We made it! I am proud to say that we did not go out
to dinner this last week – although so tempting this weekend with the Olympics
on and not wanting to be away from the TV to cook. But, instead of doing that,
we took turns cooking!
We also made our first Costco shopping trip since
starting the challenge. We spent around $80 stocking up on our meats,
non-perishables and some household items such as sandwich bags. This will last
us at least two months!
This has been a great learning experience and I
would challenge everyone to try it! After some reflection, here are the top
three things we learned:
- Not eating out takes planning ahead. This means making sure when you go to the store you get food you can actual make meals out of, not just some chips and a couple things of lunch meat!
- Creativity goes a long way. Sometimes it is tempting to eat out because you are board with what you do know how to cook at home. I am by no means a chef nor am I obsessed with cooking. However, I did try to be more creative by thinking of some of my favorite things to get while at a restaurant and try to make them myself. As an example, I made ‘fried’ baked zucchini. I love fried zucchini at restaurants and found an easy recipe to make it at home and bake it, a much healthier alternative to frying! It was delicious and I just had to pick up some zucchini!
- Sometimes you have to eat out but what is it that you really need? If you forget your lunch, or you had a 100 degree hot car disaster as I did, you need to buy lunch. To save some money, ask yourself if you really need the drink, fries and sandwich? Perhaps the bottled water you already have and buying a sandwich will do. It is easy to stare at a menu you want way more than you are actually hungry for – so try to be mindful when it’s not exactly in the budget!
No comments:
Post a Comment