What is the average cost of eating at a restaurant

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Best homeowners insurance. The best renters insurance. Average cost of car insurance. Average cost of life insurance. Mid-priced and fine dining restaurants can also help you add pounds. How restaurants prepare foods has a significant impact on how healthy those foods are. Fried foods add calories, as do the heavy creams and sauces dousing certain foods. Even vegetables can be made unhealthy by adding butter and salt; sure, it tastes good, but there goes all the nutritional value. The same goes for fish; a nice piece of salmon with lemon becomes calorie hell if you add hollandaise to it.

The USDA recommends an average adult male should consume 2, calories per day, and the average adult female should consume 2, In , the average American took in 2, calories per day. By , we were ingesting an average of 2, calories daily. The sheer size of our meals has also changed dramatically over the last 20 years. Some of this has to do with plate size. Plates and portions today are enormous by historical standards.

In the s, the average plate size was 7 to 9 inches in diameter. Today, dinner plates are 11 to 12 inches in diameter. The larger the plate, the more you can put on it. Here are some of its findings:. There are plenty of meals at sit-down restaurants that break the calorie bank in one sitting.

The Cheesecake Factory has an amazing Pasta Napoletana chock full of bacon, pepperoni, Italian sausage, and meatballs. Even at fine dining establishments, the calories add up. Steakhouses offer sauces, such as hollandaise, that add hundreds of calories to a meal. A steak without any sides clocks in at over 1, calories unless you order the smallest fillet on the menu.

It costs five times as much to have a restaurant meal delivered to your home, and three times as much to prepare a meal from a meal kit, as it does to prepare a meal from scratch. Of course, from time to time, you will still want to eat out.

Maybe you want to celebrate a promotion with a nice meal. But if you cut back significantly on the number of meals you eat out, you can save a bunch of money in the process. If you incur the average interest rate of The average interest rate for new credit card offers is Using the same numbers as above, it will take months, or more than eight years, to pay your bill if you only make the minimum payment.

Imagine how much you could save, invest, or pay down if you cut your eating out expenses even more? Create your own alert to be notified on topics you're interested in. Or, visit Popular Alerts for suggestions. Personal Finance. Eating out: What you'll pay in 15 cities Your tab for dinner can differ wildly depending on your location. More Personal Finance. How can I protect my investments from inflation? Brown bag it to work an extra time or two a week, or prepare a nice meal at home with your family instead of heading out on the town.

Your wallet will thank you. Trent Hamm founded The Simple Dollar in and still writes a daily column on personal finance. Home » Save Money. Advertiser Disclosure Advertiser Disclosure We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service.