January Eating Out and Take Out Budget

This is a new thing that I am tracking because I feeling that we are spending more and more eating out so I want to make sure that it doesn't kill the budget.  The hard part of this is that we use eating out for celebrations, vacation, family visitors and other things so I have a hard time putting a limit or budget around it but I know that I need to keep track and make sure that it doesn't get out of control.

Little Caesars                                    $26.50

Crayola Experience $8.47 + $6.50= $14.97

Wendy's                                         $9.49

Little Caesars                                 $5.30

Total                                            $56.26

This month's challenge was my son's birthday party.  We had the party at the house with a bunch of his friends.  He wanted to have pizza because it is one of his favorite foods and since we weren't paying lots of money for a party out, we agreed to start with the pizza and then they decorated cookies.  They ate one of the cookies and packed the other in their bags to take home.  The rest of the goodies were things that they made like a frisbee pokeball that they decorated and poke cards that they created and colored themselves.  There was also a guidebook with coloring sheets, mazes and other sheets that they also took home so there wasn't a large cost for the party so the cost of the pizza wasn't too large when the rest of the food was made at home including cupcakes for the party and cupcakes for school.

We also took a trip to Pennsylvania for my son's birthday and we ate pizza at the Crayola Experience and then my husband promised my son this icee (also his favorite) and he paid in cash and doesn't remember how much it was but thinks it was $5.99 plus tax so I estimated $6.50.  We ate the meal that night at the hotel so there wasn't the additional cost of the restaurant but ate Wendy's for lunch the next day and Little Caesars for dinner when we got home so that I didn't have to make dinner to eat any later then it was already.

I was hoping to be around $40 monthly take out but there weren't a lot of extra eating out for no reason so I think that it worked out really low for everything we got. I hope that you did well with your eating out spending.

Our Eating Out and Take Out Review

I track my grocery spending in a notebook and I have never tracked my take out and eating out budget!!!  LIKE EVER!!!  I decided to go back and figure out how the numbers looked for eating out this year after realizing that we went a little overboard in August!  I was worried that it was going to upset me but I was looking to find out anyway...better to know and get a handle on it.

I had some gift cards from my students and my husband had a few from his so we did enjoy some that cost us nothing out of pocket but that still doesn't mean that money wasn't spent.  I try to keep our eating out spending under $40 per month.  The take out budget I thought it was going well but check out my review below:

September:

$5.30 Little Caesars 

$9.54 Little Caesars

$4.23 Dominos Pizza

$5.30 Little Caesars

$9.53 Paisanos Steak and Cheese

Total $33.90

August:

$2.00 Red Robin (above gift card)

$3.58 Wendy's 

$10.59 Little Caesars

$14.85 Tony's Pizza

$13.50 Dairy Barn Ice Cream

$10.98 Chuck E Cheese

$12.16 Cheesecake Factory (above gift card)

$46.48 Chinese food

$15.68 Wendy's

Total $129.82

July:

$19.78 Grottos

$7.50 Thrashers fries

$5.00 Kohr's Ice Cream 

$6.91 Wendy's

 

Total $38.94

June:

$5.30 Little Caesars

$9.53 Paisano's Steak and Cheese

$5.30 Little Caesars

$8.54 Wendy's

$9.00 Little Caesars

$23.97 Green Turtle

Total $61.64

 

May:

$9.53 Paisanos Steak and Cheese

$5.30 Little Caesars

$2.00 Delia's tip (my mom paid rest)

$9.35 Wendy's

$5.30 Little Caesars

Total $31.48

April:

$42.55 Chinese

$5.30 Little Caesars

Total $47.85

March:

 $5.30 Little Caesars

$2.11 Wendy's

Total $7.41

February:

$5.30 Little Caesars

$5.30 Little Caesars

 

Total $10.60

January:

$4.01 Wendy's

$24.37 Little Caesars

$4.00 Mike's (above gift card)

 

Total $ 32.38

Total Take Out for the Year $394.02

Monthly Average $43.78

Only a little over in April with Chinese food for the family but either my mother or mother in law was visiting so we were hosting a special meal.  June and July included our vacation so I think that I did really well with eating out only being $22 over budget  in June because it was just one meal that we had on the beach.  We were also crossing over into July so it was nice to have it spread over two months and make so many great memories even though not the greatest sand castle because they spent so much time in the water instead.

August was a mess and I don't have any reason except we were trying to fit in everything at the end of summer.  We promised my son a trip to Chuck E. Cheese buffet which didn't happen until August. We had fun and he used tokens that we already have to play all summer and this was the only expense for that enjoyment.

We ended up picking up the tab for everyone to get ice cream since they picked us up before.  We love this place and got to enjoy it and make lots of memories this summer.

We went a little crazy at Cheesecake Factory after using the gift card because we eat a great meal and then got cheese cake!!!  Umm, it was great and my son's first cheese cake which he shared with us....lots of chocolate.  Another great memory!!

Then we bought Chinese food again when my mom was visiting and picked up the tab which is one of her favorites.  I know that we went a little crazy in August but we had a great end to the summer.  

After going over everything, I was so excited that the monthly total was only a few dollars over what I wanted to spend.  I am sure that we can figure out a way to even it over for the year!!  The best part is that I am sure that I am under on my grocery budget normally in a year about that much so it might even itself out to a total food budget being good.  The worst part is when the money is going out and you don't know where it is going so I am happy that I got this all tracked and I am going to continue for the year.

Do you tracking your take out and eating out spending??