How often do you eat out?

warbrain
Thu, 03 Oct 2013 12:54:08 +0000

When I was a kid, my family would only go out to eat once a month at most, unless we were going on vacation and couldn’t cook our meals (though we would often bring food made at home with us, or stay in hotels with kitchens). This includes going to places like Subway or Chipotle, so not just sit down restaurants. This obviously isn’t normal, but when I started college I was pretty surprised to see people eat out as often as they do. Though this is hard to judge because people are on meal plans and don’t have kitchens in their dorm room, so eating out is more necessary.

Now I’m in grad school, and it still seems like people eat out all the time. Except now we all live in apartments with kitchens, aren’t on meal plans, and are not paid that much. I don’t poll my friends about how often they eat out, but if I had to guess they do so more often than not. At the very least, I’m the only person I’ve seen in my department actually bring in a lunch. On the other hand, I’ve only eaten out twice in the past week. Sometimes I’ll have frozen meals, but they usually end up being cheaper and healthier than anything I would buy from a restaurant. Is this normal, or am I weird for making most of my meals?