More spent in restaurants and bars than at grocery stores

By a nose, American dollars spent at restaurants and bars outstripped those plunked down in grocery stores in January, a first since the Census Bureau began tracking data in 1992.

Think about it this way: More than two decades ago, Americans spent $162 in groceries for every $100 they spent in restaurants. But this past January, they spent nearly equal amounts of money in both places: $50.475 billion in restaurants and bars, and $50.466 billion in grocery stores.


https://www.yahoo.com/food/in-first-americans-spent-more-in-restaurants-than-112803758886.html

I the gas price/disposable income premise is all wrong. Maybe it has more to do with working mothers/dual income families feeling too much time pressure to be spending two hours in the kitchen every night and millenials not knowing how to cook.

Plus, the dollar angle is misleading. Restaurants are expensive. I be more interested in seeing the ratio of meals eaten at home vs. restaurants.

People are too lazy to cook for themselves. I know lots of people that now eat out or carry out for almost every meal.

Hot & Ready pizza accounted for 49 billion of it.

I cook one meal on Saturdays and usually two on Sunday. Totally due to laziness.

32x32

I'd say I spend 4-5 times more in bars/restaurants than in the grocery store. Heavy emphasis on the bar part.

StylesGShmooth wrote:I'd say I spend 4-5 times more in bars/restaurants than in the grocery store. Heavy emphasis on the bar part.

Wonder what portion of each dollar figure is for alcohol?

I've gotten way into cooking, and enjoy it a lot. I used to go out for food all the time because I was too lazy to figure it out.

It's amazing the amount of $$$$ you can save by building a repertoire of meals you can make yourself throughout the week.

Floyd Robertson wrote:I the gas price/disposable income premise is all wrong. Maybe it has more to do with working mothers/dual income families feeling too much time pressure to be spending two hours in the kitchen every night and millenials not knowing how to cook.

Plus, the dollar angle is misleading. Restaurants are expensive. I be more interested in seeing the ratio of meals eaten at home vs. restaurants.

Weird, but when the wife and I did the math and said hey, just stop working and stay home at first it was scary as hell. I loved having her income as a safety net. However, when we stopped and she went shopping and started cooking at home, and no expense of travel and day care and dry cleaning etc, it was still a hit, but not that bad of one.

A huge benefit was that we all were able to sit down pre-high school activities and look each other in the face each night at dinner and have a home cooked meal and a family conversation. Wife kind of got good at the coupon thing too. I'm horrible at it, but she's way more organized.

When she was working it was calling each other up and saying "go get the kids I'll go get chinese" or lets meet at Chilli's for dinner than home, or "dinner on your own, I'll take care of the kids". A slow down life is scary at first but you eat more from grocery stores and less from restaurants.

Thats all fine and all but what if you don't like your family?

AMwood wrote:Thats all fine and all but what if you don't like your family?

Good counter-point. Tell us about it.

AMwood wrote:Thats all fine and all but what if you don't like your family?

Hmmmmmmm damn. Never thought of that.

The only meal we eat together at home is breakfast and even then that's not very often. Most of the time the wife cooks several meals at once so we can eat what we want when we want. We seldom eat together and I'm really OK with that. I can't remember the last time we sat together at the kitchen or dining room table to eat.

Still think we spend much more on groceries still, but we also eat out a lot more often since the kids are gone.

What's a grocery store?

Blanch32 wrote:What's a grocery store?

Do you eat out for every meal? Are you pushing 300?

Watch Out Pylon! wrote:

Do you eat out for every meal? Are you pushing 300?

Yes for dinner. Try to eat salads I throw together at lunch.

Since October, I've literally have no no time to cook dinner, and thats not going to change for the next month or so.


And I'll no where near 300 but do need to lose 10 lbs

Blanch32 wrote:


And I'll no where near 300 but do need to lose 10 lbs

Fatty

Blanch32 wrote:

Yes for dinner. Try to eat salads I throw together at lunch.

Since October, I've literally have no no time to cook dinner, and thats not going to change for the next month or so.


And I'll no where near 300 but do need to lose 10 lbs

I've just lost 45 LBS since January 1. No sugar, no bread no pasta, only use certain mustard without sugar. Eat two proteins a d y and two vegies a day and mix them up. Fruit at the end of the night for fun. Lemmon in my water. No alcohol from Jan. 14th through March 1st. Now it's just straight up Scotch or Vodka. No pop at all of any type, no gatorade.

Visceral fat checks now are down to about nothing. Energy is way up. Found that drinking is overrated for the most part, but do enjoy on the weekends and will do this weekend down in Chicago.

Miss Gatorade the most. Weird.

DWags wrote:

I've just lost 45 LBS since January 1. No sugar, no bread no pasta, only use certain mustard without sugar. Eat two proteins a d y and two vegies a day and mix them up. Fruit at the end of the night for fun. Lemmon in my water. No alcohol from Jan. 14th through March 1st. Now it's just straight up Scotch or Vodka. No pop at all of any type, no gatorade.

Visceral fat checks now are down to about nothing. Energy is way up. Found that drinking is overrated for the most part, but do enjoy on the weekends and will do this weekend down in Chicago.

Miss Gatorade the most. Weird.

Fwiw, if I did that, no joke I could drop 20 lbs and be more cut than an emo teen's leg. Good job on the discipline

I love gatorade too much for that diet.

I eat and drink what I feel like and play enough basketball to stay fit. Seems simpler than a diet, ya fruitcakes.

Other Teams Pursuing That wrote:I eat and drink what I feel like and play enough basketball to stay fit. Seems simpler than a diet, ya fruitcakes.

Aren't you also half the age of some of these bros?

CORNER BLITZ wrote:

Aren't you also half the age of some of these bros?

You're right about that bro, but I've seen it work. Maybe d wags sits on his ass at too many dance recitals.

Triple Sparty wrote:I cook one meal on Saturdays and usually two on Sunday. Totally due to laziness.

I'm not a huge fan of cooking during the work week. It just takes too damn long. So whatever I'm cooking on weekends I make sure there's enough leftovers for 2-3 dinners during the week.

Maybe my tastes have changed and I know restaurant fare has changed. There is a lot more use of central commissaries and foods being prepped off site in a lot of chains. At our house we are cooking more at home. Except for a few cases we find we can cook meals that taste better, have less salt, MSG and other "stuff" than similar meals served in restaurants.

DWags, I applaud your willpower. I hope you can keep most of it off so your new wardrobe still works next fall.

Other Teams Pursuing That wrote:

You're right about that bro, but I've seen it work. Maybe d wags sits on his ass at too many dance recitals.

Shit when I was 19 I could eat whatever. Worked in a warehouse and hooped in the afternoon. Calories didn't matter.

Now my metabolism is stuck in 2nd

This is shocking to me. In our house it's like a 7/1 ratio at least.

DWags wrote:

I've just lost 45 LBS since January 1. No sugar, no bread no pasta, only use certain mustard without sugar. Eat two proteins a d y and two vegies a day and mix them up. Fruit at the end of the night for fun. Lemmon in my water. No alcohol from Jan. 14th through March 1st. Now it's just straight up Scotch or Vodka. No pop at all of any type, no gatorade.

Visceral fat checks now are down to about nothing. Energy is way up. Found that drinking is overrated for the most part, but do enjoy on the weekends and will do this weekend down in Chicago.

Miss Gatorade the most. Weird.

45 lbs in two months? Damn.

DWags wrote:

I've just lost 45 LBS since January 1. No sugar, no bread no pasta, only use certain mustard without sugar. Eat two proteins a d y and two vegies a day and mix them up. Fruit at the end of the night for fun. Lemmon in my water. No alcohol from Jan. 14th through March 1st. Now it's just straight up Scotch or Vodka. No pop at all of any type, no gatorade.

Visceral fat checks now are down to about nothing. Energy is way up. Found that drinking is overrated for the most part, but do enjoy on the weekends and will do this weekend down in Chicago.

Miss Gatorade the most. Weird.

It sounds like you went all in. But just how heavy were you when you started your diet?

Rodeo Burger wrote:

It sounds like you went all in. But just how heavy were you when you started your diet?

He's always struck me as bedridden obese. His wife and kids bringing him 10-12 meals a day.

y2kMgrad wrote:

45 lbs in two months? Damn.

It was actually 43 days. Got way too big and my visceral fats were off the charts. I was an old man inside. Doctor supervised. Suplements and checked out weekly by the Dr. at weighins. Fat, hydration, percentage of body fat to mass all that stuff was done weekly.

Was very hard cutting up and eating 4 oz of protein for lunch and then 4 oz for dinner. If it was cod for lunch had to be chicken for dinner. Asparagus for lunch it was a tomato for dinner. Mixed Tuna with celery for lunch and Maille mustard mixed in. (no sugar in that mustard.) Franks hot sauce, to spice things up, but you wouldn't believe how many spices have sugar in it. Himalayan Pink Salt on a lot of stuff. I like it better than the regular salt. But the drinking water for 43 straight days was the toughest. I"ve got used to it now and don't think I"ll ever drink gatorade again, still have cravings for it, but I can get by. Water is damn good. I don't suggest this to anyone without the help of a good cook and support. Only real day that sucked was the superbowl. I still haven't eaten a bread or a pasta, a pice of candy, had a pop. but if you introduce that stuff to your body it slows the metabolism down. Never realized How many extra pounds I had put on till I saw this years christmas pictures. Now it's a ton more calories the past week, but more of a workout in the morning and I really do enjoy just eating healthy. I'll indulge this weekend starting thursday in Chicago. BTW, shopping at the local Amish store for grass fed beef is making the whole family more healthy. It's doable, cut sugar, pasta and stupid drinks out of your life for a month and a half and see what happens.

Rodeo Burger wrote:

It sounds like you went all in.  But just how heavy were you when you started your diet?

5'10 and a bit, also over 235.  Always would kid myself I was a big lifter and it was just a muscle thing. Dad developed diabetes and now he's 80 and losing bits of his feet and going through hell.  I was much like my dad in body type.   Not going out that way.

BTW, when I was 238 I would actually lie to people and say I was "Around 200-210" Jebus. No Idea why I did that. Just fooling myself.

DWags wrote:BTW, when I was 238 I would actually lie to people and say I was "Around 200-210" Jebus. No Idea why I did that. Just fooling myself.

I'm 6'3" used to be 6' 4" before age and a neck surgery. I had some hip soreness and my doc said I could be inline for a hip replacement in another couple of years or try losing 20-25 pounds to get to about 215-220. Lost the weight and once that small child got off my back, magically my joints felt better. If you are 6'2" or taller and don't look like one of the BlubberButts people almost always think you are 20 pounds lighter.