a shocker......

[ccgirl]

We eat out constantly....we both love Pizza Hut (50 cent wings night! Lol.)

This year though, we both want to cut down our waistlines....so I do want to start preparing more meals at home....so I want to cut back.

I find it easier though to make a meal for a family than just the two of us. What do I do then? suggestions?

You can cook every other night. I think it was Rachel Ray that had a cookbook with recipes for 2 dinners from 1. For example, on Monday night a roast in the crockpot. On Tuesday, you use that beef in beef stroganoff.

I think having a well stocked kitchen will help too...I know we have some nights where neither of us wants to cook (put together a meal) so if I get things like frozen pizza or something to have on hand instead of picking something up on the way home.

Not the healthiest but frozen pizzas have been a lifesaver lately.

Cool! I am going to use this website. As far as the name of the cook book, I am not sure. I think "crock pot" put it out. LOL! By so far my DD8 does not like much of anything in it at all. And there is only so much bbq pork you can eat. LOL

kelli

I can't find the thread now but there is an AMAZING thread somewhere on this board for crock pot meals. My DD8 was picky and I tried a few of those and she LOVED them. One of her favorites was white chicken chili. Try to search on crock pot and see if it will come up. I will search too.

I just got a programmable crockpot for Christmas. My problem was that I am gone for 10 hours a day so things would be overcooked. Problem solved now. So happy. I am also making a meal plan 2 weeks at a time and using PeaPod by Stop&Shop to cut down on the impulsive shopping. I'm so proud of myself. Granted, it is only day 3 but....hey.....it's a step in the right direction.

Found it. Enjoy!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1936826&highlight=crock+pot+recipes

 

[ssawka]

I agree that $600 is a bit excessive, but I don't think we could cut out going out to eat completely. For us, it's entertainment. We don't really go to movies or do much outside of the house, so we consider going to restaurants as entertainment. There is a big difference between saying "I don't feel like cooking, so lets go out!" and "I'm in the mood to go out, so let's treat ourselves!"

 

[mom2d&b]

Almost a year ago I started using Mint.com to track all our income and expenses. I even broke out the eating out by fast food, resturaunts, and my lunches. WOW!!! I use my debit card for everythign so I linked my checking account to mint.com and every few days I go onlilne to check how things are being classified and tweak those that need to be changed. I was shocked to see what we were spending. Including what I was spending on eating out. Now I alot myself just $20 a week. I "encourage" myself to bring my lunch so I can blow the $20 on something fun or save it.
To help DH and I sit down on Sunday and plan means for Monday thru Friday. He is still unemployeed so he cooks but this save me from getting the call, "what should I make for dinner". My answer is usually, "let's go out" soplanning ahead make it much better on the budget.

 

[Anne34]

I post a free menu plus complete grocery list on my blog each week. Here's the one I posted today. Tomorrow, I'm posting a list of 25 meals that can be made in 20 minutes or less.

Good luck with your goal of eating at home more often!

This looks great -- my only problem is my youngest is lactose intolerant & I often make 2 things in order to have some variety in our menu.

I will definitely be trying some of these -- especially crock pot meals. We are tired of the some old things!!

 

[wisconsinmom]

We used to go out a lot! I started doing "cash" budgeting a year ago and it has really helped.

My weekly food/dining/household budget is $120. I break that down weekly into $60 for groceries, $40 for dining out, and $20 for Costco. I usually go to Costco every two weeks and spend about $40 a trip.

I coupon a ton and that really helps keep the grocery and household budget down.

We often don't spend all $40 of the dining out money and when we don't I put it in a "Disney" envelope, then I use all the extra cash saved for fun things on our trips.

 

[stewpette]

My husband works late each night, so it is mostly just my dd (7) and I, and we go out to eat a lot. Especially because we are at gymnastics two nights a week, religion one night a week, and violin one night a week. We are always on the go and it just seems easier to eat while we are out. The problem is that on top of spending money to eat out, we also grocery shop every week, and then wind up throwing away produce, lunch meat, milk, etc at the end of the week because we haven't used it up. UGH! I am ready to make huge changes in 2011!!! I really struggle with what to cook for just the two of us, I need to find some "small" meals.

 

[ConnieB]

My husband works late each night, so it is mostly just my dd (7) and I, and we go out to eat a lot. Especially because we are at gymnastics two nights a week, religion one night a week, and violin one night a week. We are always on the go and it just seems easier to eat while we are out. The problem is that on top of spending money to eat out, we also grocery shop every week, and then wind up throwing away produce, lunch meat, milk, etc at the end of the week because we haven't used it up. UGH! I am ready to make huge changes in 2011!!! I really struggle with what to cook for just the two of us, I need to find some "small" meals.

You might consider cooking your normal recipes and then freezing the extra in single serving portions. Then in the morning before you leave for a busy day, take a second to pull out two servings to thaw and when you get home pop them in the microwave to cook while she changes out of gym clothes, puts away the violin, etc. By doing them in single serve you can choose one meal and she can choose another (or both the same) giving more options. I do this with leftovers that aren't enough for our entire family...so some nights we have "smorgieboard" meals, lol.

In fact, that's my modified way of doing the "once a month cooking" because I found I hated spending an entire day cooking even if it did make it easier the rest of the month, I simply dreaded that day. So....I make larger portions when I cook and freeze the leftovers. It really takes little or no extra time to cook larger that day.....and it means no one complains about eating the leftovers the next day, instead it feels like a new meal a week or two later. Keep track of what you have available on a white board on the freezer and when you put it in there so that nothing disappears into the dark recesses and suffers freezer burn. I try to use the saved meals within a month, though I have gone longer without problem.

 

[mafibisha]

Great thread inspiring me to re-think our dining out budget --

Question about Applebees, and places that offer two versions of an entree, including a smaller sized version of entrees.....

(totally realizing that portion sizes are out of control in America!! )

Do you think the smaller sized versions are really worth it? IOW, do you get more for your money ordering the full sized dinner (usually about $2 more) or do you get enough in the smaller sized entree to make the savings *worth it* ?

Any current or past servers there especially that might know?

 

[ilovepete]

We just recently joined mint.com and I saw our eating out was way higher than I thought. It was about $450. We only eat out at lunch like on the weekends, but still, it was way more than I thought.

So on another group I'm on a made a thread for people wanting to eat in this month and so far we are all doing really well. I have extra motivation because we are going to Disney the beginning of Feb so we are trying not to eat out AT ALL until then.

I keep a blog (link in siggy) of what our family eats and cooks so in theory this should be easy for me, but we'll see! We are so used to grabbing something when we are out running errands, could be interesting!

 

[jodifla]

When they ate kids meals...
Now that they are mostly past that, I can't stomach 50-75/meal every week. And we aren't fans of fast food--overpriced mediocre food.
Our new deal is about once/month for the family, 1-2x/month nice dinner out for DH & I. If I am gonna spend the money, I wanna enjoy it!!!

We go out for breakfast most Sunday mornings, so our meal tab is only about $20. There's also a place where kids eat free on Sundays so we go their for lunches, and the tab is about $30.

Keeps the eating out meal tab down.

 

[ConnieB]

Great thread inspiring me to re-think our dining out budget --

Question about Applebees, and places that offer two versions of an entree, including a smaller sized version of entrees.....

(totally realizing that portion sizes are out of control in America!! )

Do you think the smaller sized versions are really worth it? IOW, do you get more for your money ordering the full sized dinner (usually about $2 more) or do you get enough in the smaller sized entree to make the savings *worth it* ?

Any current or past servers there especially that might know?

When we go out and it's big portions we either share or more often since everyone wants something different we ask the server to bring a "to go/doggie bag" to the table at the beginning of the meal. Scoop half of your meal in to take home with you. This way you don't mindlessly eat the second half when you really don't need to to satisfy your hunger, plus it's not a lumpy mess at the end that looks unappetizing, lol.

Never been to Applebees, so can't comment on that, but if they're giving you substantially more food for only $2 more then definitely consider taking the extra home. That means your second meal only cost you $2....that's a bargain for take out food!

 

[ilovepete]

When we go out and it's big portions we either share or more often since everyone wants something different we ask the server to bring a "to go/doggie bag" to the table at the beginning of the meal. Scoop half of your meal in to take home with you. This way you don't mindlessly eat the second half when you really don't need to to satisfy your hunger, plus it's not a lumpy mess at the end that looks unappetizing, lol.

Never been to Applebees, so can't comment on that, but if they're giving you substantially more food for only $2 more then definitely consider taking the extra home. That means your second meal only cost you $2....that's a bargain for take out food!

That is how we do things, too. I order the larger one, like at Carrabba's or something (we don't do Applebee's, just not my favorite) and then I take the rest home for later.