Is Dining Out Killing Your Budget?

I don’t know about your area, but in Denver it seems like there has been a recent explosion in the number of new restaurants. From my personal observation the increase seems to be tied to more and more low to mid cost restaurants opening; i.e. Chipotle, Panera Bread, Noodles & Co and Garbanzos.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics the average American household spends $2678 or approximately 40% of our food expenditures away from the house. Yes, you read that correctly, 40%. Now we are all aware that food typically prepared away from costs more than what we can buy and prepare for ourselves. So how do we cut back?

Four tips to reduce your dining out costs:

1.       Coupons and deals – use local coupons and deal finders such as the Entertainment Book, Groupon and Living Social to get 50% or more off. Two things to keep in mind, the deals are usually there to lure you into spending, so don’t end up spending more by adding on items like alcohol and desserts, and remember to tip your server on the full amount not the discount. You received the same level of service; the restaurant should take the hit not the waiter/waitress.

2.       Downgrade – moving from sit down restaurants to quick casual can help save, not only on the need to tip, but also the overall cost. Why go to an upscale restaurant to order a burger and fries, when you can find an equivalent for cheaper.

3.       Reduce your portion intake – do you usually have a take home bag after a meal out? Then you probably have the “eyes bigger than your stomach” syndrome. Why not forgo the appetizer and just have the main meal, or split one appetizer between several people? The same goes for desserts.

4.       Reduce the frequency – by cutting out one or two dining out trips a month by planning and preparing ahead. An hour or two preparing quick meals in advance can save you from needing to stop. We suggest making a big pot of chili or soup and putting some in the freezer for those nights when you just don’t feel like cooking.

Dining out doesn’t need to take a big bite out of your budget. Implement the four tips above and you could save 10, 20 or 50% off of your budget, giving you more money to put towards debt and your financial future.

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If you buy fruit during your weekly grocery trip, like we do, you have a lot of fruit around the house.  Fruit is great for snacking and to keep you healthy.  It’s, also, great for enhancing meals, like mango salsa with homemade tacos or a pear chutney over a pork loin roast.  Yum!

 

So, if you’re a fruit-eater, you know it’s sometimes difficult to eat your fruit before it spoils.  Here’s a solution.

When we get home from the grocery store, we put all of our fruit in a freshly cleaned sink.  Then we mix a combination of one part white vinegar and three parts water.  We let the fruit soak for about ten minutes, drain the sink and let the fruit dry.  Then, depending on the type of fruit, we store it in a fruit bowl on our counter or in our fridge. 

 

The water-vinegar mixture kills about 98% of the bacteria on fruit.  This slows down the spoiling process and helps fruit last up to a week or more after getting it home.  Before it’s time to eat the fruit, we’ll rinse it off again. 

This means we don’t waste our fruit, which saves us money or gets us a better return on our fruit investment.

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I was exercising at the gym this morning and “Big Love” by Fleetwood Mac came on my iPod.  I was about the change it when I decided to listen.  Lindsay Buckingham’s guitar skills on that song are amazing.  When I was listening and doing bent-over-barbell-pulls, it struck me as ironic that two of my favorite albums came from dark places for the artists.  Then, I thought, maybe their stories can be an inspiration for others. 

In October 1997, Fleetwood Mac appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone (issue 772) with the headline “The Lovingest, Fightingest, Druggingest Band of the ‘70s Comes Back”.  It detailed their meteoric rise to success and fame, the drugs, jealousy, cheating and anger that came with that success and fame and their ultimate (temporary) break up.  Twenty years after the rollercoaster started, they were back on top and about to release their Grammy Award winning album The Dance.  At the height of the negativity, they created arguably one of the greatest albums of all time.  That album, Rumors, was created when the two couples of the band, Buckingham & Nicks and John & Christine McVie, were in the middle of breaking up.  Drugs, fighting and cheating were everywhere.  There were times when some thought the album wouldn’t happen. 

Despite everything working against them, much of it their own doing, they persevered.  They stuck it out, got back up when they fell and were more focused on the end result than the present situation.

Adele’s relationship with a man ten years older ended around April 2009.  Adele seemingly put more stock in this relationship than her partner.  When they eventually broke up after he heard the first recording, “Take it All”, for her new album 21, she was apparently devastated.  Not being one to let a bad situation ruin her, she channeled her emotion into writing new music for her upcoming album.  When the album was released in January 2011, no one could have known the success that was about to come.  Winning both a Grammy and a BRIT Award, the album topped the charts in over 30 countries for both 2011 and 2012.   Your humble bloggers will even go out on a limb and say 21 will be the top album of the ‘10s (is that what we’re calling this decade?). 

What does all this have to do with me, you say?  If you’re drowning in debt or money problems is ruining your relationship, or you’re dealing with other personal struggles, and you don’t see a chance of recovering, consider these success stories.  They aren’t the only stories out there about a group of people or a person hitting a low point and using that low point as a springboard to success.  Use your fear, your anger, your frustration or whatever emotion(s) you have to inspire you to success.  Whatever your financial problems, whatever your problems, you can overcome them and the outcome will be better than you can imagine. 

We had over $51,000 worth of credit card debt and were living in a basement.  Rather than resigning ourselves to failure, we did what we had to do to climb out of debt, buy a home, and increase our travel and retirement savings.  If all these people can turn failure into success, so can you. 

Is that corny enough for you?

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