America’s Tastiest Wealth Killer Nobody Wants To Admit

It's no secret Americans love to eat, eat, eat. No, not eples and paninis. They actually, they hate those. We're talking about nuggies and paninis, specifically from restaurants. On average, get this, Americans spend around $3,600 a year eating out. And thanks to inflation, the cost of dining out is getting more and more expensive. I mean, the prices at Taco Bell will now make you want to run for the border and into the baño. Hurts my tummy. But Americans are really good at justifying the expense of that nacho cheese Doritos Locos Taco Supreme. Some even claim that it's better for them financially to eat out than to eat at home. So is there any truth to that? In today's video, we'll talk about when it makes sense to eat out, when it doesn't, and how it's costing you way more than you think to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is millions in pesos. But before we jump in, hit those like and subscribe buttons and share this with your Taco Bell loving friends who are currently fighting for their life in the Taco Bell baño. They were trying to live mas, but really they're just living menos. Yo quiero thumbs. You know I don't speak Spanish. Okay, so here's an argument people love to use to justify dining out all the time. They'll say, George, my time is worth more. I hear this one a lot, especially from YouTubers and TikTokers, including my boy, Alex Hermosi. Check this out. The easiest way to get 13 hours a week back on average for an American is to eat takeout rather than get groceries. If you look at the difference between takeout and buying grocery food, that delta, if you can make more than that in 13 hours of work, it makes financial sense to work those hours and then get the takeout because you actually make more money at the end of the week than you would have if you tried to save it by going to the store, et cetera. Now, to be honest, I didn't hear a word Alex said. All I could hear was, I work out a lot and you'll never get to my level. Now, aside from his common core math riddle, here's the truth. Normal non-Hermosi humans are not gonna replace that 13 hours with extra work, okay? You're not a beast, bro. You're on YouTube watching my videos. I think we can all agree, you're more like me than you are like him. Most of us are just gonna be using that time savings to play Candy Crush or catch up on Is It Cake? And I actually addressed this with Alex himself, and this is what he said when I brought it up in our Millionaires and Cars Getting Coffee episode. I do have some beef with the video. Never eat at home. You're an idiot if you eat at home. Always eat out. Caveat. Caveat is if you're a single guy and you're earning potential for the time, that it takes you to grocery shop, prep, cook, clean, et cetera, it's just math. Go to the grocery store, go to Costco, put everything out, wait out, cut it, do the whole thing, right? Took me eight hours. Basically, my whole Sunday was that. The big caveat is you can't go out and then not work the time that you would have spent. Oh. So there you go. If you make 20 bucks an hour, your time is not worth 20 bucks an hour every hour of the day. Sure, if you're gonna work a side hustle and make extra money during those hours, then Hermosi's advice would track. But if you're a mere mortal like me, just eat at home. Another way people justify eating out all the time, I get credit card rewards for dining out. Now, this is true. Credit cards might offer two, three, or four times the points when you spend money at restaurants. But think about it. Why would credit card companies incentivize you to eat out? I don't know. Maybe because they know eating out costs more than buying groceries to eat at home and they want you to spend more so they make more money. That's a theory. Oh my God, no way. Look, I don't care how many credit card points or how much cash back you're getting for ordering the Bloomin' Onion. Wealthy people don't spend money just to save money. That would be like spending 50 bucks in a vending machine just to get a dollar back. You might feel like you're winning here, but that's exactly what the credit card companies want you to think. You see, they're experts in consumer behavior. They run thousands of experiments on consumers like you every year to get them to chase more rewards through more spending. So if you're a points chaser, you're chasing your tail while making credit card companies rich. Okay, the next reason people give for eating out a lot is one that really grinds my gears. But before we get to that, I want to tell you how to get a phone plan for roughly half the price of a Bloomin' Onion. And that's by switching to Tello, one of the sponsors of today's video. Their phone plans have the same high-speed nationwide coverage you get from the big guys at prices lower than the cost of the Chocolate Thunder from Down Under at Outback. I'm talking 25 bucks a month for the unlimited everything plan and plans as affordable as five bucks. No contracts, no sneaky fees, and you can upgrade, downgrade, change plans whenever you want. Go to tello.com slash George and get an extra five bucks off the unlimited data plan during your first month of service. Or just check out the link in the Down Under. And while we're making smart money moves, check out Delete.me, another sponsor of today's video. You know those weird shady sites that sell your personal info for a profit? Well, it's a great way for spammers, scammers, and stalkers to get access to your data and ruin your life. But the good news is Delete.me finds and removes your info from hundreds of these data broker sites and they send you an easy to read report showing you what they did and how much time they saved you. And they saved me 44 hours already, which is more time I can spend perfecting my Australian accent. Horner, it's so good. Please don't do that again. I gotta work. I gotta work on it. So help protect yourself from the risks of online scams and data breaches with Delete.me. And right now you can get 20% off by going to join delete.me.com slash George. Or just click the link south of the border. That's the description. Okay, back to the excuses. The final and perhaps most outrageous reason people give for eating out is it's cheaper. Believe it or not, there are people who claim it is cheaper to eat out than to make a meal at home, including Golden Corral. Look, if you wanna get your financial advice from a buffet with an unregulated chocolate fountain, you do you, bruh. But if you do it right, eating at home is always cheaper than dining out. And yes, you might get a good deal every now and then when the local seafood shack is trying to get rid of some weak old lobster or you get a really good coupon or if you're John and Kate plus eight and it's kids eat free night at IHOP. Sure, there are some exceptions. But in most cases, you're gonna save big money by eating at home. And here's why. Restaurants need to mark up ingredients by 300% on average in order to cover overhead, labor, and make a profit. They gotta make money if they wanna keep serving up those crispy cuppy roni pappadias. Just a stunning culinary innovation. And one of the things restaurants have a huge markup on is drinks. If you wanna enjoy a margarita with your empanada, it's gonna cost you mucho dinero, mi amigo. And this affects you teetotalers too because it's not just alcohol that's overpriced. There's a huge markup on soft drinks as well. Meanwhile, back at Su Casa, you can just drink water or make your own fancy cocktails at a much lower cost. Can you tell I've been working on my Spanish? Level seven mage on Duolingo. If you're a victim of the Duolingo Owl, you're not alone. Plus, cooking at home allows for meal planning, which can really help you reduce food waste and save money. Oh yeah, and when you're at home, no tipping required. So those of you who have tipping fatigue, there's one more reason to eat at home. So yes, eating at home is cheaper. But how much money will it really save you? Will it be enough to make a difference? Well, here's an example. Let's say you're a family of four spending around 550 bucks a month eating at restaurants, which tracks with the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If you cut that 550 back to just 100 a month and get real intentional with your grocery spending, you could probably free up 450 bucks a month. If you took that 450 and invested every single month for 30 years, it could grow to over a million dollars thanks to compound growth and the margin you created when you chose to cut the cracker barrel and instead BYOB, bake your own biscuits. Taste the biscuit. Taste the goodness of the biscuit. So yeah, cutting back on eating out can make a big difference. Look, I'm not saying you should never eat out. I love Outback as much as the next bloke. Just be intentional about how much you do it and be honest with yourself about what it's really costing you financially and health-wise. So how do you keep yourself from spending a butt ton of money eating at restaurants, ordering takeout, and having food delivered? The answer is simple. You make an intentional spending plan where you give every dollar a job and you stick to it. And the best way to do this is with the EveryDollar app. I'll drop a link below if you want to check it out. And here's my challenge. Estimate how much you think you'll spend on food this month. Then track in the EveryDollar app and let me know how much you actually spent once the month is over. I will bet you'll be shocked, appalled, even sorprendido. And if you want more ways to save money on food, check out this video to find out the best grocery hacks from the most frugal people I know. I'll also drop a link in the description below. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.