One random day, I bumped into an old friend at the mall and we got to chat for a few minutes. She mentioned how she gets updated on my married life thru Facebook. She also made a remark on how the hubby and I get to dine out twice, and sometimes even thrice a week. It sounded like she was amazed with our love for food, and at the same time, how easy we get to finance those food trips. I replied to her with a smile, “Paminsan minsan lang yun, pag may extra money.” That conversation made me think about our budget for dining out. Do I even have a separate budget for that purpose in the first place?
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To be honest, we love to try out new restaurants but we don’t set aside money for it. A dining out fund? No, nada, zilch. The money we spend for eating out comes from our weekly budget. (The hubby and I both receive our salary on a weekly basis so a weekly budget is a must for us.) It covers our daily needs: food, toiletries and other miscellaneous expenses. So if sometimes, we don’t have extra bath soap or toothpaste in our Bacoor home or we’re eating canned goods on a weekend, that’s because we’ve already spent our money on a nice dinner at some inexpensive restaurant. Funny, but true. Haha.
Sometimes, we get to eat out for free courtesy of my PILs, my mom or my siblings. Remember our weird living arrangement? It allows us to have extra money to finance our occasional food trips that there’s no need for us to touch our emergency fund for them. When the time comes that we live in our Bacoor home on a more regular basis (and not on a weekly basis like what we do at present), things will definitely change.
How about you, do you allot money for dining out? 🙂
May you choose happiness always,
naku, di kami nakakapag allot ng money kapag lumalabas, which syempre gastos din yun.pagdating kasi sa pagkain hindi kami nagtitipid e. pero pag gusto namin mag try ng something new, we think muna kung makatarungan ba yun price.hehe!
Pareho pala tayo, Joy! Tipid na sa lahat, wag lang sa food. That’s a good practice, esep esep muna bago gumastos on something new, restaurant man yan or not. 🙂
Ako, I don’t have a particular “dining out” category in my budget, but I do have a “leisure” category, including pang-shopping2 and pangkain2 😀
Hmmm, leisure budget sounds nice to me. Hehe. 🙂
Ako personally, hindi ako nag aalot ng budget kasi I don’t get to hold my boyfriend’s money pa so ang binabudget ko lang is yung pera ko. HEhehe. when I feel like eating out, eh di kakain ako. =)
Tama ka naman dun, Jen. Pag gusto kumain sa labas at afford naman, eh di go! Hehe. 🙂
Nope. We don’t eat out that much. Say, once every 2 months? But I do spend a lot cooking at home, because you know, food blogger. LMAO
Homecooked meals are still the best, Jhanis! Haha, yes, and you’re doing good as a food blogger. Nakakagutom kaya mga posts mo! 🙂
We do but last month we went OVER and beyond our budget! Haha we dined out like 2-3 times a week or more! But I thought it was ok since we wont be able to do that anymore now that Baby is here already =D no regrets!
Okay lang yan, nangyayari talaga yan. Hehe. Yes, pag may baby na nga sya na ang pagkakagastusan. Wow, congrats you gave birth na pala! 🙂
We actually don’t have a specific budget for dining out because food is one of our “non negotiables”. Tipid sa shopping and lakwatsa, but not food. Although we set a limit on a per meal basis, except of course for special occasions. Hindi naman makatarungan kung 3k na dinner ng walang okasyon ‘di ba? Hehe. 🙂
Haha, korek ka dyan sis! I can do shopping and travel fasts, but not a food fast. 🙂