How often do you add up everything you spent for the month? At the end of each month i like to total the amount we spent on eating out, shopping, gas.... Just print out all your bank statements and credit card bills find a bunch of different colored highlighters and start highlighting all your gas purchase with a .... pink highlighter. Highlight all your eating out, or gas station food costs with a green highlighter. Do you drink coffee or soda? Highlight all of those purchases with an orange highlighter.... you get the idea, continue to highlight and then total all the like colors.
This helps keep us in reality and helps motivate us not to spend on as much future waste.
We are trying really hard to not eat out, but it is not going as well as i would like it..... But since you are reading this maybe you can help me be more accountable for my actions. I am going to say right now that for one month... So now thru March 1st we will only eat out 1 time and that is only for our Valentines dinner. Do you want to set this goal with me? We can keep each other motivated and accountable. We could save over $200 this month easy!
It is so frustrating seeing how much money we throw away each month by eating out! One of our main goals this year that will also help with saving money is to stop eating out!! Here is a step by step on how we have started saving money by eating at home.
I have tons of recipes that i have printed off from the internet.... so what to do with all those recipes?? I put them all in a 3 ring binder. I have them organized my appetizer, main dish, dessert, sides, breakfast.... that way they are organized in a way that is easy for me.
1)I Print out a monthly calendar so I can see which nights I need to make "easy" dinners.
2)Start filling in my calendar- Every other Friday is pizza night-some weeks it is home made, some nights Aldi take and bake pizzas- Aldis have the best take and bake pizzas!!
3) Tuesdays are Fish Nights- It is recommended you eat fish twice each week- we do not love fish so right now it is just once per week. Right now we are only fond of the fish from Schwan's.
4) Its winter so i LOVE making soup! I make soup at least 2 times per month, which is usually every other Thursday- Check our my recipe for lasagna soup, it is our new favorite!!
5) Where does crock pot meals fit in to your schedule best? We try to have at least 2 crock pot meals per month-every other Monday night.
6) My calendar is getting pretty full at this point and i have hardly even had to look for recipes- remember to check out your 3 ring binder- I also have a favorites section that make it easy to find the family favorites. I try to fill the remaining days with something different from all the other recipes listed, maybe a pasta, or a rice meal...
I have a small family of 3 so we have lots of leftovers which means i do not have to plan a meal daily due to us eating leftovers a few times a week. I generally cook 2-3 meals per week- or plan it that way- 2 Months ago my menu actually lasted 2 months due to us eating so many leftovers rather than needing to cook.
Something new we are trying this month to help with foot cost is to add a few cereal nights to our menu. A box of cereal lasts us FOREVER in our home and we have PLENTY of it so this is a way to go thru some of the resources we already have on hand. Should save us over $20 per month.
-Final tip-Don't set your self up for failure- Have ingredients for easy back up meals on hand.
What tips help you stay on track with not eating out?
As you may have read from my main page we are working hard to pay our house off fast! We really want to have out home paid off before we get too invested into fostering. We think we can add one child that is similar in age to my daughter now.... but i think that would be our limit till we make the transition to a one income family. The last think we want to do is a bring a child into our home that we cant give all the attention that he or she may need and deserve! We know the transition may be tough and we want to really be there for the child to help it be a tiny bit easier. With that being said, we are crunching numbers!!
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