Day 1: No Restaurants in November 2011 – Let the Savings Begin!

Time to break out the cookware!

So today it begins. No Restaurants in November baby! If you missed the rules I am giving myself (and possibly you) click here to see if you have what it takes. Yep those are challenging words! :D Have you decided to be TOTALLY WEIRD by participating in such a thing? WARNING: Your friends may laugh at you. You may get called some names. Your actions may cause people to feel judged. If this happens to you, please tread carefully. Unpredictable behavior may ensue. I get it. It totally sucks to be the only person at work with a bagged lunch, but guess what? It also sucks to be broke and/or keeping yourself from reaching your goals. Read more »

No Restaurants in November 2011

Recently, I ran a poll about what challenges you the most about becoming debt free and I thought the results were great. There were 70 voters total and the results can be found here. Today, I want to talk about one of the TOP 5 challenges picked by you and am excited to bring back something I did last year that was very popular. Of course I’m talking about my No Restaurants in November challenge! According to my EOD Poll, 37% of you picked EATING OUT as one of the five things that challenged you the most about becoming debt […] Read more »

Final Results: No Restaurants Equal Big Savings

Photo Credit: scott.eyre Well November has come and gone! As most of you already know, I wanted to challenge myself — and you — to commit to not eating out at any restaurants at all for the month of November. So I started the No Restaurants in November Challenge. Some were excited, some were pessimistic, and some even questioned the reality of doing such a thing. While I definitely consider it to be more realistic than some claim, I still see how different lifestyles could make it more difficult for someone to accomplish this. With that said, I say anything […] Read more »

22 Days of No Restaurants in November

Photo Credit: Eboli The “Normal” Justification Routine Cue Dream Sequence I’ve been up since 6 a.m. My 1 year old had a rough night due to teething and the day has not been much better. I completed some of the work I needed to do for today but there is so much more to do. I couldn’t keep the kids inside all day while I typed away and it was such a nice day so I took them out to play at the park. We played Frisbee, Downhill Racer, played at the park, then went home and helped Isaac work […] Read more »

Shocking News: Two Weeks of No Restaurants and I’m Still Alive

Two weeks without a single bite at a restaurant…Yippeee! No delivery. No fast food. No buffets. To be honest with you, this has been much easier than I expected. The rest of this month is going to be even easier. At this point I am wondering why something like this would be considered extreme and unrealistic to so many. Hard maybe, but extreme? Come on. Is making yourself exercise extreme? Is eating right extreme? I think not, although I admit that there is a degree of difficulty in doing any of the above. 😉 Still I find that it’s no […] Read more »

No Restaurant November Update and October Confession

Photo Credit: Yours Truly It was really fun reading the reactions from people related to this challenge. (responses on other blogs listed below) Until I started reading them I never really considered what I was proposing to be extreme, but apparently it is the equivalent of dangling your child over a balcony. Some adamantly opposed the idea right away, while others admitted it was something they would like to do, but just couldn’t. The rest said let’s do it! That’s what I’m talking about baby! I left a comment on Budgets Are Sexy suggesting that to those who said it […] Read more »

No Restaurants in November Challenge

Is your budget brutally pounded by your inability to stay away from the restaurants? Of all the things my wife and I have changed about our financial habits, dining out seems to be our current addiction of addictions. We did fine while we were jazzed and intense about getting out of debt, but ever since, we have been haunted by this ghost of convenience. Read more »