay home and cook.

 

My family and I tend to eat out ever payday and every weekend if budget permits it. Its like spoils for the war on my end. I work hard and would like to enjoy the pay I get by eating out with my family as often as we can. It does not need to be a fancy one.

But I like to treat my wife to a good dinner date atleast twice a month.

 

It's really cheap to eat out in Spain, but we still have to watch our spending, so we don't go out too often. We go out about twice a month, with friends, to make it a really special occasion. No matter how short of money you are, you need to just kick over the traces and enjoy yourself once in a while. We go for the 'Menu del Dia,' which is the cheapest option, and it's a great break from the kitchen for me.

 

The same here. I only eat out when I'm out with friends and even then it's nothing exclusive.

 

We used to eat out often, almost every other day. Then one day it hit me how much I was spending and changed my habits. The thing is you spend quite a bit and the food is very rarely even that good. So, now I am a big fan of eating at home.

Eating out is only for special occasions now.

 

Rarely. I try to eat at home as often as I can because it's cheaper and I know what I'm putting into my body. Sometimes though, I'll grab something off the dollar menu at a fast food joint if I'm running low on time.

 

This thread brings up the question; what are the benefits of going out to eat that cause people to do it? First, to answer the original poster, I rarely, if ever go out to eat. Do people go out to restaurants for the atmosphere of the place, for the delicious food, the lack of having to cook, or a combination? It seems like most would answer that they dine out for the quality of the food. Restaurant food tastes better than most home-cooking simply because of the way the cooks blend multiple spices with carefully formulated recipes, but the truth is that anyone can easily make a restaurant quality meal with the help of a recipe from the internet and some spice shopping at the grocery store. Following a free recipe from a professional chef on the internet is much easier than quality restaurants would like you to know.

 

I wouldn't say that's the majority at all actually. I would say most do it for the convenience. Yes, if they're going out to a high end restaurant, they're going for a quality meal, but when we refer to eating out, we're often talking about just fast food places, too....which we all know isn't for the quality at all. More often than not, it's just to make a meal happen without having to spend an hour in the kitchen, plus grocery shopping time before and cleanup after. I definitely agree that you can make quality meals at home, but it does take time and effort, and the majority who eat out frequently, don't want to or don't have the time to.

 

We go out about the same as a family. We used to eat out (not expensively) about 2-3 times witin a 2 week period. Now we average less than once a month. It's more of an entertainment/family time thing for us versus there's nothing to eat in the house issue.

 

I go out to eat (normally) about one night a week. Be it fast food and take it home or a sit down restaurant.There are some great sit-down places in my area that are all fresh foods.

 

Exactly most of us does not have time to cook and I personally would like to spend my time chatting with family and friends,rather than spending time on the kitchen just to cook.
My wife is actually a cook and does good food at home,everytime we eat out we actually just go to fastfoos chains to have a break form her cooking. So for us its actually the other way around.

 

I prefer home-cooked meals these days as they save me money and at the same time, they're even healthier! I don't really go out to eat except if I got invited by my friends which is very occasional.

 

My boyfriend and I eat out about three to four times a week. It's mostly because we work from home and at times, we just want to go out in the evening and treat ourselves to new restaurants. Whenever we don't feel like going out, then that's the time where we cook. We look forward to plenty of things when we go out to eat - the food, the service, the ambience etc - things that we can't or don't normally get at home such as eating in a tree, which some of the outdoor restaurants offer over here! Yes, we can build a tree house, but that'll take us ages

 

My husband and I try and take our family out to eat once a week or at the least every other week. It is just a nice thing to do on the weekends to get us out of the house. We love to try new foods and have new recipes to cook at home. Going out to eat helps us with our hobby of cookie and baking together.

 

Most of the time I will go for fast food over fine dinning. I also don;t have enough money for this. Me and my girlfriend usually just go out to a fine restaurant just once over the last three months. To me it is ok to go out and eat once in a while but it is not that practical if you do it every week or so.

 

I haven't gone out to eat for years! I don't really like eating out, I prefer takeout. I enjoy eating at home rather than in a restaurant.

 

I love going out to eat. I don't do it a lot now because I have bills to pay. It is still a nice little treat for my family every once in awhile. There is nothing wrong with it. I just don't do it everday. I like to stay at home and spend time with my family.

 

I will usually eat out once a week, sometimes more. I have been trying to cut back. I have been wanting to eat a bit healthier so I am working on eating at home more so I can control what is going into our food. I do love eating out and having the day off from cooking though so I am not always successful.