How many meals per week do you eat out or order in?

Just curious.

Including a few non-brown-bagged lunches during the workweek, I'd say I average around 7 or 8 a week.

How about you?

I can't prove it, but I'd be willing to bet that Gen X and Y (18-@35) eats a LOT more meals out or ordered in than over 35. Too bad the responses can't be correlated by age.

I barely think of lunch as a meal anymore -- it's a chance for me to get away from my desk for 15 minutes, and getting food is the excuse I use. That said, those are usually the only meals I eat out.

I, smushed between gens X and Y, am in the 6-10 camp. Every weekday lunch, 2-3 dinners, and sometimes a weekend lunch.

Chicgail wrote:I can't prove it, but I'd be willing to bet that Gen X and Y (18-@35) eats a LOT more meals out or ordered in than over 35. Too bad the responses can't be correlated by age.

As a data point, this Gen Xer is in the 0-5 category, but I may be an outlier.

Chicgail wrote:I can't prove it, but I'd be willing to bet that Gen X and Y (18-@35) eats a LOT more meals out or ordered in than over 35. Too bad the responses can't be correlated by age.

You can't prove it by me. I'm a lot over 35 and I'm conservatively in the 11-15 category.

Matt wrote:

Chicgail wrote:I can't prove it, but I'd be willing to bet that Gen X and Y (18-@35) eats a LOT more meals out or ordered in than over 35. Too bad the responses can't be correlated by age.

As a data point, this Gen Xer is in the 0-5 category, but I may be an outlier.

This one too.

And of the people I know, the older they get, the more they eat out.

19 baby! Score one for Gen Y!

As someone in her mid-20s, I feel like it's more about where you work and what you do that really dictates this more than age. (for example: if you're a road warrior, working long hours, or entertaining clients) Now that I am working in the Loop, I also see myself eating out more due to the convenience of the choices compared to the sprawling ‘burbs where offices and restaurants are not as conveniently located near each other.

Right now I’m in the 0-5 category. I watch what I eat and what I spend so I will be brown bagging it at least 3x a week.

I know there are some LTHers who are out an awful lot and I sometimes wish I could eat out more often, try more places, go to known places more often to try different dishes... but on the other hand, there isn't enough time for me to do all the things I want to do in the kitchen... experimenting with old and new dishes, keeping a traditional repertoire of things going, making more of the basics myself... So, I remain firmly in the 0-5 category, often only 1 or 2 times per week...

Oh yeah, with regard to age, like SteveZ, I'm definitely not in the 18 - 35 group...

Interesting poll...

Antonius

It might also be interesting to factor in how many meals total a person eats in a week. I, for one, don't eat breakfast more than maybe once a week. Although I answered "6 to 10," as a percentage of my weekly meals taken, dining out or ordering in actually exceeds 50% of my weekly meals. For a regular 3-meals a day eater (21 per week), 6 to 10 is under 50%. So maybe another poll is in order (or is that just a bit too much)?

JimInLoganSquare wrote:It might also be interesting to factor in how many meals total a person eats in a week. I, for one, don't eat breakfast more than maybe once a week. Although I answered "6 to 10," as a percentage of my weekly meals taken, dining out or ordering in actually exceeds 50% of my weekly meals. For a regular 3-meals a day eater (21 per week), 6 to 10 is under 50%. So maybe another poll is in order (or is that just a bit too much)?

Indeed, I'm not a breakfast eater, either. So my 8 or 9 meals out each week represent over half of my 14 meals a week.

When people I meet learn of my culinary enthusiasm they often say, "Wow! You must go out to eat all the time". I usually respond, "I probably go out to eat less often than you do."

When I first saw this poll, I guessed that the majority of LTHers would fall on the lower endof the spectrum (0-5), with a few notable exceptions. My experience tells me that many, but not all, LTHers are enthusastic about food before they are enthusiastic about restaurants. Restaurants just happen to be a place to find food, so there is a natural transfer. Of course, this does not apply to all LTHers. There are many people out there who are as equally serious about the restaurant expereince as they are about food, but I believe the under-current of this community is a basic culinary focus, not a destination-focus.

The home kitchen is the most convenient and economical place to find new culinary experiences, LTHers are often very serious about home cookery and serious about the quality of the foods they stock in their kitchens.

It doesn't surprise me that many of us eat out just a few times a week.

Best,
Michael

Most of my meals are eaten out. I work in a restaurant so,...

M - F breakfast is usually toast and coffee at the restaurant, lunch is always something the prep chef makes for the 4 employees in house during the day before we open, and dinner is occasionally something the Chef "wants me to try". When I'm not having something at work for dinner, I will eat out with friends (either in restaurants or at their homes). weekends are mostly out with friends. I don't so much enjoy cooking for myself, but i enjoy baking - which i will do at home and take somewhere to enjoy with friends...

(meals at home, maybe 4 per month)

Gen X-er,
Leesh

I ate well in excess of 450 meals away from my home last year.

This year is shaping up very similarly.


E.M.

And, you should see my new kitchen.

Erik M. wrote:I ate well in excess of 450 meals away from my home last year.

This year is shaping up very similarly.


E.M.

And, you should see my new kitchen.

You are one of my "notable exceptions"

Since I'm self-employed and have the luxury of being around the house a lot, I only eat out maybe 3 times a week, and I order in perhaps once every three months.

When I was growing up, my family ate out maybe once every two months.

Oh, 31 years old for the demographics.

Older than dirt....um, I mean over 35.

Taking hubby's daily lunches out (he drives for FedEx - not easy to brown bag), the two of us average 6-10 per week. I never go out for lunch; the old "chained to the desk" routine. We eat out for breakfast every Saturday and most Sundays....cook a lot on the weekends for the week. Maybe go out 1 time per week.

In my case, it fluctuates depending upon my financial situation and what's in the 'frig. Normally, I would eat 5 unremarkable, forgettable and expensive Loop lunches per week, and at least 5 dinners out per week and/or weekend lunches. However, I recently bought a house, so I've been saving (much) money by brown bagging my lunches and I've also begun receiving the weekly organic veggie box, so I'm down to about 2-3 meals out per week, including dinner.

I'm firmly in Gen-X and on the high side of the 18-35 range.

During stretches when I'm not on the road, probably 3 breakfasts, 3-4 lunches, 3-4 dinners. When I'm in one of my months where I'm on a business trip every week for 2-3 days, it's probably 4-5 of each. as I tend to have less food in the refrigerator on the weekends as well.

Twice a week would be a lot for me. When I go out, I don't like to think too much about the expense or the calories, so I try to go less often and mainly when someone else wants to. Plus, like Antonius, I really enjoy cooking, and then you can have a nice bottle of wine without markup (or driving).

If I lived in the city, I would be tempted much more often. When I lived in New York and Rome, I walked by all these great places on the way home and usually could not resist going in.

I started working out of my house about 2 years ago, and I find that I go out for lunch much more now than I did before. I used to take in leftovers and nuke them at the office. Now, to prevent myself from going stir crazy I go out a lot. I am a (young) baby boomer, and am probably 5-10, 2-4 of which are with the kids. -Will

since June 1st, i've "cooked" about 6 times (this includes the camping bbq i did this weekend). and by cooking i mean frying pot stickers or boiling soba. at this rate, i might surpass Erik's 450+ estimate.

recently, i've been so distraught about this stat/annoyance that dinner sometime is my only meal of the day.

i suspect the survey's results correlate to marriage/relationship status of the voter as well.

I am Steve Z's doppelganger, 11-15. Definitely over 35.

I am impressed by the places people discover and post on given how rarely they eat out.

I feel like 6-10 is an underestimate for us, a couple of over-35ers, but it really depends on the week. There is usually food in the house for Mr. X and I to brown-bag it, but evening meals are more likely to be of someone else's creation.