Strange Motivations to not Eat out?
RachelElser
Posts: 1,049 Member
Does anyone else have an odd or different motivation to not eat out? Mine is- wanting to pay off my last freaken student loan and buy a house. Every time I resist BK or McD I think "$6 toward the house, $6 more toward the house" Honestly, for me it's better motivation than just 'eating healthy;.
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Replies
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Not having to get out of bed is an excellent motivation for me. Also, if I eat at home, I don't have to communicate with people as much. The grocery store has self-checkout, but the fast food places in my town sure don't.
Edit: Thought of another one. I don't have to put on pants.22 -
RelCanonical wrote: »Not having to get out of bed is an excellent motivation for me. Also, if I eat at home, I don't have to communicate with people as much. The grocery store has self-checkout, but the fast food places in my town sure don't.
Edit: Thought of another one. I don't have to put on pants.
Pants is a big one! Also a bra
I think paying off debt is an admirable goal and not a strange motivation at all.11 -
RelCanonical wrote: »Not having to get out of bed is an excellent motivation for me. Also, if I eat at home, I don't have to communicate with people as much. The grocery store has self-checkout, but the fast food places in my town sure don't.
Edit: Thought of another one. I don't have to put on pants.
Pants is a big one! Also a bra
I think paying off debt is an admirable goal and not a strange motivation at all.
I live out in the country. Eating out is getting dressed (including putting on a bra
), driving for at least 15 minutes, and if I want to eat at home, driving 15 minutes home by which time the fries are cold. Too much trouble. I'll just make a tuna fish sandwich. 
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A big motivation for not wanting to eat fast food is that it taste horrible.14
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I have plenty of reasons to not eat out that don't have anything to do with weight.
- I'm an introvert and I don't always want to be around other people while I'm eating.
- In the time it takes to drive to the restaurant, wait for service, and wait for someone to cook the food, I could have just cooked dinner.
- I could make the food equally well or better myself. I hate going out for food that I know how to cook well. However, I will gladly pay someone else to cook me food that I don't know how to make or is too complicated for me to make at home.
- I'm not really craving restaurant food, so I don't think it's worth the money at that time. If I'm really craving it, then I'll go eat it.
Also @pinuplove I have the shirt that's in your profile photo! It's one of my favorites.10 -
I don't enjoy restaurants and I don't like paying a lot for food. Having said that, on the few occasions we do eat out, we get carry out from a restaurant (as opposed to fast food). I don't mind the price so much because it's always enough for me to eat for two or three meals. I love leftovers of any kind.
Avoiding extra costs to save money for any reason isn't odd.3 -
RelCanonical wrote: »Not having to get out of bed is an excellent motivation for me. Also, if I eat at home, I don't have to communicate with people as much. The grocery store has self-checkout, but the fast food places in my town sure don't.
Edit: Thought of another one. I don't have to put on pants.
Pants is a big one! Also a bra
I think paying off debt is an admirable goal and not a strange motivation at all.
Omg yes. I am not one of those women that can venture outside without a bra.2 -
Bonus: If you eat out less often, the "special occasion" feeling from eating out at a restaurant comes back again. Restaurant dining had become boring unless I was at a chef driven establishment. Now that I only eat out 2 or 3 times a month, even Chili's seems special LOL It's like when I was a kid and my parents would take the family out to eat it was such a big deal!18
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RelCanonical wrote: »RelCanonical wrote: »Not having to get out of bed is an excellent motivation for me. Also, if I eat at home, I don't have to communicate with people as much. The grocery store has self-checkout, but the fast food places in my town sure don't.
Edit: Thought of another one. I don't have to put on pants.
Pants is a big one! Also a bra
I think paying off debt is an admirable goal and not a strange motivation at all.
Omg yes. I am not one of those women that can venture outside without a bra.
I probably could (goodness knows I've seen worse out there!) But I feel like it's painfully obvious. Even going the school line drop-off, I may be in my PJs but I'm definitely wearing a bra.2 -
Also @pinuplove I have the shirt that's in your profile photo! It's one of my favorites.
I really want this shirt. I'd be tempted to wear it to work though 2 -
Being broke works for me.8
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I am currently in weight loss mode AND saving-to-buy-a-house mode, so we are on a STRICT budget. We only allow ourselves to have $100 per month for date night--that includes ANY going out to eat, movies, pizza nights, etc. When you only have a set amount of cash to go out, you really hesitate when the idea comes up. "Is this worth it? If we go out tonight, how much of our budget do we have left? What are our options?" We have been meal prepping on Sundays, too. This last weekend, I made a big pot of minestrone, a crock pot of pulled pork, and honey mustard soy glazed chicken, and it's been nice to not have to cook all week. Budgeting, planning, and meal prepping has made a big difference for me--and we already have extra money in our account because of it!3
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RachelElser wrote: »Does anyone else have an odd or different motivation to not eat out? Mine is- wanting to pay off my last freaken student loan and buy a house. Every time I resist BK or McD I think "$6 toward the house, $6 more toward the house" Honestly, for me it's better motivation than just 'eating healthy;.
How is saving money a "strange motivation" for not eating out? I'd say it's pretty high on the list of perfectly reasonable reasons.
I don't think this is "strange" either, but every time I see someone cough while handling my food or go from handling money to handling food, I'm pretty tempted to leave. Once at McDonalds, my husband saw a woman drop an order of fries on the floor, scoop them up off the floor, and then use the same hands (I think she might have had gloves on) to reach in and grab the new batch. He canceled the order and asked for a refund. Pretty much anytime we eat out, I have to close my eyes and go to my "happy place" 5 -
RachelElser wrote: »Does anyone else have an odd or different motivation to not eat out? Mine is- wanting to pay off my last freaken student loan and buy a house. Every time I resist BK or McD I think "$6 toward the house, $6 more toward the house" Honestly, for me it's better motivation than just 'eating healthy;.
How is saving money a "strange motivation" for not eating out? I'd say it's pretty high on the list of perfectly reasonable reasons.
I don't think this is "strange" either, but every time I see someone cough while handling my food or go from handling money to handling food, I'm pretty tempted to leave. Once at McDonalds, my husband saw a woman drop an order of fries on the floor, scoop them up off the floor, and then use the same hands (I think she might have had gloves on) to reach in and grab the new batch. He canceled the order and asked for a refund. Pretty much anytime we eat out, I have to close my eyes and go to my "happy place"
^^This.
I worked in a full service restaurant. You don't want to know what goes on out of the view of customers. :noway:0 -
cmriverside wrote: »RachelElser wrote: »Does anyone else have an odd or different motivation to not eat out? Mine is- wanting to pay off my last freaken student loan and buy a house. Every time I resist BK or McD I think "$6 toward the house, $6 more toward the house" Honestly, for me it's better motivation than just 'eating healthy;.
How is saving money a "strange motivation" for not eating out? I'd say it's pretty high on the list of perfectly reasonable reasons.
I don't think this is "strange" either, but every time I see someone cough while handling my food or go from handling money to handling food, I'm pretty tempted to leave. Once at McDonalds, my husband saw a woman drop an order of fries on the floor, scoop them up off the floor, and then use the same hands (I think she might have had gloves on) to reach in and grab the new batch. He canceled the order and asked for a refund. Pretty much anytime we eat out, I have to close my eyes and go to my "happy place"
^^This.
I worked in a full service restaurant. You don't want to know what goes on out of the view of customers. :noway:
No, I do not
I wasn't sure I'd be able to eat out again after seeing one of the Gordon Ramsay shows this summer where they filmed behind the scenes at restaurants.
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A Hepatitis A outbreak in southern WV and eastern KY has definitely affected how often we eat out. We recently got vaccinated, but now that we're out of the habit of going we just cook at home. Also, since I'm old and grew up in the "clean your plate" generation, I'm just now starting to use strategies like splitting a meal w/ my wife or asking for the "to go" box as my server brings the meal.0
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RachelElser wrote: »Does anyone else have an odd or different motivation to not eat out? Mine is- wanting to pay off my last freaken student loan and buy a house. Every time I resist BK or McD I think "$6 toward the house, $6 more toward the house" Honestly, for me it's better motivation than just 'eating healthy;.
I want to buy a house.
I don't think that $6 is going to make a difference toward that goal. But the attitude that I should usually spend money taking the easy way (I mean vs cooking at home) won't help. Stuff adds up.
About eating out specifically, Seattle has some really fantastic restaurants. But they're not cheap.0 -
Also @pinuplove I have the shirt that's in your profile photo! It's one of my favorites.
I really want this shirt. I'd be tempted to wear it to work though
https://shirt.woot.com/offers/double-nope
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Well I don't have a specific goal other than just spend less, save more. Ultimate goal is to live on half of our income, retire early.
Nowhere close to that yet unfortunately. I do eat out but I try to stick to my budget. Before I used a budget, it's insane how much money I spent on crap. It's "only" $6 here, $15 there, $9 over there, etc. It adds up quick... 1 -
Eating out costs a lot more than preparing food at home usually. I don't think it is unusual to stop eating out often to save money.
I think I cook food that is as tasty or tastier than similar restaurant food. I'd be more excited going out for food that is beyond my skill or resources to prepare. There are not those sorts of places in rural Kansas.
The time it takes to get ready to go out, go to a place, order, wait for food doesn't seem convenient to me.
I don't love being around a lot of people while eating. I feel stressed in restaurants.1 -
We do a lot of GrubHub or UberEats, which isn't much better, but at least we don't have to put on pants!! We also then don't spend extra money on beer, since it's always in the house.
I think I sometimes eat more if I'm eating at home though. I'm fairly picky, and going out usually means ordering a piece of chicken, eating half and taking the rest to the dog. Or, eating some of my boyfriends food.
But, eating out does add up. When we're in "save money" mode, we do a lot more grocery shopping and eating in.0 -
I'm a pretty good cook and enjoy cooking...I'm pretty picky when it comes to dining out. Fast food certainly doesn't cut it for me and I don't really have any interest in it and never really have...it's not very good food. Eating out with my wife or my family is a special thing so when we go, we mostly do local establishments that prepare good quality, fresh food. It's usually quite an expensive outing, so it's only occasional.0
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Mine is mainly that I'm so broke I can't even pay attention. Let alone for take out.0
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I like eating out a couple of times a week (no fast food!), and I like to dress-up.
I don't like to cook, and after doing it for 55 years I am also tired of it. I like to have somebody else doing the cooking and the cleaning, and I enjoy different dishes preparations that I am not interested in making myself. Being around other people and different restaurants atmosphere are also a plus.2 -
Well.... I work in a gated community where all of the medical, mental health, security and nutrition is provided to a ... well... select clientele. When they leave my gated community, many get jobs in the Restaurant Industry..... One of my reasons.4
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psychod787 wrote: »Well.... I work in a gated community where all of the medical, mental health, security and nutrition is provided to a ... well... select clientele. When they leave my gated community, many get jobs in the Restaurant Industry..... One of my reasons.
Been there. Done that. One of the reasons I went to Subway, at least I could watch them prep my food.1 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »psychod787 wrote: »Well.... I work in a gated community where all of the medical, mental health, security and nutrition is provided to a ... well... select clientele. When they leave my gated community, many get jobs in the Restaurant Industry..... One of my reasons.
Been there. Done that. One of the reasons I went to Subway, at least I could watch them prep my food.
You people are not helping (or maybe you are, depending). I worked in fast food my first couple of years of college, and most of us were either high school or college students. We definitely were not scooping fries up off the floor and serving them :sick: OK, we didn't have fries, but nothing of any comparable level of grossness was going on either! 3 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »psychod787 wrote: »Well.... I work in a gated community where all of the medical, mental health, security and nutrition is provided to a ... well... select clientele. When they leave my gated community, many get jobs in the Restaurant Industry..... One of my reasons.
Been there. Done that. One of the reasons I went to Subway, at least I could watch them prep my food. You people are not helping (or maybe you are, depending). I worked in fast food my first couple of years of college, and most of us were either high school or college students. We definitely were not scooping fries up off the floor and serving them :sick: OK, we didn't have fries, but nothing of any comparable level of grossness was going on either!
I worked as a cook in a restaurant years ago. We did not really mess with peoples food, unless they pissed us off or messed with the waitresses.0 -
My motivation is that decent restaurants will set me back more than $100 for two people. That's why it's always been an occasional thing for me, maybe 1-3 times a year. Even when I was obese this was the case, so I was never really the type to eat out often. I order in occasionally, but it feels like a deviation from my routine, not something I need to talk myself out of. I enjoy the times I eat out or order in, but they're not frequent enough to be a problem.
Being invited to other people's houses, however, can be an issue sometimes. I don't talk myself out of it because I welcome the opportunity to be social from time to time and would rather stay fat than have my diet affect my social life. Thankfully, I have developed a few strategies that help me do both without being the weird person who eats lettuce in the corner or asks the host for lighter food.1 -
psychod787 wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »psychod787 wrote: »Well.... I work in a gated community where all of the medical, mental health, security and nutrition is provided to a ... well... select clientele. When they leave my gated community, many get jobs in the Restaurant Industry..... One of my reasons.
Been there. Done that. One of the reasons I went to Subway, at least I could watch them prep my food. You people are not helping (or maybe you are, depending). I worked in fast food my first couple of years of college, and most of us were either high school or college students. We definitely were not scooping fries up off the floor and serving them :sick: OK, we didn't have fries, but nothing of any comparable level of grossness was going on either!
I worked as a cook in a restaurant years ago. We did not really mess with peoples food, unless they pissed us off or messed with the waitresses.
The worst I did was overfill peoples drink cups with ice in the drive-through if they were rude ordering :laugh:1
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