Monday, May 25, 2015

The End of Eating Out....a (roughly) 60 day journey

Sometimes the best or the most satisfying things that you do come out of conversations you don't expect to have.



Last Saturday, we went out to eat. We usually don't hit the restaurants on Saturday because on the east side there aren't enough seats to keep there from being a long wait. Of course, that is when the students are in town, but with the spring semester over, its not so bad for a little bit. We also go out to eat after church most Sundays, however due to some other commitments, that was not going to happen last weekend.

We decided to go to La Fiesta, one of our favorites. The one bad thing about la Fiesta is that Audrey can no longer order off of the kid's menu. So, we go...of course we get drinks and cheese dip and then get the bill.

$48.

We get home and start a conversation about going out to eat less. And I propose to Cheri that we just don't eat out the entire month of June. Kind of a "restaurant fast" That was not good enough for her, she counters with starting now. So I can't let her have the last word, and propose not eating out again until we go to the beach.

In Mid-July.

Figuring it up, it is right about 60 days of not eating out. Easily longer than we've ever gone. The only thing left is to figure out how we are gonna do it. The first thing we decide is that we HAVE to have a plan and a menu. Too many of our eat out nights are because we were going to wing it when we got home, or we just didn't want to cook. So, enter the menu calendar. We set up a calendar and just started filling in dates. It really ended up just being any meals we could think of, but putting them in writing makes it more concrete...THIS is what we are having. The next thing we decided on were some emergency meals. What do you do when the chicken isn't thawed out. Spaghetti and hotdogs to the rescue.

So we started. We have a reservation the day we get to Savannah at Our Lady and Sons. That will be our next meal out. So far we have had Hot Dogs, Ranch Chicken, a crockpotted Boston Butt, Shepherd Pie, the much needed leftover night, Barbecue at a party we were invited to, Hamburgers, CrabLegs and Ribs. Tomorrow is another crockpot creation, Chipolte Corn Chicken.

So what do we plan on accomplishing? Well first, saving money. Secondly, and maybe even more importantly, a sense of pride that we CAN do this.

We have not blogged in six months. I, personally, can not remember the last time I wrote a blog entry. But I plan on chronicling this, both for you, but maybe more for us.

Until tomorrow....


Trey

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