If you missed why we are attempting the 30 Day Eat At Home Challenge, you can read about our first week here. Week One: MONEY SAVED $61.00
I have never really paid attention to how much we eat out. This has been a fascinating wake-up call on how much I THINK about going out to eat.
Does that make sense? Let me explain…
We may not eat out that much (once to twice a week), but I think about eating out all the damn time. It is always an option for us. If I feel stress about not being home in time to make supper, I consider eating out. When I am driving my kids home from the grocery store and I notice we have missed lunch, I consider drive-thru. When we put the kids to bed early and I am hungry, I consider take out. When I have an extra 30 minutes before picking up the kids from school, I consider a drive-thru coffee.
In order to stop that routine, I ended up buying 8 of Grab’n Snack for .97 cents at Walmart. Please note that this is not a home made food challenge. This is a 30 Day Eat At Home Challenge. Is this cheating? Maybe. But, I didn’t drive thru Tim Hortons and buy them each a toasted bagel and coffee for myself. I consider that a win. Maybe it’s not. Whatever.
WEEK TWO
January 8: My husband worked late and I had to pick my daughter up for dance at 6:15 at night. This is the night that I usually take the kids to McDonald’s or Subway. ALWAYS. I truly did not like coming home and feeding my kids cereal instead of Fast Food. MONEY SAVED $20.00
January 9: I had a meeting at my kids school at 3:10. Didn’t grab a coffee first for the meeting. MONEY SAVED $1.65
January 10:
January 11:
January 12: My husband had the day off work. I really wanted to order sushi for us for lunch. Didn’t. MONEY SAVED $40
January 13: I was at a Yoga Retreat all day ($70), lunch was part of my registration fee. My husband had the kids all day. Usually, if I am away he takes them out for fast food. He didn’t. MONEY SAVED $20.00
January 14: This day was crazy. We went to watch an early afternoon hockey game and we would usually buy the kid’s pizza and a pop at the rink. And like I said last week, I wasn’t sure how I was going to get around buying them a popcorn at the game, I’m not a monster. We bought 2 large popcorns for $5 and a bottle of water for $2.
Week 2: MONEY SAVED $81.65
Like, I stated above, the biggest thing I learned this week is that I think about eating out quite a bit. We may not always do it, but it is always an option that I consider.
I have also been asked if our grocery bill has increased. I don’t feel like it has, but I did buy Grab’n Snacks and 6 pack of Yogurt drinks that I usually would not purchase. We do not have a monthly grocery budget, therefore I have not been able to track that for you. I apologize.
My Mom made a really good point on my Facebook Page recently. She suggested that I pretend I live in the small town I grew up in, that only had one restaurant and didn’t have anything open after 6 pm at night. Which was a good point until I started thinking about it. WHY WAS I SO FAT AS A TEENAGER. I GREW UP WITHOUT FAST FOOD?!?! I am living proof that kids can get super fat without fast food in their diet. But, I did love the french fries and honey dill dip at the one restaurant we did have.
TOTAL MONEY SAVED IN 2 WEEKS: $142.65
Thanks for following and stay tuned….