Our budget is tight. We have allotted $10 per month for eating out. And most months, that money goes elsewhere. It’s just in the budget as a kind of cushion. Or for when we crave custard.
This means we have to try and schedule our outings so that they don’t go over lunch or dinner times. But this can lead to us never leaving the apartment.
So, Tip #1: We bring a lunch with us.
We have a Trusty Blue Cooler that has packed many a picnic lunch (and saved us many a fast-food-dollar).
When we want to go to the park or the zoo on a Saturday morning, but it’s almost 11:00 already – along comes the cooler. A couple weekends ago, we were visiting friends and we knew they would want to go out to eat for lunch. We came prepared – with our blue cooler. And we sat in Chick-Fil-A eating our homemade deli sandwiches. Saving money. And by the way, our sandwiches were made with homemade honey oat bread, still soft and slightly warm from the machine that morning… oh, yum. We were not suffering.
When we travel to see family (all of which resides in a different time zone) – along comes the cooler. We have been known to stop at mall parking lots, have a picnic lunch in the car, then walk once through the mall to get the wiggles out of a certain toddler, and then back in the car for another couple of hours.
The bonus for bringing a cooler on longer trips is the Snack Potential. String cheese, carrot sticks, pretzels, peaches, cold water all reduce the compulsion to splurge at a gas station. And they are also MUCH healthier than pop (soda, Coke, whatever) and a candy bar.
On to Tip #2:
We used to eat out every Sunday after church. We go to the late service, which lets out at 12:30. By the time we get home, it’s 1:00. Then, add in time to cook a meal and it’s well into naptime before dinner’s on the table. Our solution was Pizza Express. That got expensive. And not-so-healthy.
Something had to change.
Since we don’t have to leave until 10:30 for church, I have plenty of time to make a crock pot meal every Sunday morning. I simply adore big Sunday lunches. This is my answer.
No matter how hungry we are as the worship band plays its closing tune, we cannot go out to eat or dinner will be ruined! And we have a polite excuse for anyone who asks us if we want to join them for dinner somewhere, “Oh, we can’t. We have dinner waiting in the crock pot at home.” Sounds a lot nicer than, “Oh, no. We don’t make enough money to afford such extravagances. But you have fun!” And, we can follow up with, “Would you like to come over for dinner?”
Does anyone else do this? For other Frugal Friday tips, see Crystal’s blog.
For the Sunday meal, I do the exact same thing! It’s easy to find “4-hours-on-High” crockpot recipes, and getting them started by 8 or 8:30 isn’t a problem- and a delicious, big Sunday lunch is the result.
We have been doing tip #1 for as long as I can remember!
I love the idea of tip #2, but I am having trouble finding meals my family will like that don’t include meat or ANY milk (I don’t eat meat and can’t have milk) AND I have a picky family…
if only we hadn’t gotten rid of our crockpot. I had no desire to use it until I told my sister in law she could have it- she had been wanting one.
Guess what? Now I want one and she doesn’t use it! LOL.
We are really bad about going out to eat. Even if we don’t have the money. We have gotten a lot better, the other day we got some french fries at Sonic for Lexi though, she was pretty fussy and we had been at church. They fed the kids while we were doing what we were doing but I didn’t know how much she ate, or if she ate. So I didn’t mind spending $1 to get her some food in her belly until we got home!
Great tip as always!
My husband and I went on a cross country vacation from Texas to Pa to NJ to ME and took along the cooler. We had a very limited budget so wanted to eat in the car as much as possible. We chose to eat one meal a day out and the rest in the car or motel. It worked great, saved a ton of money and we were able to have food along when we got to NJ and put it in my mom’s freezer. We had planned on using it on the way back… but somehow it got left in her freezer. Even giving her that food we saved money.
What a lovely post! Great idea about the crock pot. We too like an early afternoon service as well.
Eating out is a huge occasion for us, since there are 7 people in this house. We took my son out to our favorite restaurant for his 25th birthday. I think we probably eat out five or six times a year. I don’t really like fancy restaurants. Give me good food, not fancy table linens. Our favorite restaurant is half seafood store, and reasonably priced.
Mike and I go out once in a while, but mostly to places where I have a BOGO coupon to eat. He’s happy with a burger and I’m just as happy with soup and a salad. It’s the company that really makes the meal, isn’t it?
But in the long run, I like home-made much better! A)you know what you are eating and B)it just tastes better and fresher. Wow, that honey-oat bread sounds like it would make all the other diners jealous!
Great tips. I LOVE my crockpot…just set and forget! We use a cooler (we call it an esky here) on our trips too, otherwise your kids end up LIVING on McDonalds!
Years ago I heard a wise woman extol the virtues of the after church crock pot Sunday dinner. Why are we so hungry after worship? LOL! But yes those are great tips.
What works for me is buying nuts at the warehouse store cheap and keeping trail mix in the car. Nuts are very filling. And keeping water with us always helps.