Can you go an entire month without going out to eat? What about a week or a day? Can you cut your dining bill by 20%, 50% , 75% or more? That is what I challenge you to do!
At the end of the 30 days, I will choose one winner who will get $50 to spend at a restaurant(s) of their choice!
The rules:
1. You must challenge yourself. Try to spend less than you spend now. If you don’t go out to eat at all, challenge yourself to try new meals this month. As long as you are challenging yourself when it comes to your family’s eating habits, you can participate!
2. You must comment on at least 10 days worth of the discussion posts in order to be eligible to win the gift card.
3. The winner will be chosen at random. It won’t matter if you have been 100% successful or not.
4. You are allowed 1 freebie meal that you don’t have to count or report back to us about. Please report on everything else though so we can encourage and support one another!
5. Free meals do not count against you. This is a challenge to spend less money going out to eat than you usually spend. If someone else is paying for the meal or you have a coupon to make it free, great!
6. Here is a thought… consider keeping a tally of what you would of spent this month. For example, if you really want to go out for breakfast this morning and you resist… write that down! You could then donate that money to a food bank or deposit it into your fund!
7. Be sure to check out our list of casserole recipes here and the crock pot recipes here and the under 6 ingredient recipes here and the what’s for dinner posts
My progress:
We went to Chickfila yesterday to meet my reader Jen and her cousin Brandi. I had a really great time! I spent $13. (Salad is expensive now adays.)
How are you doing?
{ 44 comments… read them below or add one }
Met hubby for lunch yesterday at a little Mexican place. I think we spent $16 or $17. Dinner was eaten at home-country fried steak, mashed potatoes, and corn.
I’ve eaten out three times since July 1st. First one was paid for. Second was brunch with my stepdaughter (I had to keep my word) and the third one was on Saturday when we went to the mall and hubby said we needed to reward ourselves for being so successful (May and June we ate out waaaaay too much and had gotten dependent on it). So it was a good reward for our success!
Did great yesterday. Made a homemade lasagna and homemade rolls for dinner last night. Too bad it was all eaten last night and we can’t have leftovers again tonight. I guess next time I will have to make a bigger one!
We had breaded pork chops, homemade mac n cheese, and corn at home last night!
We made steaks from Jewel last night. They were pretty good!
Did pretty goos yesterday. Ate lunch on the run from Sonic. Spent $4. Homemade chicken strips and corn for supper last night.
We had taco’s last night….no eating out for us
getting a late start, but have brought left overs for lunch the last 4 work days and cooked at home the last 3 nights. Hot dogs & mac & cheese last night. Pesto tonight with basil from the yard.
no eating out again. feeling really good about this month. hubby bought two slim jims at the store though! ugh…will he never learn!??! :)
We had leftovers and the kids had grilled cheese and soup. We are doing ok this month. But it seems like we are eating out more this month than we have in the past couple of months.
We had tacos last night! Haven’t had them in a while and we all really enjoyed them!
we didn’t eat out yesterday, we had leftovers for dinner. I’m probably going to make sushi or something else special for dinner tonight because hubby and I have been married for 1 month today. :) I might give in and let him take me out, if he wants to but most likely we’ll stay in.
That is soooo sweet! Let him take yu out! It can be your freebie!
We’re still at $0 for the month! Yesterday we stopped at Wendy’s for DD’s free frosty (she read four books), but we didn’t buy anything. For dinner, I made BBQ chicken in the crock pot (put it on the lanai so it wouldn’t heat up the house).
I am so awe inspired by some of the people are here and how well they are doing. We are still doing better than but yesterday was not good; it seems like once we slide a little it is hard to get back on track. We have meals planned for the last couple days of the month so we should finish up like we started- no eating out. Yesterday got behind on my errand running so grabbed a quick lunch at Target Food Avenue and thanks to karate last night we had Panda Express for dinner. We are going to challenge ourselves BIG time next month and try it again ~~ but I am not giving up on this month yet!
We had mazzios. That is my freebie each week we spend 7$ for the 2 of us and we get together with family and talk for hours. We enjoy it and no dishes!!! But that was lat night. tonight I am making a crab casserole since I have free crab meat from the sales this week. Don’t know yet for the rest of the week.
Still no eating out this month! I made beef stir fry with brown rice and spring rolls. It was delicious!
No dining out :) We had chicken tenderloins and corn bread.
No eating out yesterday- salad and sandwich for lunch and spaghetti for dinner. Although, my boss did buy us Blizzard’s from DQ for a mid afternoon treat; can’t remember the last time I had one and it was delicious!
we ate left overs:) no eating out for us!!!
We had Digornio’s pizza. You are right though about salads getting expensive. My husband and I were just having a conversation about how expensive healthy food is. I can go to Wendy’s and pay $2.99 for a combo but the salads are $5.99!! Restaurants make it really hard to eat out heathly when you are on a budget.
The kids were out with the grandparents last night. DH and I had a gift certificate for Pepe’s from restaurant.com so we went there for dinner. So nice.
No eating out for me DH made pancakes for dinner :)
I ended up getting Chick-fil-a for dinner last night. Used my free chicken salad sandwich coupon from their calendar, and got the 12 piece nuggets so I can use them for a few meals for my little one. Hubby had to work late, she’d been sick, and I just didn’t feel like eating diet food. I balanced our budgets from June and July and was all depressed that I thought we were doing well, but hubby was actually spending a ton. sigh.
yesterday was a $0 day.
We did good yesterday. For lunch brought leftovers to work. I packed the kids lunches for camp and daycare. Hubby made cheese burgers on the grill and sweet potato fries.
We wound up going to dinner at a friend’s house. :)
Went to On the Border for $1 tacos…so, so good and worth the money–I didn’t feel like cooking! Spent $14.14 total for 3 of us.
I made burrito’s for dinner last night. My husband is out of town tonight and I have enough for leftovers so that is what I will be having again. A little boring but totally worth it to not have to cook:)
Almost done with my month challenge! I have only gone out to eat one time the entire month! I can’t even believe how much money I saved, not to mention I lost about 16 lbs(with walking). This was an awesome challenge and I think I will do it again next month.
No eatting out for us yeaserday.I made chicken with tomato sauce in the crock pot and served it over rice.I love my crock pot.
We’re doing great this week. Yesterday I made tacos and today we’re having hot dogs, baked beans, and mac-n-cheese.
No dining out yesterday. Dinner was grilled hamburgers and hot dogs with pickle spears and mashed potatoes. I have chicken thawing for dinner tonight and trying to decide what to do with it.
Did good yesterday. Tonight is DD’s soccer awards @ Dairy Queen. We’ll eat dinner @ home and just have dessert ($1 kids cones).
So far so good. I have eaten out several times this month courtesy of my father in law but never on my own dime. I even got out of buying my son french fries at Wal Mart the other day. I told my mom she promised them to him, not me, so it wasn’t fair to expect me to pay for something I would have said no too because I was saving my money!
Still sick with this cold. Tomato soup and mac and cheese last night.
we stayed in today! We made spaghetti, quick and easy…it’s way too hot out for me to want to cook!
We ate at home yesterday and today as well! We have spent $90 so far this month and have just a few more days to go. So far, we are on target to meet our goal!
Another successful day of saving money: yellow rice, a can of green beans, and 2 lbs of leg quarters: about $2.75 to feed a family of three!
I am claiming my freebie meal for the month for yesterdays dinner. We were out running all day and shopping with the 4 kids(that in itself warrants a freebie), but we ended up getting a new grill. As stoked as we were about cooking out on it last night, we got home and the brats we not thawed :( I hate to force thaw anything so there was an italian eatery I wanted to try. So I am going to take my freebie for the month, because we paid $52 with tip for all of us to eat out. and it wasn’t as good as everyone said either. Bummer :(
We are still doing Wonderful!! Saved at least $100 this month by not eating out!
Was treated out to dinner tonight from the inlaws. YAY free food!!
No eating out for us!!
We did ok for breakfast and lunch but we went to Sonic for dinner while we were out grocery shopping:( At least the things I ordered were off the dollar menu!!