The Case for Eating Out

For years, "dining out" has been considered an unnecessary expense.

"Why bother going out when we have plenty of food at home?!" - this is a question that is asked in thousands of households across the nation almost every night of the week.

You know the feeling...you have had the debate yourself over and over again. You think, "I really shouldn't go out to eat tonight, I have plenty of food in the fridge." Right.....you have plenty of food, but somehow you don't have anything to eat.

The image below is a snapshot of the amount of food wasted each month based on an American family of four. The New York Times wrote an article on "the food we waste" early last week and the St. Petersburg Times republished this story yesterday. They calculate that 122 pounds of food is thrown out each month by one family.
There is also a blog, called Wasted Food that you may be interested in checking out. The New York Times' approach was that there are starving people all over the country yet the typical family is wasting about 1 pound of food per person per day.

I have an entirely different way of thinking about it. Let's forget the "waste", instead let's think about the money you are literally throwing away.

How often have you thrown out a half gallon of bad milk or a loaf of stale bread? When is the last time you didn't manage to eat the entire watermelon you had to have at the grocery store and threw it out? Let's not forget the tricky bagged salad that comes perfectly proportioned by Publix ready for you to dump in a bowl and add dressing....only to find that 6 days later it hasn't been opened and is now considered garbage.

About 3 months ago my wife and I stopped buying milk because we found ourselves throwing half of it out at the end of every week. Do I miss it? No. I don't even notice the difference. In a time when convenience is king, I would much rather grab a Nutri-Grain bar or put my dry cereal in a bag than spend 15 minutes eating a bowl of cereal each morning.

Grocery stores have done a phenomenal job of convincing us that they're "cheaper" and more affordable than going out to eat. However, I completely disagree.

For example, tonight I went to Bonefish Grill. We got a beer and iced tea to drink, chicken egg rolls as an appetizer and two entrees. One was the tuna special with two sides and the other was a chicken dish with two sides. The total cost came to $47.

For $47, I couldn't have bought all of these items and the ingridents that went in to preparing them at the grocery store. Not to mention it most likely would have taken me 2+ hours to make all of the food the way they did AND I would have had to serve it to myself. It was worth $47 at Bonefish Grill.

My idea - stop buying groceries completely, or only buy what you can't live without.

After you have stopped buying groceries - eat all of your meals out. Have you ever considered it? Let's figure that you spend $80-$100 per week on groceries, chances are you are throwing a solid $20 of that in the trash at the end of the week.

Go wild, take the $80-$100 you would spend on groceries and only use it for eating out. It doesn't matter where. Do you think you could do it? Would it save you money?

It's likely you will eat an average of 21 meals a week. For the sake of argument, I'm going to eliminate breakfast and guesstimate that you either don't eat it at all or you will eat cereal or a breakfast bar at home. Now you can eat 14 meals a week out. If my calculations are correct, for each meal you can spend roughly $7.

In today's restaurant world of fast food, fast casual, grab and go, and 2 for $2 hot dogs at 7-11, I have a feeling that $7 can go a pretty long way.

The best part? You won't be wasting food or money. The money you would have spent on food that could have gone to waste, will now be spent eating out which includes: food, service, atmosphere and an experience.

Just an idea.