I hardly ever eat out. I like to cook and can't afford restaurant prices. I also like to eat healthy, and restaurant food is too salty and fattening. But when visiting friends out of town, I enjoy eating out and trying the best of the local restaurants.
We seriously lowered our food budget when we stopped eating out so often. We have just one rule: we don't eat out just because it's convenient or we don't feel like cooking. Now when we eat out -- about once every few months -- we enjoy it more. Restaurant portions are so huge we inevitably bring home enough food for at least one more meal. Also, we don't order alcohol or sodas, just water. We will definitely eat desert, though -- after all, it's a planned splurge and one that we want to enjoy.
When I was working two jobs, every day. Now that I'm down to one, once or twice a week on weekends. I try to pick the "healthier" option, or aim for smaller portions nowadays.
Since we're newlyweds on a TIGHT budget, we'll treat ourselves to eating out maybe once a month...and even then we like to do it at restaurants where I've picked up a Restaurant.com gift card or doubletakedeal or something comparable!
We used to spend about $3,000 a year eating out. It was common for us to dine out once a week. This year we budgeted $1,000 for eating out and we are on track to actually spend less than that. From January to mid September this year, we have spent $590 on dining out. This includes the occasional hamburger urge, pizza run, box of donuts, and on-the road emergency stop, as well as planned and much anticipated celebrations. Twice a year -- for wedding anniversary in June and joint birthdays in October-- we splurge on dinner out at our favorite restaurant. The tab usually runs about $150 for the two of us. We are on track to underspend our reduced budget by about $100-$200 -- unless something unexpected happens.
We used to each out a lot (a few times a week). Now we try to eat out only on special occasions (birthdays, anniversaries, achievements etc...). Sometimes we are out with the kids for longer than expected and it runs into dinner time. They get hungry so we will stop but we try not to do that too often.
"Shady practices"?? Like charging those who will use it more often a increased amount to help cover the additional use?? Should we operate grocery stores the same way to eliminate hunger?? It's not a "right" any more than driving is a right. Same old drivel.
Hey Linsey. You made so many great points in your article. I've been a mystery shopper for quite some time now and I've found many of your tips to be very true and helpful for a beginner. I specifically can attest to point #5 about payment based on performance. I remember starting off a bit rough when I started mystery shopping and I wasn't compensated for some of my costs because I did the assignment incorrectly. It was a hard lesson to learn, but I've definitely learned now.
I've come across a number of companies now that I've had more experience under my belt, but one that I've been loving recently is SQM. You can find out more about them here: http://goo.gl/dokj3r. They've recently started evaluating flights and you get 50% off, so it's a great opportunity for the person that loves to see the world. Anyways, thanks again for all the tips and I hope you enjoy mystery shopping! :D
My fiance and I used to dine out or get take-away 3-4 times a week. Now that we're saving up for a wedding, we've cut it back to once a week and use it as an end of week treat. We've both gotten to be better cooks, and we get to spend time planning and making meals together which is great fun.
We used to eat out a lot more, but we tried to cut back to save money, but eating healthier actually got us to stop eating out. I still get coffee more than I should (I try but I can't exactly recreate the drinks I like) but lunches out have almost completely stopped and now we eat out for date nights (or do takeout/delivery) once a week or so and have a special dinner for birthdays or the like. To save money we look for coupons mostly, our town business district sends some for a couple of places we like.
We eat out for special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries or some noteworthy honor that a family member has received. Other than that, about 3 x a month.
We never liked dining out for few clear reasons: we cook at home (and mostly from scratch) and it's usually expensive to eat out (not to mention most of the time the food is sub-par).
Even in our 3 week vacation in Croatia this year we decided to cook at home (had an apartment with a small kitchen) and this allowed us to save 800 euro from the entire budget (which was 2,200). It was nice to be able to eat healthy meals and come back from the vacation with money.
Our dining out is maybe 2-3 times a year if not less.
Once, maybe twice, a month - when my granddaughters are in town to visit their father I will usually take us all out for breakfast. That's all I can afford. My son (their father) eats out 4 or more nights per week - of course, he never has money to pay back what he's borrowed from me.
I hardly ever eat out. I like to cook and can't afford restaurant prices. I also like to eat healthy, and restaurant food is too salty and fattening. But when visiting friends out of town, I enjoy eating out and trying the best of the local restaurants.
We used to dine out a couple times a week. Now we eat out maybe once a month.
We dine out once a month if there is $$ left in the monthly food budget.
Maybe once a month, and then only with gift card or savings voucher
We seriously lowered our food budget when we stopped eating out so often. We have just one rule: we don't eat out just because it's convenient or we don't feel like cooking. Now when we eat out -- about once every few months -- we enjoy it more. Restaurant portions are so huge we inevitably bring home enough food for at least one more meal. Also, we don't order alcohol or sodas, just water. We will definitely eat desert, though -- after all, it's a planned splurge and one that we want to enjoy.
All things in moderation!
once per month.
When I was working two jobs, every day. Now that I'm down to one, once or twice a week on weekends. I try to pick the "healthier" option, or aim for smaller portions nowadays.
Since we're newlyweds on a TIGHT budget, we'll treat ourselves to eating out maybe once a month...and even then we like to do it at restaurants where I've picked up a Restaurant.com gift card or doubletakedeal or something comparable!
We used to spend about $3,000 a year eating out. It was common for us to dine out once a week. This year we budgeted $1,000 for eating out and we are on track to actually spend less than that. From January to mid September this year, we have spent $590 on dining out. This includes the occasional hamburger urge, pizza run, box of donuts, and on-the road emergency stop, as well as planned and much anticipated celebrations. Twice a year -- for wedding anniversary in June and joint birthdays in October-- we splurge on dinner out at our favorite restaurant. The tab usually runs about $150 for the two of us. We are on track to underspend our reduced budget by about $100-$200 -- unless something unexpected happens.
We used to each out a lot (a few times a week). Now we try to eat out only on special occasions (birthdays, anniversaries, achievements etc...). Sometimes we are out with the kids for longer than expected and it runs into dinner time. They get hungry so we will stop but we try not to do that too often.
About once a week sometimes twice at most. Budget about $100 per month for those meals.
We try to eat out only once a week.
"Shady practices"?? Like charging those who will use it more often a increased amount to help cover the additional use?? Should we operate grocery stores the same way to eliminate hunger?? It's not a "right" any more than driving is a right. Same old drivel.
Hey Linsey. You made so many great points in your article. I've been a mystery shopper for quite some time now and I've found many of your tips to be very true and helpful for a beginner. I specifically can attest to point #5 about payment based on performance. I remember starting off a bit rough when I started mystery shopping and I wasn't compensated for some of my costs because I did the assignment incorrectly. It was a hard lesson to learn, but I've definitely learned now.
I've come across a number of companies now that I've had more experience under my belt, but one that I've been loving recently is SQM. You can find out more about them here: http://goo.gl/dokj3r. They've recently started evaluating flights and you get 50% off, so it's a great opportunity for the person that loves to see the world. Anyways, thanks again for all the tips and I hope you enjoy mystery shopping! :D
My fiance and I used to dine out or get take-away 3-4 times a week. Now that we're saving up for a wedding, we've cut it back to once a week and use it as an end of week treat. We've both gotten to be better cooks, and we get to spend time planning and making meals together which is great fun.
About once a week or less.
We used to eat out a lot more, but we tried to cut back to save money, but eating healthier actually got us to stop eating out. I still get coffee more than I should (I try but I can't exactly recreate the drinks I like) but lunches out have almost completely stopped and now we eat out for date nights (or do takeout/delivery) once a week or so and have a special dinner for birthdays or the like. To save money we look for coupons mostly, our town business district sends some for a couple of places we like.
We eat out for special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries or some noteworthy honor that a family member has received. Other than that, about 3 x a month.
We dine out on a regular basis at least twice a week.
always dine out on special occasion plus, a couple times a week. I use coupons when available.
We usually dine out once a week, on Tuesdays
A few times a week, but not anything fancy most of the time. Working on cooking at home more!
We probably dine out about 4 times a year. Can't afford it'
We never liked dining out for few clear reasons: we cook at home (and mostly from scratch) and it's usually expensive to eat out (not to mention most of the time the food is sub-par).
Even in our 3 week vacation in Croatia this year we decided to cook at home (had an apartment with a small kitchen) and this allowed us to save 800 euro from the entire budget (which was 2,200). It was nice to be able to eat healthy meals and come back from the vacation with money.
Our dining out is maybe 2-3 times a year if not less.
Once, maybe twice, a month - when my granddaughters are in town to visit their father I will usually take us all out for breakfast. That's all I can afford. My son (their father) eats out 4 or more nights per week - of course, he never has money to pay back what he's borrowed from me.