How Do You Convince Yourself
@GardenGerty (160488)
United States
August 7, 2016 8:54pm CST
How do you convince yourself not to eat out? I have a few methods I am using in this argument with myself, and I would welcome any other ideas.
1. Talk about it. Like starting this discussion. That makes me accountable to you. I talked about it with my husband as well and it is finally sinking in how expensive it is to always eat out. Which brings me to the next point.
2. I have a large calendar in the kitchen. When we eat out, I write it on the calendar how much we spent, including tips.
I want to point out that I am not including the cost of gas to get to the town that has a restaurant, or the time it takes to drive and get served and drive home. Those are incidental costs.
3. I keep easy to fix food on hand for when I am tired or have not planned well. We can microwave it, or even microwave left overs and add our own sauces and such for a tasty fast meal at home.
4. For my home cooked meals I keep our favorite condiments. Specialty mustards, sour cream, real butter, salsa, and things like that.
5. I look in my abundantly full freezer and plan some meals that I really like. I do this early in the day, before I get so tired I just want to have someone else cook.
Friday night I put ten pounds of chicken legs and thighs in the crock pot to cook.I paid 39 cents per pound for it. We had it for our meals on the go Saturday, just as it was. Today we added rotel to it and had it with veggies. I have enough for three more meals portioned out and some of it is frozen so we do not get tired of chicken. We had burger patties today with cheesy cauliflower.
6. I make hearty salads, like potato salad or broccoli salad in advance. It is easy to add that to a main dish for a complete meal.
11 people like this
13 responses
@patgalca (18355)
• Orangeville, Ontario
8 Aug 16
I have a few problems. First, posting that picture of a pizza doesn't help. I want one now. 
Second, I know I should plan the meal the night before because I get up late, sometimes too late to defrost anything or come up with any decent ideas. We end out eating a lot of cereal.
I like the foods that are pre-cooked and frozen so I just have to put them in the oven fully frozen for half an hour. My quickest meal is frozen meatballs heated up in a frying pan while I boil frozen cheese tortellini and heat up a jar of tomato sauce. Very quick, very easy.
Second, I know I should plan the meal the night before because I get up late, sometimes too late to defrost anything or come up with any decent ideas. We end out eating a lot of cereal.
I like the foods that are pre-cooked and frozen so I just have to put them in the oven fully frozen for half an hour. My quickest meal is frozen meatballs heated up in a frying pan while I boil frozen cheese tortellini and heat up a jar of tomato sauce. Very quick, very easy.1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160488)
• United States
8 Aug 16
I have meatballs in my freezer now. yes, all the online food pictures, and recipes make me hungry. Hubby does not care for pasta, but I keep some individual serving cups on hand for lunch for me.
1 person likes this
@patgalca (18355)
• Orangeville, Ontario
8 Aug 16
@GardenGerty I wish they would put some really low fat, healthy recipes online. All those recipes scrolling through Facebook (and there are a lot of them) are so delicious looking yet so fatty and/or sugar filled.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160488)
• United States
9 Aug 16
@patgalca I have gotten some good ideas. yes, I have to chuckle. My pastor and wife need to lose weight. She said they are going on a diet again starting this week since they vacationed last week. Who is it that posts all of those desserts, etc.? Speaking of which, I have one to make myself. However it is usually not as rich or fattening as what is online.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (222364)
• Chile
8 Aug 16
I love to cook but I don´t like eating the same thing one day after the other. For me dining out is a no-no because it is much too expensive unless is fast food.
Today I made roast beef for the whole family. I cooked rice, corn kernels and made apotatosalad to have on the side. I am sure all that, included the big piece of meat (my daughter took some home for her ill husband and I have enough leftovers for Letica and myself for a day) cost less that enough pizza for 10 people.
It meal was not difficult to prepare.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160488)
• United States
8 Aug 16
Eating alone would seem to me to be harder, but even fast food costs more than a good home cooked meal. In fact fast food probably costs easily as much as a sit down restaurant, and there is no variety.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160488)
• United States
8 Aug 16
@marguicha Mealtime is a relaxing time to talk. I do tend to visit with hubby at home, but also at a good restaurant, or in the car. In the evenings especially it is silly to go eat out as he gets home at about the time we need to eat and would would have to travel a half hour to get any place.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (222364)
• Chile
8 Aug 16
@GardenGerty I loved to eat at home with my husband when he was alive. It was the time of the day that we could talk. We never had TV at the dining room for that reason.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
8 Aug 16
We also did a thing where we set a cap of once a week for nice eating out and twice a week for fast food (and that counts work lunches)
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160488)
• United States
9 Aug 16
I would be willing to do one sit down restaurant weekly. Other than Pizza Hut we do not really do too much "fast food".
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
9 Aug 16
@GardenGerty we try to stick to the one sitdown, if possible, that really helps the bills
@GardenGerty (160488)
• United States
8 Aug 16
@marie42 Talking about it here with friends helps me keep focused.
@GardenGerty (160488)
• United States
8 Aug 16
There are just two of us. I was using an average of $25 per meal for my estimates. I almost always drink water, but the cost is still high, and the cost to my health has been awful.
@hyeriem (124)
• Jakarta, Indonesia
8 Aug 16
Yeah. It is very expensive for eat out everyday. You had a good ways i think. Ive try my harder to stop eat out. Because both me and my husband love to eat. Especially eat outside. Since we still live with my parents, its didnt really a big matter now. But i think later we have to start count on it. You're idea is really good. Keep a calendar and wrote down whenever you eat out.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160488)
• United States
8 Aug 16
I often think the more you cook together as a family the less expensive and more tasty it is.
@GardenGerty (160488)
• United States
8 Aug 16
@hyeriem When I was working I either kept quick foods ready or put stuff in the crockpot. I was thinking that your mother was cooking for you since you live with her.
@hyeriem (124)
• Jakarta, Indonesia
8 Aug 16
@GardenGerty i like cooking, too. and thats right. its cheaper and tasty, also healthy. but the point was i cant cook every time. when i'm tired after work, i can't cook.
1 person likes this
@abonnen (39)
• United States
14 Sep 16
First of all I am not big on eating out, but there are a few restaurants that are my favorites. We rarely eat out due to that we live 20 miles from any type of restaurant (there is a diner in our small community of 100 but its open 4 hours a day and we have never been there yet). We also really just don't have a lot of money to eat out so its not really an option, and we have only ever really ate out for special occasions before. I just think about how much it cost and how many meals I could make out of that money.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160488)
• United States
15 Sep 16
I have cut it back a lot since I posted this, and yet we still do too much of it. Now that I am working again I am too tired to go out after hubby gets home, so that is better. We have had breakfast once at our local cafe. You make me feel like my town is large at 400 give or take a few.
@TiarasOceanView (70022)
• United States
8 Aug 16
You are so resourceful Heather.
All of that sounds so good and such a good value.
Since I got a grill a few months ago, we are saving a lot.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160488)
• United States
8 Aug 16
Grilled food is so tasty. Saves on using the stove as well.
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@GardenGerty (160488)
• United States
8 Aug 16
It certainly is, and by the time we drive twenty minutes or so to the closest fast food place, it is no longer fast.
@GardenGerty (160488)
• United States
8 Aug 16
My grandkids love the idea of eating out. Their parents do not like to take four little kids out. . . so it happens rarely.
1 person likes this
@crazyhorseladycx (39509)
• United States
8 Aug 16
i don't eat out :) the hubs does, daily whilst he's't work. a huge waste 'f funds.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160488)
• United States
8 Aug 16
Hubby packs a lunch almost every day. He loves left overs.We also always have peanut butter on hand.. Sometimes he buys lunch meat. If we do not cook at home there are no left overs, but he likes the idea of eating out. More than the actual experience, he likes to think he is taking it easy on me.
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@paigea (36318)
• Canada
8 Aug 16
All of your ideas sound very good. I can't add anything. We enjoy cooking. We live too far from town to eat out on an impulse. So we don't eat out very often for those reasons. Sometimes we have lunch in town when we are there for errands. We just do that for the enjoyment, never just because we don't want to cook. Sometimes we are just hungry during errands and don't want to eat out, so buy something quick to eat at the grocery store, like cheese and fruit. Tides us over.
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@GardenGerty (160488)
• United States
8 Aug 16
Oh, I am trying very hard. I would love to spend that money elsewhere.
1 person likes this
