It's hard not to... restaurants around here have severely cut hours due to lack of staff. Places that were open until 10 or 11pm are not closing at 8 or 9pm. Some are even closing at 7pm.

Even gas stations are closing at 10pm that used to be open 24hrs. That is a heck of a surprise when you plan to get gas on the way home from a night out.

Yes, prices are up and that hurts but the inability to get seated, good service, or have to cram in at rush time is a deterrent.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

I was going through for a coffee recently and saw that the breakfast burritos were now 2 for $6.99. The hell with that!

Luckily, in Houston, I can get a good breakfast taco at an almost infinite array of taco trucks and tacquerias. Their prices have gone up, but they are cheaper, and much better than McDonalds.

Most lunch entrees around Iowa start at $12 and easily go up to $18. Food truck options are similar. A cheap lunch for two is easily $30 to $40.

We have never been frequent diners out. I would for work travel but that was reimbursed. Wife prefers me cooking.
We were recently out running errands and had dinner at CFA. It was close to $30 for the two of us. Food was pretty good but damn, $30 for basically a salad and a sandwich.
Just set out Costco ribeye for tonight. Entire meal will us back about $12. The premium to eat out just isn't worth it to us unless it's needed for logistics in travel or shopping.

I think I saw somehow that a large fries at McDonalds is now like $4-$5 alone now!

This is what having to pay 15 bucks an hour for fast food gets you:

McDonald's says people are cutting back on ordering fries with their burgers as consumers tighten their budgets

We started cutting back last year after we bought a new house. This spring I started a modified keto diet and don't really eat out period. I don't miss eating out that much because quality has gone down a lot lately, and it's just easier in general to prepare food that is 100% compliant at home.

My wife and I like a Denver area steakhouse. Last time in on our anniversary the bill was 130 dollars.

The one that got us to cut back was a breakfast hole in the wall here in Pueblo the cost was 50 bucks for just the two if us. For breakfast.

Nothing has really changed. We still eat dinner in restaurants once a week, maybe twice occasionally. We get takeout once a week as well. Couple of times a month, we'll also get lunch somewhere. All of our regular places are still open, back to normal years ago. Level of service about the same, and yes pricing has gone up, but then so has everything else. Even though I like to cook, we still enjoy the restaurant experience. Some of our favorite places, I simply do not want to try to cook it home, no thanks. They do a much better job at it, and it would take me hours to cook up a multi dish Chinese or Thai meal. I let the experts handle it.

When eating out at some fast food places the cost will depend on how you actually place your order.. Such as a #1 which would be a certain burger / fries/ and drink----- but if you ordered the same burger /same fries /same drink as individual items it will cost more because of the way it was ordered and entered into the register system.... ........................ drill sgt.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I think I saw somehow that a large fries at McDonalds is now like $4-$5 alone now!

not if you use the discounts in their app

This will weed out many of the weak, but I think dining out places in general will show effects first.
The smallest, least popular restaurants that are still there will be the first to go out of business.

I haven't had to make any changes lately, because I already limit my eating out to buying ~3 meals per week. That's usually one lunch per week, and then a weekly date night dinner for two. Been that way for a while. It helps me stick to my budget.

But it helps that I enjoy cooking, and also tend to make quasi-meal-prep by doing things like making recipes that offer plenty of leftovers, or smoking/grilling a bunch of meat on a day off which can then be use as the basis for a bunch of easy meals throughout the following week.

The higher cost of food due to supply issue, inflation, a lack of a full restaurant staff and in some places, $20-25 mandatory minimum wages all add up to very high prices.

I've cut way back because it's pretty expensive. At one of my favorite Mexican places, it's around $80-100 for 2 by the time you add in drinks, tax and tip.

People have money because they are still busy however I'm eating out only about once every 2 weeks.

The wife and I just don't bother with it anymore. She goes out to eat with her girlfriends when they're running around doing girl stuff on the weekends but she eats like a bird.

But I am not dealing with it. We get take-out from restaurants from time to time but even that is uncommon these days.

The COVID bullshit and the massive inflation due to incredible stupidity coming out of Washington these days has made dining out a thing of the past for me. Not to mention, this stuff where some restaurants are placing mandatory surcharges on your tab and they they expect you to tip the waiter on top of that. Nope, screw it.

Since the idiocy of the last three and a half years, the fools have managed to change the restaurant industry for the worst and forever and I will not be part of it and I know I am far from alone.

Fully aware of our ban on introducing politics in these threads, but also aware that it was Para that started it.... I'm pretty sure that Biden and his fools in the press are at fault. They don't blame him for that problem. We just got home from lunch and we took the smallest grandson. Yeah, it was $40+. Without him it had jumped from the mid teens. But I like the place and the food.

And there is no prospect of any additional income for me. She works at a half dozen volunteer jobs. So from my perspective income is fixed. And I don't care. What the hell am I saving for anyway?

So why hasn't Biden paid any price for all this inflation? The bsstard has caused it with all his free spending. Time to pay the piper.

quote:

Originally posted by bryan11:
Most lunch entrees around Iowa start at $12 and easily go up to $18. Food truck options are similar. A cheap lunch for two is easily $30 to $40.

In and around the Quad cities we see a lot of $10.00 starting prices.

We save a little bit by sharing a meal.

But that's convenient because we are both calorie/ carb counters

Yeah, the Plandemic was a great excuse to print up trillions that are backed up by devaluing the dollars in circulation (ours). Just another tax plus they get to tax your capitol “gains” from everything costing more dollars.
I too have dropped about 80% of my eating out except when I’m out of town and on expenses. My big shock was that all of this happened right after our wages wheee negotiated for five years. Every raise in the contract for that five years has already but wiped out by Bidenflation. In five years I’ll effectively be making less than I was two years ago.

We regularly get coupons in the mail from Burger King, Subway and others. Footlongs at Subway are about $12. With coupon, $12.99 for two and we get two meals off of that. Two Whoppers and 2 fries are $6.99 with coupon. Very nice local restaurant is $11.99 for lunch with Chicken, big salad, vegetable or potato and bread. Genuinely classy atmosphere. We drink water when dining out. Clip those coupons when available. There are some bargains if you look for them except maybe in big expensive cities. Malts, shakes and ice cream seem to have gone up everywhere.

quote:

Originally posted by rburg:
Fully aware of our ban on introducing politics in these threads, but also aware that it was Para that started it....

There's no way around it in this instance. It's central to the problem.

My Wife and I used to eat out or order food delivered almost daily. About 4 months ago I decided that it was way too much money, the food quality has gone down and so has the service.
We make our food now at home.