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Our penchant for eating out, especially our taste for fast food, is getting some of the blame for the national obesity epidemic. But letting someone else do the cooking isn't just expanding our waistlines; it's shrinking our wallets too.
Many of us are in a perpetual hurry, and it has become easy to grab a coffee here, a quick lunch there and a few takeout cartons for dinner. It can add up to big bucks, even if we never splurge on fine dining. Spending $2 a day for coffee comes to $730 a year.
The average U.S. household spent $2,276 on food away from home in 2002, according to the government's Consumer Expenditure Survey released earlier this year. That was 42 percent of the total food dollar. While singles spent more per person, families with children ran up the biggest tabs, spending more eating out than they did on health care. Families in the top 20 percent of incomes ($74,392 or more) spent an average of $4,554 eating out.
Don't get me wrong: There is nothing wrong with eating out some of the time; it can be fun and relaxing, as well as filling. I enjoy it too.
But besides the calories, one of the big dangers is mindless spending: Your money disappears and you don't know where it went. The consequences can be serious if you find yourself unable to save much for retirement or without the money to spend on something else you really want.
Unlike hurricanes, this is one of those things you can do something about. For starters, you can keep track of your daily spending for a few weeks, perhaps using a small notebook to write down everything you buy, including nonfood items. This is the best way to find out if you are spending too much on some areas and need to cut back.
If you want to spend less eating out, your best bet is to make eating at home less of a chore. That's not difficult if you are willing to do some advance planning. Jot down your menus, or at least the main dish for dinner, for the week ahead so you can make one trip to the grocery store instead of three or four. Keep favorite staples such as rice and frozen vegetables in stock. When it is convenient, cook double or triple the usual amount and freeze the extra for a future fast-food dinner. Frozen chicken breast chunks can become the base for many different meals.
By planning on the front end and keeping meal preparation simple, cooking and eating at home can even be faster than eating out. And you get to keep the tip.
Q. Enclosed is a quarterly report from a company in which I invested. Have you ever seen one as brief and vague as this? They have issued similar glowing reports for eight consecutive quarters, but these significant revenue increases never seem to translate into profit. When I wrote to the president to ask why, he did not reply. Do you have an opinion on this?
My opinion is that investors should not buy shares in companies that trade on the OTC Bulletin Board as this one does. Solid information on these companies can be difficult to obtain in a timely manner, if at all. The shareholder report you received is lacking in many key details. You can find out more information by looking up the company's filings in the Security and Exchange Commission's EDGAR database (www.sec.gov) Unfortunately, the most recent report available is for the quarter ended in February. So much for timely filing. If I were you, I would sell these shares and invest elsewhere.
Q. If you are married, can you save any money by filing separate income tax returns instead of a joint return?
Usually not. However, it's worth running the numbers if one spouse earns nearly all the taxable income. One situation in which it might pay off is when one spouse has high medical expenses and a relatively low income. That's because you can only deduct medical expenses in excess of 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income.
Separate filers are ineligible for certain tax benefits, such as the earned income credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit. They also are penalized in the calculation to determine the tax (if any) on Social Security benefits. If you file separately, both spouses must itemize or both must take the standard deduction.
Helen Huntley writes about investing and markets for the Times. If you have a question about investments or personal finance, send it to On Money. We'll try to answer those we think are of greatest reader interest. All questions must be submitted in writing, but readers' names will not be published. Send questions to huntley@sptimes.com or Helen Huntley, Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731.