The Unbelievable Thing My Wife Said, and How It’s Going To Save Us Hundreds Of Dollars

EOD_SurprisePicMy wife said something to me this weekend that blew me away. I could barely believe my ears. It got me excited….really, really excited. I’m telling you, what she said was HOT. Now, you might be reading this, and on the verge of throwing this post into the category of “Too Much Information.” But stay with me, I know that you’ll appreciate it.

Vonnie and I decided to go out to eat on Thursday night, heading to our favorite steakhouse. She ordered her usual steak, the filet. When it arrived, she cut it open to ensure it was cooked as requested. As I ate, I watched her face to gauge how she was enjoying her meal. Her facial expressions led me to believe that it wasn’t as good as she had expected.

“How’s your steak?” I asked.

“It’s OK.” she replied.

“It looks like it’s cooked right.” I said, probing her mood.

“It is.” she said unconvincingly.

It wasn’t until we returned home that I got the full story as to what was going through her mind. It was during a recap of our meal that she said it. The words she said stroked my ego. They excited me. But the very best part, was what she said would save us money.

“I think we should not go out to eat until we go on our trip to Florida. I like what you make at home better anyway. I’m serious!”

She admitted the steak she had that evening at the steak house didn’t come close to the steak I had made for her recently at home.  The steak I made was cooked better, seasoned better, was more tender and just flat out tasted better. Not to mention, the cost came of a similar meal at home came in at way under half of our restaurant bill.

Our family is going on a trip to Florida during Spring Break at the end of March. We’re trying to save up enough cash so we can pretty much (within reason) do whatever we want while were on vacation. Eating out, as much as we try to avoid it, still takes up a significant piece of our weekend entertainment spending.

I think she’s finally realized that I can make almost anything we order at a restaurant at home. It will cost less, and it will taste better.

So here’s what we’re going to do. Each weekend, instead of going out to eat we’re going to make a special meal at home. The cost of this meal is going to come out of our entertainment fund. Then, we’re going to calculate the cost of the same meal at an appropriate restaurant by looking at their menu online. The difference between the calculated restaurant cost and the make it at home cost will go into our vacation fund.

There’s been no restaurant challenges here at Enemy Of Debt before. I’ve written about my thoughts of saving money by cooking at home vs eating out before as well. It’s time to combine to two, and see just how much we can save in two months to pad our vacation fund.

I’ll give updates periodically in the Friday posts.

Cool, huh? Want to play along?

About Travis

14 Responses to “The Unbelievable Thing My Wife Said, and How It’s Going To Save Us Hundreds Of Dollars”

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  1. Good stuff on both accounts, saving money and the fact that you can cook better than your favorite steak house. It’s not often that I’m overwhelmed while eating out. Only a few times at some high end restaurants. The kids and I made a cake from scratch for my wife’s birthday this weekend and it tasted great, better than anything we could have purchased.

    • Travis says:

      Cakes are a HUGE ripoff! I made my daughter a rainbow cake once…cost me like $3, instead of the $30+ I would have had to pay for any cake at a store!

  2. I like the idea of a restaurant challenge. Sometimes we go out for convenience or to get something we don’t usually make at home, but other times we’d definitely be better off cooking it ourselves.

  3. Woohoo!! We’re on a bit of a restaurant challenge ourselves. Just ended week 3. My mom even offered to take us out to eat last week, but I asked her to make us her homemade cinnamon rolls instead. I just didn’t want her to spend her money on restaurants even! I’m not sure what’s wrong with me, but I like it! 🙂

  4. I’ll play! I’ve made lasagna frittata from Olive Garden and Spicy Chicken Rigatoni from Buca the past few weeks. They were both delicious!

  5. This is a big win and honestly from everything I know about you it’s an “easy” win too. You enjoy cooking and you can even do it better than a paid service, so why not make some extra money (through saving money) by doing it yourself? In the same way I think someone who is good at, say, carpentry, could save a ton of money and create a better product by going the DIY route at home than paying to outsource it. The key is for people to find these areas where they are both good at something and enjoy it and see how they can save or make money off it. Awesome story!

    We are heading to Florida this year as well. Haven’t been there since I was a kid and it’s a heck of a lot more affordable than some other places I was looking at.

    • Travis says:

      Florida can be a good vacation destination…..we’re saving money by driving down there. My wife isn’t a huge fan of flying anyway. Great to hear from you, DC!

  6. Very nice! If my husband cooked, I’d definitely be happy. I’m sure he feels the same way about me. Still, I’m finding that I would usually be just as fine with my staples at home (peanut butter toast, frozen meals, protein bars, etc) as when we eat out. So that’s allowed me to really cut down on the amount of fast food I eat. Good for our budget and my waistline!

    • Travis says:

      Definitely good for the budget and waistline, Abigail……I don’t know if I could be fine with your staples though – food is an adventure I like to go on! 🙂 But hey, if it works for you, more power to you! Thanks for reading!

  7. Lesley says:

    I’m in the middle of frugal February so no eating out for me! I do have to admit that the scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and toasted olive ciabatta bread I made this morning was pretty great

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