Ideas for Not Eating Out

[NALA 24]

Thanks for all the ideas. I think the "Not Eating Out Challenge" is a great idea. Today, I bought pizza at Sam's Club and we ate it on our deck. It definitely was fun and I felt a little less deprived since Friday is the night when we usually go out for pizza.
I would appreciate any other ideas.

 

[jenr812]

This is what happens to us --is this the problem for others? I don't plan well. We are doing things and next thing you know, it's time for dinner. Well, I don't know what we are going to have. I don't have anything thawed, I don't have plans, I'm tired, etc. It is just easier to go to Chili's or wherever. Then I get mad at myself because I think of how many groceries I could have bought for what we just spent on one meal. But, then here comes Sunday and I find us grabbing something for lunch.

OMGosh this is so us!!!!

Anyway, my suggestion (I hope I can follow it, too) is don't plan meals that are too cheap or something the family will dread. Make eating in a big deal.

What a wonderful suggestion. I had never thought of it that way

 

[DMRick]

I hate to cook, so when I do, I make it worth it. Tonight I made bean salad..lots of it, because it will last for a week without spoiling. So there is our main vegetable all week. When I make meatballs for spaghetti I make a lot of them, and then they go in freezer bags. I can pull them out and put them in canned sauce (which we like) for an almost instant dinner. A few days ago we made lots and lots of sausage on the grill (it was on sale), but only ate a little for dinner. Freezer bagged some for the spaghetti dinners, and cut up into bite size pieces the rest and froze it for sausage soup (sausage, potatoes, spinach, onions, garlic and chicken broth). It's something I put together in the crock pot and it's all mixed and tasting good for dinner.
I always have chicken breast in the freezer. If I take it out the night before, and cut in in slices in the morning, before it's totally thawed (much easier to cut), by supper time, it's easy enough to spray some olive oil in a pan, fry up the chicken (I often cook up some extra, and pull it before I add the other items), add some teriyaki sauce, thrown in some fresh cut up broccoli, add a salad, and it's dinner.
One of my favorite appliances is my Quesadilla maker. So simple. I grab some chicken that I froze from the previous meal, cut it up, put out cheese and toppings (sour cream, salsa), and in about 10 minutes I have enough for us, and a grand or two, if they are there. Again, add a salad or other veggie and you are good to go. The Mickey Mouse waffler works good for these too.
Hope you get a few ideas from the above.

 

[sunshinegirl]

When we are trying to scale back on eating out but really wanting to go out, we compromise and eat dinner at home but then go out for ice cream afterwards. Instead of a $30-$45 meal for the 4 of us, it is ice cream for $10.

We also look for nights where kids eat free. Our Skyline Chili has kids eat free on Friday nights. All 4 of us can sometimes eat for $10. That's as cheap as a lot of the meals that I make at home when you include the meat.

Getting take out can feel like eating out but you save the money of drinks and tips. We might just get a bucket of chicken from the grocery store and then add potato chips, fruit, and drinks to it and take it to the park for a picnic. It really does feel like eating out because there is no cooking involved and it is a fun place. But it is SO much cheaper!

We trade dinner with friends as well. I'll cook one Friday night and then the next Friday night we go to their house. The net amount that you spend on groceries ends up being the same, but it is one less night to have to cook yourself. Or I'll make a double batch of lasagna and my best friend will pick up a pan after work. The next week, I'll pick up some kind of dinner from her house.

Tricia

 

[pabef]

We go out for coffee and dessert - just husband and I. Nice date and much cheaper than eating out for whole meal.

 

[Mad4Dizne]

I am always wondering what to do if I buy a big pack of sausages, DMRick--great idea!!! Can't wait to try that one out.
We too often treat ourselves to ice cream out after dinner--and have been known to go to Costco for a meal "out" and spend about $1.50-$2.75/pp with a hot dog,soda and if we add a dessert....

 

[WatchinCaptKangaroo]

I like to "eat out at home".

You can get frozen pizzas made by California Pizza Kitchen in the grocery store. They are amazing and much cheaper than going to the California Pizza Kitchen.

A lot of restaurants will sell their salad dressing for a few dollars. You can replicate their salads at home. Also, a lot of restaurants are putting some receipes online.

Right now I am craving Hot Dog on a Stick, so I am eating corndogs (veggie) and drinking some lemonaid.

 

[Andy too]

Planning a trip for December and those annual passes are expensive! I've been telling my wife every time we are tempted, but resist a fast-food trip "there's $20 toward an annual pass."

The two biggest helps for us have been

1) making a menu for the next week so we don't have to figure out what we're having and

2) making 2-4 meals on the weekend (when I have time to cook) that we can use during the week.

 

[Debbie]

We're having a crockpot port roast for supper tonight (love my crockpot! especially in the summertime--no heating up the kitchen!)

The roast was too big (DH didn't know to cut it when it was bought, on sale, of course, before it was frozen), so I cut and packaged up 5 chops for my DS who will be home for Father's Day, and cooked up the rest for the stir fry that we'll have later this week or maybe next. We'll likely have some left over from the crockpot roast, too, for tomorrow night's sandwiches.

Here are a couple of threads from the past. Fabulous ideas!

Your Family's Favorite Cheap Meal
Food Budget Tight...Need help with tasty ideas
Quick, Easy Frugal meals
Not Eating Out, Menu ideas
Cook ONCE, Eat TWICE ideas
Quick Easy BUDGET meals


Happy Reading!!
Now to hit the subscribe button at the top, so that I can have a list of this in one place.

 

[mamalle]

we do themed meals at times: cookouts, mexican night, italian night, etc. I stock up on BOGO and shop at costco. we make our own pizzas some night or hit the $4.99 take out pizza across the street. cheeper than making it some times..

 

[bettyann29]

count me in!!! We ate fast food Friday and Saturday night!! This is one of our biggest expenses besides house payment each month..

One thing I thought of is to cook extra and freeze it.. The main reason we eat out when we do is because we dont feel like cooking that night..

I like some of the ideas mentioned..

 

[mjbaby]

My husband and I were each soo tempted individually to head to a restaurant after church today - we'd each mentioned how nice it would be to not have to cook on such a hot, humid day. Turns out that the new church pre-school director sponsored a picnic after in the playground to mark the beginning of the summer Sunday School schedule. Yay! So we got to "go out" without actually going out. *And* this is going to be an every-week thing for fun and fellowship! Yay!

We also narrowly escaped going out last night but I managed to put a quick pasta dish on the table, with a green salad from the last of our garden lettuce. The pasta was quick and easy with a garden veggie "sauce":

Warm about a quarter cup of olive oil in a medium skillet, and add three or four cloves of chopped garlic. When the garlic is soft, add a couple cups of diced summer squash and zucchini, chopped scallions and bell pepper. Season to taste with salt, pepper and oregano or basil (I used the first of my garden basil). When the veggies have given off some juice, pour the contents of the skillet over about 3/4 a pound of cooked penne and stir to combine. Season again to taste and sprinkle with 1/2 cup crumbled seasoned goat cheese. Delish!

 

[gobledygook]

Thanks for the thread, and all the great ideas!! I got motivated while reading them and dug some stuff out of the freezer for supper. Eating out is a biggie for me, since I get home from work around 7:00 and DH is ready to eat, it's been easier to just stop somewhere on the way home. I'm going to go thru some of my cookbooks now for quick and easy recipes and hopefully stay motivated and away from the restaurants! Thanks, disbuddies! .

 

[disneymom3]

I would love to see some meal plans people have for the week.

I will start:
Monday, enchillada casserole, spanish rice, salad
Tuesday, roast in crockpot with carrots and potatoes
Weds, chicken breast, cheese-broccoli rice, froz vegetables
Thursday pasta with spag sauce and meatballs, salad and bread
Friday barbecue beef sandwiches with leftover roast, potato salad and carrots with dip

I need to plan the weekend but I haven't yet. What is everyone else eating this week? Maybe if we get enough, we can just swap out menu plans.

 

[scojos]

goodevening from the uk!!

we are having;
monday pasta carbonara (ds favourite!)
tuesday pork escalopes with mushrooms and garlic creme fraiche
wednesday pizza (soccer night so frozen )
thursday chicken breasts with bbq beans and fries
friday fish and rice (probabbly with nacho starter as kids just love nachos at the moment.

you can probably tell me love quick food, but i teach food studies in a high school and dh is a head chef, the last thing we waqnt to do after being in the kitchen all day is cook!!
id love to see some of your favourite american dishes, and maybe i could give you soem quick european dishes? lets share!! dh is french, so anything you want to know...
tracy

 

[Debbie]

It's getting to the end of June and school here in Ontario. I'm exhausted, so the menu is quick and simple. Here is a snapshot of the next two weeks
Sunday-crockpot pork roast, scalloped potatoes, veggies of a sort
Monday-leftover pork, mashed potatoes, salad
Tuesday-grilled cheese sandwiches, fries
Wednesday-tortellini (pasta), salad, roll
Thursday-burgers on the bbq, salad
Friday-soup, salad, sandwich for those that want them
Saturday-breakfast for supper (eggs)
Sunday-pork stir fry, rice
Monday-pasta, salad
Tuesday-soup/sandwich (Graduation ceremonies at 7:00)
Wednesday (staff party at our house; last day of school for the kids)-burgers on the bbq and potluck junk food
Thursday tortellini (last day of school for me), salad
Friday-pizza* (kids pool party)
Saturday (Canada Day)-steak (NONE of the kids will be home!), mushrooms & onions

The only thing that I don't have in the house is the pizza*. I'll pick that up at Costco, and we are ready to roll!

 

[bettyann29]

Heres mine for the week and part of the next week:

Sunday: Tacos
Monday: BBQ chicken legs w/ corn on the cob (cooked on the grill)
Tuesday: Turkey Loaf w/ mashed potatos
Wednesday: Pork Chops w/ rice
Thursday: Taco Soup
Friday: Hamburger Helper Stroganoff
Saturday: Hamburger and chopped onions and cheese stuff in crescents
Sunday: Salad and baked potatos
Monday: Hamburgers on the grill
Tuesday: Chicken on the grill w/ veggies
Wednesday: whatever (leftovers)
Thursday: Hamburger meat seasoned w/ rice
Friday: Sausage and salads


I like some of your other ideas.. I would also like to hear what others make..

 

[ncbyrne]

DH and I are always in the kitchen...we both love to cook and love to eat anything and everything. Eating in isn't a problem for us. However....we have 5 grown and married kids. One daughter H-A-T-E-S to cook and her kids (2 DDs 8+12) are the pickiest eaters and has a husband who wouldn't eat a vegetable of any kind if his life depended on it! (He won't even eat iceberg lettuce...yes I know, it's sad). Another DD works 12 hr. shifts with a 1½ hr. commute - a DS who would rather eat out than eat his DWs cooking. I was telling them about this thread today and they all agreed that if the only way they could save for a WDW vacation was to eat all meals at home, they never see the Mouse again. Boy, they sure don't get it!

 

[HappyCamperToo]

since I get home from work around 7:00 and DH is ready to eat

sorry--but if he's ready to eat, what does he prepare for you both to eat at 7 when you are first getting home? or are you the only cook in the house? if you guys have the household chores divided up pretty evenly and yours is cooking, but your getting home late tempts you to eat out, maybe you could take on one of his chores and he could do the cooking might be worth discussing--how nice it would be for you to come home to a cooked meal!

 

[renessa]

I agree with HappyCamper!