I walked into the kitchen yesterday afternoon to start dinner when I realized that I totally forgot to take the pork chops out of the freezer the day before. It was almost 5 pm and there was no way they would thaw in time. And my kids were literally chanting, “dinner. dinner. dinner.”
Rats!
The old me would have called my husband and asked him to pick up some Thai on the way home from work.
The new me could hear Dave Ramsey barking in my ear, so I headed to our freezer instead. I pulled some breakfast sausage out and placed the package in some cold water to thaw just enough to remove from the packaging to cook on the stove. As the sausage was browning, I fried up some eggs, made some toast, and cut up some fruit. Breakfast for dinner was served.
In the past, we would have put the Thai food on the credit card. We would have paid it off at the end of the month along with the multiple other trips to restaurants.
Today, we’re taking Financial Peace University and we are paying cash for restaurant meals, a line item in our budget that has been slashed. I allotted $100 for the month for restaurants and we are saving most of it for a nice dinner at Bonefish Grill with some family next week. If I would have ordered the Thai, we wouldn’t have enough money for Bonefish.
So it was eggs…and I make really good dippy eggs!
Have you fought the urge to order take-out recently? What did you make instead? Let us know in the comments.
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I like that you have money allotted to eat out. Dh and I are doing that for our date nights. Going out once a month to eat at a restaurant seems to be a good choice for both of us right now, though I would love to go back to desserts. Since he’s working hard at work, I’m focusing on saving in other areas to give him some relaxing time with his wife.
Barb – Date nights with the hubby are definitely good for the marriage; it keeps everyone sane! 😉
I keep some pesto in the freezer (bought on store clearance special – I pick it up whenever I find it). I cook up some pasta, toss it with the pesto and add whatever leftover meat is in the fridge. Quick, delicious, and saves me from ordering takeout!! Good job resisting the splurge 🙂
That’s a great idea. I even have some leftover pesto and cooked meat in my freezer. Thanks for commenting!
New to your blog:) Thanks for this post, I totally did the same one night last week, forgot to take the meat out and instead of eating out, made breakfast for dinner:) Just signed up the class and really looking forward to changing our future!! I know the road will be a little challenging, but we are up for it. I was never taught a thing about money, other than to spend it. My babies are little but we will be showing them when the time comes how to take care of their finances:)Thanks again!
Welcome, Jacqueline! FPU is definitely challenging both me and my husband, but we’ve already made some changes in our mindset about our finances and our future. Good luck with your class! Thanks for commenting.
Love this, thanks! Just signed up the for the class;)
That’s cool that you have become so disciplined when it comes to eating out or ordering take out. When I really crave eating out (but want to save money), I pull out a special treat from the freezer. I usually make sure to have a few special grocery store items stored away that are really easy to cook. Chinese dumplings are a favorite in our household and I usually cook up some edamame, to go along with them. Kind of like eating out, and much cheaper.
Pam – Having a back up in the freezer definitely helps prevent those phone calls for take out! Thanks for commenting!
Good for you! I do have a separate line for restaurants, but we rarely eat out..and if we do, I actually add it to my grocery budget and don’t go over. If we happen to to get takeout (We did for St. Patty’s day..hubby loves fried chicken… so we spent $30 on a special. But the chicken lasted us like 4 days for lunches and dinner. LOL Anyway, that was $30 less that I allotted for groceries this month.
I also have a list of easy go to dinners that we can whip up asap in case of emergencies: Spaghetti, Cheese Tortillas, Home Made Mac/Cheese, Hard Boiled Egg Sandwiches, etc.
Margaret @ Live Like No One Else
Margaret – One good thing about eating out is when there are leftovers for the next day or two or in your case 4!
Thanks for commenting.
So glad I found your link today- I hopped over from SITS Sharefest. I’ve bookmarked your site to read more great tips later! I very much need to start putting some of these ideas into practice.
Eggs for dinner was one of my favorite meals for dinner when I was single. Now I save it for when my husband is out of town. Now when I’m in a pinch I usually make tuna salad sandwiches or grilled cheese.
BTW- love the title of your blog.
stopping by from SITSSharefest
We never go to restaurants really. My big splurge is Subway every so often.
Have a great night 🙂
HAHA!!! This post brings back a lot of happy memories. I first learned to budget exactly like this when I moved out and started college. I was working a lot and didn’t have a lot of spare money or time. So, I would make myself breakfast for dinner instead of ordering in or going through the drive through so that I would have money to go out with my friends twice a month (that was our agreement…We all went out two Saturdays a month). Those were good days. I learned to cook and budget because of it 🙂
We don’t eat out much anymore but if for some reason I don’t have a meal planned or the ingredients ready, my go to meals are grilled cheese and tomato soup or french toast and eggs. Not the healthiest of meals but the kids always like them.
Yay! Way to go on sticking to the plan.