My BIGGEST TEMPTATION

Before we had children, my DH (Darling Husband) and I ate out all the time. Seriously, like it was our job.

I RARELY cooked.

We both worked full-time.

It was justified (sort of, hind-sight? we could have saved alot of money, but live-and-learn)

Then comes 2 children, 18 months apart.

For quite a while they would split a kids meal, or even better eat a little off of our plates.

Fast forward to today.

They both need their OWN MEALS in a restaurant.

So our $15 meals at a mid-priced faster food restaurant turned into $25 at LEAST!

So today...

I had the RARE opportunity to run some errands by myself

I was DANGEROUSLY close to many, many restaurants (we live in a big city).

I was also DANGEROUSLY close to stopping for lunch to take home to my hungry family.

Instead?

I was in Target, (and while we are cutting back on our meat consumption, we are not completely giving it up. ) I purchased a bag of frozen breaded chicken patties ($4.69) for 8

and some buns $2

NOT the healthiest lunch AT ALL, but could have been much worse.

So for $3.35 (for 4 servings) we had a homemade "fast-food" lunch.

It could have been $20 AT LEAST at Chick-fil-A.   WHICH WE LOVE and honestly, my make-shift homemade "fast-food" lunch didn't EVEN COME CLOSE to tasting as good as CFA, but we saved at least $15.

Then dinner.

SO tempted, at the end of our grocery week, to eat out.

Tonight's temptation?  Chinese. Panda Express to be exact.  It just sounded SO GOOD.

Instead?

I made homemade fried rice 

and 2 hours later we had waffles.

Money saved for dinner?   $25.

So total saved today by NOT GIVING IN was at least  $40

whew.  In the moment those are some really tough decisions for me.  Now? I'm so glad.  

While we are doing our best to avoid some very "avoid-able" cultural-temptations, eating out, overspending, getting a smart phone (I am STILL HOLDING OUT, HANGING ON BY MY FINGERNAILS AT THIS POINT!)  the temptation is real and its hard.  But saving money feels so much better at the end of the day.  

*I should note, eating out is ALOT easier in the dishes department.  We do have a dishwasher, ahem, me, but not the appliance-kind. sigh.