Stop eating out.
Do you find yourself shocked at the bill when you eat out these days? Or disappointed in the food? Or no one can agree on where to go? Or even bored with your restaurant options?
I've got a good alternative for you. I promise!
And rest assured you'll still find us Door Dashing dinners or grabbing take out because Kevin loves to pick up a yummy dinner from time to time, but this swap has been a good change for us.
Let's get started - I'm going to challenge you to find some new recipes to try or a favorite new cookbook and start cooking! It will be so much cheaper than eating out and you get to enjoy a delicious meal at home. I'll give you 3 examples of dinners that I have prepared recently. They were a little more work than usual or maybe a bit of a splurge, but still so much cheaper than going out to eat as a family of five.
1. DIY Pasta Bar
Kevin was out of town for several days last month and I wanted to treat the kids to a dinner that they'd love. I knew they'd be excited for a pasta night so I quickly considered the logistics of going to Olive Garden. I figured it would be crowded and probably easily cost $100. I decided to order grocery pick up instead with things that I don't normally order - like the ingredients to make homemade alfredo or make two different kinds of pastas to choose from. I spent about $25 for this pasta bar that left us with tons of leftovers to enjoy for lunches all weekend. The kids were so pleased with my new homemade alfredo making skills and we had the yummiest dinner at home.
I got a new grill pan and have been making the yummiest grilled chicken. We were tempted to get take out for dinner one night last week, but I knew I had everything to make salads. I chopped all the ingredients into little bite size pieces and presented it all like a salad bar. Everyone loved building their own salads just how they wanted them. My kids love all the crunchy veggies, but don't care for the lettuce. They just skip it and eat the veggies. The whole meal cost me under $20 to make with lots of leftovers. Take out would have easily cost us three times that amount.
We all had delicious dinner salads and I got to have salads from the leftovers that week for lunch.
3. Holiday Dinners
I told you yesterday that we had my parents over for dinner for St. Patrick's Day. Going out to eat with a big group on the holidays is expensive. I planned ahead and prepared dinner for everyone for around $40 including 2 desserts! We have some leftovers for lunches this week. I think it would have easily cost triple that amount to take everyone out to dinner. So start thinking about the Spring holidays like Easter and Mother's Day to see if there are eways to get around paying tons to eat out.
What do you think? Is there a splurge meal that you could learn to do at home to enjoy with your family in the comfort of your own home?
These meals are on my radar to make at home this Spring:
A charcuterie board dinner
Nice steaks to grill at home
Crab cakes
& Shish Kebabs
I know we're all in different seasons of life and enjoy spending our money in different ways. I just want to encourage you to try some new things at home and see what you think :)
Love these ideas friend!! We NEVER eat out for the reasons you listed. It just isn’t enjoyable for us to pay $100 for a mediocre meal that no one in our family really LOVED. There are definitely nights when I wish I could order food- but I never do it because I can’t stand the idea of spending triple on a meal that I could easily make at home! We have done the pasta bar before and that was a huge hit with the kids. I need to do it again!
ReplyDeleteCan you tell more about your grill pan?
ReplyDeleteLove the idea to splurge a little on grocery items since it still saves you money if not going out to eat! I have done this sometimes even for keeping more "convenient" items on hand for the days that get away from meal planning. It always costs less than takeout! The pasta bar looks delish!!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree! Even though we are at the empty nest stage, we got out of the habit of going out to eat years ago when we built our pool. So much more fun to cook and eat at home— even more so with grandkids!. Our summer go tos are fajitas, ribs, pulled pork, French dip sandwiches etc.
ReplyDeleteSuch a great, practical post. We are working on not going out to eat as much. I'm also working on using what I have in the pantry and freezer instead of buying new items. Every little bit helps! Like previous comment, I'd love to see the grill pan. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteRight?! There is literally only one restaurant my whole family can ever agree on - and it used to cost us about $35 to feed our whole family. But with prices being what they are and having 2 tweens and a teenage son...let's just say, our favorite cheap restaurant is no longer cheap! We can easily spend $100+ for our family these days. I have been trying my hand at making the meal at home and I'm making progress. Pupusas (refried bean & cheese) with curtido, fried plantains with refried beans & Salvadoran Crema, Jaritos for everyone (mandarin is the favorite flavor). I haven't mastered Salvadoran Empanadas YET - but I will! I also love to make hibachi at home every once in a while. So good :-)
ReplyDeleteI've really only been going to a restaurant for their happy hour deal and then going home to cook! I want to do a loaded baked potato bar with bbq as an option to put on top and I love to do Asian flavors - maybe a bar with rice, chicken, stir fry veg, sauces.
ReplyDeleteYou provide such great and fun meals for your family and it's a ton of work. I want to do a better job of chopping everything up for easy to put together salads this summer.
Great post!
Such a good post! I confess that selfishly I really look forward to eating out once a week mostly just as a treat for myself 🫣But with rising costs it has gotten less and less affordable. 🥴 I love the idea of trying to recreate restaurant meals so it still feels like a treat. I recently joined a restaurant copycat recipe facebook group which has been kind of fun. Your meals all look so yummy!!
ReplyDelete