Restaurants and recession

Yes! We can barely put food on the table much less go out. I'm looking forward to my anniversary next month because that will be the first time since last summer I will be in a real restaurant. We havn't been this tight since we were married and that was 29 years ago.

Absolutely.  Have to prioritize where each dollar goes these days.  These deals really make it tempting..  Will I change my current spending habits on eating out right now, i doubt it.   The problem is bigger than worrying about eating out and the cost of it, I somehow feel greatful when i'm able to make a big satisfying meal here even at home, and the cost of that is way less than eating out for the most part...    I will admit some deals make you save more money than if you bought and cooked the product yourself.   Those are the ones that make it well worth it. They are few and far in between although i think.    

Yes we dont go out maybe every 2 or 3 months cannot afford it on a retired income.

I wanted to read the answers about "eating out" because my kids and I miss it. I see by the answers that most everyone is in the same boat as us, eating out was the FIRST luxury for my family that had to go. I have always cooked for my children, but as another person said, I can barely put food on the table, AT ALL. So, I've had to really go old school to get by. Old school meaning...buy a 10 lb. bag of potato's........Potato soup one night......fried potato's and spam (growing up) I've replaced the spam with Eckrich smoked sausage ($2.50), whatever meat is on sale with mashed potato's and use left over mashed potato's the next night for potato patties with another meat on sale.  I was glad to see that my family and I WEREN'T  the only ones struggling so horribly.  Everyones answers were so NORMAL and APPROPRIATE and helpful.........THEN ALL OF SUDDEN BAM!!!!!!!!   or should I say bamonbama...........WOW, what a nut.....YOU tell the manager about your food.......I can see you in a restaurant, complaining, complaining MORE, in hopes of getting your food complimentary....STAY AT HOME AND COOK YOUR OWN FOOD.....Whether we were in these hard times or not, YOU would be complaining, I'm sure about everything.......cook your own food and stay at home.....DON'T SUPPORT THE RESTAURANTS, I'M POSITIVE NO ONE WANTS YOU IN THERE....You can tell your unstable because you state "the restaurants" service has gotten so poor, unfriendly, and don't care if your food is good....You've lumped ALL RESTAURANTS together in one category......A majority of high school and struggling college students work at those restaurants and your pointing blame at the wrong people "the restaurants" for poor service.....it's all of your extended family working in those restaurants that were raised to be CONSTANT COMPLAINERS, life is not fair and nothing is ever good enough.  In my little town, at Cotton Patch, T.G.I.F.'s, Applebees, Sonic, Taco Bueno...should I go on..........ALL, not only care about the customer, but also about the quality of food, customer service, they are fast, and bend over backwards to be friendly everyone, even jerks like you. MOVE TO VEGAS and work for the Tropicana....better yet........move to Iraq, then you could complain.

absolutely yes! I go to the local sports bar on Sun, Mon & Thur night and get ice water with a lemon and tell them I am the designated driver. Great way to watch the football for free...

Living on retirement fixed income makes it imperatiave we curtail 99% of our eating out.  When utilities, gasoline, groceries, etc. go up in price, it gives us less and less to spend on "unnecessary" things.  Eating out has become something we do about one time a month.....when we were eating out two or three times per week.  If Obama increases our taxes, we won't be eating out at all....not even one time per month!