By Denise Myhand
About a month ago at the advice of a friend, my husband and I made the very HARD decision to not eat out for 60 days. Believe me it was a hard decision. It was difficult because my husband and I are the King and Queen of going out to eat. We love it and eat out often. Not only do we go often, we spend a lot of money in the process. But we, like so many others have financial goals that we want to achieve. We know that the amount of money we are spending on eating out could be repurposed to help achieve those goals.
When we told friends and family that we were giving up eating out for 60 days they were supportive of us but most definitely gave us the side eye. I know they want us to succeed. But knowing us and our history with eating out they were skeptical. Heck, so was l. LOL. Nobody knew better than I did how much we really ate out and how much we were really spending. Thankfully, my husband and I were committed to giving this challenge a try.
Now here we are 30 days into the challenge. A challenge that I skeptically embarked upon. It has turned out to be the best decision ever. The benefits of not eating out have been so much more than what I expected that there is no doubt that we will successfully complete this challenge.
First, let’s start with the obvious – We saved Money. The purpose of all this was to save money and we did that. Between my husband and myself buying lunches during the work week along with dinners and brunches on the weekend, we normally spend $450 to $600 a month on eating out. Since we haven’t eaten out for the past thirty days that money has gone towards debt repayment. We are now that much closer to being debt free.
We lost weight -Although this was not our main goal in the challenge this was a semi-unexpected surprise. You hear all the time that food prepared at home tends to have less calories and is better for you than restaurant food. Well, I guess there is some truth to that theory because my husband dropped 15 lbs. And I dropped 10 from not doing anything other than preparing our food at home for 30 days. Side note: Why do men always lose more weight than us ladies? #NotFair 🙂
Forced us to get organized and helped relieve stress – Since we didn’t have the safety net of eating out we were forced to get organized and plan our meals each week. We go grocery shopping once a week to get the ingredients for our meals. It is really nice having a plan and all your supplies for the week at the beginning of the week. No more scrambling with trying to figure out what to eat or what we need.
We are a stronger unit – The saying, “Team work makes the dream work” is very true. It has definitely taken a joint effort to make this happen. We encouraged and supported each other through the process. There were a couple of times in the beginning when one of us wanted to throw in the towel or cheat a little by going to one of our fave eat out spots. We didn’t! Ultimately this team work has strengthen our bond and as we conquer our dependency on eating out we become an even stronger unit.
We are feeling empowered -Simply put, you become addicted to the results. The money saved, the lbs. lost, the peace gained. All these things significantly add to your quality of life. They motivate you to not give up and to continue on your journey. You start to feel like you can conquer the world!
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We eat good! – Chalk it up to my husband’s obsessive need to have a full plate at every meal, LOL. No PB & J for him. He is an old school country boy, born in Opelika, AL who believes that a meat and two sides is the only way to go. Combine that with my ‘Arizona Girl’ need for having variety and my desire for always wanting to try something new. We have built a nice repertoire of recipes with a wide array of flavors. We have everything from New Orleans style red beans and rice to slow cooked smoked ribs to chicken enchilada casserole and Chinese stir fry.
As you can see we have benefited greatly from the eating out challenge. It turned out to be more than just saving money. If you are anything like we were, you know your eating out is preventing you from reaching your financial goals. I encourage you to challenge yourself and your family to cut back on eating out. You will quickly see the difference it can make in your finances.
Good Luck and Happy Planning!
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