Money Spent on Food

One of the hardest things we've dealt with as we both work and are in school is who's going to cook and clean and when. We have to eat. It's crazy thinking back on the past 5 years of marriage and noticing our income has declined every year. We used to eat out so often and spend much money and sometimes our grocery bill alone every month would be around $500 on top of the hundreds we'd spend eating out!

Eating out is a temptation we still struggle with. It can be so easy to just go drive through somewhere. Or if you want to eat "healthy" go get some soup and salad. The drive thru probably costs about $5-10 each time and our healthier runs are probably around $20 each. If we go out to dinner then it's probably at least around $25 for a meal for both of us. Oh, plus tips! That can add up SO fast! Say we did the drive thru once a week, that's $40 a month. A healthier to-go restaurant twice a month would be another $40. Plus, us eating out would be another $25. That'd be $105 a month or $1260 a year! I can think of so many other things I'd rather do with that much money if I had it.

I was just reading this article about the Seven Debtly Sins of Eating Out. We don't have credit cards so we've never gone into debt like they did on eating, but it just proves that it can add up fast. And now, since we're making less and have a baby and have more insurances and expenditures each month it would have the potential to really leave us scrimping and saving every month.

We're still working on cutting back. Basically, that means I need to make a meal plan, do some price matching and have the meal plan and recipes posted on the fridge for the week so if Aaron wants to cook he can have the recipe in sight and it's easier for me, too.

Don't get me wrong. We still eat out occasionally. And there still are nights when we both get home totally exhausted and I debate if there's something quick or that I froze that I can make really quick and sometimes we still go out to eat. It's something we enjoy and it's just nice to not have to make every single meal all the time. And I love eating out for date nights. But I'm trying to improve. For example, I'm trying to come up with dates that don't always involve eating somewhere.

How do you save money on food? Cut back on eating out?