How a Single Person Spends $52,000 a Year on Food in Washington DC

[calimom]

This is jaw-dropping:https://www.bonappetit.com/story/food-diary-washington-dc-225k-salary

[aasdfadsf]

I love cooking, but I haven’t done it much recently. Packed work days don’t leave much time to eat, let alone cook.

She goes on to detail how she spends about 20 hours a week eating out. Please quit pretending you are too busy to cook. That is a lie. If you want to be profligate with your food budget, then just own up to it and quit giving us this lame-ass excuse. If it was really all about time, you'd be eating frozen dinners.

[sonofsven]

She spent $996 at restaurants, and $37 at the grocery store. IN A WEEK.
I should do one of those food diaries, the readers would die of boredom.

[sadiesortsitout]

I am not keeping a diary of meals, but I am keeping a diary of groceries this month in my journal. So far, I have spent about $100 to feed two people three squares a day, plus abundant snacks.

I enjoy reading these diaries just for the "What even is your life??" feeling (not unlike what I get from reading the journals here, although for different reasons!). Also, what people feel the need to explain or not explain fascinates me.

If I made her salary, but kept my expenses, I could retire in three years. What a world this is.

[Dicey]

Lol, they made us look, didn't they?

The headline is clickbaity as hell, but the person is not as ridiculous as they seem, based on the headline.

"How much money do you have in savings?" "I have approximately $400,000 in savings across my home equity, 401(k), Roth IRA, and brokerage accounts. I started working when I was in college (as a teaching assistant, as a tutor, in a stockroom, and through summer internships), started investing young, and have ridden the stock market returns for a few years. I’m very grateful that my parents paid for college and I do not have any debt." Pretty damn good for a 27-year-old homeowner, even if they do eat out too much.

The problem is these articles take a week's spending and multiply it by 52, which is stupid. Let's see... DH and I are at home, down with Covid. I spent zero dollars on food this week. Does that mean my annual food spending is zero?

Ditto for those articles that say, "I did X for Y number of days, here's what I discovered." X is always too insignificant a time to produce meaningful results, but just enough for a click-baity article.

Since it's a new series, it might be fun if a mustachian who knows how to cook applied to be profiled. Hmmm...@PhilB,  @UnleashHell, and @K_in_the_kitchen  all come to mind off the top of my head. That would make great reading!

And I agree with you, @sadiesortsitout, I love first person stories. I did one of those money makeover stories in the pre-MMM stone ages and it was a great experience. However, it was also when Quicken was new-ish and I had a year's worth of very granular expenses for them to dig into. Boy, the things we had to figure out before financial blogs, especially MMM, sprang into existence.

On a related note: We watched something on HGTV where the subject said, "I cook 21 meals a week...I need a huge kitchen." Hahaha! Bully for you, cooking 21 meals a week, like that makes you a total Rockstar. I suspect she's a food blogger, but couldn't be arsed to suss it out.

Thanks for the link, @calimom!

[sadiesortsitout]

I did one of those money makeover stories in the pre-MMM stone ages and it was a great experience. However, it was also when Quicken was new-ish and I had a year's worth of very granular expenses for them to dig into. Boy, the things we had to figure this shit out before financial blogs, especially MMM, sprang into existence.

The blogs are nice, but, for example, my mother learned basic double-entry accounting and budgeting in high school home economics. She was always furious that this was not part of her children's high school education. She then went through a personal finance class from Larry Burkett (a Christian financial personality) in the 80s. She meticulously kept all her personal and business expenses in a large hand-written ledger (as did my grandfather) until she bought her first copy of Quicken. The retirement accumulation schedule predates the digital tools by a little bit, anyway.

[Dicey]

I did one of those money makeover stories in the pre-MMM stone ages and it was a great experience. However, it was also when Quicken was new-ish and I had a year's worth of very granular expenses for them to dig into. Boy, the things we had to figure this shit out before financial blogs, especially MMM, sprang into existence.

The blogs are nice, but, for example, my mother learned basic double-entry accounting and budgeting in high school home economics. She was always furious that this was not part of her children's high school education. She then went through a personal finance class from Larry Burkett (a Christian financial personality) in the 80s. She meticulously kept all her personal and business expenses in a large hand-written ledger (as did my grandfather) until she bought her first copy of Quicken. The retirement accumulation schedule predates the digital tools by a little bit, anyway.

I learned it in college and I think I still have an old, very tidy ledger book. Keeping track of my money was never a problem, nor was saving it. What to do with it so I could retire early was the problem. Not feeling like a fucking weirdo was another. Financial blogs and especially this forum were a total game changer for me. Finally, I had found my tribe. I could let my freak flag fly!

I completely agree that financial education in our country's school system is abysmal. Well it would be, if there was any, hahaha.

[Metalcat]

I love cooking, but I haven’t done it much recently. Packed work days don’t leave much time to eat, let alone cook.

She goes on to detail how she spends about 20 hours a week eating out. Please quit pretending you are too busy to cook. That is a lie. If you want to be profligate with your food budget, then just own up to it and quit giving us this lame-ass excuse. If it was really all about time, you'd be eating frozen dinners.

Lol. With my disability, I sometimes don't have the physical stamina to cook, depending on my other responsibilities. My answer is never to eat out, my answer is to hire someone to cook for me.

That's what everyone I know who has money does.

Last time I did this, it cost me about $600/mo including groceries, for all weekday lunches and dinners to be prepared and pre-portioned.

[RainyDay]

She spent $996 at restaurants, and $37 at the grocery store. IN A WEEK.
I should do one of those food diaries, the readers would die of boredom.

Wow, she's eating at some pricey places, but I guess not unusual.  This past weekend I went to the theater with some friends and we ate dinner first. (The restaurant was within 20 min of downtown DC.) I ate just a main course and water, but several ladies had an appetizer, main course, and a couple glasses of wine, for about $85 pp including tip.  Do that 7 times a week and you're at $595 already.  Then add $50 lunches every day and you're pretty close to $996! 

[TheGrimSqueaker]

There are going to be times when a person binges, even when buying groceries.

One time, I found frozen geese marked down to between $35 and $45 apiece. (The going rate for such an item is usually three times that.) I bagged an entire flock and crammed them into my freezer-- I think about five in total. They're good for roughly a year, and each one is an on-your-knees-and-worship quality feast for about six people, so in one fell swoop I had all I needed for the next season. But that can't be taken as representative of a normal week's worth of groceries.

[Villanelle]

I hate cooking and do love eating nice restaurant meals.  But I still force myself to cook most of the time.  I do enough of both to know that it take far longer to drive to a restaurant, order, eat, and drive home than it does to cook a moderately simple meal from scratch.   The "don't have time" excuse is therefor ridiculous.  If time is truly a concern, the most efficient thing is probably to buy pre-made meals. More expensive than cooking, but a frozen pizza or rotisserie chicken and whatever sides your grocery store has froze, in the fridge section, or at the deli counter can take 10 minutes or less.  Even just frozen burritos (on sale usually around $1/), frozen Lean Cuisine type meals, etc. are fast, can be reasonably healthy and are generally reading in 5 minutes or less. 

She can even get these things via grocery delivery.  I've posted about this elsewhere, but Amazon Fresh grocery delivery (not available in all areas) is cheaper than going to my actual grocery store.  And if she's claiming it's a time thing, that's optimal and far, far cheaper than eating out. 

[RetiredAt63]

I read through it and every single night out was with friends/boyfriend/meetings.  So a huge social component.  And a lot of the meals were at the place they were because of the social event, so not a lot of flexibility in going to a less expensive location.  As usual, the headline is more sensational than the article.

[Morning Glory]

I read through it and every single night out was with friends/boyfriend/meetings.  So a huge social component.  And a lot of the meals were at the place they were because of the social event, so not a lot of flexibility in going to a less expensive location.  As usual, the headline is more sensational than the article.

I just looked.  I have a good hypothesis about what is causing all those "mystery " GI issues.  The descriptions alone gave me a tummyache.  A meal like that is fine once in a while but i couldn't imagine eating that way for multiple days in a row.  All that butter, oil, salt, and alcohol,  with not much fruit or veg besides the bespoke strawberries. Blech. I want to punch her gastroenterologist in the face.

I should write one but I just had some dental work so it would be pretty boring. 
Breakfast: coffee. I don't know, the regular kind. Why would anyone care what kind of machine I have? It's the bag of beans from Costco.  Hmm, the ones that were on sale the last time I was there I guess. I don't remember the brand name. I do have a fancy grinder that my mom got me for Christmas 4 years ago because she didn't like using the hand crank one when she came to visit.  No, i dont remember the brand of that either. Eat?? No my hunger has yet to override my tooth pain, sorry.

Etc

[PhilB]

My grocery and food diary would indeed be rather different!  And I couldn't agree more Morning Glory about how unhealthy that diet is. 

Strangely though, parts of it did remind me a tiny bit of my past and I was actually prepared to cut her a little slack.  Not much, but a little.  When I was her age, I was frequently working crazy hours, and we used to eat out a lot - partly as a deliberate choice of leisure activity as we love our food, but frequently because I just didn't have the head space to face shopping and cooking after a long and stressful day - although then it would be a cheap local restaurant rather than anywhere fancy I'd be too tired to enjoy.   I take my hat off to the people with the strength of character to be ultra-mustachian at that age and in that situation, when it really can feel that you have more money than time / energy.  The difference though is that we'd only be eating out a couple of times a week, not 12 times!

[newco]

This is jaw-dropping:https://www.bonappetit.com/story/food-diary-washington-dc-225k-salary

This lady must weigh +250 lbs eating all that junk food.  That has to be horrible for you...  But she is a consultant in DC, so it's more about status than anything, and Bon Appetit gets paid for all the links to the restaurants/appliances, etc. in that article.  It wouldn't be interesting to read about the person living the midwest on a $50,000 salary that saves 20% of their income and eats at home 90% of the time. 

[Metalcat]

This is jaw-dropping:https://www.bonappetit.com/story/food-diary-washington-dc-225k-salary

This lady must weigh +250 lbs eating all that junk food.  That has to be horrible for you...  But she is a consultant in DC, so it's more about status than anything, and Bon Appetit gets paid for all the links to the restaurants/appliances, etc. in that article.  It wouldn't be interesting to read about the person living the midwest on a $50,000 salary that saves 20% of their income and eats at home 90% of the time.

I still think it's kind of ridiculous for this to be framed as something she spends because she doesn't have time to cook.

Obviously this is driven by socializing/networking, which she clearly has time for. People who don't have enough time to cook don't have enough time to socialize at restaurants every night.

This is a lifestyle choice. Period.

That's cool if that's the lifestyle she wants to spend her money on. If she has that rich a social life, she's probably happier than a lot of sad, lonely people out there, but it's total bs to frame this as some kind of necessary measure to take because she works too much.

[sadiesortsitout]

This is jaw-dropping:https://www.bonappetit.com/story/food-diary-washington-dc-225k-salary

It wouldn't be interesting to read about the person living the midwest on a $50,000 salary that saves 20% of their income and eats at home 90% of the time.

How dare you insult my journal like that! 😂

[lifeisshort123]

THere must be more to the story, by the way.  Financial family assistance etc.

But she makes a good salary and has a huge amount invested already.  Good for her.

Eating every meal out is not a healthy way to live, but she will figure that out in a few years.  I used to have lots of issues that went away as soon as I stopped eating out so much.

[RetiredAt63]

THere must be more to the story, by the way.  Financial family assistance etc.

But she makes a good salary and has a huge amount invested already.  Good for her.

Eating every meal out is not a healthy way to live, but she will figure that out in a few years.  I used to have lots of issues that went away as soon as I stopped eating out so much.

Eating out is a huge part of her life - friends and meetings.  It is possible to eat out in a healthy way but it means consistently being a lot more picky about choices.

Healthwise I was more concerned about her lunches, they were so scrounge the leftovers.  And with a little planning she could be having great lunches.

[clarkfan1979]

This is jaw-dropping:https://www.bonappetit.com/story/food-diary-washington-dc-225k-salary

I had a job interview in D.C. in November 2010. I met up with a friend for dinner. It was one of the most expensive menus that I have ever seen for a mid-tier (non-fancy) restaurant.

I have a hypothesis that many of the restaurants near the white house/government buildings can operate with very high prices because most of their customers are just going to charge it to their expense account.

[Villanelle]

This is jaw-dropping:https://www.bonappetit.com/story/food-diary-washington-dc-225k-salary

I had a job interview in D.C. in November 2010. I met up with a friend for dinner. It was one of the most expensive menus that I have ever seen for a mid-tier (non-fancy) restaurant.

I have a hypothesis that many of the restaurants near the white house/government buildings can operate with very high prices because most of their customers are just going to charge it to their expense account.

I live in the greater DC area and my parents recently visited from what I'd consider a fairly MCOL place--Las Vegas.  They have lived in very expensive places and still visit frequently (SoCal) and travel often.  And while my gas was much cheaper than theirs, they commented on how expensive nearly everything else was.  We even made a Costco run and our prices are apparently more expensive there, too. 

I don't live where anyone from the District would end up expensing a lunch, or probably even living, but the prices bleed out through the whole National Capital area. 

[tooqk4u22]

.

The problem is these articles take a week's spending and multiply it by 52, which is stupid. Let's see... DH and I are at home, down with Covid. I spent zero dollars on food this week. Does that mean my annual food spending is zero?
]!

Dicey, you are funny but true.   If you took any particular week of our spending and multiplied it by 52 it could look pauper'ish or 1% yacht'ish. 25TH anniversary weekend was quite the expense, even borderline offensive!  (I deeply enjoyed the weekend, but it was still hard for me not to think about it)The weeks before and after  though were not quite zero but pretty darn low.  Which weeks should we annualize?

[TomTX]

This is jaw-dropping:https://www.bonappetit.com/story/food-diary-washington-dc-225k-salary

I had a job interview in D.C. in November 2010. I met up with a friend for dinner. It was one of the most expensive menus that I have ever seen for a mid-tier (non-fancy) restaurant.

I have a hypothesis that many of the restaurants near the white house/government buildings can operate with very high prices because most of their customers are just going to charge it to their expense account.

Poke around 2-3 blocks away from the Mall and you can find far less expensive options.

[tooqk4u22]

This is jaw-dropping:https://www.bonappetit.com/story/food-diary-washington-dc-225k-salary

I had a job interview in D.C. in November 2010. I met up with a friend for dinner. It was one of the most expensive menus that I have ever seen for a mid-tier (non-fancy) restaurant.

I have a hypothesis that many of the restaurants near the white house/government buildings can operate with very high prices because most of their customers are just going to charge it to their expense account.

Poke around 2-3 blocks away from the Mall and you can find far less expensive options.

+1, same goes for Manhattan.   Once you get into the neighborhoods (admittedly unfamiliar and thus scary) prices really aren't that bad.

[TheGrimSqueaker]

This is jaw-dropping:https://www.bonappetit.com/story/food-diary-washington-dc-225k-salary

I had a job interview in D.C. in November 2010. I met up with a friend for dinner. It was one of the most expensive menus that I have ever seen for a mid-tier (non-fancy) restaurant.

I have a hypothesis that many of the restaurants near the white house/government buildings can operate with very high prices because most of their customers are just going to charge it to their expense account.

Poke around 2-3 blocks away from the Mall and you can find far less expensive options.

+1, same goes for Manhattan.   Once you get into the neighborhoods (admittedly unfamiliar and thus scary) prices really aren't that bad.

There have to be places for the locals to eat and shop. Someone is providing child care, flipping the proverbial burgers, cleaning the hotel rooms and driving the cabs. The bellhops and bus drivers aren't all commuting in from the sticks, and neither are the nannies or the unpaid interns. Nor-- I would guess-- do any of them have access to teleportation devices or Star Trek food replicators. Some probably do commute in from a less expensive area, because DC does have a respectable public transit system, however some of them have schedules or on-demand work that precludes it.

Some years ago a fellow I worked with was describing a very wealthy, tony neighborhood where it was normal to have live-in cleaning, child care, and maintenance staff. There were the kinds of houses that have freight elevators and parking in the rear. There were pockets of high-end retail, with upscale hair salons, gyms, and boutiques. "And then, right in the middle of that, was a huge Wal-Mart." I shrugged and noted that the staff has to shop somewhere, and that they don't have the same tastes or resources as their employers do (or a desire to interact with them outside work).

No matter how HCOL the neighborhood, there have to be places where the janitors shop, eat, and sleep. They probably can't dine out often, but they do buy groceries. That's where people like us (Mustachians) should shop.

[lifeisshort123]

I think the issue is more and more the janitors can’t find a place to live.  In my community, the homes on the outskirts of town are now going for about $400k.  The janitors are living quite far away and commuting.  I can’t help but feel bad for them.

[Hula Hoop]

This is jaw-dropping:https://www.bonappetit.com/story/food-diary-washington-dc-225k-salary

I had a job interview in D.C. in November 2010. I met up with a friend for dinner. It was one of the most expensive menus that I have ever seen for a mid-tier (non-fancy) restaurant.

I have a hypothesis that many of the restaurants near the white house/government buildings can operate with very high prices because most of their customers are just going to charge it to their expense account.

Poke around 2-3 blocks away from the Mall and you can find far less expensive options.

+1, same goes for Manhattan.   Once you get into the neighborhoods (admittedly unfamiliar and thus scary) prices really aren't that bad.

Yes I've seen this time and time again with out of towners who move to NYC.  I grew up on Manhattan in an area that has never been exactly fashionable and back in the day used to be described as "scary" (it wasn't great but really not as bad as outsiders thought).  My parents weren't wealthy and my friends in a "good" NYC public school had parents with middle class jobs like teachers, artists, musicians, cooks, journalists, nurses etc.  Manhattan has always had tons of rich people but most of my friends and their families were really good at avoiding the 'rich people' expensive stuff.  For example, if we went downtown we'd dine at Gray's Papaya (RIP) or get a dollar slice somewhere.  We never ate at restaurants apart from maybe the Cuban milkshake place nearby.  And food shopping was done at supermarkets uptown in our neighborhood.

Fast forward many years and I moved back to NYC and got a high pay high stress job at a big fancy employer in midtown NYC.  I was one of the few native New Yorkers they hired.  I got a room in an apartment in my old Manhattan neighborhood with a room mate.  If I hadn't moved there, I was also looking in various areas in Queens (like Sunnyside and Jackson Heights).  I was astounded that my non New Yorker colleagues had never heard of any of the neighborhoods were I was looking at apartments and some of them were even scared to take the subway uptown to where I lived.  They were looking for apartments in expensive parts of Manhattan that you see in movies and TV shows like the East Village or Chelsea and didn't even consider the normal and not crazy expensive areas in NYC.  Then they complained about the cost of living and their inability to pay back student loans despite the huge salary.

[clarkfan1979]

.

The problem is these articles take a week's spending and multiply it by 52, which is stupid. Let's see... DH and I are at home, down with Covid. I spent zero dollars on food this week. Does that mean my annual food spending is zero?
]!

Dicey, you are funny but true.   If you took any particular week of our spending and multiplied it by 52 it could look pauper'ish or 1% yacht'ish. 25TH anniversary weekend was quite the expense, even borderline offensive!  (I deeply enjoyed the weekend, but it was still hard for me not to think about it)The weeks before and after  though were not quite zero but pretty darn low.  Which weeks should we annualize?

Good point. I spent $1745 on season passes for skiing this winter for the whole family today. If I spend that every single day of the year, I'm spending 636K/year on skiing passes, even when there's no snow.

[FIRE@50]

We went to DC today. For lunch we had a sandwich, 2 salads, and a bag of chips. Total cost was $59.62. What annual expense can we extrapolate from that?

[Dicey]

We went to DC today. For lunch we had a sandwich, 2 salads, and a bag of chips. Total cost was $59.62. What annual expense can we extrapolate from that?

You gotta do it for a one whole week if you want to be as accurate as the Bon Appetit article....

[RetiredAt63]

We went to DC today. For lunch we had a sandwich, 2 salads, and a bag of chips. Total cost was $59.62. What annual expense can we extrapolate from that?

Wow and that is in US$.  I hope the food was super yummy.

My extrapolation is that next time you go to DC you are going to take your own lunch.

[lifeisshort123]

Out to eat food costs everywhere are soaring.  It is really difficult to justify eating out at all right now.

[Wolfpack Mustachian]

Out to eat food costs everywhere are soaring.  It is really difficult to justify eating out at all right now.

And yet there is still a sentiment that groceries are so expensive that it's cheaper to eat out. I truly don't understand it.