My last non-brownbag lunch was Tuesday. A friend owed me a “nice lunch” because I wrote a business plan for him. He even stopped by my office and picked me up. My wife and I have gone out to dinner once in the past month (because of the holidays we threw a few get-togethers and attended a few, too). Our bill for the one dinner was $85 with tip. Before that, I used a Free Whataburger coupon the day before Christmas (as did my wife) for lunch. We bought cokes. Our bill was three bucks.

That’s about average for us, maybe $90 a month. We like to go out every once in a while, but I make sack lunches every day (quite often last night’s leftover curry or chili or kebabs). We’ve done pretty well with holding down our food costs, and like a little treat once in a while. Our dinner out (last week) was a special occasion, so we went to a slightly pricier place than the normal Indian restaurant or Persian cafe. I know, we’re still talking about a thousand bucks a year, but we often combine it with a movie or drinks or a show.

My advice here to trim the average budget: COUPON, but only coupon stuff you actually use. If you suddenly see this great coupon for three bucks off yogurt but you don’t actually eat yogurt, then you’re just wasting money.

In addition, find the best prices within reason. We shop at three different stores every week. Costco gives us bulk meats, gasoline, my heart medication, egg beaters and other bulk items. Kroger gives us things like Spam lite, cereal, lunch meat, soaps, and condiments. We coupon at Kroger. We go to H Mart, a small Korean grocery chain, for all of our produce because they are half the price of Kroger. These three stores are a mile apart and we go from Kroger to H Mart to Costco to home. We save 20 bucks a week in produce alone, and 15 bucks in meat because we buy in bulk. 91% lean ground beef is $2.20 a pound at Costco, compared to $4.69 at Kroger. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are $1.99 a pound at Costco and $3.99 at Kroger. Ground beef is in five pound lots and chicken is in ten pound bags… still affordable.

Write out your grocery list first. Have a snack before you leave to prevent “hunger pang” impulse buys.

Actually, ‘bring your own wine’ restaurants are only legal in 4 Canadian provinces: Alberta, Quebec, New Brunswick and Ontario (not in BC, where I live). There’s a special licensing procedure for restaurants that wish to do this and there is apparently no restriction on the corkage charge they can levy for the privilege. Typically, corkage runs around $25 according to CBC News, although I’ve been charged as “little” as $17/bottle in a hotel (so we could serve $14/bottle kosher wine). Bringing your own wine is generally marketed towards true wine connoisseurs, not folks who want to save a few bucks on eating out. If you know of a place that doesn’t charge corkage (or only charges a nominal fee) you should publicize it. I’m sure folks wherever you live would be interested.

What I do to save is order from the appetizer menu, since the dinner meals are way too big. You can also ask for the lunch portion at most places (smaller and cheaper) even at dinnertime.

I do not see the point of going out with a couple of friends and turning the bill into a ten minute math lesson. The friends we eat with most often – if we don’t eat at one of our homes – we just take turns picking up the tab.

As for work lunches, going out is a tremendous money suck. And believe it or not, if you stop it you won’t miss it after a while, because what you talk about at lunch is generally the same stuff you talk about in the breakroom, bathroom, or elevator. I almost never go out to lunch and yet my co-workers and I manage to get along fine.

One of my favorite co-workers and I occasionally meet in the breakroom and read while we have our brown-bag lunches. We don’t pre-arrange it but it’s a nice peaceful thing when it happens. Other offices I’ve worked in have lunchtime knitting circles or other craft groups. Eating in can be BETTER for your work/social life than eating out!

2. Don’t order more than you really need for a filling meal. Especially if you’re a stress-eater.

3. A junior burger at a fast-food joint is a regular burger if you cook at home. Order those.

4. Cut back on the booze when you go out. It adds up fast.

We have become relentless about nothing being left in the sink EVER and always cleaning up after a meal immediately. Now when that frazzled day ends, we are much less inclined to eat out.

I will say that having the teenagers grown and out of the house makes this a MUCH easier practice (;

@J: If you’re one of those people who thinks it’s okay to demand that your meal be subsidized by people who ordered less than you, then I don’t really want to go out to eat with you either.

:)

When I do go out with friends or co-workers, it’s a huge treat for me, so I don’t worry very much about cost. It’s also so far and few between, I wouldn’t even say I go once a month.

That being said, as a family, we do get take out maybe twice a month. And again, we aim for cheaper things like pizza and Chinese food that are more kid friendly. Hubby has taken to teaching herself how to make pizza crust so made at home pizza is a once weekly meal- and take out is less often, but still enjoyed.