"American's typically eat out four to five times a week, forking over about $275 a month."
-AND-
"The average restaurant meal has nearly an entire day's worth of calories and fat."
I totally believe the second factoid. However, I"m not so sure about the first one -- but maybe our household is unique. We typically eat out as a family once, maybe twice a MONTH. And, perhaps another once or twice a month, the kids and I grab MickeyD's on the way to mid-week services at church.
Typical for us? I cook, and three of the four of us (read: the kids and I) sit down for an evening meal together. My sweet hubby is either with us, or fighting hard to get here. (His job does not always allow for a "consistent" quitting time.) When I was growing up, it was pretty much the same. Mom made dinner every night. Dad was most often home, but traveled from time to time. Also, we often enjoyed going out for lunch on Sundays after church. Sometimes, however, the budget didn't allow, and Mom would have a lunch plan ready at home.
Now, back to this generation... Lest you think we live in some storybook... There are always the nights when the kids have a gathering to get to that interrupts our dinner time -- or some such thing that causes us to deviate from our "norm." But Monday through Thursday, those nights are rare.
So -- I'm just taking a casual survey... If you have time, will you leave me a comment and tell me what the norm is for YOUR family?
Maybe I need a dose of reality.
It wouldn't be the first time.
No, you're not wrong. We eat at home almost every single night, and we cook. It was funn, someone actually asked me what I was doing with a shopping basket full of food and I replied that they were ingredients. Taking a look at her cart, it was full of frozen meals. She couldn't imagine buying ingredients to cook, at home. Since we are rural with stores about 30 miles away, if we have to run errands on the weekend we might grab lunch somewhere, typically a family owned sit down diner with diner food. I bring lunch to work almost every day, maybe once or twice a month I purchase a sandwich or pizza slice. Most of the people buy their lunch at somewhere around $6-$7 plus eat out several times a week. That's just too expensive for us.
ReplyDeleteWe only eat out on special occasions...a birthday, an anniversary, etc. and sometimes even on that special occasion, we eat at home. Fast Food Family we are NOT! This is one thing my husband as ALWAYS insisted on...we eat family dinner together. And when the kids started in sports and piano lessons, sometimes they had to miss, but whomever was home all sat down together!
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