I must confess my sins. I have a terrible habit of eating out whenever possible. Uncontrolled, I can eat out or take out three or more times a week. That of course is one of the primary reasons I got into debt in the first place.
For the last year, I fell back into that old habit. Yuck! I felt that my life had gotten so busy, what with my career, my family business, my extracurricular activities, I couldn’t possibly have time to cook. Besides, I enjoy eating out and why shouldn’t I? I wasn’t getting into debt for it this time! I paid with money that I had!
So, yeah, I ate out too much last year. While I didn’t get into debt this time around, I sure wasted thousands of dollars.
This month, I recommitted myself to cooking at home, eating at home, and saving the extra cash for more important things…like maybe a vacation with my husband.
I started using the tricks I learned while getting out of debt. I cooked extra food and froze or refrigerated the leftovers for later. I used easy recipes that don’t take time away from my important activities so I can cook AND work at the same time. I also have the added bonus of having a husband who reminds me of my savings goal whenever I get a craving.
While I’m not happy with the fact that I can’t go dining like I want to, I sure do look forward to having money around again!
Last night, without spending too much effort, I made two boxes worth of macaroni and cheese. I already have a pot of brown rice in the refrigerator from the previous evening. I have porkchops marinading in the refrigerator. I have barbecue ribs from three nights ago. I have my usual spaghetti and meatballs in the freezer from a week ago. I have carrot sticks and cleaned brocoli ready to be eaten raw. I’m set!
My trick is to cook one item every night or every other night. Make sure I cook plenty. After a week of doing this, my refrigerator constantly has delicious food … which makes it really hard to justify eating out.