The Weight of Money

I was reading Mapgirl’s post, Update to the Save-O-Meter, and started to comment on the dining out challenge she faces. My comment kept growing and growing so I decided to pull it over here instead.

I also struggle with dining out and it is the biggest budget buster that I have. I’ve posted before about my concern about that budget line item and need to expand on how and why it has gotten out of control.

When I was a full-time student in Wisconsin, living on school money and a part-part-time job, we were really strapped for a food budget. Going to the grocery store always cost too much, or so it felt. Spending $100+ at one time always felt like too much. Instead, we ate out all the time. Finally, I decided it had to stop so I decided to only eat at sit-down restaurants and felt that would curb the spending. It did, sit-down meals killed my cash on hand and made it easier to rationalize a meal at home for veggies and pasta.

During this time, I also developed a strong aversion to eating anything processed and made everything from scratch. This can drive your food bill up if done without planning and can make it easier to justify eating out when you feel you don’t have time to make something. However, with planning and having the right things on hand, it is by far cheaper than eating out and healthier too.

So, I was still eating out and eventually dining at sit-down places was the norm and my dining out frequency increased. Now, it is expected that we will go out to eat somewhere “fancy” and the bill will be a minimum of $25 but more often closer to $40. Then, a year ago, I decided to stop eating at chain restaurants and mostly frequent only independent establishments. Suddenly, the budget increased because we don’t have much to choose from where we live and their prices were often a little higher than the chains. And, then the daughter stopped eating from the children’s menu and started being adventurous — my dining budget doubled instantly.

With the partner, he got me in the habit of making a nice meal when we go out. I used to do what I could to make it as cheap as possible, but he argues that if you’re going to go out you might as well make it worth it. So, I’m a little more inclined to order soda or appetizers than before. So now, our combined monthly dining expenditures can easily top $500 a month — ouch! Our grocery bill, less than $300. Obviously there is a problem.

I’ve been running on excuses for the past six months because life has been busy — school, graduating, wedding, etc. However, it is time to just stop making excuses, start being responsible and get back in the kitchen. Luckily, I’m a very frugal shopper and cook. I make it a point to make meals with the price per person in mind and am a wonderful cook. I also enjoy cooking when I don’t make excuses and love sitting down to a meal that I enjoy.

I’m very committed to the idea of having a sit down meal every day, which I hear most families don’t do these days, and that does put a crimp in the time available in the evening for other things. Once prep, cooking, eating, talking, and clean up is done, the majority of the evening has passed. The partner really wants that time to work on other things, but I haven’t found a way to resolve it. We do try to have leftover a couple times a week to allow for a quick bite, but I still need to work out a way to balance our need for food and time. And, it is time to really get back in the kitchen.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 6th, 2006 at 11:42 am and is filed under general. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.