This week we were lucky enough to be featured on a great website called Clever Dude. The “Dude” writes about his mistakes in finances and marriage in hopes that you, the reader, can learn just a few nuggets of wisdom and maybe prevent the same mistakes.
The “Dude” featured an article I wrote on cutting your spending on restaurants and eating out and leveraging the joy of cooking for yourself. Check out a sample of the post then head over to Clever Dude’s website to finish it! Thanks for showing the love Clever Dude!
A few weeks ago, I was let go from my job. Since then, my wife and I have kicked into ultra frugal mode. If we do not need it, we simply do not buy it. While we have seen cuts in all areas, the place where we really noticed the cut was in our food spending. I was balancing my checkbook this past weekend and noticed just how fewer debits there were than only a few weeks back when I was working. I started investigating a bit and realized, all these cuts were primarily on convenience food spending.
A long time ago (about the time I had my first child) my wife and I stopped most fancy restaurant dining (as in anything more expensive than $5 footlongs). The dining experience was simply too expensive, the food generally too greasy or salty, and the effort of dragging a baby into a restaurant way too stressful. So we started eating in a bit more. Instantly, all that cash I had previously worried about finding to pay for diapers and other baby stuff emerged from the savings of not eating out!
But eventually, we started eating in more and more. The shift was partly due to the stress of dealing with our two young children after long days at work, and partly just laziness. While we were definitely not spending as much dining in on subs and sandwiches, carry out BBQ, or “Take and Bake” pizzas from Costco, we were spending more than we needed on convenience food.
Since cutting out the carry out restaurant and convenience foods, I have made some great realizations and changes. Meals do take more time to prepare (but I’m unemployed so I don’t care!), and I have discovered a few other nice side effects…
Read more over at CleverDude.com
