Welcome to Our Blog

Welcome to our blog!

As a family, we've decided to challenge ourselves not to eat out at restaurants during 2013, with some exceptions.

Who are we?

We are a family of four. My husband, Mr. M, works as a software developer for a large corporation, and I am a stay-at-home mom and part-time consultant with Discovery Toys. We have a 5-year-old son, referred to on this blog as Super B, and a 1-year-old daughter who we'll call Little Miss.

Why are we doing this?

In July of 2012, I was in the shower, and I had an epiphany! Do you ever have those while in the shower? I find that I do my best thinking in there. Probably because it's quiet, and quiet is rare in the life of a SAHM. I was thinking about 2 things that often cause me stress and worry. Are we being financially smart? and What can I do to help our family be healthier? And then it hit me: there's one thing we can change about our lives that will help reduce my stress in both these areas. We NEED to stop eating out so frequently!!

I convinced my husband to try it for one month, and we successfully completed the month of September with no eating out and a little extra money in our bank account. The problem was that on October 1st, we immediately reverted to our old eating out habits. I knew that in order to really change our behavior we were going to have to give up restaurants for a much longer time. Thus began the campaign to convince Mr. M that this was a good idea. And it worked! Here's what we're hoping to achieve from this venture:

1. Saving Money: I added it up, and I'm embarrassed to admit that in 2012 we spent over $4700 at restaurants. That is ridiculous! And we don't even eat at fancy schmancy places. Most of that huge number is made up of purchases that were $10 or less. It adds up quickly, people. Believe me!

2. Becoming Healthier: Both Mr. M and myself are trying to be healthier. We want to eat healthier, drink more water, exercise more, lose weight, etc. We want to do this so we can enjoy our lives and our family more. This is MUCH easier to do when we say no to restaurants.

3. Eliminating (or at least reducing) Our Children's Sense of Entitlement: Super B has been eating at LEAST one meal a week at a restaurant since he was about a year old. That was not normal for Mr. M or myself when we were young, and we don't want it to be normal for either of our kids. Eating at a restaurant should be a special occasion, not something we do if we just don't feel like eating anything we have in the house, which brings me to our next goal.

4. Learning to be Prepared: I've always made menus and shopping lists and done okay at this, but I want to be better. And yes, this is mostly a goal for myself, but Mr. M does help. I want to make sure we have plenty of healthy options to cook every day, so I don't resort to eating out instead of preparing something for my family.

Exceptions:

There are, of course, exceptions, to our restaurant boycott.

1. When we are traveling, it will be necessary for us to eat some meals in restaurants, but we will still plan to stay somewhere that allows us to cook the majority of our meals.

2. Mr. M occasionally has lunches out with members of his team at work. He loves doing this because it helps him bond and grow closer to his co-workers, so we decided not to take that away from him. These lunches happen less than once a week, so Mr. M will still be cutting back considerably on his lunches out.

That's it! No birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, etc. We will plan to make a special meal at home for these occasions instead!