stop eating out so much

well enough that i might mark this completed. of course, it’s going to be an ongoing battle, especially since the reason we’re not eating out so much is because we’re broke (another issue we’re dealing with). but i’ve started bringing lunch on a more regular basis and we haven’t been out to dinner in what feels like a long time. yeah, this has gotten to the point where i think it needs to be.

i’ve done well so far this week, bringing my lunch every day. of course, i’m so hungry by the time the afternoon rolls around that i need to get a snack from the vending machine, but i figure $0.70 a day is better than anywhere from $5 – $8 or more.

i’ll need to revive that. i know over the last six weeks part of the problem has been that no one has cooked or made a proper grocery trip while i was taking my summer school class. we are seriously in the hole now, so i’ll have to remind him about our deal when i get home tonight. i’m going to try to do my part by bringing my lunch from home all week. that could be hard (i get so sick of frozen dinners and leftovers) but it needs to be done.

to get out of the hole we’re in, after this weekend, we’re not going to eat out for the next three weeks. this is going to be very tough. i’m going to have to do some major meal planning and be sure to get enough stuff to have leftovers so we don’t have to make something new every night. this is going to be an interesting experiment. wish us luck; we’re going to need it…

i’ll probably end up re-defining this once i re-visit the budget goal, but i’ll start with only eating lunch out twice a week, dinner once a week, and breakfast once every two weeks. this will be tough, especially on weeks when i don’t plan ahead or i’m feeling depressed, but it’s at least something to work towards.

went to the grocery and have a whole week’s worth of dinners planned out. plus, got some stuff that will work for lunch, too, when i don’t have or don’t necessarily want leftovers. looking good so far…

and i know i’m going to go out for lunch again today, but i’m planning on leftovers for dinner and hitting the grocery this weekend so we can have some more stuff to eat at home. that’s the biggest part of this goal for me. if i take the time to sit down, pick out a few things to make for the week, e.g., plan menus, then go to the grocery, i’m good to go. otherwise, it’s just way to easy to eat out and put it off another day.

hubby and i haven’t eaten out yet so far, but i’ve had lunch out on my own dime twice. i really need to bring lunch with me tomorrow.

make some corn chowder and baked ziti over the weekend and ate the leftovers. i think we probably have enough ziti to last us all week, which is fine with me because it makes an easy and fast lunch. if we can keep this pace up for a few more weeks, i’d say this goal is more or less accomplished.

yay! it was just a lean cuisine and a salad, but i ate what i planned to eat and now i can go run some errands. so far, so good.