No Eating out for a Month! - Self challenge

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jrich1
jrich1 Posts: 2,408 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
We just totaled how much we spent last month from eating out and are saving for our house and trying to save every bit, but our family of 4 spends anywhere from 30-40 bucks each time to eat out.
Deb and I are going to go 30 days without spending money eating dinner out. I think also it will help with the eating good and see how it works! We will take our normal money for eating out and put it into savings.

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  • eveunderground
    eveunderground Posts: 236 Member
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    That's a great challenge idea. Good luck!
  • xquiz8
    xquiz8 Posts: 97 Member
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    My SO and I did something similar last Christmas. We went for a month without eating out, to save as much as we could for Christmas.

    Good luck to you!
  • Deborah50
    Deborah50 Posts: 5
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    GOOD LUCK! Stay strong!
  • raven58
    raven58 Posts: 9
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    Good Luck! I brown bag my lunch every day. Saves about $50 a week, and I control portion and content. You have goals, and, you have a plan to get there. Maybe you can replace those family dinners out with another activity, like a trip to a park, walk or bike as a family, double benefit.

    Good Luck!
  • cc_campbell81
    cc_campbell81 Posts: 622
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    I'm doing the same thing. Maybe we could make it a group challenge!
  • Steelytop
    Steelytop Posts: 145 Member
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    I love saving money. Great challenge!
  • Rynatat
    Rynatat Posts: 807 Member
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    Good Luck :flowerforyou:
    I know it's really hard for many: we'll eat out maybe once per month since I have Celiac's and there are only a few options where I can eat, so I always bring my breakfast, lunch & snax to work with me, everything is measured out and portioned for the day so I don't "slip" :happy:
    My fiance wants me to put him on an allowance since he always eats lunch out, and is spending around $40 per week. plus he has a 100mile commute to/from work!! So, he wants to try to save better for our house remodeling and the Holidays coming up.
    Maybe I need to remind him that if I don't bring my food with me to work, I don't eat, and me not eating is a really bad thing!

    For everyone that is trying to save & control their portions better: I wish you all the best & just know I'm right there with you :flowerforyou:
  • lildebbie
    lildebbie Posts: 2,068 Member
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    We are good mostly during the week...i work from home and eat in and go workout during the week (unless i have to run an errand), every so many weeks i have to meet up with other remote people, so i may go out to lunch maybe every 8 weeks or so. Jermey si good and brings his lunch almost every day :bigsmile:

    Our biggest problem..is the weekends. We usually stay strong during the week and plan out our meals, on the weekend we are like well we are out lets go get something to eat..

    We can do it !! We have to do it !! we have a beautiful house waiting to be built and will be ready in april and we got to have the $$
  • jrich1
    jrich1 Posts: 2,408 Member
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    We can do it !! We have to do it !! we have a beautiful house waiting to be built and will be ready in april and we got to have the $$

    :happy:
  • godblessourhome
    godblessourhome Posts: 3,892 Member
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    good luck! i gave up eating out for lent two years ago. :) it was hard, but interesting and i learned a lot about my habits. remember that you will have an increase in your normal grocery bill (probably half the eating out amount), so you may not save as much as you thought. still, it's a great goal and it all adds up.
    dawn
  • jrich1
    jrich1 Posts: 2,408 Member
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    good luck! i gave up eating out for lent two years ago. :) it was hard, but interesting and i learned a lot about my habits. remember that you will have an increase in your normal grocery bill (probably half the eating out amount), so you may not save as much as you thought. still, it's a great goal and it all adds up.
    dawn

    She went to the store and bought enough food for our extra meals this weekend and it was about the cost of eating out once, we are going to plan the meals for the coming week and try to go without buying TV dinners either
  • lilbear911
    lilbear911 Posts: 16
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    Great goal!! And good luck!! My husband and I need to take on this challenge!!!
  • cc_campbell81
    cc_campbell81 Posts: 622
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    So I made it throught the weekend with out eating out! I made breakfast and lunch for my husband and I to take to work today. So the week is starting off well. As someone else mentioned the grocery bill will go up some.
  • kelsully
    kelsully Posts: 1,008 Member
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    we did this in the month of Sept. Looking to do it again in Oct. I found we managed to not spend a lot of money and I actually had a difficult time eating all my exercise calories with the great stuff I was making at home ( I am training for a marathon and desperately want to stop losing...met my goal and keep passing it up so I am eating all my calories) Anyway..I could eat 1000 cals easy for dinner if we went out but was stuffed with 500-600 at home....great stuff.
  • lildebbie
    lildebbie Posts: 2,068 Member
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    Weekend 1 done !!! NOt that we ate the best this weekend, but everything was from the grocery store..but not like horribly bad either.

    I am going out today (but that was already pre-planned, as i have to meet co-works for work as i do every so many weeks).

    We also decided to make homemade food for lunches, we made spaghetti with meat sauce and meatloaf, potatoes and corn. We may 15 portions...cheaper than a freaking tv dinner and soo much more tasty. THe spaghetti w/ meat sauce under 1.00 each, and the meatloaf, corn, and potatoes like 1.65 or something...can't even buy lean cuisines most of the time for that !!!

    We still stayed about onlyst 25.00 over our grocery budget this week, but that was no eating out the weekend, and making us lunches for almost the next 2 weeks!!
  • cc_campbell81
    cc_campbell81 Posts: 622
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    Good job lildebbie. $25 a week is a good start. That's $1300 a year which is enough to go on a little vacation or buy yourself something nice. Plus it will help you to eat healthier (unless you make 5 cheese macaroni like I did! But hey I have to indulge sometimes!)
  • lildebbie
    lildebbie Posts: 2,068 Member
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    That was 25.00 over our normal budget , but we made a plan every weekend we don't eat out (since that is our rough time for eating out), we put 25.00 in savings. We are building a house and we have to save up for the downpayment and stuff in april-may.

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