Well we are at the end of the first official challenge so thoughts of successfulness are coming to mind. Whether or not you are successful is up to you. After all this was about cutting a category from the budget not about saving a certain dollar amount. For those with a budget, your savings will be fixed. For those without a budget, your savings are more obscure. If you usually eat out 4 times a week, but cut down to once a week, were you successful? If you usually spend $200 per month on dining out, but only managed to spend $50 this month, were you successful?
Here's our outcome:
Jack went out of town on business for a week and bought food at a local grocery store. However the last day there he made some sandwiches for lunch and the trip home, but accidently grabbed the bag of trash and left the sandwiches in the hotel room. Just a bit of advice, don't put your lunch in the same type of bag that the hotel uses for trash. He ended up buying fast food for lunch ($8.38) and stopped at a restaurant in the airport ($31.00 Yikes!). All of this will be paid with per diem from the trip, but we would have otherwise pocketed the money so they deserve to be added to the list. While Jack was gone, I went to the store to get groceries. On the way home I had a splitting headache, a screaming baby in the car who wouldn't eat, two other stops to make and the thought that dinner still had to made. So I caved in and went to Wal-Mart to get something from the deli. At this point we hadn't decided whether hot-and-ready food was allowed but I knew in the back of my head I shouldn't buy it, especially since I'd just come from the grocery store. While there I also picked up a candy bar, 6-pack of hard cider, and a tub of frosting ($16.47). All in all we spent $55.85.
Lessons learned this month: We normally eat out 6 times a month on average, however this month Jack ate out twice while I ate out only once and neither of us felt deprived for having done so (though we wanted to a few times). In fact, our home cooked meals were far tastier than anything we could have bought from a restaurant for a similar price. Now we can easily cut down our eating out habit and be much happier for it. We will save more money each month and be healthier too. Even though we spent $56 this month eating out, we spent 30% less on groceries this month than the average over the last three months. We feel we were successful due to the long term benefits this challenge will provide, but there is still room for improvement.
How did you do? Share your own story below in the comments.
Well, we did not do as well as you, although it really curtailed our eating out (especially after church). We caved on a Saturday after a full day for both of us, and stopped at Macaroni Grill for bread and salads. We had forgotten it was Valentine's Day and got there before the rush started. We caved again and ordered a meal so share and they lost our chicken, literally it was the brick chicken and it got pushed to the back somehow, and no one realized it until we had been there about 45 minutes. They were really good about it, and it was a nice meal. It was a different feeling because it was " special" and not just something we were doing all the time. We also stopped at McDonald's on our way home from Orange County which can be a brutal drive, but instead of ordering the Big Mac meals we got a small fry to share and 2 drinks to go. Our grocery bill was a big savings though, only buying fruit and dairy. We used up a good amount of the meat in the freezer and a some of the stuff in our pantry. The savings did not go towards an extra house payment, but when we got the $750 bill for the catalytic converter going out in my car, the money was in our account and we didn't have to dip into the emergency fund or the yearly expenses fund. We plan on continuing with the grocery challenge until all the meat is used up and continuing to use up the pantry items. We both carry our lunch to work, so we didn't see any real change in money there, except those who know me know I like my diet coke. We decided to keep our blow money, and the small amount we get doesn't really go far ( wouldn't cover more than one lunch) but I made it last all week so I could still have my diet coke.:) One Saturday I had used mine up ( I am a sucker for the kids fund raisers at school) and I used the sad eyes on Roger to by me a diet coke, it worked :):)
ReplyDeleteGranneb4: that sounds pretty successful to me. Very impressive only buying fruit and dairy. Great job, hope to see you next month (on the blogosphere anyway)
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