I do have a non-frugal vice. With a name like Frugal Homemaker Plus, I worry that I am misrepresenting myself at times. I do try very hard to be frugal, and we have been very successful with our frugality. But we're not always perfect. Lest anybody thing that I am always frugal, never stumble, and only eat beans and rice while sewing my own clothes and thinking of ways to pinch pennies all day long, I have decided to reveal the dollar amount of our worst (heck, pretty much only) non frugal habit to this point- eating out.
Eating out is our biggest stumbling block. We just like to do it. We don't even go out for super high quality meals- casual fast food (Like Qdoba when we lived in Colorado) and "healthy" fast food places like Subway (they stopped doing stamps! GRRR!) are our downfall. Sometimes we go even when we have a planned meal that day that won't take long to make. And when we were both full time students and I commuted two hours a day and my husband lived in the lab- forget it. We took our lunches each day, but at least once a week, sometimes more, we ate out. Oh the shame!
So here's our current February figure for meals out: *whispers* 95.08 The shame, the shame...on a more positive note, this large figure does include treating a friend to a pretty nice meal out, to celebrate the fact he finally got a job. Even so, most of it is my husband and I.
Our current goal is simply to spend less money eating out than the month before. Hopefully we'll whittle it down to 50 dollars or less soon.
Later on: How keeping a meticulous record of every penny you spend helps keep you honest about how much you are actually spending, so you can share your shame on the internet for all to see!
8 comments:
Ha! I've finally got you beat in a category of spending! LOL! We've got a budget of $100 a month for eating out, which includes my Sonic drink habit and drinks for the carload on the way to church on Saturdays. The envelope system works especially well for us here.
This month we have kept it to about $75, but that isn't sit-down meals anywhere - I've been to meetings all month and grabbed stuff on the way like a lazy person. Which I indeed am.
When bonus and tax refunds come in, we have decided we WILL actually go out for a meal. Funny, the Bigun eats out way more than we do due to the irritating habit she has of ridiculing my cooking. More the fool her for not cooking when she knows how; all the money she gets from her job and her clothing/expenses allowance from us is like water through her fingers, spent at restaurants mostly. Better that she learn now than off at school, I say.
It's like I discovered a secret to frugality with teenagers - make them pay for everything.
We use the envelope system very successfully with our groceries and other things, but with eating out- it just has not worked for us! We would set aside a certain amount, go through that, and then just...keep doing it. It it totally our kryptonite. We keep a spreadsheet of everything we spend, and our current plan is to try to spend less than last month (So now we're trying to spend less than Jan, next month we'll try to do better than this month. I'll give an update sometime to say if it worked!)
Last month we spend around 200 dollars, but a large part of that was because we were moving and in between homes and sleeping on an air mattress in an empty apartment with only one pan and no can opener...yeah, excuses, excuses! :)
Fish, the pay for yourself thing was the method my parents used for me. I paid for a trip to NYC when I was 16 and a trip to DC when I was 18 because my parents said I could only go if I would pay for it all myself.
You really do inspire me!! I have a family of 5 and eating out is totally our vice too! We spend at least $200- per month eating out! I love the idea of trying to do less each month- kinda like weening yourself from the habbit :) You have some great tips on here. Thanks! ~Gracie
Thanks Jilly, my husband LOVES pho! We'll have to try it sometime soon.
I saw that article (while eating Monday 1/2 price burgers at Spangles- I don't think it "just tastes better") and I could not wrap my brain around that! That is a lot of money, and you can buy excellent coffee to make at home. Even if you get super expensive coffee beans, it is cheaper than three bucks a CUP! Wow.
You know, to me the whole point of being frugal is cutting out money where it doesn't really matter to you, or where you can easily so that you have more money to spend on the things that are important to you.
So if eating out is important to you, then give yourself permission as long as you are meeting your other goals. Now, if you aren't meeting your other goals then you have to re evaluate what is most important to you.
Do you eat out at places where purchasing an "entertainment book" would cut your costs? Usually if they sell them anywhere locally you can flip through and see if they offer bygof type thing for dinner entrees at places you already frequent (even fast food etc)
Another thing that I've only used once-did you know you can buy gift certificates on Ebay? usually you get one for less than the face value, thereby saving money. For example a $50 TGI fridays gift certificate is bidding around $40 right now.
Then again, maybe both of these ideas would only encourage you to spend more money out. :)
Very good point, Jenn. And eating out is something nice that I would like to keep. Right now we're trying to pay off my husband's rather large student loan, but after that is off our backs (next year if everything works out right!) and we're saving for a house. When these things are taken care of then we can eat out with wild abandon!
I'll try E-bay! I'd have to look at an entertainmnet book- we're usually not too fancy, so it it was Subway, hole in the wall Mexican, etc, it may be worth it. Thanks for the tip!
I'm not crazy about McD's, but I'm a total sucker for the $1 double cheeseburger (no onions, please). I consider this an investment: I eat one halfway through my monthly shopping trip to help prevent unplanned purchases. I like to think I pay $1 to save $10 or $15 on donuts, cereal, chips, etc. Rationalization makes everything taste better.
mmm, Qdoba!
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