If you were to look at most aspects of my life, I think I can convince most people that I am rather frugal. It's when you finally look into the skeleton closet that is my food budget, that is when you finally understand why women scream in terror while covering the eyes of their children.
The topic of my food budget has come up before, but frankly, I have been very reluctant to talk about it. However, I suppose nothing will ever get better if I don't ever talk about it, and with people who may actually have the solutions that I seek.
Ahem. Right. The numbers. My average monthly food expenditure is roughly $1500 each month, give or take a few hundred. That's for both dining out and grocery shopping combined. Let me just give you guys a moment to gasp here....
Ok, so why is it so high? Well, I've always liked to dine out, even if "dining out" is just getting Chinese take-out. But even with Chinese take-outs, food costs in general has soared. The same order that used to cost $20 now costs $30 to $35. And so, my already massive food budget has ballooned that much more.
I do cook at home too, but the truth is I am a dirty, dirty foodie at heart. Good food is like my meth er I mean sunshine for the soul. It's what makes getting out of bed each day worth it. Nothing beats a good bowl of Vietnamese pho, the perfectly executed Pad Thai, the earthy, hearty bowl of high quality ramen, the amazing mess of deliciousness that is seafood boils, the heaven-sent bounty that is the Korean BBQ, the pristine freshness and craftsmanship of sushi, and steak.... Oh my goodness, I am so picky about steak, but a good one will absolutely make my day.
Another factor that complicates things for me is that I am also diabetic. My blood sugar is always too high, and therefore, I need to avoid carbs at all cost. As we all know, carbs are the cheap foundation of most meals, but it's also something that I can not have, even when I want it. Instead, I do my best to replace it with vegetables, but even veggies aren't exactly cheap these days.
I can go on, but I think you get the picture. So far, my budget does allow for this extravagance, but I also realize that just because something is possible, it still doesn't mean that's a good idea. So, if there are ways to cut it down without missing out on yummy foods, I'm all ears.
February 25th, 2025 at 12:39 am 1740443973
February 25th, 2025 at 02:46 am 1740451592
If you eat out often, especially if you order drinks (alcohol or otherwise) or appetizer plus entree (I assume not dessert if you are diabetic) that isn’t surprising.
Is this something you want to change? Or just something ‘quirky’ that you are sharing?
It sounds like food is part of your ‘entertainment’ budget too. Many people hav expensive hobbies or expensive bad habits that fall into the ‘want’ category.
If you are curious what it would be like to live on, say a $300 food budget for a month, you could try it out. Ground turkey, ground beef, chicken bought on sale, frozen veggies plus whatever produce is on sale. See how creative you can be. Maybe you’ll find 4 ‘cheap’ meals you like to put in your rotation and save $200 per month.
February 25th, 2025 at 03:00 am 1740452417
And yes, if you want to throw "entertainment" in there, I guess you can do that too. I don't really go anywhere or don't do anything else anymore. Other than food (as entertainment/luxury), the rest of my life basically consists of 4 walls, a roof, and a mattress on the floor. I guess I could do something more, but for now, nothing particular comes to mind. I appear to be... content with the way things currently are?
But of course, I also realize this is an insanely high cost, and every day, I do fight myself to try to get this cost down. So no, it's not a quirky thing that I am just sharing, and I am sorry if it sounded some kind of weird flex. It's not meant to be.
February 25th, 2025 at 03:15 pm 1740496523
My next thought is how much that eating out must be affecting your health. I find it difficult to eat out more than once or twice a month. I joke that if I eat a plain salad at a restaurant (no dressing) it will have an extra 1000 calories (versus just making the same salad at home). This has become painfully obvious after 20-ish years of just eating at home. Now that we do have more means and less mouths to feed (a lot of the time), we generally choose health over eating out.
I think overall my attitude would be, "Meh, if you can afford it." But with the health aspect, that could be another motivation to rein it in.
99% of my food strategy is we eat from the grocery store. But the steak part reminded me... We got a London Broil steak the other day from the grocery store and cooked it in our sous vide. It tasted like filet mignon. It was *so* good. I recommend a souse vide if you do not have one. We've had one for 10+ years and generally do pork chops and steak. But that London Broil ($10 for a couple of pounds) was next level.
February 25th, 2025 at 09:47 pm 1740520061
When my aunt and uncle came we had king crab at $40/lb. Again super expensive and oysters and everything else. Eating at home can be prohibitively expensive too just cheaper than eating out.
I can honestly say I think now I spend around $2k at grocery stores a month now. Maybe I'll tally it up.
February 25th, 2025 at 11:02 pm 1740524548
As you pointed out, food prices have soared. I don't see them coming down. My DH has said repeatedly, it's easier to raise prices than it is to lower them. He's right. Once a price has gone up, even if things change, they don't normally go down at the same rate.
I think $50 isn't outrageous, especially if some of that is going out. Part of it is entertainment, part of it is nourishment, and part is helping your local economy.
February 25th, 2025 at 11:47 pm 1740527241
Luckily, now that I can drive again, I am indeed able to get that cost back down again. For example, I had lunch buffet today for roughly $21 (because I also hate being stingy with the tip), which is all I am spending for food today. I know I quoted $1500/mo, and that was definitely true when I was stuck in the house, but I think a fairer quote now is more like $1200, which is still high of course, but that is what I am working on.
LAL: Wagyu A5 was on my bucket list, and on a friend of mine's bucket list as well. Up until maybe a month ago, both this buddy of mine and I finally had the chance to try it. I do want to emphasize that, as a bucket list item, it's a once-in-a-lifetime type of indulgence, and we have never had Wagyu A5 in our entire lives, until now. On top of that, we both found it WAY over-rated, and because of that, we most likely will never try it again. Maybe. We talked about how maybe we just ran into a really bad example, and might need to try a different establishment some day. So maybe twice in our lifetime max.
Rob: Yeah, if anyone would understand, I was hoping you'd be the one to show up with words of mercy hahahaha. The last few purchases I made was coat hangars, drain filter, and kitchen scrub pads. They were all just basic essentials that I needed at the time. I really don't do much interesting with my life, except again, eating yummy foods aha.
Now, to be clear, I am not looking for validation or anything. I know I am spending way too much. I know I am literally stuffing a car payment into my mouth every month. If I am being honest though, I also don't think I will ever stop eating what I find tasty either. I just need to figure out how to get the cost down without sacrificing too much here.
And yes, I always try my best to eat healthy as well, and we all know eating healthy is not a cheap endeavor in the first place. That part, I am OK with. You invest in things that are indeed important to you, and I think eating healthy is worth the investment.
February 26th, 2025 at 12:05 am 1740528349
Anyways, yeah, I also dislike going to restaurants in general, because when I do, it's usually just by myself, and sometimes, I feel self-conscious(?) being a party of one?
Uh yeah, so as I said before, I also cook sometimes, but you know even ribeye steak from the grocery store can get pretty pricey these days. Still though, it beats many steakhouses, and yeah, I think it might be time to fire up my souse vide machine again soon.
February 26th, 2025 at 12:08 am 1740528505
I should make another pot soon too. Mmmmm.
February 26th, 2025 at 02:43 am 1740537827
Is it possible to go to an asian market near you they are usually so much cheaper for ingredients and you can take a weekend and cook all your meals and freeze them so way less take out...not sure what it is like there but we use a butcher and farmers markets here which supports locals and is usually cheaper
February 26th, 2025 at 03:55 am 1740542122
I will look around for markets for cheaper prices.
February 26th, 2025 at 02:05 pm 1740578707
I think regarding it as part of your entertainment budget as well will help you make peace with this. For those of us who are fortunate enough to have discretionary income, it's always about finding a balance between overspending and underspending--especially when you are unmarried and don't have children. You want to have enough income to support you through your life, including potential end-of-life high medical costs, but after you meet those goals, it's a balance between your lifestyle today and your legacy after you are gone.
February 26th, 2025 at 02:57 pm 1740581876
February 27th, 2025 at 07:57 am 1740643061
MM: Thanks you for that great suggestion as well. It's been a long time since I've tried corned beef. Unfortunately, the last time I tried to cook it, it turned out horrible? HOWEVER, I also think that it's because I really messed up the cooking it somehow the last time. So yeah, I will try again, with hopefully better results this time.
February 27th, 2025 at 03:01 pm 1740668489
But seriously, one thing I would suggest is that you track your usual food spending for a month, but separate out the grocery spend vs. the eating out spend. Once you really know what you're dealing with, you may feel better equipped to find ways to cut back.
I think lumping the 2 together is not a good idea when the 2 behaviors....buying food at the grocery store to prepare at home vs. buying ready-made food...are pretty different. It might not feel like a big hardship to you if you knew, say, that of the $1500 you spend monthly, $300 is spent on groceries and $1200 is spent on takeout. And then making a concerted effort to start making all those foods you love at home so you're not really depriving yourself of anything you love (just obtaining it in a different way), but you WILL save $$ making it yourself.
February 27th, 2025 at 03:06 pm 1740668781
However, when I track expenses, I have separate categories for dining out as well as vitamins/supplements. I just like a more granular approach so I can really discern what is going on. So if you include those in my food budget, I'm actually averaging $464/mth.
February 27th, 2025 at 05:17 pm 1740676654
I love my Crockpot. Besides the yummy roast, there are lots of other recipes out there you can make. I've even done an egg casserole so it was ready (before eggs became so darn expensive) when we wanted brinner (breakfast for dinner). It's an economical way to fix meals because it doesn't use a lot of energy. As resourceful as you are, I'm sure you can find some other recipes and hope you blog about them.
February 27th, 2025 at 09:37 pm 1740692221
February 28th, 2025 at 01:39 am 1740706768
February 28th, 2025 at 02:24 am 1740709451
rob: Again, I very much appreciate your support, and let me just say that I am quite amused by the term "brinner". I mean, yeah why not, especially since I'm already such a fan of brunch already.
Goodliving: Yeah, so one of the "downsides" of being a bachelor with a bit of means is that, I can basically do whatever I want and there is literally no one here to stop me. If I want to go eat out somewhere (that's not too crazy), I can just run off and do it.
But if I had not believed in frugality enough in the first place, I don't think I would have ended in such a fortunate position as I am now. By now, I think it's just a part of my personal nature to always think frugally, even if I am failing miserably at it.
But yes, I like tasty food, and I know that's probably not really ever going to change. I just acknowledge that it's also insanely out of control, and I need to get it back down to a reasonable level.
MM: Wait, beer is the secret ingredient? Wow. I've never cooked with beer before. I don't even drink alcohol... or even energy drinks or coffee anymore, but I digress. Sounds like I should definitely follow a recipe on that one. In the past, I just kind of toss some meat and veggies together in a crockpot, and call it a day. I have much to learn haha.
March 2nd, 2025 at 12:01 am 1740873717
March 2nd, 2025 at 02:18 am 1740881939
Perhaps the real game-changer here seems to be the ability to microwave the lid as well, allowing it to trap the steam inside, and therefore resulting in foods that remain moist and tender? Not sure if that's true, but I will know for sure once I get mine. (Yes, I decided to go ahead and order one.)
It also definitely helps that this was endorsed by chef David Chang of Momofuku fame.