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With how busy our lives have become, it might feel that it gets harder and harder to cook our own meals, let alone make a trip to the grocery store.Oh, and there’s the act of actually having a meal plan of what to make to begin with.
Once you’ve eaten out for awhile, it becomes a habit. And a hard to break habit at that. Not to mention an expensive habit.
If you’re looking for how to stop eating out and save money, here are some great tips for ways to prevent the temptation, cook and plan more, and stop worrying about the money you’re spending on food.
How many times a week does the average person eat out?
As humans, we’re always curious about what everyone else is doing. As such, here’s a stat on how often the average person eats out. It’s actually more than you think. Drumroll.
The average person eats out almost 6 times a week according to Business Insider. That’s almost every day of the week! And, for reference, that’s 288 times a year! Is that around what you were expecting or were you thinking it was a lot more or less? Either way, all of that eating out can wreak havoc on your budget.
Why You Should Stop Eating out
Are you looking to cut back on your spending from eating out? If so, you’ll probably be interested in these reasons to consider curbing your appetite for takeout.
Is eating out a waste of money?
Yes! By far, eating out is the one of the biggest wastes of money. It’s not wrong to eat out once in a while, or for a special event, but most people find themselves grabbing food at a sit down restaurant or on the go more often than they care to admit.
It’s great to pick certain nights where you’re feeling like you need the outing or the convenience. Maybe you don’t want to grocery shop, meal prep or clean the kitchen. Or, maybe you want to check out the ambiance of a new restaurant with a friend.
Those are all good reasons to want to eat out. But the important part to note is that it shouldn’t be done every day.
Is it cheaper to cook or eat out?
The other night I grabbed 2 orders of wings at a restaurant for takeout, and I paid $45. For just wings, no joke. Compare this to what I would have paid if I had made them at home – well under $10. I’ll let that one sink in.
It might seem cheaper to eat out in the moment, but if you add up the ingredients for a home cooked meal, it likely isn’t. Not to mention that when you cook at home, you’ll have leftovers to use for the next day or several days. Two (or more) for the price of one.
Depending on family size, location, restaurant type, and other factors, the average cost of a meal will change. A few statistics for you regarding how much is spent on food every year:
- An article from Forbes says that it’s almost five times as expensive to order delivery from a restaurant than to cook at home!
- The average household spends an average of $3,008 per year on dining out
- According to a 2018 Zagat article, the average cost per person of dining out was $36.40!
What you save in convenience is what it will cost you with your hard earned dollars.
How to stop eating out tips and tricks
So if eating out is expensive, how can you avoid the trap of wasting money? What kind of habits can you implement or ways to stop eating out to save money? Check out these tips for how you can start saving more now by cutting back on splurging at restaurants.
1. Define what it means to eat out
We all know that we’ll try and find loopholes if we give ourselves the option. Is it just me? It’s not “really” eating out if I’m grabbing a work lunch since I’m so busy today.” “It’s just a breakfast sandwich.” Man, so many ways to get around the fact that you are in fact eating out.
So, to catch yourself before you start, define what it means for you to eat out. What is not considered eating out? Make a list of what constitutes both of these scenarios.
Eating out can mean: breakfast, lunch (including work lunches), coffees, dessert, drinks, and dinner. It can also include snacks or appetizers that you order.
Not eating out: grocery store shopping done for a specific meal.
2. Creative Meals on the weekend
One of the reasons that people struggle with making food at home is often due to lack of variety. Why make food when you can go out to a restaurant and have a professional chef cook it for you? Oh, and no clean up, no meal prep, no grocery shopping.
But going out to eat isn’t the only way to add variety to your meals for the week. While it isn’t always possible to make creative meals throughout the week, you can and should implement having something fun or creative on weekends. You’ll have more time and you can make it a treat for yourself.
Use a meal prep service like the $5 meal plan to include more variety in your meals or take a spin through Pinterest recipe ideas.
3. Keep your Emergency food on hand
We’re all guilty of having those nights where we’re just plain lazy. Or exhausted. If it’s a busy week, we might find ourselves reaching for our phones to order out via UberEats. I have a sneak tactic that I use for those kind of nights.
Make sure to have an “emergency food” on hand at all times. And when you use it, replenish! What’s an emergency food you ask? Something that is easy to make and will prevent you from ordering out. And to answer your question, yes, this can be an unhealthy food.
For me, it’s frozen pizzas or burritos. Guilty as charged. Many a night I’ve come home from work desperate to think of how to stop eating out but also battling wanting to relax and order in. It’s okay to have those kinds of nights. Heck, I think they’re more normal than most people realize. And when you do have them, make sure those emergency foods are nearby. It’ll save you money and time.
Related: Cheap groceries list: what to eat when you’re broke
4. Learn how to make your favorites
If you eat out because you want a certain kind of food, then why not learn how to make that food? Most recipes can be searched via Google or Pinterest with a relatively simple recipe.
And if you can learn how to make your favorite foods, they might even turn out better than what they taste at the restaurant. If that’s the case, you’ll be far less motivated to eat out.
5. Go out for dessert or coffee instead
Sometimes you just want to take a walk or get out of the house. In these circumstances, you can choose to go out for dessert or a coffee instead. It’s far cheaper than a full meal would be.
Grabbing dessert or coffee, or even one drink with a friend, are great ways to cut back on the full cost of eating out. While it’s still considered spending on food or drink outside of the house, it’s still cheaper than having an entire course and dessert!
It also allows you the chance to be social and to get out of the house. A win win. Coffee or ice cream are my go-to’s when I hang out with friends and don’t want to spend on a big meal.
6. Use the slow cooker or instant pot
If you’re a big fan of the crock pot, use it to your advantage. You can meal prep ahead of time on the weekend with frozen crock pot meals. You can start a meal in the morning before work and have it ready by the time you walk through the door.
A step up from the crock pot, my friends rave nonstop about the Instant Pot. If you don’t have the time to wait around for the crock pot, you should consider investing in an Instant Pot. It can practically cook or bake anything! Not only will you be able to cook something insanely fast, but you’ll also have peak flavoring because of the high temperatures.
Not ready to commit to the instant pot yet but want to learn more? Check out this cookbook to get an idea of all the different foods you can make with the instant pot and how easy it makes doing it.
7. Create a habit tracker
Commit to finding out how to stop eating out and save money and work to build it in as a daily habit. What’s the best way to create a habit? Routine and consistency.
Create a habit tracker, whether it’s by downloading a habit tracker app on your phone or printing out a calendar for yourself to hang on the fridge. Make sure that you commit to using it, whichever you choose.
Try to keep the “streak” going when you successfully go a day without eating out. Mark an “X” on the day of your calendar or hit that button on the phone app that says you completed the habit for the day.
Once you begin building a streak (i.e. 2 or 3 days in a row) try to maintain the streak. It’s definitely more of a psychological thing when you see yourself making progress with a streak, you’ll think twice about breaking it.
8. Avoid common excuses
When it comes to making our own meals, most of us have an extensive list of reasons for why we can’t do it. Whether it’s the age-old, “I don’t have time” or “I just can’t cook,” there’s never a short-supply of excuses.
Let’s address the issue: you’ll make time for the things that do matter to you. You’ll try to cook, find easy recipes to tackle, or calculate how much that meal actually does cost you.
Don’t feel guilty about the excuses, just learn how to recognize them and move past them. Remind yourself of what your financial goals are and keep pushing forward.
9. Understand the full cost of eating out
When you go to a restaurant, it’s never just the cost of the food itself that makes it so expensive. It’s all of the extras along with it. You have the cost of the meal, any drink(s) you might order, tax, the tip, and then any cost of getting to or from the restaurant (including parking).
Factor in all of these costs with your meal. To learn how to stop eating out and save money you have to realize all of the costs associated with eating out as well.
10. Create a weekly meal plan
This tip is crucial. Most of us need some kind of a plan or structure to keep moving forward or to stay motivated. And we all can admit that when we’ve had a stressful day in the office, or a long day in general, our mind isn’t working as well as we’d like. It’s infinitely harder to focus on what to cook.
Make your life easier with a weekly meal plan. Even if you don’t stick to the plan 100% you have an idea of what to shop for, what to prepare and when to prepare it. You won’t be left staring into your fridge trying to wrap your brain around what to make with what you have.
A meal plan can be as simple or as difficult as you want it to be. I prefer to make simple meals on weekdays and then more creative meals on the weekend. It’s all catered to preference. The important point is that you have a plan.
11. Meet up with groups after dinner
If you enjoy grabbing food and eating out for social purposes (this is a big weakness for me), a good idea is to meet with a group after they’ve eaten.
You can grab something small, or a drink, rather than getting an entire meal. Make sure that you’ve eaten ahead of time so you’re not starving and tempted to order food when you get there.
12. Host Dinner Parties
Another great idea is to invite people over by hosting dinner parties or nights in. You’ll all save a lot of money by not going out to eat. An added perk if you drink is you can have all of the drinks you want at home. You can also make your drinks the way you want them.
Dinner parties are also a lot more private and intimate than going out to eat in a restaurant. They can be a great way to hang out with friends and meet people.
13. Always use leftovers
We’ve all been guilty of either cooking a good (or mediocre) meal or even going out to eat and grabbing a to-go box and letting it sit in the fridge. It’s so important that we use or eat the food that we’ve made or bought. Otherwise, you’re basically just throwing money away.
You can eat your leftovers as is or you can use them to create another meal. Either way, don’t let them go to waste!
You might be interested in: Powerful habits of frugal people
14. Go somewhere to eat your lunch
When you’re in an office setting, sometimes it’s nice to go somewhere and grab lunch purely for the mini-break that it gives you. You get out of the office and can clear your head for a bit. And that’s a necessary part of your day.
Pack a lunch and go for a walk or find a spot to sit and eat. It doesn’t have to be in the office cafeteria or break room. Make yourself eat your lunch somewhere out of the office to fill that hole you would normally fix with grabbing lunch out somewhere.
15. Do a one month challenge
If you’re not convinced that learning how to stop eating out will save you money, why not give it a go? Whether it’s for a week, two weeks or a month. Make the effort of not eating out and count how much you end up saving.
Use this as a motivating factor to stop eating out on a more consistent basis. Once you see how much you can save from not eating out, you’ll be a lot more motivated to add this to your daily habits.
16. It doesn’t have to be gourmet
Learn to be content with simple meals. Not every meal you have needs to be the equivalent of a five star restaurant. Sometimes it can be as simple as a healthy salad recipe or a chicken and vegetable dinner. Those are actually some of my favorites. You can use seasoning to flavor up, but the meal itself is simple.
There’s a point above where I mention that if you’re looking for more variety, you can incorporate creative meals into your weekly meal plan on the weekends. You’ll have a lot more time to cook and it’ll be much more enjoyable. You can even invite friends over for your more gourmet meals on weekends.
17. Calculate how much you spend on eating out
This can be rather scary, but it’s enlightening.
I’ll sadly admit to this day that there was a time when I believed that, as a single person, it was actually cheaper to eat out than to cook meals at home. *Face palm.*
While for some more extravagant meals at home this might be true, that was not a very sound theory. I found out the hard way later by looking at my credit card statements that I was very wrong.
Use your own credit card statements or bank statements to tally up what you’ve typically been spending on eating out. It might surprise you. Either way, it’s a good starting point to know how much you’re spending and know where to go from there.
18. Find the negatives of eating out
Not everything about eating out is good. To list a few reasons eating out can be bad:
- Eating out all of the time can be bad for you health-wise
- There is too much seasoning on the food
- It’s expensive
- It’s difficult to get to or find parking
- You’re tired of waiting on the service
Find the negatives of eating out for yourself. Look at those and realize that even though it feels like there are only positives, there are actually downfalls to it as well.
It might not be money that de-motivates you, and that’s okay. Whatever it might be, use that to motivate you to stop eating out.
19. What could you use that money towards?
Have a fun vacation you’ve been wanting to go on? Saving up to buy a home? Looking to pay down debt? These are all great financial goals that you should focus on when you find yourself wanting to eat out all the time.
Think about how much money you can save from not eating out and how much money you can put towards your financial goals. Make a visual out of it. Create a vision board. Whatever you need to do to remind yourself of your focus.
20. Treat vs. the norm
It’s easy to find ourselves going out to eat or grabbing food to-go more often than we’d like. Life gets crazy and sometimes it’s just so easy to order in or have a fun dinner with friends.
Make sure that you realize it’s 100% okay that you want to eat out sometimes. It’s your hard earned money, and you sure as heck deserve a nice night out (or in) once in awhile.
But don’t make it a common occurrence. Make it a treat or a special occasion. If you do something everyday, it stops being special. Spend money on eating out but do it in a way that gives you something to look forward to.
Meal Plans that Work
If you’re anything like me (or many people I know), your forte might not be in the kitchen or with planning out meals for the week.
I stopped trying to force this talent ages ago. I just wasn’t cut out to be a chef and make beautiful cookbooks filled with all of my mouth-watering recipes. And maybe you don’t feel that way either.
Or maybe you just don’t have time. Regardless of why, my favorite resource is to have a meal plan service or program that actually works for me.
The $5 Meal Plan is a perfect fit for those who are looking to have their meals scheduled out for them, including a grocery list and easy recipes. This takes all of the guesswork and frustration out of meal prepping. Don’t have a meal plan and want to give this a shot? Try the $5 meal plan for 2 weeks free!
30 Day No Eating Out Challenge
If you think you eat out too much and you’re looking to save more money by cutting back, you might want to consider a 30 day no eating out challenge. You can incorporate many of the above tips into your daily life and start to see results.
Not eating out repeatedly becomes a habit. You might even find that you don’t want to eat out as much anymore. When you start doing something it seems scary but implementing it every day and having a plan to make it work shifts your mindset and causes massive lifestyle changes.
At the very least, this might be a challenge you want to add to your life just to prove that you can do it. If you’re scared to commit to 30 days, try a week and work your way up. You’ll be amazed at what you can do.
Our default mode might be to eat out when we’re busy or tired with our everyday life. It’s important to remember that eating out all of the time adds up more than we think it does.
On your journey to cutting back on your food spending, start out small, incorporate little habits one at a time before going “all in.” Be realistic to your own lifestyle and what your priorities are.
If you’re looking for how to stop eating out and save money it’s important to recognize the true cost of eating out and work your way forward into a lifestyle where you have a plan and no longer need to consistently eat out.
What are your biggest weaknesses when it comes to being tempted to eat out? What have you found has been the most helpful to stop eating out?