Dining Out on a Budget
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For more details, please see our disclosure policy.
Dining out on a budget requires compromising in small ways, but still achieving the end goals of great food and good company.
Want to save this post?
Enter your email below and get it sent straight to your inbox. Plus, I’ll send you time- and money-saving tips every week!
A few weeks ago I shared a few small ways our family uses to save money. One of those ways was to eat at home, of which we do a fair amount.
However, while we love to eat at home, our family really enjoys its fair share of restaurant dining. I casually mentioned our target price for eating out for our family of 8: $10 to $30.
Y’all jumped out of the woodwork to know how. How do you live within your means and still get to dine out?!
So, here’s my story.
I’ve heard tales of families of 4 who can’t dine out for less than $100. I am stunned when I hear these figures. Where are they eating and WHAT could they possibly be ordering?! I imagine that they go to full service restaurants, order drinks, appetizers, and desserts, and live it up.
We rarely, if ever, do any of the above. At least not all in one night. We might go full service, but we drink water and order simple entrees. Or we eat dinner at home and go out for dessert. Enjoying a meal out for our family of 8 meals requires compromising in small ways, but still achieving the end goals:
- getting out of the house
- keeping the kitchen clean
- enjoying someone else’s cooking
- having a family experience
I’m not sure that I have any “secrets,” but we usually spend anywhere between $10 and $40 when we do eat out, though the usual is often under thirty bucks. There are occasions when the bill reaches in the $50 to $75 range, but those are special events that might even include grandparents or aunts and uncles.
Here’s how we dine out on a budget:
1. We have stand-by restaurants that serve affordable take-out.
We tend to be creatures of habit. There are a handful of places we go as a family that we know everyone likes and that we can afford. These would include: Del Taco, Taco Bell, Costco, In-N-Out Burger, Chick-Fil-A, Chipotle, and Panda Express. We know that we can get in and out the door of these places well within our target range. Del Taco, in particular, offers regular taco specials, where I can, indeed, feed my family for ten dollars or less. And a Costco pizza rings in at $9.99 even. A round of kosher hot dogs and sodas at the food court totals about $10.50+tax since the little girls share.
While some of these establishments are not as “healthy” as others, I don’t fret too much. We don’t make eating out a daily occurrence. (At least not usually. Vacations are a different story.) Instead, I shoot for 80% great, healthy meals (usually at home) and 20% okay meals.
After much trial and error, we’ve hit on a few restaurants that we really love. We’re okay with spending money on “a sure thing,” so we’ve narrowed the field to a handful of places that everyone likes and that cover a range of price points. We want it to be enjoyable for as many of our crew as possible.
This keeps me sane — and allows us “fun food” every once in a while.
2. We drink water, skip dessert, and rarely order appetizers.
We’ve slowly started to wean our family of sodas and beverage bar drinks. They don’t like this idea in theory. But, they’re warming to it in practice. In fact, recently when we did the round of hot dogs and sodas at Costco, the kids and a certain papa went whole hog on the pop. They were feeling it within the hour. No one felt that great after drinking so much soda.
Preferring to drink water is a great way to save money, as is bypassing the dessert and apps. When we do splurge, we usually split a couple orders. Enough is as good as a feast.
3. We visit family-style restaurants.
Since our kids are still pretty little, not every one needs his own “meal.” In fact, eating at family-style restaurants, like Pat & Oscar’s or Panda Express, where we can get large orders of different items is a great way for us to accommodate the differing appetites in our crew as well as save money. At this type of restaurant, we can usually get out the door for about $30 with leftovers to take home.
4. We order kid’s meals only when the numbers crunch appropriately.
Kids meals are a unique experience. Most of our favorite places don’t offer them. However, when the numbers crunch appropriately, we go for it. For instance at Chick-Fil-A recently, we got one free kid’s meal with each adult meal. While the dinner wasn’t “cheap,” we were able to feed our family for $24 that night and ate like kings.
Recently, I discovered that the kid’s meal at Chipotle is only $3.50. I think this is a great deal — if your kid will eat what’s on his plate. However, FishBoy7 thinks that both the rice and beans are too spicy. I could buy him two quesadillas for two bucks instead. He’d be just as happy — minus the chocolate milk — and we’d shave something off the bill.
5. We don’t “go big.”
In our days before children we might have bought the biggest meal possible with all the extras. These days, we go for enough to feel satisfied without having too much. That means that we each might forego “a meal” for a sandwich and then share fries. Hubs and I agree that we’d rather be frugal eating out and get to go out more often rather than splurge just a fraction of the time.
6. Remember little kids don’t eat a lot when dining out.
How many times have you ordered a full meal for your kids only to find out that they only picked at it? What a waste! I’ve figured out that my girls (ages 2 and 4) don’t need to order their own meal items. I can usually order a large salad with chicken and share it with them and all three of us are happy.
Dining out, obviously means different things to different people. Granted, I can understand spending more money less often and enjoying a nicer dining experience. (We save those for date nights.) But at the same time, this is a way that works for us. We can enjoy a meal I don’t have to cook, be together as a family, and not go beyond our budget.
I’m talking about saving on dining out today too on my blog. Some similar tips to yours although I think you do a particularly good job of keeping costs low since we spend about the same as you for a family of 4.
Thanks for the tips. Love the idea of buying large amount so fthings and letting children just pick what they want.
We don’t eat out often, but when we do, we almost always share meals. My kids will split a kids meal, and my husband and I will split an entree. We just remind ourselves that if we are still hungry we can always order more food. In nineteen years of dining this way (seven with kids), we have NEVER ordered more food – never needed to!
something that is implicit both here and the photos you take of your own plate, but i don’t recall you ever mentioning – is that you guys are very good at portion control. Sometimes i see your plate and think that is SO tiny, where’s the food? Then i realize that it’s enough and better for your waistline and your wallet. You could do an entire post about portion control and saving money! We go out for lunch once a week at costco – mom & dad split the salad, our kids split a piece of pizza and a churro or a hot dog and a churro. We actually get two drinks to go with our salad – we ALWAYS eat first (who wants to do a costco shop hungry and then have all the food sit there while you eat?) and get our money’s worth – we refill once or twice while shopping and refill before we leave. Turning costco into an enjoyable experience for our entire family helps us not feel guilty about not dragging the kids around to costly activities that are more hassle than helpful.
Well, that’s really interesting. I hadn’t thought about the portion angle. I try to control my plate because Mother Nature is catching up to me. And I pretty much let the kids eat as much as they want. But, perhaps it isn’t as much as other people eat. I dunno. Thanks for pointing that out.
Totally agree. My husband is a garbage disposal and has a fast metabolism. He wants to eat twice as much as I do, twice as often. I often times feel like i’m feeding two grown adults feeding him and its not cheap 🙁
When my husband and I eat out, we ALWAYS split a meeal. He doesn’t like leftovers, and the servings are almost always so huge neither of us needs to be eating the whole thing. So, we can go to a pretty decent, sit-down resturaunt and get out of there for under $15 including tip.
Since cooking more at home I have found that when we do go out to eat the meals rarely measure up to what I can prepare at home, especially with fast food. Personally, for this reason, I would rather save up a little extra and take my family to a nicer restaurant (sometimes chain sometimes not). We do this once a month and allot ourselves $50. We are a family of 4.
Another tip I would add that we do to save money is to view the menu online first. This way we can pick out and budget our meals accordingly. I have found this really helpful not only keeping us within budget but keeping my calories under control 🙂
I agree with the water tip. We only drink water at home so really that is all my kids know and prefer. SO that is a money saver. However, I will confess some times I do get a glass of wine 🙂
Lastly, we share dessert. Money and nutrition wise I think it is always best to share a piece of cake then for everyone to get their own.
– Tammy
It’s true. Eating out isn’t as much fun now that I know how to cook things we like!
I love your ways of saving. You’re right, most of the cost is in the extras. We avoid those, too.
We very rarely go out to eat. When we do go, I always call ahead to ask if I may take my own food (I need to be fanatically gluten-free, and our family cannot afford gf restaurants), and my husband and the kids splurge on an all you can eat Chinese buffet. It’s not cheap, but then we’re feeding 4 huge eaters as well as a little one…and they get all the delicious tidbits and icecream anyone could want.
My kids like to set up restaurants at home. They get to make all the special foods we rarely eat (jello, fries, etc), prepare several kinds of meat, minimize vegetables, type up a fancy menu, and deorate the home. It’s so much fun!
That sounds like a great idea! I’m going to try that. Love the menu idea:)
Annie I love that idea of setting up a restaurant at home!! I will have to try that. Very creative.
We like to do “Leftover Restaurant” to use up the bits and pieces left in the refrigerator. I wrote about it on my blog, if you’re interested. 🙂 http://www.the-homestyle.com/2011/08/24/leftover-restaurant/
My kids love going to buffet restaurants, but I find those so expensive. I was thinking about doing something similar to what you describe. They would love that.
We are a family of 5 and we rarely spend more than $25 on dinner out as a family. If my kids are really craving soda, I order the food to go, and pick up a 2 liter of pop from a store where I know its always $1 and share it. However, they only get soda once to maximum twice a week. I also clip all sorts of coupons for local and chain style restaurants we enjoy that further drives down the cost.
For me, eating at a non-chain restaurant is priority #1. If they also source from local farms, that is a huge bonus. I might be spending a bit more but for me it’s worth it to support my local economy and feel more comfortable about what’s in my food (more importantly, what’s NOT in my food!)
I think that is a great concept. The trick is to find a good place to go. We’ve tried several and not yet found one that we enjoyed eating at.
Great tips! We rarely eat out but have found that we save quite a bit, just by drinking water. We always skip dessert because we don’t eat gluten or dairy which also saves money.