Friday, September 4, 2009

Why this new adventure?

Richard and I LOVE to eat, and we LOVE to go out to eat. Mexican is our favorite, and we frequently (as in at least once a week) eat at Los Arcos, our local fav Mexican restaurant. It's your typical authentic Mexican place with great food, fast service, big margaritas and low prices. Speaking of these low prices...we looked at our spending for the last few months and realized we are averaging $250 per month at Los Arcos. Holy Guacamole! Something's gotta give...and it looks like it's our out of control eating-out habit.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy cooking and am not terrible at it...not great, but decent. The problem lies in the fact that Rich and I work very different schedules are are often not at home together for typical family dinners. And then the nights that we are off together, the last thing we feel like doing is cooking. Why? I guess because it feels like work, and we like to relax at home, not work. How can we remedy this? Cook more so that it becomes easier, cook easier things (homemade marinara is great, but on a Tuesday night when you've worked all day, not so much), plan ahead and have ingredients on hand for quick and easy meals.

What's the challenge? For the month of September:
1. Limit the eating-out to a max of one night per week

2. Cook at least 3 meals per week (hopefully with enough leftovers to get us through the remaining 3 days).

3. Document it here for your entertainment and culinary inspiration.

3 comments:

  1. We're doing the same thing this month! I've kept a budget spreadsheet for well over a year now and the "eating out" column is definitely out of control! So, I'm trying the same thing. Cook a few meals and eat leftovers and limit how many times we go out for a meal. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think if you'd break the $250 down even further you'd find about 2/3 of it is margaritas and 1/3 is actually for food.

    ReplyDelete
  3. have you tried crock pot cooking?? i love it!! it saves so much time and its great when you're working different schedules! also if you need to save on your grocery bill check out www.southersavers.com! :)

    ReplyDelete