We eat out when we are traveling, which can turn into alot if we are on the road alot for ministry. If we are going on an all day trip, we take sandwich fixings and have a picnic at a rest area. When we are at home, we usually eat at home. My favorite eat out places are ChiChi's, Panera's, and chinese. I'm not crazy about most fast food places. Wendy's is the one I prefer. The thing that gets me anymore, is that we can never seem to agree where to go when we do go out! Takes all the fun out of it for me.
Is the Chi Chi's by you still open? Jimmy Buffett bought them out (or one of those old music guys), and now the ones by us are closed and turned into something else. Grr. I LOVED Chi Chi's. Now our fav Mexican is Pedro's.
Yes, the ChiChi's near us is still open. We haven't been there in a while, but we drive by it quite a bit, and it always looks busy.
The Chi Chi's where I am from has been closed down for years. Our area has a local mexican place that beats all anyway.
We dont eat out very often at all. Health is part of it, the cost most of it. Last time we did eat out I went to McDonalds w/the entire family - cost us close to $50. So not worth it. Before the last two babes were born, Dh and I would have date night Wed. when the kids were at church, but havent done that in 2 yrs.
Sorry, my mistake, I meant Chili's, not ChiChi's! Must be this sinus headache that is making me scatterbrained! Anyway, I loved ChiChi's when it was around. We went quite a bit, loved their chimichangas! Last time we went was over 6 years ago, and it wasn't very clean and the service was very slow.
We ALWAYS eat out on Fridays for lunch. That's the only weekday that hubby spends his lunch time with us. So we go to pizza hut and get the buffet. It cost us a little under $20 for the 6 of us to eat. We also only eat out on the nights that they are having specials. Like .99 hamburger nights at either Sonic or Dairy Queen. And we don't get cola's. we order water if we dine in. If we take it home we drink tea.
We eat out once or twice a month maybe. Once in awhile more often, once in awhile less often. We have a GREAT Chinese place that doesn't use MSG (Panda Inn), a GREAT Mexican place (Azteca) and a GREAT Thai place (Bahn Thai), all very near us, so those are the places we go most often. Although my kids like Taco Bell! Once in awhile when we have LOTS of errands to do, we'll do some, then eat somewhere, then do the rest---makes it easier to get through them all! Last month dd10 and ds14 and I went to Taco Bell on one of those errand days. We each picked one thing and got waters (not sodas), so for 3 of us to eat it cost $3.48 total! I can handle that! I've never heard of many of the places you guys have mentioned, though I HAVE heard of Chili's. All 3 of my kids help with the cooking or do it themselves. On days that we don't feel like cooking, and don't have money to go out, we just have "Whatever Night", where we each just fix our own thing. Since we don't feel like cooking on those nights it's usually sandwiches, or frozen burritos, or something easy. AND, we like cold pizza for breakfast!
Cold pizza, eaten while sitting on the kitchen counter with a glass of wine, is best around 2 AM (or at least, it was when I was in college, lol!!!) My kids love cold pizza for breakfast!
We typically get out twice a month. We use to do once a week but...with the kids both eating kids meals instead of off our plates....we cut back a bit. The boys and I might eat lunch out once a month but...its a treat more than a regular thing. We live in a fairly small town and we live in town (a lot of people live outside of city limits and drive in) so...I plan for us to be home for lunch when we are out running errands and such. Every now and then we will have lunch out after church if some other people are going out but...maybe .5 times a month. ;o)
We do eat out on purpose. As in if we are out and starving we will get something small. like off the dollar menu. Me and dh have a $20 each blow fund that we use on everthing we want to spend money on, including eating out. So that isn't much left to "waste" on eatting out. Usually it is like on burger a month. When we go shopping 2x a month I buy the kids some fries or something like that. Just as a treat, and it helps keep them busy while I shop. I use the rest of my blow fund on crochet stuff, or gardening supplies. My dh uses his for fishing supplies, or little things on his projects outside.
