Photo Credit: totalAldo
Last month you were challenged to stop eating out for the entire month, OR severely cut back to a reasonable level. To recap, my family tried to cut our eating out visits to 4 times with a cap of $120 being the most we could spend for the month. As I reported in the update post a few weeks ago, we went out to eat six times, but since then did add one more time to that for a grand total of $200. To be honest IU’m not regretting that one either because it was right before I knew I was going to be on a strict diet for 14 days straight. I went out to eat and was delicious. Haha! 🙂
While it sucks that we went over it was still less than half the amount of times we would normally go out. Normally, we would have gone out about 18 times (ugh) and spent an extra $340. ($540 total!) We didn’t do great compared to the goal, but we didn’t do bad at all. If I had to decide whether or not this month was a victory or a failure, I’d declare it a victory because we still saved a massive chunk of money.
How did you end up doing?
- How did you do last month?
- How much did you save compared to a “normal” month?
- Are you going to continue trying to improve in this area?
- Did anyone make any huge leaps in terms of debt repayment in April?
Share your answers in the comments section below.
I hope you enjoyed challenging yourself, but more importantly, I hope it got you thinking about how much you spend eating out each month. Now for the next challenge. 😀
Oh and by the way, I would like to hear any ideas about what you would like to see in an upcoming challenge? What do you struggle with the most? Don’t be shy either let’s hear them.
Race to Freedom Challenge #3 – Maximize Savings
This month there will be two similar challenges; the Eating Out Challenge (say what?) and the Cook at Home Challenge.
- Eating Out Challenge – The point of this challenge is to try and get you to be aware of how much you are spending when you do eat out. I know I’ve definitely browsed some menus oblivious of price, especially when I’m hungry. I’m going to try and cut my 4-time/$120 limit down to $100. Your task will be to eat lunch for as cheap as possible. One of my meals last month happened to be at Sam’s Club and my family (of four) ate for $12. Mine came to about $3 which included a sausage dog, bag of chips, and a fountain drink. I wouldn’t want to eat at Sam’s Club every time but at least I know if I where I can get a $3 lunch if I’m ever on the go. What are your secrets? (Coupons are encouraged!) 😀
How little can you spend and still have a filling lunch?
- Cook at Home Challenge – Your second task for this challenge will be to cook the cheapest dinner you can at home. (not cheap as in gross, but cheap as in homemade frugal recipes. Kyle from Perkstreet Financial inspired this one with his inexpensive pasta recipe. Keep track of the total cost of your recipe, but also keep track of how much a servings there are so we can know the cost of a “dinner for one”. What do your cheapest dinner recipes cost you? I am not very good at this but have learned a little bit about cheaper meals recently since starting to lose weight. Tell that to the fat guy that says it’s more expensive to eat healthy. I’ve saved money and I want to keep track of it in May. Another purpose for this challenge is to help you evaluate how much is wasted.
When cooking at home we have a tendency to cook too much, and some of it would end up spoiling or even worse, in my belly, hence the obesity issue. I’ve heard of more than a few people/families that saved a good amount of money just eliminating waste.
This is going to be challenging for me because I am really bad at keeping up with what our meals actually cost us. I want to get better at stretching our food money as far as possible each and every month. Have you been paying attention to grocery prices? How could you not, right? I want to eat as efficiently and as healthy as possible for my money. Don’t you?
How little can you spend and still have a great dinner at home?
Step it up a notch!
Challenge yourself even more by looking into other aspects of your budget — anywhere you can cut spending. Even if it’s only temporary until you get out of debt. In my opinion, cable television is the biggest waste of money there is, and if you’re trying to get out of debt it makes it even worse. (There’s cheaper ways to watch the shows you enjoy without locking yourself into a contract or spending $50+ dollars a month to watch 6 channels.) But that’s just me. 🙂
That’s just one thing. What can YOU cut from expenses?
Please share strategies and recipes below. The more you save the faster you can cut those debt chains from around your ankles. Good luck! 😀
Things to come!
First of all, I would like to thank all of you for sticking around these last few months. I haven’t had as much time to write here since deciding to make my health/weight loss my number one priority for 2011. Speaking of which, you’ll want to be sure you don’t miss my next update on May 9th — that’s next Monday! It’s going to be an awesome revelation, trust me!! It’s going to be BIG! Subscribe HERE!
I’ve been so focused on my weight loss that I failed to remember my own anniversary here on Enemy of Debt. I’ve been blogging here for 3 whole years!! To show my appreciation for all of you, I’ll be launching a huge giveaway THIS WEEK to say THANK YOU!
Also, I want to share with you a way I’ve found to make some extra money. So, if you are looking for that extra income to help you pay off your debt even faster, you might be interested. I’ve already started making money doing the same thing myself!
Have a GREAT week everyone!! 😀
Congratulations Brad! 3 years is a long time and you’ve made awesome progress. Can’t wait to hear how you’re making some extra money also!
Thank you very much! 😀 I have enjoyed every bit of it, especially being able to help others make better financial decisions. That part ROCKS!
Thanks again! 😀
The saving money on going out to eat was most certainly a victory Brad! It’s funny I came across this particular post tonight, because just yesterday I say down and showed my girlfriend exactly how much she spends on food on a daily basis. She doesn’t have a budget (or one that I would consider a real budget anyway), so we had to estimate, but by simply adding it up, she was shocked. Then I started telling her about all the things she could do with that extra money.
Luckily she understood my reasoning and has cut back. I say luckily because typing this right now makes me realize how dangerous of a conversation that could have been…
Awesome job Ross, and you’re right, it could have gone much differently. It sounds like you’re the real winner though because you have a girlfriend that wants to improve her financial situation. I love stories like that! Thanks for sharing! 😀
She also recently chose to pay her student loan off in full and drive her 11-year-old high school car for a little while longer, instead of buying a Ford Focus she’s had her eye on. This one might be a keeper.
Hey Brad! I really like your “Race to Freedom” challenges. The one about eating out is one of my weak points. I usually go out for lunch once a week with one of my friends, and then another time eating dinner out with my wife each week. This is a grand total of $200+ on eating out each month. I know that I could eat at home all of those times and spend closer to $40-80 depending on whether I want chicken or mahi mahi.
Anyway, you did good on your own improvement. Good luck with your diet!
Awesome B. Myself! I’m so glad that you have found it useful. The fact of the matter is that it’s so easy to go out to eat. The convenience is very tempting until you look at your wallet and waistline. Thanks for the support regarding my weight loss. I’m killing it man! I’m even more intense about it now than I was about our debt, and that is saying something. LOL I can’t wait to share how good! 🙂
Brad congratulations on all the strides you’ve made. Must say your site has inspired me to renew my efforts to
be totally debt free. We had been well on our way and would have had all but mortgage paid off by last December, but found ourselves paying for a wedding and International adoption. My daughter’s wedding in March went beautifully and with my past budgeting we did this debt free. The adoption travel took place in Dec. and are thrilled with our newest daughter, we did all the adoption expenses debt free, but added debt on the travel portion to China. Your blog inspired me to restructure my budget and with wedding expenses done and no eating out I took a large chunk off the newest debt and am back on track aiming for our goal to completly debt freedom in our lives. Keep up the good work!
Thank you Lynda! I can’t tell you how nice it is to hear that something little ole’ me did here has inspired you to do something different! I love it! Life had different ideas for what you needed to do with your money but it looks like you did an outstanding job managing it all. Congratulations on all of it and good luck with the rest! I know you’re going to knock it out in no time! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and kind words! 😀
I am waiting to get a free minute to get my answers together. I’m still here and super pumped to get this debt over with!!!! I started doing “work” for my dad to make a little extra money. I will get my answers to you as well as how I WILL tackle this months challenge.
I am just SWAMPED at work right now but like I said to someone….better to have lots of work than none at all so I stopped complaining about being so busy…..OK back to work…..I’ll be back to post my results.
No problem money momma! Make that money! You’re right, having a job and being swamped in this economy is a great ting. 😀
Happy Anniversay to Enemy of Debt!!!! I’m so glad you do this blog! You have helped me stay focus through my journey of becoming debt free. I have taken your advice and gone to the library to get Debt Free for Life. I’m doing a lot more cooking at the house and being more creative with my meals 🙂
I love it Natalie! Congratulations!! It sounds like you have really made some serious changes! Keep up the great work and thank you so much for the kind words! I’m going to keep Enemy of Debt alive as long as you guys keep coming back! 😀
Congrats on 3 years Brad!!! Your blog has been very helpful and inspiring to me. And you are really killing it on your weight loss goals too.
I like what Lynda said about restructuring her debt. I find myself restructuring my budget constantly. I”m also very interested in hearing about your exra money making.
I did well on last month’s challenge. I saved a LOT more compared to a normal month simply because I was prepping for a refinance of my investment property. However, it didn’t appraise high enough so I will just try again next year. So now i’m able to use that money to put on my car!
I’m excited about this month’s challenge because I was just in the process of making my blog titled, “Chef Crystal’s Creations.” I had put it on hold because of the refinance so now i’m able to give it my all.
I know I can’t do without tv but I know I can go without buying clothes.
I love to cook so I will start to tally the costs of my favorite creations and post later in the month!
Thanks Crystal! 😀
The only thing we pay for as far as TV goes is Netflix. I do not miss cable in the least because we can have the newer movies mailed to us and there’s quite a selection of movies we can watch streaming for free. We pay like $9 a month and it definitely beats cable. There are other ways to watch your favorite programs online too. for instance, we used to love the show LOST, so we watched it online on abc.com after it aired.
I look forward to seeing your recipes! 😀