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| paula0000 |
 Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 3:16 pm Post subject: Eat out less! |
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Investing Manager
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| We try to really limit the amount we eat out to save some money. When we do go out we try to use a coupon or eat on nights that kids eat free. |
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| trixiezzz |
| Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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Investing Manager
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| I agree completely. Eating out is one of my favorite things, but it uses up a lot of money. One help is to buy the Entertainment Book for your city. Our has tons of Buy-1-Get-1Free coupons that cut the cost of eating out in half. |
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| nemesis |
| Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2005 12:53 am Post subject: hm |
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Member of the Month! March
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| Another good i dea is when you go out eating, go share your food....and split the cost at the end. There are a lot of value orders that give you discount when doing that. And another point is that when you ordere your own portion and you can't finish it.....that sucks. But if you share and split the costs, there is unlikely to be any remainders... |
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| raspberry24 |
| Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2005 5:33 pm Post subject: eating out |
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Member of the Month
May
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I hate to cook. It takes too much time. We eat out alot. I think I need to start crock pot cooking. Got any receipes? lol...  |
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| bigdave |
| Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 5:36 am Post subject: |
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Investing Sr. Associate
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Yes eating at home will save you a ton of money!!! Me and my wife try to limiting eating out to 2 times a week.
IT ads up! |
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| freeye |
| Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 9:02 am Post subject: |
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Investing Manager
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i tried going out to eat at a great eatery where you can watch the food being prepared.
i glanced at my watch and timed it from the time my order is put into the que to be prepared and when it placed on the counter to be delivered to my table.
i found that great cooking doesn't really take that much time.
then when i considered how much it costs per meal vs the cost of preparing a meal myself it seemed like i was paying about +66% more.
to me it seemed foolish for me to try and invest and beat the market long-term averages of about 11-12% and toss away 66% 3-4 times a week so i set about to learn how to teach myself how to cook.
cookbooks are second most published form of book.
as it turned out, there was a bonus. not only am i saving money by cooking at home, i have found that i can cook better than most eateries.
some of the keys on the time aspect was
1. shopping off peak hours for the fresh ingredience.
2. stay away from gadgets that have to be cleaned.
3. good sharp knives
4. know how to cut safely and for speed
5. simple good recipes
6. learn how to season your dishes properly. |
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| sonicreducer |
| Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 6:57 am Post subject: |
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Investing Associate
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Going out to lunch at work almost everyday was a huge drain on $$$.
Definitely glad I started bringing.
Grill something up every few days and keep enough of it around to feed me lunch and dinner for a while. |
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| soma |
| Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 1:36 pm Post subject: |
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Investing Sr. Associate
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| I also agree. I started keeping track of my expenses since April, and damn do I spend too much on food/drink. |
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| Dave Rathbun |
| Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 2:47 pm Post subject: |
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CFO
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The old saying goes something like this: A penny saved is a penny earned. I saw an updated version a few years ago: A penny saved is two pennies earned. Why? Because to earn that penny you had to pay taxes, you had expenses related to your job, and so on and so forth. So if you can spend (or save) the pennies that you have more wisely, it's like getting a double salary.
Well, it may not truly be that extreme, but you can save a lot of money by limiting your lunches out. Suppose you pay $8-10 per lunch eating out. That may be extreme, but it makes the math easy.  There are 200 working days in the year, suppose you eat out on 75% of them. So that's $1,500 bucks that you've spent (150 * $10). How long did you have to work to earn that $1,500?
Oh, and you charged all of those meals on a credit card, and are now paying 10% interest on the balance. Even more cost.
Flip those numbers around, say you only go out to eat one day a week. So 80% of the time you bring leftovers or microwavable food from home. That means that you spend $400 going out to eat (nobody wants to eat in every single day of the year, right?) and saved $1,100. That - if you go with the revised saying - is $2,200 that you didnt' have to earn. If you make $26K a year, that's an entire month's salary. Make $52K a year and it's still half of a month's paycheck saved just by eating out once a week.
If you haven't figure it out by now, I like breaking things down into numbers. It's all well and good to talk about saving money, but putting it into hard, cold, figures often really brings the point home. You can change any of my assumptions (spend $5 per meal instead of $10) and see how the numbers work for you. |
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| sonicreducer |
| Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 4:57 pm Post subject: |
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Investing Associate
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Another thing kind of in the same boat that I was guilty of was the vending machines at work, especially soda.
Granted, we're provided all the water we can drink for free :p But between working fulltime and taking night classes and just having things to do, I sleep a lot less than I should. So I'm in need of a caffeine pick-me-up sometimes.
Looking at 2-4 sodas a day, I was dropping $1-$2 or more a day at 50 cents a shot, or $5-10 a week really. Buying from the store on sale (3 12pk for $6.88 ... so rougly 20 cents a soda after tax) and taking to work provided a much more economical option. That is, until I get around to being healthy and just drinking the free water all the time 
It's amazing how much you can start to have extra when you look at the little things. |
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