Restaurants are bankrupting our citizens...
 

This is something I truly do not understand yet see it happen every single day and it always makes me chuckle.

Broke people that eat out at restaurants. Often. I just don't get it. Why? They're broke, can barely cover their rent, have no savings, the credit card agencies are calling daily... and yet, they go to an Applebee's style restaurant three times a week shelling out $15 a pop for an average steak and free refills of watered down Coke. That is $200 of debt recovery being burnt every month due to what? Laziness? Lack of being able to flip a frying pan?

Stupid.

Maybe I'm just a total cheap ass, but one meal a week at a restaurant is just fine for me. Everything else I can get at home. And sometimes I will eat out two or three times a week, thank God I don't have to ignore the debt collectors.

We all have friends that make less than us, spend more than us, and always complain about debt. My question is: why? Is it really rocket science?

People are lazy.

What gets me is those that say it takes to long to prepare meals. Nine times out of ten you can make it faster and be eating faster than if you go out. Exclusion being picking up fast food on way home. I know I can make a burger in less time than it takes to drive a mile away grab it and come back.

thats me.

at least i can afford it. and i have no bills and luckily, expendible income.

i eat out at least twice a day. 30 bucks a day for food on average.

i keep very little at my house, as its just me.

i like to cook, but its really hard to cook for one. sometimes being a bachelor is a curse. the stuff i do keep at home is a freezer full of frozen fresh fruits for smoothies, protein powder and buncha canned goods and cereal. lol.


i don't know whats wrong with the people that can't afford to live that way. kinda strange actually.

Agree.. it's just lazyness - or call it a "lifestyle habit" and not beneficial if ya still pay by credit cards.

Anyways it gets boring eating out every night :Oh crap

i eat food from fast food trash cans it's cheap, easy and free

Financial experts say that cooking and eating at home and taking packed lunch to work can actually cut down your expenses and save a lot of money.

Time is money. I choose to have my time rather than the money I give regularly to the restaurants or to a cook.

You can hire a private cook for every night's dinner for less than $2,000/month. They even let me choose the meals ahead of time -- I just email what I want that week, or let them choose.

I think you have missed the point.

Tonight I made General Tsao chicken. Cost about 5 bucks (ingredients) to make enough to feed two people. And it is WAY better than the stuff you'll get at any Chinese restraunt.

:winkwink:

http://www.stubradley.com/pictures/tsao_03.jpg

other times its a blessing

I've never seen anyone make General Tsao's at home. Incredible.

people cant be bothered to go shopping....

I eat out at least 3-6 times a week. It's just easier for me. I hate to cook and once I get all the ingredients together, I cook it, I eat it, and then I throw the rest away. Plus a $45 restaurant meal ALWAYS taste better than something I can make ;) If I'm cooking for someone else, it's fine. But for me, I'd rather eat out.

(I guess I shouldn't tell you about my $125 dinner the other night - BUT it included wine pairings)

tell me more!

Sadly it wasn't as good at it sounds. It was at the Emeril's here in ATL and after eating at the one at the MGM and Demonicos, it was a very big let down. There were four of us that eat out at least once a week together and we all agreed we won't be going back :( I was the only one who had the wine pairing meal and out of 4 courses, not one got the wine out w/in 5 minutes of the food being served. Food/wine were OK, but service just sucked the life out of it.

Now, the shrimp on grits with spinich and sausage and the thai curry mussels I had last night were AWESOME. Place called Goldfish - I think it's part of a chain.

O'rly? :upsidedow

I wonder how much those financial experts get paid to spout off those amazing discoveries! :1orglaugh

Some of us simply hate to cook. I hate cooking and I hate doing dishes, and I dont have kids or a wife I can pawn that task off on or things might be different.

I almost never eat at home and spend several hundred dollars a month at resturants. I almost never go to Applebees or similar chains. I have a few family owned places that I like (mostly because they use real food, i.e. organically grown eggs, etc) and I make regular runs to them. Chain food sucks, costs more and supports things I dont want to be supporting.

Of course, this does have alot to do with the fact that I am rarely at home when its time to eat.

It is a two edged sword - people work in the restaurants, people work in the food service / food delivery / equipment / supply and all those other things. Eating out doesn't bankrupt anyone, it (like many other things in society) help to move the money around a little faster. The faster the money turns, the faster overall eonomy grows.

Otherwise we could all grow corn in our back yards and eat that all winter.

Alex

My family owns an independant grocery store and very few people nowdays buy ingredients to make their own meals.

What really kills me is that even people on food stamps will not cook their own meals. All they buy is pop, ice cream, chips and frozen food. It's not like they don't have lots of time to cook since they aren't working or anything.

I ignored it because the original poster was a moron, and the point was so pedantic and poorly thought out that I figured it was a troll.

I was replying to someone later in the thread with a bit more synaptic activity.

You can also be much more health conscious if you cook your own meals and pack your own lunch...

hmmmm that looks good! and much cheaper. :)

Yep. It saves you big time. A number of years back when I worked a full time job in telco. I added up just how much I spent on food, and gas in a month. Tallying up everything, and I was like WTF?!?!?!

I was going through $350 between meals, and gas a WEEK. Sometimes more if you included weekend beer festivities back when I drank. But just food and gas was that much.

So... I changed jobs to be closer to my house. Ate breakfast at the house, came home for lunch, and cut my expenses big time. I spent LESS THAN $350 a month in groceries and house was packed with food. Lost weight. Plus hand a ton of left over money for other goodies.

It makes a HUGE difference. Both in your health, and in the wallet. I do not mind cooking if I had a servant to do my dishes. But I can't stand cooking and cleaning. But I do it. Cooking bigger meals when I have company so they do the dishes. Leaving me left overs for other days.

:winkwink:

Time is money, and I do not mind occasionally eating out once a week, or every two. But even then, I prefer a nice sit down place. Not fast food. But I like having money in the bank, and being able to buy new cars, and other toys over some meal which I will shit out within the next day.

:2 cents:

you sir are intelligent beyond belief.

i love being a bachelor :)

im in the same boat as you. but back before i started in adult and i was only making $10 an hour i would almost never eat out.

:1orglaugh