How much do you spend on eating out?

[FrabjousDay]

It varies. Eating out is part of our entertainment budget. For us, eating out is about the experience...trying out a fabulous new restaurant, discovering a great hole-in-the-wall joint, celebrating a happy event, spending time with friends and family. We don't bother with icky chain restaurants or drive throughs; the food needs to actually be better and more interesting than what we prepare at home.

[GirlBoyGirl]

We spend maybe $150-$200/year on eating out and that is being generous and includes everything from the occasional coffee or donut to eating out at a sit down restaurant. It just feels like such a waste of money to me, but I can see now that I have kids, how it is easy to fall in to the fast food trap because you are out and about and the kids are hungry and you are running out of time, etc. But I try to keep quick cook foods on hand for that! And now we are getting ready to go shopping and I have 3 baggies back for the kids that includes: goldfish crackers, mini-pepperonis, cheese cubes, raisins, and teddy graham crackers and a juice for each one. That is basically lunch and it will keep them busy while I shop!

[Mom2-3]

We budget $125/week for groceries (5 of us) that includes eating out. We also have a small fun budget $10/week that we decide as a family what to use the money on.

We only eat out (maybe) 2 times per year unless we are on vacation.