[img]958|left|Alex Campbell||no_popup[/img]Dateline Boston — Back in January, my S.O. and I decided that we wouldn’t go out to eat for an entire year, in order to save money. I wasn’t sure how to calculate exactly how much we were saving each month, so instead, what I’ve done is keep a log of how much we have spent, and see how low we can go.
A rough calculation would estimate that last year we spent money eating out about 8 to10 times per month. This included a sit down restaurant, smaller chain places, coffee shops, and grabbing food for my S.O.’s boys when we had them on the weekends. By ourselves, we spent about $180 a month at sit-down restaurants, $160 a month at smaller chain places, and about $15 a month at coffee shops. In total, we probably spent about $355 per month eating out. This does not include going out with friends, or going out to eat with our boys. Add those in, and we’re looking at closer to, let’s see, $80 a month going out with friends, $50 a month with the boys, let me get my calculator, hold on…$485 per month, and I’m probably underestimating how much we really spend, so let’s make it a nice round number and say we probably spent about $500 a month eating out, give or take. I say give or take because that sounds like a lot of money to spend on eating out. That’s $6,000 a year. Wow.
Even if we didn’t spend the full $500 a month, we probably spent at least $300 a month, which is also a lot. Which makes me feel pretty good about what we have spent so far this year. Here’s the breakdown:
January — $58. S.O. was so strict about our No Eating Out rule that one day when he forgot his lunch, he didn’t eat until he got home. I thought that was pretty stupid, but he is a very principled man. The first time we broke down and ate something that wasn’t from our house was when we were shopping at Ikea. We had been there a couple of hours, and I started to get really cranky in the lighting section. I got 2 hot dogs, drinks and potato chips for $2. We called that a medical emergency. We spent $14 on food at the foodcourt when we were at the mall with the boys. I broke down and went to a restaurant to celebrate a friend’s birthday and spent $42 on dinner. That felt like a lot. But it was delicious.
February — $80. The month started with another medical emergency. I was in the ER and craved McDonald’s, which S.O. gladly got for me for $14. Out with the boys, $52. Two more dollars at Ikea, then out to lunch with a friend, $12.
March was the month I am most proud of. In the month of March we spent $17 on food outside of our home. That’s right. Seven dollars was for one beer. Back to Ikea, a little ice cream, a donut, and an appetizer with friends while they all ate dinner. A stellar month for not spending money.
Now let’s talk about April. In April we started doing the backslide, and we spent a whopping $101. I started having back spasms; I didn’t really care about saving money, I was in so much pain. Starbucks, Thai food, my birthday, going to a museum cafeteria with a friend from Japan, and out with the boys.
And then there was May. We spent $161, and you may have thought our little experiment was over. Alas, it’s not over, just off track. What did we do last month? Birthday party, another birthday party, out with the boys, dinner with a friend whom I hadn’t seen in a long time, and Starbucks. What can I say? It added up.
So far this month we have spent $89. If we can hang on for another week, we can squeak by under $100, which would be nice. Then we can start fresh in July.
What do we do to not eat out? We don’t leave the house. Just kidding! We make lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and we have reusable bags that we stuff with baby carrots, almonds, dried cranberries, plantain chips, and crackers. We take water bottles with us wherever we go, and we try to plan ahead. We eat at home every night (almost), and we’re getting more adventurous with our recipes!
What our experiment has taught us is that we absolutely don’t need to go out as much as we did. We don’t miss it at all. The only times when it gets tough are when we’re out with the kids or when we get invited out with friends, which happens a lot. It’s been hard to remind everyone that we’re doing a no-restaurant rule for a year. On the positive side, we’ve gotten quite a few gift cards to restaurants as gifts.
Onward and upward for the next six months. My personal goal is to make it back to $17. That ice cream truck better not come ‘round here.
Ms. Campbell may be contacted at snobbyblog@gmail.com
