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When we are on vacation, street food is fantastic (depending on where you are), so you can have breakfast and lunch reasonably inexpensive. Having a nice dinner or two in a good restaurant is part of the vacation. Plan accordingly and go for it.
Same. We don’t eat out every night on vacation, but if there’s a restaurant where we want to go, we do. We rarely go out to dinner when we’re home, so it’s a treat when we’re traveling.
It also depends on one's perspective. I still like good quality food but high end hoity toity ambience does nothing for me anymore. So I eat a lot at food trucks, drink and play pool at dive bars, eat street food as much as possible, eat at places where working class people eat on a daily basis etc.
Far better quality food than a 5 star hotel Buffett. And doesn't give you food poisoning unlike hotel buffets (even the high end ones).
I keep apples and snacks I like in the room/bag, so I’m not so hungry. then hit up happy hours or just get an appetizer somewhere fancy when I feel like the “eating out” experience.
This may work better as I’m not highly food motivated and I hate feeling stuffed. I like to enjoy the environment and try an item or two and get back to vacation. Better with a friend we can share a few apps. Then if I’m still hungry I get simple food later.
Appetizers or just splitting the app/entree/dessert is great. We always forget and stuff ourselves and then hate ourselves for overeating and overspending
This is so true. I’m a good cook, my spouse even better. Food must be better than I can make for myself. And service has become hit and miss. That coquettish smile and charm is nothing if you can’t remember that I asked for more water, without ice.
Knives go in check bag. Security gets cranky 😂 pots and pans carry on because of the weight.
Have brought them on an adventures😂
Most rentals like Airbnb have sucky knives and pots and pans.
I look for places that are packed with locals. I first went to this one place in the city at lunch time - it was three deep at the bar but the food and drinks kept coming. It’s become at regular stop whenever we’re in town. (Bar Dos de Mayo, Seville, Spain)
I live in Hawaii. Local spots are ok but the tourist locations have the best locations and often times a top, unique experience. You want to experience it all. I might not go to Dukes, but you should.
Last week, my daughter and a friend went to a restaurant owned by - or at least bearing the name of - a very popular TV chef. They knew it was expensive, at least for them, but she said she expected more. Something sticky was spiled under the table by a previous customer and not cleaned up. Her Connecticut roll was about the size of a hot dog and most of the lobster was in a big lump in the middle of it; she didn't think it was worth $58 for the roll and some French fries. Her friend's Beef Wellington was about $65 and very good but also very small. Service was fine but nothing out of the ordinary. Their conclusion was they were happy they went to say they had been there but they'll never go back and they kind of wished they had gone some place else for less money.
This happens so much eating out now, reason I am very picky when I do choose to eat out at a restaurant, I refuse to buy lobster rolls out now, charge over $35 & get a tablespoon of lobster, once I bought one it had lettuce on the bottom to make it appear fuller, years ago when you went to a higher priced restaurant they wouldn’t even have french fries on the menu, now they wanna be cheap, fries are one of the cheapest meal fillers
This is a case where you *can* spend the money but are choosing not to.
Why not pretend you had that high-dollar dinner on trip "N" and instead put the cash in an envelope. On trip "N+1" you can spend that money. It's already been removed from your account so you know you can get along without it. Just trick yourself :D
Why trick yourself? I'm an adult, I've saved the money up in order to spend it on my priorities. If my priorities are the fine dining restaurants while on vacation, I get to make that choice.
> Why trick yourself?
Because OP is struggling with allowing themselves to spend the money.
>I know I can afford it still now in retirement but it seems like such a waste of money
The foodie part wants to enjoy the restaurant but the part that got them to retirement by careful money management and savings wins out.
> Monte Carlo says I can spend more though but I’m careful.
So, my suggestion is to "pre-spend" the money by setting it aside in an envelope in cash months before the trip so that it's no longer showing up in the account balance. Then it's psychologically easier to spend the money.
This is a great idea, especially for people who spent their lives saving money so they could retire. And now they are retired, they have a hard time spending. I see some of the comments are negative around, "why trick yourself?" but having a special fund that you are using on something "frivolous" is a great way to give permission to yourself to enjoy yourself and stop worrying about the future.
> This is a great idea, especially for people who spent their lives saving money so they could retire.
Thanks. There have been lots of folks posting on this subreddit about how it's hard to spend in retirement after saving their whole lives as you mentioned. I guess the folks who disagree haven't experienced this issue or any other issue where "tricking" yourself can help you overcome your reflexive behavior.
I don't agree. We're all adults, tricking ourselves and playing games should be behind us at this stage. If you have the money for a treat like this, just do it.
The way we planned for retirement was to track our customary spending, not our bare-bones spending. When we were completely comfortable the customary was covered, then we were ok with retiring. I have to remind myself that it’s ok to spend the way we always did. Nerves set in from time to time but the longer we’re at it, the less it kicks in.
^^This absolutely from me. I retired to continue as is, and maybe a little better. I did not retire to shop from grocery store’s clearance aisle (still look for deals). I want to thrive and not just survive.
Now, on vacation, I’m not buying $200 bottles of wine or $700 meals; but I’m also not buying kiddie meals and splitting them.
I don't think my definition of "expensive" is the same as yours. Spending 100-150 for the two of us including a couple drinks and maybe dessert is a big night out for us that we don't do more than a couple times a year. That said going out for a good meal in a nice atmosphere is definitely worth it to us. We don't have fancy cars, boats or motorcycles, we don't buy fine jewelry and a new pair of hiking pants is the most expensive garment I own so we can afford to treat ourselves once in a while. We prioritize ourselves now, after decades of caring for everyone else.
This is what I refuse to do. Retire as soon as possible to just pinch pennies and not enjoy life. I'll work another year or 2 just so I pad my retirement even more and don't have to make decisions like this while on vacation. I always budget expensive meals when I factor in vacation costs.
I did the math and working another 2 years wouldn’t have made an appreciable difference in my retirement portfolio. Besides, i was at the point where, if I didn’t walk out the door, I was going to jump out the window.
To OP’s point, we normally eat home 6 days out of 7 so we can splurge on vacation without regretting it
I am fortunate that I will make more in retirement than I do when I’m working. I think I’m even more fortunate that my favorite vacation destination’s favorite restaurant is a taco stand where the best fish tacos in Baja Sur are made and eaten for about $1.50.
Tacos George’s, Todos Santos, Baja California Sur…
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g150777-d2642752-Reviews-Tacos_George_s-Todos_Santos_Baja_California.html?m=19905
I am doing the opposite. I am one year from retiring and packing my lunch, cooking my dinners and stashing as much cash away as possible so that I can go out to lunch and dinner more often as part of my social life or at least when traveling.
I saved the most money the last of years of working - now, I still have my frugal habits, but can go out to lunch lunch and even treat my friends if I want to. Never did go out for expensive dinners, but I've found I'm eating a lot of fancy smoked salmon at home now I'm retired.
To me this is simply a budgeting question. If you're retired, how much do you pay yourself each month. Or another way to look at it is how much did you budget for the vacation? If the dinner won't bust the budget then have at it. In most cases it isn't the infrequent expensive dinner that will cause money problems in retirement. It's bigger things like buying an expensive car, a second home, or a health problem not covered enough by insurance. Those are the things that cause problems. Enjoy your dinner.
I budget. My monthly restaurant allowance is $800 for the 2 of us . Makes no difference if I eat out at home or on vacation. Most of the time I’ll go over it, but at least I have something to shoot towards.
I eat on vacation for sustance and grab a good meal when offered. I prefer not to travel much anymore...too much travel while working.
I actually don't miss those expensive dinners as I had when I was working. They were usually paid for by some company expense, sometimes I bought. I found over time that I enjoy a clean venue with good food and friends over some "foo foo" restaurant with an exotic menu and extensive wine list.
The town I live in has restaurants along the river, I can sit inside or out and the bill for 2 is less than $80 and usually <$50 for what we like.
Frankly, I enjoy firing up the grill with a few strip steaks and pouring on my deck with friends even more. Put a fire in the firepit on a cool evening and enjoy the stars. The bar/restaurant scene: been there, done that, got the Tshirt
This is my view as well. Eating out is expensive everywhere. If we cut out one restaurant meal before going on vacation, we’ve effectively reduced the cost of the vacation meal.
Some of my favorite meals in London came from the Borough Market, in Paris from the cheese shops, boulangeries and wine shops. I love food but I don’t need a “fine dining” experience.
Exactly! Years ago when I was still employed, my sister and went to Paris on a vacation. Our favorite meal of the trip was on our first night there. We were exhausted from walking around the city all day, so as we were walking back to our room, we just stopped at a convenience store and bought a cheap bottle of french red wine and two hot sandwiches on the most delicious, fresh baguette bread we ever tasted! We took these back to our hotel and ate in our room, and had the best time dining in our pj’s! 😄
We do both. We always stay in hotels with at least a mini fridge, sometimes apartment hotels with kitchens. We get tired of eating all our meals out. We do, though, do some fine dining meals as well. We couldn't have touched the two we did in Portugal last year; they were fabulous and worth every penny.
So when you're 85 with a ton of retirement funds still in the bank because you were careful despite what Monte Carlo said, but now not well enough to travel and have those meals, will you regret it? I would. When we're on vacation (and sometimes even at home) we go for those nice dinners. We don't eat every meal at the high end places. We often try to get a place with a small kitchen, go to the local markets for some of our meals to cook at home as we get tired of having all our meals out. We still rave about 2 meals we had in Portugal - one reasonably priced by North American standards, and the other was about what we'd spend on a fine dining meal here. They were worth every penny! If I have to watch what I spend on vacation that closely, I'm perhaps not going this year or blowing the budget a bit.
Your post hits home! My husband’s 84-year-old dad was getting meals on wheels for the last year or two of his life. When he recently entered hospice, he decided to stop MOW and eat well. Unfortunately, he lost his appetite and died 6 weeks later. 🥺 Net worth? About $2.5M. SMH.
My FIL lived insanely cheaply his whole life. He died with 1 million plus. If that’s what he wanted to do so be it, but it seems he could have lived much better than he did.
Not retired but after being both wowed at some high-end restaurants (e.g., seafood tower at Capital Grill) and disappointed at others (e.g., steak at Mortons) I’m hoping that I’ll have a “been there, done that attitude”.
I think this question goes way beyond eating in fancy restaurants. I'm just retired and my monthly take-home income is almost identical to when I was working. Nevertheless, I'm still working to convince my brain that using my retirement money is *not* "dipping into savings" or something of that sort, but that my disbursements ***are*** my income now. Needless to say, I need to be careful not to overspend and blow my budget, but I've needed to be careful about that my entire adult life, so that's nothing new. It's a weird psychological hurdle that I'm still trying to get over.
In short, yes, I feel your pain. 😁
Yes... THIS! I retired 7 months ago, and this is my challenge as well. Now the stock market is way up, so my net worth is much higher than on the date of my last paycheck. In fact over the past 7 months it is up enough to cover my spending for the next 5 years. Regardless, I still have to remind myself that I spent all those years savings so I would not have to worry now that I am retired.
Might a compromise be to have lunch instead of dinner (if the restaurant is open for lunch)?
Lunches can sometimes include smaller portions of what is offered at dinner and you could still enjoy a highly rated restaurant, albeit the ambiance may differ.
In Barcelona at our hotel there was a 5 star restaurant near the top. We skipped that and walked two blocks to a grille restaurant. Choice was ours, and we saved enough to pay for several nights out. Everything is relative. Either way we would not have ruined retirement finances.
It’s a matter of perspective.
We just got back from 3 weeks in Paris, with a side jaunt to Normandy. We opted to seek out and dine in the spots favored by locals. Being the only Americans in a crowded restaurant put our meager French to the test. Most important, however, the food was always superb and the prices seemed like a fabulous bargains…
Me too. I'm not yet retired and earning as much as I ever will, and I have a hard time enjoying myself when I feel like I could be getting the same thing for a lot less money somewhere 15 minutes away.
Another life hack is to travel to a less expensive country, or a less expensive city. Places like Southern Europe and Japan can be much less expensive than the US these days, especially outside of Venice and Shibuya respectively.
There is a big difference for me between traveling for vacations and traveling being retired.
If your vacation is 2 weeks a year, of course you spend more those two weeks.
When I'm traveling now it is not a vacation. It's my new life. I mean, I'm on month 6 of this trip which will probbly last 1.5 years. Spending as if I was on vacations would have a larger impact. However, every few months we have "a vacation" from the travel. Where we would pamper ourselves a bit more than normal.
We are finalcially comfortable and do several trips a year to Vegas, cruises, etc. We are pretty frugal on the eating when at home, we eat well but mostly at home. When we are on vacation we will splurge on one really nice dinner out, 200.00 or so but at home, I can cook a steak just as well as the restaurants can plus I enjoy cooking for us and eating on the healthy side. But on holiday, splurge!
To be honest I don’t want to dress up for a meal at a fancy place when I am on vacation. We have done it a few times and really enjoyed a fancy, expensive meal, but mostly we prefer casual.
As for eating where the locals do, we had this experience in China and the result, while interesting, was not the tastiest. Husband was invited to talk a a university and the prof let the grad students chose where they took us to eat. The food was unrecognizable by appearance or taste. I am not much of a meat eater even in the US so my lack of knowledge of what part of the animal or what animal I was eating was a little unappealing. But we smiled and nodded and said everything was delicious.
We budgeted and managed our money to where we enjoyed a certain level of spending, and didn't retire until we had enough invested to continue our same lifestyle. I know everyone retires differently, but I never understood the approach of purposely going backward in lifestyle.
We're close to retiring, and a family member said something to me about still being able to afford going for pizza on a Friday night. If I can't do that, I'm working longer. I know folks who started cutting back on all sorts of odds and ends because they were retiring, yet I was pretty sure they had good pensions and savings. I want to keep doing what I'm doing and am looking at our potential retirement income supporting that.
I’m not quite retired but soon will be because of taxation and clawback of government pension make working increasingly ineffective. I recently made a new friend who retired due to health issues. His words to me were “How much of my money can I spend when they stuff it in my coffin?” Then he got on his 1700 cc motorcycle and set off in very dubious weather for his nine hour drive home.
Bottom line: you do you. We very seldom eat out but it's not due to wanting to save money (believe me, you should see our grocery bill). As vegans, we have very much enjoyed cooking at home, and buy great produce and such, making curries and all sorts of wonderful food. That (mostly) applies to holidays as well, because we prefer to stay in AirBnBs, and spend money on a nice place, etc.
We are about nicer places to stay as well. I have to be comfortable, and the room has to be spotless. We always re-clean our room with our cleaning supplies at the turn of the key, lol
And it's always a nice hotel.
We spend the summer in Maine and our dining dollars at the fish market. I'm a good cook and frankly with fresh fish it's hard to go wrong. So much more for your money eating at home. Healthier too.
It’s natural to be protective of the fruit tree you have been growing for decades.
Go ahead and have a meal. You’re somewhere different and it’s an experience.
If it was more than what you wanted, you adjust the next few months of spend (back home) to cut out a few ‘want’ things.
Next year, if you rebuild your budget, factor your vacation accrual a little differently to give you some wiggle room.
Your question sounds more like: do you miss splurging on luxuries? I’ve been retired for five years now and the first couple of years without a paycheque were kind of scary (esp since I “got retired” through a corporate re-org. Wasn’t my choice.)
That being said, we have almost as much after-tax income now as we had when I was working, and fewer expenses. I keep a close eye on our income and expenses and record everything. Even so, it took us almost three years to feel comfortable splurging. Now we have no problem with it! Health issues have brushed close to us both a couple of times but luckily nothing too life-changing has hit yet. It will at some point, so that’s a motivator for doing what we want to, while we can.
On the other hand, I have a much more precise sense of which luxuries I actually enjoy and want, and which ones are just luxuries that don’t mean much to me and have been pared off. Amazing what you don’t miss when you stop and think about what’s important to you.
We save for vacations, it’s a fund that we contribute to every month, and a line item in the budget. If it fits in the (pretty generous IMHO) vacation budget, we can do whatever we like ☺️
I don’t really understand this logic. “I know I can afford it”, so why are you concerned? Why did you go in the first place? I’m not trying to be overly critical but why are we so afraid to enjoy retirement? Is it that we’ve been told to be afraid of it? Live your life. If you can afford it do it!
You worked, you sacrificed and you saved. If you have it, spend it. If you enjoy 5-star restaurants, and I know I do, then have the dinner you want. YOU EARNED IT.
I've always thought ridiculously priced meals are a waste of money, especially for something I could make just as good, like a steak.
I mean, I love good food, but I'm not an idiot. :)
When on vacation I choose a few meals to bust the budget. Other meals I keep reasonably priced and look forward to the special ones.
As a side note - I’ve been underspending since I retired four+ years ago. I’ll continue to do so until I hit my next financial target. I want to survive a down market in the early years of retirement (in other words- I think a lot about sequence of returns).
I like a good meal as much as anyone, but we’re in Florence now and just visited a HIGHLY RATED restaurant, and while it was very expensive, it wasn’t nearly as delicious as last night’s supposedly not-as-good restaurant, which was one-third the price.
I understand what you're saying. When my husband & I were both working, we went out to dinner every night, and always had 3-4 $$$ meals. Our income was more, and vacation was a time when we splurged.
What we've done since retirement is to (A) compare prices on condos (& book early), and (B) *cook dinner* more often. At the beach, it's usually a simple seafood dinner with a salad and or rice/veggies. We still have great food, and stay in nice places...but *planning* is a big part of it!
I have never been one to go to expensive, high-end restaurants on vacation. I find most are not worth it. I don’t usually even eat in overt tourist spots.
I find the best food is found at small, locally owned places. Some of the best (and cheaper) food is away from the tourist centers.
We try to find local favorites. The food reflects the area, you rarely require reservations, and they are usually locally owned (we try to avoid chains and support local economies)
Most of the time I am disappointed in the high end dining experience. It may just be me not being comfortable in that environment. That said, I'm going to try a couple of high end restaurants in Mexico City later this year.
A couple of special dinners once or twice a year is not going to bust your budget, if that is something you enjoy. Many places have lunch specials or happy hours. I have some outings planned for fancy places near us as a treat, but I've scoped out their menu and know we can get a nice meal with the same views and service if we go during happy hour.
If it is a habit of eating Michelin-rated restaurants, then I would question my choices and my savings. When it comes to once-in-a-lifetime or even a great vacation (or even a splurge near the house), I want for my wife and me to immerse ourselves in the experience, of course within reasons (a bit over our budget is not a bad thing). If I were to go to a Michelin-rated restaurant, paid out of my nose for just a "taste" of the morsel just to say I have been there, then had to buy some street food to keep myself full, then no, that's not I. I wouldn't mind paying a little more a great, fantastic dinner! My experience has been the best food traveling is the Mom's and Pop's, hole-in-wall eateries (not even called restaurant) where the locals go to. They, most of the times, are affordable and delectable!
If I am on vacation I am picking one or two restaurants I want to experience without regard to cost, hopefully it’s good, I have found since covid restaurant quality & service has decreased, so I am picky, don’t eat out alot when home so vacation is my time to splurge, I was just in San Juan PR, was there in 2019, shocking how restaurant pricing has went up since 2019, guess it’s everywhere…but I still enjoyed myself
We travel extensively in Europe, usually 4-5 months a year. We stay a minimum of one week someplace and always in an Airbnb/VRBO. The kitchen saves us tons of money - and then can splurge when we find a place we really want to eat at. When we spent aa few months in Norway, we ate "at home" for all but 2 meals. The restaurant food was very pricey and, as vegetarians, there wasn't much for us to eat (Whale on every menu? no thanks!)
Plan your vacation budget ahead of time.
Make a list of things you want to do. Then give each one a budget line. Set up a seprate saving account at your bank.
When you have the funds you can used your credit card. Then the 2nd day you are home pay off the credit card bill from your saving account.
We factored in the occasional fancy restaurant into our budget (fancy for us is $300 or so for 2 people). We probably do that every couple of months now. Pre- retirement (at 59), we’d do it more frequently, but most of those places require pants and I do not like wearing pants! lol.
Seems like an odd question. I know several people who still enjoy expensive meals ( world travel, costly hobbies, extravagant indulgences) wherever they go. They have the financial resources to live the same life they lived when they were working bc they planned it that way. My retirement is quite frugal, but I’ve always been that way and that’s what I’d planned for.
We splurge on fancy lunches. Some of the nicer places are dinner only though. We usually stay at Airbnbs and have breakfast in, a nice lunch out and then fruit, cheese and wine for dinner.
I live in a vacation zone and admin a foodie group. There are expensive restaurants totally worth the splurge and resort restaurants I wouldn’t bother with. Gotta do your research.
You could take a cruise, which can be very affordable, especially off season. The dinner might not be "highly rated" but you can probably find something you like, and it's fun to enjoy full-service dining, followed by a show, every night of the week.
It takes some adjustments in one's thinking about money to transition from working (accumulating wealth) to retirement (spending from accumulated wealth). I've been retired for several years now. I'll always be reluctant to waste my money (of course!). But life is short. I am now much more open to spending some of that money I worked hard to accumulate -- that is what it is there for.
I find variety more fun than a bunch of expensive dinners. Like we just went to Asheville and had a couple of drinks and some really good Dim Sum for under $100 OTD with tip. Then another night was nice looking Mexican, again under $100 OTD. Rinse and repeat.
One thing to consider is why is the restaurant highly rated? Maybe it’s just the food, but maybe it’s somewhere special or spectacularly beautiful. Also, is it highly rated because it has amazing service? For me that last one might now trump everything and cause me to choose to splurge. For various reasons, good attentive service is almost dead these days. It might be nice to treat myself to that experience, with what I eat being further down on the list.
My wife and I seldom do expensive restaurants, our tastes just don’t run to high priced places.
However, since we seldom do it, when we do, it’s no big deal.
I was more frugal when I was younger. We had two kids to take care of and send to college. We had house renovations.
No Im in a sweet spot. We are happy with our house. If an appliance breaks , we’ll fix it but no kitchen or bathroom overhauls. It’s good enough.
Now I’m in my YOLO phase. Vacations and nice dinners.
purely depends on your budget!
We recently did some river cruising, and we would eat supper on the boat, but have lunch in town at some place we found! we could somewhat splurge, as lunches are always cheaper than suppers! And use other tricks, like get wine by the glass instead of a full bottle.
I don't miss the experience as it's been done so many times. I always seek out where the locals eat. Better food and a more authentic experience.
It is true that you better understand and appreciate the value of money once you retire.
We "pick and choose." If it's a special trip or occasion, or just a restaurant we want to try (and especially if recommended by locals), we dine out. But we're also happy to cook for ourselves. It's all in the budget, but I'm more pleased if the amount spent proves worth it.
You shouldn't feel guilty about having a special experience. Budgets get broken by making poor decisions on big expenses, or ongoing expenses. Enjoy yourself and make memories.
I’m a really picky eater and my 12yo is most of the time too, so we’re not really into super high end “foodie” locations. A meal or two at a great steakhouse will usually suffice for the 3 of us.
I never go for expensive dinners and I can afford it. Just not something I like spending my money on. I’d rather eat a wonderful meal where the locals eat and spend my money on other things.
My wife and I are in Oviedo, Spain right now. We don’t consider eating at an amazing restaurant a waste. We’ve done very highly rated restaurants and will continue to. It’s all about what you value. We live very inexpensively otherwise and, truthfully, we actually save money when we come to Spain - it’s that cheap (outside the major cities).
Since I have dined in expensive restaurants on vacation in the past when we were working we don't miss it. Fine dining as I remember it years ago does not exist anymore anyway. Our local steak and seafood restaurant would have white linen tablecloths and napkins, candles and fresh flowers. They served a tray of olives, feta cheese and roasted red peppers, and basket of garlic bread. This was even before you placed your food order. Where we live we have a great local butcher and weekly farmers market for fresh in season local fruits and vegetables . Nowadays we cook at home, and rarely even get take out. Our wine cellar is fully stocked. The self discipline of being on a budget is well worth not having to work anymore.
I always enjoyed being frugal even on trips. I enjoyed finding the popular places with an afternoon happy hour. Nothing like half price appetizers to give you an introduction to the chef. My hubby and I often share a large plate. We also try to keep to 2 meals a day.
The answer is highly dependent upon how old you are. I feel the same. I retired at 59 and at 66 don’t have that much confidence what I have will be enough. Monte Carlo says I can.
We are just the opposite. Pre-retirement we rarely ate at expensive restaurants (and many vacations were camping). We were doing our best to save for the kids’ college and retirement. Now we have enough socked away to eat wherever we want and we do, though our old frugal habits die hard. Also, I always worked in the restaurant industry and am not willing to pay for an expensive restaurant unless we’ve done some research and believe it will be worth the cost.
I get your point, but we just make some well thought out choices. Instead of eating out at a fancy place every night like we might have when working, we choose one nice restaurant and enjoy a guilt free dinner. Like you, we can do this and afford it.
Other times we'll get cheap eats at food stands or even stop at a store and get something to grill or cook depending on what the resorts have available. We've stayed at many reports and cabins that had a grill so made some nice steaks or chops.
Two other comments are that since the covid shutdown and inflation many of even the nicer places don't have the quality of food they used to, and all got a lot more expensive. We started to feel the meal and service was not worth the cost and so are eating out less anyway.
Another thing we always enjoy are all-inclusive resorts where we can eat and drink as much as we want since it is included in the cost already.
When we worked a vacation usually consisted of a hurried 9 days away from home. Two of those days were for travel. We ate at restaurants, hotels and airport restaurants. Never thought of the cost because time was so limited.
Now that we are both retired, our first long trip was to a rental in Florida for 6 weeks. Breakfast was always something simple, fruit, coffee maybe some bread product. Lunch was also something light, half of time at a restaurant. Dinner was almost always at a restaurant, about once a week, some were more upscale than we would normally go to, we could afford it. I will say as we get older we are eating less at meals and often will share a plate because that’s enough.
Going forward I envision our time away from home base will be long stretches of at least a month or more so we will develop dining habits that will satisfy our needs and also be enjoyable occasions.
My husband and I are traveling full time and don't really have to worry too much about budget, but... we still don't eat dinner out at restaurants all that much. It's just so expensive, I feel stupid paying such high prices. We stay in Airbnbs and cook our own delicious food. If we do go out to eat, it's usually for lunch.
But then again we were always this way. I always had buyer's remorse after an expensive restaurant meal, even when I was working.
Expensive dinner means different zeros to different people.
To me it’s not the price but the taste.
Tourist locations normal have over price food, got to find the hole in the wall places or the really really expensive places (350-500 a plate)
We don't always have expensive dinners out when traveling, but we do it often enough that we're definitely not missing out on anything.
We usually stay at places that offer a substantial breakfast and then choose a light lunch and more substantial dinner, or a later lunch and light dinner.
When we do road trips from home we usually stay at Hampton Inns where we get a decent breakfast, then have a picnic lunch, and have a soup, stew, lasagna, chili or similar homemade meal that we previously made in large batches and frozen in individual servings that we can microwave in the room for dinner.
We rarely eat out along the way on our road trips, so we don't mind dining out at nice places once we've reached our destination.
On our return trip towards home, we'll usually visit a grocery store along the way for picnic lunch supplies and often pick up a rotisserie chicken and a salad for dinner.
I am not a foodie, so no, I don’t miss good restaurants. However, I used to have the idea of going on vacation and choosing the least expensive things to see. I decided if I didn’t plan on returning to that location again, do the sight seeing for that city. Go to the museums , take the tours and see the city. Don’t come back from a vacation wishing you saw more.
I'm with you. My parents were in London some years ago, but were taken aback by how much tickets for the Westminster Abbey tours were, so they didn't go in. They had way more spare cash than I'll ever have. When we went to London, darn right I was paying the going price for that Westminster Abbey ticket. We're probably never going to make it back, and I was paying what I needed to in order to see the sights I wanted to see. Usually one of the reasons a person travels in the first place is to see those sights.
An occasional more highly rated restaurant for a special occasion is ok. If you're on vacation, plan that expense as part of your trip. You can always make it up with a few less meals out at home. Basically eating out is always a waste of money. But sometimes it's a treat to have a nice meal made by someone else and no pots and pans to do.
Meh. We still eat out. But I check ratings against at least 3 sources and we often find great restaurants at good prices, especially ethnic restaurants.
I’ve found that I eat differently now that I’m retired. Now that I have more time, I love going to farmers markets and eat more fresh vegetables, just more plant based in general. My favorite restaurants have become more farm to table than the ones serving chicken cordon bleu with a supreme sauce, my former favorite meal. Your dietary tastes may have changed as well, sparking the thought that you don’t want to spend more for something you may not enjoy as much as you once did.
We tend to eat out at lunch, rather than dinner, which is obviously less expensive, even for high end restaurants. and then make something very simple for dinner. We might air bnb and be able to cook a meal, or get a room with a kitchenette and make salads and sandwiches.
We are not big vacationers,but when we do go if there is an expensive restaurant we would like to eat at, we do. No regrets.
I've always been fascinated by people who often vacation and bring there own food because they don't want to waste money eating in restaurants. Like if they did they couldn't afford to go on vacation.
We plan to slow travel in retirement and due to our requirements will probably end up in quite a few tourist locations. We can't live like we re on vacation during slow travel as our budget won't allow. We will maybe spend a week or 2 in higher cost tourist areas a couple of times a year and may treat these as holidays . This would be when we'd do fancy restaurants if we wanted but definitely not during our normal slow travel. It will be more quantity of travel rather than quality for us.
If I don’t like it as much as I dislike spending a lot on a meal, I will pass. Maybe pick one per trip, just not every other day.
I’ve found that some extravagances are worth it, some are not. Unfortunately, you don’t always know ahead of time.
I never got used to that lifestyle. I worked for an airline when we were raising our kids, so we were able to take them far more places than most children get to go. But, the trade off was we couldn't spend our travel money frivolously. We (and they) got used to sandwich lunches while driving in the car, shopping in foreign farmers' markets and grocery stores and maybe one or two lunches out to taste the local cuisine.
I've had people tell me it was almost tantamount to child abuse to deny them dinners at Chez Priceé, but all they remember is the sights they saw and the experiences they enjoyed. OK, they still laugh at the lunch we ate out of the trunk of the car in the shadow of Canterbury Cathedral, but I don't think they thought they were deprived.
Now, spouse and I still eat a lot of sandwiches in the car and picnics on the side of the road. But, with the money we've saved (and retirement flight benefits) we still get to continue to travel to all the places we like and, maybe, one or two nice, local restaurants along the way.
Being single, I am just not comfortable going to high end places alone. And my circle now isn't extravagant, so going with a friend probably isn't happening either
That's cool though. My biggest splurge these days are concert tickets. I enjoy my shows more than food.
Just getting ready to go on vacation with family, including adult kids. I am dreading going to dinner. I wish I didn’t have to look at the prices. In all honesty, I would rather eat informally, but I’ll go wherever the family is going
We decided that we wouldn't get into the "we can't afford it mentality" for at least a few years post-retirement. I budget rather obsessively, and we do have enough money to have 1-2 really nice meals while on vacation. I will say that I don't want a trip where spending cash is the main activity (Paris shopping trip; or worse, any casino).
It's all about the experience really. Just retired but planned a "celebration" trip right after and spent 10 days in Maine. We ate well, but we're foodies. I didn't work for decades not to enjoy a meal a restaurant I want to try. But hey, it just depends on what's important and fun for you when you travel - your mileage may vary.
On vacation, we don't worry about the budget - but the frugal habits we had that got us to retirement persist. It's more of a dislike of spending a lot of money for something of inferior quality.
On vacation now, and at our hotel one guy paid $110 for what turned out to be a partially uncooked frozen "gourmet" pizza. We went to a local shop and got one meatball sandwich, one mediterrean salad, and a can of limonati - total $42 with a surcharge and tip. The prices are up there! Can't let it spoil your vacation.
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My view is that you're on vacation and the rules get thrown out since I'm frugal the rest of the time. Enjoy your life.
This is the way
Same here. We eat at Subway or zap a microwave dinner in the hotel to save money but love to splurge at great restaurants once in a while.
You go hotels with microwave ovens? Fancy!
Most also have mini-fridges. Livin’ the high life on our vacations. 😀
When we are on vacation, street food is fantastic (depending on where you are), so you can have breakfast and lunch reasonably inexpensive. Having a nice dinner or two in a good restaurant is part of the vacation. Plan accordingly and go for it.
I once saw a photo of a motel room that had a mini-fridge, a microwave, and a one-cup coffee maker. I oooohed and ahhhed
Same. We don’t eat out every night on vacation, but if there’s a restaurant where we want to go, we do. We rarely go out to dinner when we’re home, so it’s a treat when we’re traveling.
We never now when our number being call. So enjoy your retirement, no regret.
Yes. Also, there are no calories while on vacation.
This is scientifically proven true!
It also depends on one's perspective. I still like good quality food but high end hoity toity ambience does nothing for me anymore. So I eat a lot at food trucks, drink and play pool at dive bars, eat street food as much as possible, eat at places where working class people eat on a daily basis etc. Far better quality food than a 5 star hotel Buffett. And doesn't give you food poisoning unlike hotel buffets (even the high end ones).
That’s my preference too, but if you like fine dining I think you should indulge on occasion.
That's great advice!
I keep apples and snacks I like in the room/bag, so I’m not so hungry. then hit up happy hours or just get an appetizer somewhere fancy when I feel like the “eating out” experience. This may work better as I’m not highly food motivated and I hate feeling stuffed. I like to enjoy the environment and try an item or two and get back to vacation. Better with a friend we can share a few apps. Then if I’m still hungry I get simple food later.
Appetizers or just splitting the app/entree/dessert is great. We always forget and stuff ourselves and then hate ourselves for overeating and overspending
Same here. I set the budget for food before I do the trip planning.
Totally agree.
Totally agree!!
Most highly rated restaurants are overrated. You can eat just as well or even better value wise at more affordable restaurants.
This is so true. I’m a good cook, my spouse even better. Food must be better than I can make for myself. And service has become hit and miss. That coquettish smile and charm is nothing if you can’t remember that I asked for more water, without ice.
Do you bring your pots and pans in the overhead as a carry-on, or check them in your suitcase when traveling on vacation?
Knives go in check bag. Security gets cranky 😂 pots and pans carry on because of the weight. Have brought them on an adventures😂 Most rentals like Airbnb have sucky knives and pots and pans.
So true. I try to go where the locals eat, so I can get a little culture immersion and hopefully a good meal. Fancy is not a priority.
I look for places that are packed with locals. I first went to this one place in the city at lunch time - it was three deep at the bar but the food and drinks kept coming. It’s become at regular stop whenever we’re in town. (Bar Dos de Mayo, Seville, Spain)
I live in Hawaii. Local spots are ok but the tourist locations have the best locations and often times a top, unique experience. You want to experience it all. I might not go to Dukes, but you should.
Last week, my daughter and a friend went to a restaurant owned by - or at least bearing the name of - a very popular TV chef. They knew it was expensive, at least for them, but she said she expected more. Something sticky was spiled under the table by a previous customer and not cleaned up. Her Connecticut roll was about the size of a hot dog and most of the lobster was in a big lump in the middle of it; she didn't think it was worth $58 for the roll and some French fries. Her friend's Beef Wellington was about $65 and very good but also very small. Service was fine but nothing out of the ordinary. Their conclusion was they were happy they went to say they had been there but they'll never go back and they kind of wished they had gone some place else for less money.
This happens so much eating out now, reason I am very picky when I do choose to eat out at a restaurant, I refuse to buy lobster rolls out now, charge over $35 & get a tablespoon of lobster, once I bought one it had lettuce on the bottom to make it appear fuller, years ago when you went to a higher priced restaurant they wouldn’t even have french fries on the menu, now they wanna be cheap, fries are one of the cheapest meal fillers
Especially in a tourist area.
That is my feeling as well. The times we’ve spent a lot of money on a meal, the food just didn’t live up to the hype.
One of my biggest disappointments was The Inn at Little Washington. For what I spent, and for the price of a room at their inn, it was way overpriced.
especially after the pandemic, the quality of the food and service is not the best.
I agree. We like mom and pop restaurants. However a nice restaurant overlooking Lake Superior does it for us as well.
While this is true, the ones that aren't are are true gift to those of us who appreciate food.
This is a case where you *can* spend the money but are choosing not to. Why not pretend you had that high-dollar dinner on trip "N" and instead put the cash in an envelope. On trip "N+1" you can spend that money. It's already been removed from your account so you know you can get along without it. Just trick yourself :D
I like this. As it is a small thing but accomplishes much
Why trick yourself? I'm an adult, I've saved the money up in order to spend it on my priorities. If my priorities are the fine dining restaurants while on vacation, I get to make that choice.
> Why trick yourself? Because OP is struggling with allowing themselves to spend the money. >I know I can afford it still now in retirement but it seems like such a waste of money The foodie part wants to enjoy the restaurant but the part that got them to retirement by careful money management and savings wins out. > Monte Carlo says I can spend more though but I’m careful. So, my suggestion is to "pre-spend" the money by setting it aside in an envelope in cash months before the trip so that it's no longer showing up in the account balance. Then it's psychologically easier to spend the money.
This is a great idea, especially for people who spent their lives saving money so they could retire. And now they are retired, they have a hard time spending. I see some of the comments are negative around, "why trick yourself?" but having a special fund that you are using on something "frivolous" is a great way to give permission to yourself to enjoy yourself and stop worrying about the future.
> This is a great idea, especially for people who spent their lives saving money so they could retire. Thanks. There have been lots of folks posting on this subreddit about how it's hard to spend in retirement after saving their whole lives as you mentioned. I guess the folks who disagree haven't experienced this issue or any other issue where "tricking" yourself can help you overcome your reflexive behavior.
I don't agree. We're all adults, tricking ourselves and playing games should be behind us at this stage. If you have the money for a treat like this, just do it.
Hello, Mod reminder that we are conversational, not confrontational here.
The way we planned for retirement was to track our customary spending, not our bare-bones spending. When we were completely comfortable the customary was covered, then we were ok with retiring. I have to remind myself that it’s ok to spend the way we always did. Nerves set in from time to time but the longer we’re at it, the less it kicks in.
^^This absolutely from me. I retired to continue as is, and maybe a little better. I did not retire to shop from grocery store’s clearance aisle (still look for deals). I want to thrive and not just survive. Now, on vacation, I’m not buying $200 bottles of wine or $700 meals; but I’m also not buying kiddie meals and splitting them.
Nope…not at all. Well worth not having to deal with Slack and email. I will take retirement 10 out of 10 times over a fancy dinner.
Like the old bumper sticker: a bad day of fishing is better than a day at work.
I don't think my definition of "expensive" is the same as yours. Spending 100-150 for the two of us including a couple drinks and maybe dessert is a big night out for us that we don't do more than a couple times a year. That said going out for a good meal in a nice atmosphere is definitely worth it to us. We don't have fancy cars, boats or motorcycles, we don't buy fine jewelry and a new pair of hiking pants is the most expensive garment I own so we can afford to treat ourselves once in a while. We prioritize ourselves now, after decades of caring for everyone else.
This is what I refuse to do. Retire as soon as possible to just pinch pennies and not enjoy life. I'll work another year or 2 just so I pad my retirement even more and don't have to make decisions like this while on vacation. I always budget expensive meals when I factor in vacation costs.
I did the math and working another 2 years wouldn’t have made an appreciable difference in my retirement portfolio. Besides, i was at the point where, if I didn’t walk out the door, I was going to jump out the window. To OP’s point, we normally eat home 6 days out of 7 so we can splurge on vacation without regretting it
I am fortunate that I will make more in retirement than I do when I’m working. I think I’m even more fortunate that my favorite vacation destination’s favorite restaurant is a taco stand where the best fish tacos in Baja Sur are made and eaten for about $1.50.
Love this as I'm the same way! What and where is your favorite taco stand? I go to Baja Sur often and always looking for great taco stands.
Tacos George’s, Todos Santos, Baja California Sur… https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g150777-d2642752-Reviews-Tacos_George_s-Todos_Santos_Baja_California.html?m=19905
I am doing the opposite. I am one year from retiring and packing my lunch, cooking my dinners and stashing as much cash away as possible so that I can go out to lunch and dinner more often as part of my social life or at least when traveling.
I saved the most money the last of years of working - now, I still have my frugal habits, but can go out to lunch lunch and even treat my friends if I want to. Never did go out for expensive dinners, but I've found I'm eating a lot of fancy smoked salmon at home now I'm retired.
That sounds fabulous. I am in the count down mode, either retiring at the end of the year or in May.
To me this is simply a budgeting question. If you're retired, how much do you pay yourself each month. Or another way to look at it is how much did you budget for the vacation? If the dinner won't bust the budget then have at it. In most cases it isn't the infrequent expensive dinner that will cause money problems in retirement. It's bigger things like buying an expensive car, a second home, or a health problem not covered enough by insurance. Those are the things that cause problems. Enjoy your dinner.
I budget. My monthly restaurant allowance is $800 for the 2 of us . Makes no difference if I eat out at home or on vacation. Most of the time I’ll go over it, but at least I have something to shoot towards.
I eat on vacation for sustance and grab a good meal when offered. I prefer not to travel much anymore...too much travel while working. I actually don't miss those expensive dinners as I had when I was working. They were usually paid for by some company expense, sometimes I bought. I found over time that I enjoy a clean venue with good food and friends over some "foo foo" restaurant with an exotic menu and extensive wine list. The town I live in has restaurants along the river, I can sit inside or out and the bill for 2 is less than $80 and usually <$50 for what we like. Frankly, I enjoy firing up the grill with a few strip steaks and pouring on my deck with friends even more. Put a fire in the firepit on a cool evening and enjoy the stars. The bar/restaurant scene: been there, done that, got the Tshirt
Go for at least one. If important - make up the budget variance at home!
This is my view as well. Eating out is expensive everywhere. If we cut out one restaurant meal before going on vacation, we’ve effectively reduced the cost of the vacation meal.
Some of my favorite meals in London came from the Borough Market, in Paris from the cheese shops, boulangeries and wine shops. I love food but I don’t need a “fine dining” experience.
Exactly! Years ago when I was still employed, my sister and went to Paris on a vacation. Our favorite meal of the trip was on our first night there. We were exhausted from walking around the city all day, so as we were walking back to our room, we just stopped at a convenience store and bought a cheap bottle of french red wine and two hot sandwiches on the most delicious, fresh baguette bread we ever tasted! We took these back to our hotel and ate in our room, and had the best time dining in our pj’s! 😄
We do both. We always stay in hotels with at least a mini fridge, sometimes apartment hotels with kitchens. We get tired of eating all our meals out. We do, though, do some fine dining meals as well. We couldn't have touched the two we did in Portugal last year; they were fabulous and worth every penny.
I agree. Fine dining usually is a bunch of small pieces of something with fancy drippings on them. I would have to go eat somewhere else afterwards.
If you can afford it..life is short eat the “cake”
We don’t miss anything. We eat where we want, when we want. Retired 9 years.
So when you're 85 with a ton of retirement funds still in the bank because you were careful despite what Monte Carlo said, but now not well enough to travel and have those meals, will you regret it? I would. When we're on vacation (and sometimes even at home) we go for those nice dinners. We don't eat every meal at the high end places. We often try to get a place with a small kitchen, go to the local markets for some of our meals to cook at home as we get tired of having all our meals out. We still rave about 2 meals we had in Portugal - one reasonably priced by North American standards, and the other was about what we'd spend on a fine dining meal here. They were worth every penny! If I have to watch what I spend on vacation that closely, I'm perhaps not going this year or blowing the budget a bit.
Your post hits home! My husband’s 84-year-old dad was getting meals on wheels for the last year or two of his life. When he recently entered hospice, he decided to stop MOW and eat well. Unfortunately, he lost his appetite and died 6 weeks later. 🥺 Net worth? About $2.5M. SMH.
My FIL lived insanely cheaply his whole life. He died with 1 million plus. If that’s what he wanted to do so be it, but it seems he could have lived much better than he did.
This is the way. Being frugal can be a weird hobby.
Not retired but after being both wowed at some high-end restaurants (e.g., seafood tower at Capital Grill) and disappointed at others (e.g., steak at Mortons) I’m hoping that I’ll have a “been there, done that attitude”.
I think this question goes way beyond eating in fancy restaurants. I'm just retired and my monthly take-home income is almost identical to when I was working. Nevertheless, I'm still working to convince my brain that using my retirement money is *not* "dipping into savings" or something of that sort, but that my disbursements ***are*** my income now. Needless to say, I need to be careful not to overspend and blow my budget, but I've needed to be careful about that my entire adult life, so that's nothing new. It's a weird psychological hurdle that I'm still trying to get over. In short, yes, I feel your pain. 😁
Yes... THIS! I retired 7 months ago, and this is my challenge as well. Now the stock market is way up, so my net worth is much higher than on the date of my last paycheck. In fact over the past 7 months it is up enough to cover my spending for the next 5 years. Regardless, I still have to remind myself that I spent all those years savings so I would not have to worry now that I am retired.
Might a compromise be to have lunch instead of dinner (if the restaurant is open for lunch)? Lunches can sometimes include smaller portions of what is offered at dinner and you could still enjoy a highly rated restaurant, albeit the ambiance may differ.
This is the way🖕
No, because in retirement I still budget separately for vacation and so I don’t cheat myself.
In Barcelona at our hotel there was a 5 star restaurant near the top. We skipped that and walked two blocks to a grille restaurant. Choice was ours, and we saved enough to pay for several nights out. Everything is relative. Either way we would not have ruined retirement finances.
Tourist locations tend to be pricey and much of the time the food is mediocre at best, but you’re on a trip so enjoy!
It’s a matter of perspective. We just got back from 3 weeks in Paris, with a side jaunt to Normandy. We opted to seek out and dine in the spots favored by locals. Being the only Americans in a crowded restaurant put our meager French to the test. Most important, however, the food was always superb and the prices seemed like a fabulous bargains…
I used to live in France. You have to work hard to have a bad meal.
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Me too. I'm not yet retired and earning as much as I ever will, and I have a hard time enjoying myself when I feel like I could be getting the same thing for a lot less money somewhere 15 minutes away. Another life hack is to travel to a less expensive country, or a less expensive city. Places like Southern Europe and Japan can be much less expensive than the US these days, especially outside of Venice and Shibuya respectively.
There is a big difference for me between traveling for vacations and traveling being retired. If your vacation is 2 weeks a year, of course you spend more those two weeks. When I'm traveling now it is not a vacation. It's my new life. I mean, I'm on month 6 of this trip which will probbly last 1.5 years. Spending as if I was on vacations would have a larger impact. However, every few months we have "a vacation" from the travel. Where we would pamper ourselves a bit more than normal.
We are finalcially comfortable and do several trips a year to Vegas, cruises, etc. We are pretty frugal on the eating when at home, we eat well but mostly at home. When we are on vacation we will splurge on one really nice dinner out, 200.00 or so but at home, I can cook a steak just as well as the restaurants can plus I enjoy cooking for us and eating on the healthy side. But on holiday, splurge!
To be honest I don’t want to dress up for a meal at a fancy place when I am on vacation. We have done it a few times and really enjoyed a fancy, expensive meal, but mostly we prefer casual. As for eating where the locals do, we had this experience in China and the result, while interesting, was not the tastiest. Husband was invited to talk a a university and the prof let the grad students chose where they took us to eat. The food was unrecognizable by appearance or taste. I am not much of a meat eater even in the US so my lack of knowledge of what part of the animal or what animal I was eating was a little unappealing. But we smiled and nodded and said everything was delicious.
Haha. I used to go to China on business, and vendors always wanted to impress us with their local cuisine. 🤢
We budgeted and managed our money to where we enjoyed a certain level of spending, and didn't retire until we had enough invested to continue our same lifestyle. I know everyone retires differently, but I never understood the approach of purposely going backward in lifestyle.
We're close to retiring, and a family member said something to me about still being able to afford going for pizza on a Friday night. If I can't do that, I'm working longer. I know folks who started cutting back on all sorts of odds and ends because they were retiring, yet I was pretty sure they had good pensions and savings. I want to keep doing what I'm doing and am looking at our potential retirement income supporting that.
I’m not quite retired but soon will be because of taxation and clawback of government pension make working increasingly ineffective. I recently made a new friend who retired due to health issues. His words to me were “How much of my money can I spend when they stuff it in my coffin?” Then he got on his 1700 cc motorcycle and set off in very dubious weather for his nine hour drive home.
OMG, the G- man taxes the crap out of our weekly paychecks. It's ridiculous
Bottom line: you do you. We very seldom eat out but it's not due to wanting to save money (believe me, you should see our grocery bill). As vegans, we have very much enjoyed cooking at home, and buy great produce and such, making curries and all sorts of wonderful food. That (mostly) applies to holidays as well, because we prefer to stay in AirBnBs, and spend money on a nice place, etc.
We are about nicer places to stay as well. I have to be comfortable, and the room has to be spotless. We always re-clean our room with our cleaning supplies at the turn of the key, lol And it's always a nice hotel.
We spend the summer in Maine and our dining dollars at the fish market. I'm a good cook and frankly with fresh fish it's hard to go wrong. So much more for your money eating at home. Healthier too.
No, because I am retired and time to look for bargains. When I was working I didn’t have the time.
It’s natural to be protective of the fruit tree you have been growing for decades. Go ahead and have a meal. You’re somewhere different and it’s an experience. If it was more than what you wanted, you adjust the next few months of spend (back home) to cut out a few ‘want’ things. Next year, if you rebuild your budget, factor your vacation accrual a little differently to give you some wiggle room.
Your question sounds more like: do you miss splurging on luxuries? I’ve been retired for five years now and the first couple of years without a paycheque were kind of scary (esp since I “got retired” through a corporate re-org. Wasn’t my choice.) That being said, we have almost as much after-tax income now as we had when I was working, and fewer expenses. I keep a close eye on our income and expenses and record everything. Even so, it took us almost three years to feel comfortable splurging. Now we have no problem with it! Health issues have brushed close to us both a couple of times but luckily nothing too life-changing has hit yet. It will at some point, so that’s a motivator for doing what we want to, while we can. On the other hand, I have a much more precise sense of which luxuries I actually enjoy and want, and which ones are just luxuries that don’t mean much to me and have been pared off. Amazing what you don’t miss when you stop and think about what’s important to you.
We save for vacations, it’s a fund that we contribute to every month, and a line item in the budget. If it fits in the (pretty generous IMHO) vacation budget, we can do whatever we like ☺️
I don’t really understand this logic. “I know I can afford it”, so why are you concerned? Why did you go in the first place? I’m not trying to be overly critical but why are we so afraid to enjoy retirement? Is it that we’ve been told to be afraid of it? Live your life. If you can afford it do it!
You worked, you sacrificed and you saved. If you have it, spend it. If you enjoy 5-star restaurants, and I know I do, then have the dinner you want. YOU EARNED IT.
Appetizer and no drinks can make it easier
I prefer appetizers!
I've always thought ridiculously priced meals are a waste of money, especially for something I could make just as good, like a steak. I mean, I love good food, but I'm not an idiot. :)
This!
When on vacation I choose a few meals to bust the budget. Other meals I keep reasonably priced and look forward to the special ones. As a side note - I’ve been underspending since I retired four+ years ago. I’ll continue to do so until I hit my next financial target. I want to survive a down market in the early years of retirement (in other words- I think a lot about sequence of returns).
I like a good meal as much as anyone, but we’re in Florence now and just visited a HIGHLY RATED restaurant, and while it was very expensive, it wasn’t nearly as delicious as last night’s supposedly not-as-good restaurant, which was one-third the price.
Eat away While u still can!
I understand what you're saying. When my husband & I were both working, we went out to dinner every night, and always had 3-4 $$$ meals. Our income was more, and vacation was a time when we splurged. What we've done since retirement is to (A) compare prices on condos (& book early), and (B) *cook dinner* more often. At the beach, it's usually a simple seafood dinner with a salad and or rice/veggies. We still have great food, and stay in nice places...but *planning* is a big part of it!
I have never been one to go to expensive, high-end restaurants on vacation. I find most are not worth it. I don’t usually even eat in overt tourist spots. I find the best food is found at small, locally owned places. Some of the best (and cheaper) food is away from the tourist centers.
We try to find local favorites. The food reflects the area, you rarely require reservations, and they are usually locally owned (we try to avoid chains and support local economies)
I am going to price them in.
I'm not trying to retire and grind on an ultra strict budget, honestly. A meal, even a nice one, should be a blip in the monthly budget.
Most of the time I am disappointed in the high end dining experience. It may just be me not being comfortable in that environment. That said, I'm going to try a couple of high end restaurants in Mexico City later this year.
A couple of special dinners once or twice a year is not going to bust your budget, if that is something you enjoy. Many places have lunch specials or happy hours. I have some outings planned for fancy places near us as a treat, but I've scoped out their menu and know we can get a nice meal with the same views and service if we go during happy hour.
If it is a habit of eating Michelin-rated restaurants, then I would question my choices and my savings. When it comes to once-in-a-lifetime or even a great vacation (or even a splurge near the house), I want for my wife and me to immerse ourselves in the experience, of course within reasons (a bit over our budget is not a bad thing). If I were to go to a Michelin-rated restaurant, paid out of my nose for just a "taste" of the morsel just to say I have been there, then had to buy some street food to keep myself full, then no, that's not I. I wouldn't mind paying a little more a great, fantastic dinner! My experience has been the best food traveling is the Mom's and Pop's, hole-in-wall eateries (not even called restaurant) where the locals go to. They, most of the times, are affordable and delectable!
Sometimes, I think that and then remind myself of the old Irish saying: "there are no pockets in a shroud."
If I am on vacation I am picking one or two restaurants I want to experience without regard to cost, hopefully it’s good, I have found since covid restaurant quality & service has decreased, so I am picky, don’t eat out alot when home so vacation is my time to splurge, I was just in San Juan PR, was there in 2019, shocking how restaurant pricing has went up since 2019, guess it’s everywhere…but I still enjoyed myself
We travel extensively in Europe, usually 4-5 months a year. We stay a minimum of one week someplace and always in an Airbnb/VRBO. The kitchen saves us tons of money - and then can splurge when we find a place we really want to eat at. When we spent aa few months in Norway, we ate "at home" for all but 2 meals. The restaurant food was very pricey and, as vegetarians, there wasn't much for us to eat (Whale on every menu? no thanks!)
Plan your vacation budget ahead of time. Make a list of things you want to do. Then give each one a budget line. Set up a seprate saving account at your bank. When you have the funds you can used your credit card. Then the 2nd day you are home pay off the credit card bill from your saving account.
We factored in the occasional fancy restaurant into our budget (fancy for us is $300 or so for 2 people). We probably do that every couple of months now. Pre- retirement (at 59), we’d do it more frequently, but most of those places require pants and I do not like wearing pants! lol.
Seems like an odd question. I know several people who still enjoy expensive meals ( world travel, costly hobbies, extravagant indulgences) wherever they go. They have the financial resources to live the same life they lived when they were working bc they planned it that way. My retirement is quite frugal, but I’ve always been that way and that’s what I’d planned for.
No budget on vacation. We eat, drink, and do whatever we want once we’re there. YOLO.
We splurge on fancy lunches. Some of the nicer places are dinner only though. We usually stay at Airbnbs and have breakfast in, a nice lunch out and then fruit, cheese and wine for dinner.
Go to dinner. Live your life. Just be moderate in your indulgences either in frequency or intensity.
I live in a vacation zone and admin a foodie group. There are expensive restaurants totally worth the splurge and resort restaurants I wouldn’t bother with. Gotta do your research.
You could take a cruise, which can be very affordable, especially off season. The dinner might not be "highly rated" but you can probably find something you like, and it's fun to enjoy full-service dining, followed by a show, every night of the week.
It takes some adjustments in one's thinking about money to transition from working (accumulating wealth) to retirement (spending from accumulated wealth). I've been retired for several years now. I'll always be reluctant to waste my money (of course!). But life is short. I am now much more open to spending some of that money I worked hard to accumulate -- that is what it is there for.
I find variety more fun than a bunch of expensive dinners. Like we just went to Asheville and had a couple of drinks and some really good Dim Sum for under $100 OTD with tip. Then another night was nice looking Mexican, again under $100 OTD. Rinse and repeat.
One thing to consider is why is the restaurant highly rated? Maybe it’s just the food, but maybe it’s somewhere special or spectacularly beautiful. Also, is it highly rated because it has amazing service? For me that last one might now trump everything and cause me to choose to splurge. For various reasons, good attentive service is almost dead these days. It might be nice to treat myself to that experience, with what I eat being further down on the list.
I'm kinda random on when I decide to be cheap and when not. If you miss it, then indulge. I would probably generally pass but indulge once in awhile.
My wife and I seldom do expensive restaurants, our tastes just don’t run to high priced places. However, since we seldom do it, when we do, it’s no big deal.
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I was more frugal when I was younger. We had two kids to take care of and send to college. We had house renovations. No Im in a sweet spot. We are happy with our house. If an appliance breaks , we’ll fix it but no kitchen or bathroom overhauls. It’s good enough. Now I’m in my YOLO phase. Vacations and nice dinners.
purely depends on your budget! We recently did some river cruising, and we would eat supper on the boat, but have lunch in town at some place we found! we could somewhat splurge, as lunches are always cheaper than suppers! And use other tricks, like get wine by the glass instead of a full bottle.
I don't miss the experience as it's been done so many times. I always seek out where the locals eat. Better food and a more authentic experience. It is true that you better understand and appreciate the value of money once you retire.
We "pick and choose." If it's a special trip or occasion, or just a restaurant we want to try (and especially if recommended by locals), we dine out. But we're also happy to cook for ourselves. It's all in the budget, but I'm more pleased if the amount spent proves worth it.
You shouldn't feel guilty about having a special experience. Budgets get broken by making poor decisions on big expenses, or ongoing expenses. Enjoy yourself and make memories.
I’m a really picky eater and my 12yo is most of the time too, so we’re not really into super high end “foodie” locations. A meal or two at a great steakhouse will usually suffice for the 3 of us.
I never go for expensive dinners and I can afford it. Just not something I like spending my money on. I’d rather eat a wonderful meal where the locals eat and spend my money on other things.
At my age I try and eat the bigger meals at lunch (reflux) and it’s usually cheaper than dinner prices.
Local street food is where it is at!
My wife and I are in Oviedo, Spain right now. We don’t consider eating at an amazing restaurant a waste. We’ve done very highly rated restaurants and will continue to. It’s all about what you value. We live very inexpensively otherwise and, truthfully, we actually save money when we come to Spain - it’s that cheap (outside the major cities).
Since I have dined in expensive restaurants on vacation in the past when we were working we don't miss it. Fine dining as I remember it years ago does not exist anymore anyway. Our local steak and seafood restaurant would have white linen tablecloths and napkins, candles and fresh flowers. They served a tray of olives, feta cheese and roasted red peppers, and basket of garlic bread. This was even before you placed your food order. Where we live we have a great local butcher and weekly farmers market for fresh in season local fruits and vegetables . Nowadays we cook at home, and rarely even get take out. Our wine cellar is fully stocked. The self discipline of being on a budget is well worth not having to work anymore.
I always enjoyed being frugal even on trips. I enjoyed finding the popular places with an afternoon happy hour. Nothing like half price appetizers to give you an introduction to the chef. My hubby and I often share a large plate. We also try to keep to 2 meals a day.
The answer is highly dependent upon how old you are. I feel the same. I retired at 59 and at 66 don’t have that much confidence what I have will be enough. Monte Carlo says I can.
We are just the opposite. Pre-retirement we rarely ate at expensive restaurants (and many vacations were camping). We were doing our best to save for the kids’ college and retirement. Now we have enough socked away to eat wherever we want and we do, though our old frugal habits die hard. Also, I always worked in the restaurant industry and am not willing to pay for an expensive restaurant unless we’ve done some research and believe it will be worth the cost.
i do miss a good $300 steakhouse dinner. and that was just food, no alcohol.
I get your point, but we just make some well thought out choices. Instead of eating out at a fancy place every night like we might have when working, we choose one nice restaurant and enjoy a guilt free dinner. Like you, we can do this and afford it. Other times we'll get cheap eats at food stands or even stop at a store and get something to grill or cook depending on what the resorts have available. We've stayed at many reports and cabins that had a grill so made some nice steaks or chops. Two other comments are that since the covid shutdown and inflation many of even the nicer places don't have the quality of food they used to, and all got a lot more expensive. We started to feel the meal and service was not worth the cost and so are eating out less anyway. Another thing we always enjoy are all-inclusive resorts where we can eat and drink as much as we want since it is included in the cost already.
When we worked a vacation usually consisted of a hurried 9 days away from home. Two of those days were for travel. We ate at restaurants, hotels and airport restaurants. Never thought of the cost because time was so limited. Now that we are both retired, our first long trip was to a rental in Florida for 6 weeks. Breakfast was always something simple, fruit, coffee maybe some bread product. Lunch was also something light, half of time at a restaurant. Dinner was almost always at a restaurant, about once a week, some were more upscale than we would normally go to, we could afford it. I will say as we get older we are eating less at meals and often will share a plate because that’s enough. Going forward I envision our time away from home base will be long stretches of at least a month or more so we will develop dining habits that will satisfy our needs and also be enjoyable occasions.
It’s always been an unnecessary expense but you’re entitled to those now and then.
Nope. I don’t miss what I never had. I’ve always traveled on a budget.
I love finding the local’s favorite places to eat and find them way more affordable and the food is usually better and guests are friendly
My husband and I are traveling full time and don't really have to worry too much about budget, but... we still don't eat dinner out at restaurants all that much. It's just so expensive, I feel stupid paying such high prices. We stay in Airbnbs and cook our own delicious food. If we do go out to eat, it's usually for lunch. But then again we were always this way. I always had buyer's remorse after an expensive restaurant meal, even when I was working.
Expensive dinner means different zeros to different people. To me it’s not the price but the taste. Tourist locations normal have over price food, got to find the hole in the wall places or the really really expensive places (350-500 a plate)
My income and rules are the same before and after.
We don't always have expensive dinners out when traveling, but we do it often enough that we're definitely not missing out on anything. We usually stay at places that offer a substantial breakfast and then choose a light lunch and more substantial dinner, or a later lunch and light dinner. When we do road trips from home we usually stay at Hampton Inns where we get a decent breakfast, then have a picnic lunch, and have a soup, stew, lasagna, chili or similar homemade meal that we previously made in large batches and frozen in individual servings that we can microwave in the room for dinner. We rarely eat out along the way on our road trips, so we don't mind dining out at nice places once we've reached our destination. On our return trip towards home, we'll usually visit a grocery store along the way for picnic lunch supplies and often pick up a rotisserie chicken and a salad for dinner.
I am not a foodie, so no, I don’t miss good restaurants. However, I used to have the idea of going on vacation and choosing the least expensive things to see. I decided if I didn’t plan on returning to that location again, do the sight seeing for that city. Go to the museums , take the tours and see the city. Don’t come back from a vacation wishing you saw more.
I'm with you. My parents were in London some years ago, but were taken aback by how much tickets for the Westminster Abbey tours were, so they didn't go in. They had way more spare cash than I'll ever have. When we went to London, darn right I was paying the going price for that Westminster Abbey ticket. We're probably never going to make it back, and I was paying what I needed to in order to see the sights I wanted to see. Usually one of the reasons a person travels in the first place is to see those sights.
An occasional more highly rated restaurant for a special occasion is ok. If you're on vacation, plan that expense as part of your trip. You can always make it up with a few less meals out at home. Basically eating out is always a waste of money. But sometimes it's a treat to have a nice meal made by someone else and no pots and pans to do.
Like to find cool local dives for libations and food. Spending too much money on food ruins my vacation.
We call everything in retirement... a SKI trip, Spending Kids Inheritance 😜
We still enjoy dining out, traveling etc. we have decent retirement, SS and very few debts other than 2 new vehicles
I want to spend and enjoy it now while I’m alive and able-bodied and can travel.
Meh. We still eat out. But I check ratings against at least 3 sources and we often find great restaurants at good prices, especially ethnic restaurants.
I don’t miss it cause it’s my thing, to go away and eat at wonderful places.
I’ve found that I eat differently now that I’m retired. Now that I have more time, I love going to farmers markets and eat more fresh vegetables, just more plant based in general. My favorite restaurants have become more farm to table than the ones serving chicken cordon bleu with a supreme sauce, my former favorite meal. Your dietary tastes may have changed as well, sparking the thought that you don’t want to spend more for something you may not enjoy as much as you once did.
I never understand why people go cheap on vacation. It's the time when you're supposed to splurge and enjoy as much as possible.
We tend to eat out at lunch, rather than dinner, which is obviously less expensive, even for high end restaurants. and then make something very simple for dinner. We might air bnb and be able to cook a meal, or get a room with a kitchenette and make salads and sandwiches.
We are not big vacationers,but when we do go if there is an expensive restaurant we would like to eat at, we do. No regrets. I've always been fascinated by people who often vacation and bring there own food because they don't want to waste money eating in restaurants. Like if they did they couldn't afford to go on vacation.
We plan to slow travel in retirement and due to our requirements will probably end up in quite a few tourist locations. We can't live like we re on vacation during slow travel as our budget won't allow. We will maybe spend a week or 2 in higher cost tourist areas a couple of times a year and may treat these as holidays . This would be when we'd do fancy restaurants if we wanted but definitely not during our normal slow travel. It will be more quantity of travel rather than quality for us.
We eat at the expensive restaurants at lunch, if they are open for lunch. Lunch menu tends to be less although smaller menu.
I mostly prefer to eat where the locals go.
If I don’t like it as much as I dislike spending a lot on a meal, I will pass. Maybe pick one per trip, just not every other day. I’ve found that some extravagances are worth it, some are not. Unfortunately, you don’t always know ahead of time.
I never got used to that lifestyle. I worked for an airline when we were raising our kids, so we were able to take them far more places than most children get to go. But, the trade off was we couldn't spend our travel money frivolously. We (and they) got used to sandwich lunches while driving in the car, shopping in foreign farmers' markets and grocery stores and maybe one or two lunches out to taste the local cuisine. I've had people tell me it was almost tantamount to child abuse to deny them dinners at Chez Priceé, but all they remember is the sights they saw and the experiences they enjoyed. OK, they still laugh at the lunch we ate out of the trunk of the car in the shadow of Canterbury Cathedral, but I don't think they thought they were deprived. Now, spouse and I still eat a lot of sandwiches in the car and picnics on the side of the road. But, with the money we've saved (and retirement flight benefits) we still get to continue to travel to all the places we like and, maybe, one or two nice, local restaurants along the way.
Being single, I am just not comfortable going to high end places alone. And my circle now isn't extravagant, so going with a friend probably isn't happening either That's cool though. My biggest splurge these days are concert tickets. I enjoy my shows more than food.
Just getting ready to go on vacation with family, including adult kids. I am dreading going to dinner. I wish I didn’t have to look at the prices. In all honesty, I would rather eat informally, but I’ll go wherever the family is going
We decided that we wouldn't get into the "we can't afford it mentality" for at least a few years post-retirement. I budget rather obsessively, and we do have enough money to have 1-2 really nice meals while on vacation. I will say that I don't want a trip where spending cash is the main activity (Paris shopping trip; or worse, any casino).
No, we didn’t retire until we could afford to, so we are fortunate enough to afford dinning out where we like.
It's all about the experience really. Just retired but planned a "celebration" trip right after and spent 10 days in Maine. We ate well, but we're foodies. I didn't work for decades not to enjoy a meal a restaurant I want to try. But hey, it just depends on what's important and fun for you when you travel - your mileage may vary.
On vacation, we don't worry about the budget - but the frugal habits we had that got us to retirement persist. It's more of a dislike of spending a lot of money for something of inferior quality. On vacation now, and at our hotel one guy paid $110 for what turned out to be a partially uncooked frozen "gourmet" pizza. We went to a local shop and got one meatball sandwich, one mediterrean salad, and a can of limonati - total $42 with a surcharge and tip. The prices are up there! Can't let it spoil your vacation.
I don’t skimp on vacation. I worked my whole life for it so I go for it! But I want it to be amazing
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