I eat out alot, more than I’m willing to admit to myself (I am trying to pitch frugality after all). One factor that ends up helping me out is that I tend to eat ethnic, and by a large measure sit down ethnic food is often quite a bit cheaper than American food.  I don’t know why this is exactly.  Though, I do have a couple of hypothesis. Ethnicrestaurants are run by immigrants, and immigrants are cheap.  Ethnic restaurants often cater to immigrants, and immigrants are cheap. Ethnic restaurants employ immigrants, and well immigrants are cheap to hire. Sense a recurring theme? Ethnic restaurants in some weird fashion are able to import some the low prices of their home country to America, hence why only ethnic restaurants of lesser developed nations are actually affordable.  Ever been to cheap french restaurant? Can’t say I have either.  Actually that last bit on employing immigrants - that’s not completely true as almost all restaurants employ immigrants in the kitchen.  So ethnic restaurants are really saving money on paying their waitstaff poorly and that’s why I’ve been trying to tip in cash when I can, to give the waiters and waitresses a better chance at pocketing the tip.

  • Chinese ($)
  • Mexican ($)
  • Indian ($)
  • Thai ($$)
  • “American” ($$)
  • Japanese ($$$)
  • Italian ($$$)
  • French ($$$$)

I generally eat out for the convenience. I don’t have to prepare the food, and I don’t have to clean up. T hese are two services I’m paying for. Most of the time, I’m not paying to eat better tasting food than what I could make at home. However, that does not mean I don’t want to eat good food.  I do, and from my experience the quality of ethnic food at the same or lower price is better.