Groceries vs. Eating Out – Who Spends The Most On What And Why? [Infographic]

Restaurant Choice http://www.restaurantchoice.co.uk 1m 359 #eatingout

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

We are constantly told that the UK as a culture are a country of over eaters and one of our biggest problems is our love of fast-foods takeaways and eating out. Through the media we are force fed information that would have you believe we live on nothing but McDonalds and Nando’s but according to our figures this is simply not the case.

It is only in London that we spend more money eating out than on groceries, with the average person spending £2660 ($4308.40) eating out and only £2507 ($4060.59) on groceries; London is of course notoriously more expensive than other parts of the country but does this also means people eat out more?

If you compare how much people are spending a year on groceries with the rest of the country, you can see that they spend slightly less than places such as Leeds, Newcastle and Aberdeen which would support the idea that Londoners spend more time away from the kitchen and fall happily into the grasp of London’s army of chefs.

There could be a few reasons for why Londoners prefer eating out to cooking, the first and obvious one is that they have more disposable income and would much rather eat something cooked by a professional than themselves which is fair enough, but another more thoughtful theory is that working and living in London can be hectic and coming home after working hard all day might mean that cooking isn’t the first thing you fancy doing so therefore eating out seems like a more desirable option than slaving away over an oven.

Have a look at our Infographic for eating out ideas.

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19,000,0000 UK adults eat out at least once a week
1 in every 8.5 meals are eaten out
1.8 breakfast meals per month eaten out (£4.77 average spend)
4.2 lunch meals per month eaten out (£7.39 average spend)
2.5 dinner meals per month (£17.89 average spend)

Spending by Age Group:

18-24
Takeaways: £1,237
Eating Out: £1,231
Groceries: £4,069

25-34
Takeaways: £1,267
Eating Out: £1,359
Groceries: £5,235

35-44
Takeaways: £937
Eating Out: £1,019
Groceries: £7,218

45-54
Takeaways: £582
Eating Out: £673
Groceries: £7,274

55+
Takeaways: £317
Eating Out: £971
Groceries: £7,116

Infographic has been sourced from the guys at Restaurant Choice.

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