Dining habits that eat into your wallet

Amruta, 26, and Ashutosh, 28, are a newly married couple. Amruta earns approximately Rs 35,000 and Ashutosh gets approximately Rs 45,000 in hand every month. Food expenses are the least of their expenses. Or so they think. But in fact, their expenditure on food is eating into their finances. Let take stock of your own food bill, too.

Eating out, everyday?

With your hectic schedule, you can't find the time to prepare a sandwich for breakfast, let alone a full-fledged dinner. So your only option really is to eat out. And your hubby doesn't seem to mind. But your lifestyle is not just going to affect your health but erode your finances too.

Imagine you have no time to have breakfast at home. You dash off to work and pick up breakfast from Barista on your way. You spend on an average Rs.200 everyday on breakfast for both you and your husband. Breakfast expenses per month = Rs 5000.

And then there's lunch. Not less than Rs 150 per day for each of you. So there you go spending another Rs 7,500 on lunch per month, if not more. Bad enough, you are spending so much on lunch. But worse, you are ruining your system eating out everyday, which means you will have to keep a separate budget for doctor's fees.

Dinner can be quite an expensive affair too. Especially since it is the only meal in the day that you both can eat together. So every other day you want it to be special and you go out to a somewhat fancy restaurant and land up paying at least Rs 500 for dinner. And in a month, Rs 12,500 on dinner!

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Your total expenses on food in one month = Rs 25,000. Ouch! You are feeling the pinch now, aren't you? By the way, you just might land up spending more than that because of all that mid-meal snacking, vending machine trips and after-shopping hunger pangs.

Why you need to spend less

Well, you might think you can still afford it. But what about saving? What's left for saving after all those expenses? You are definitely not compromising on your lifestyle for food expenses. So, technically there is not much you can save. You will probably be able to make those tax-saving investments. But that's about it.

Also, a couple of years down the line you might want to have a baby. That's if you are not trying already. And having a baby means added expense. You will have to save for more than just your hospital bill. There are doctor's visits while you are pregnant and post-delivery baby check-ups to think about. There are plenty of other things too and way down the line, you will also have to think about investing for your child's education.

Also, once the baby arrives, you won't be able to eat out every night. So you might as well get used to it now.

How to cut down

Starting to cook at home is really not a solution. You will land up doing it for a week, get fed up and resume eating out. So here are a couple of options you could choose from to keep your food expenses on track.

1. Go with easy breakfast preparations. Cereal and milk or a cheese sandwich and a glass of juice wouldn't be a bad idea.

2. Hire a tiffin service for lunch that will be delivered to both you and your husband's office. And for dinner, you could eat at a simple restaurant.

3. Hire a cook who will prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for the two of you. Or may be just lunch and dinner.

4. Opt for easy-to-cook microwaveable food or ready-to-eat meals that you can get at any supermarket.