Lessons Learned

One year ago today I told you the guys and I were embarking on the Eat at Home project with the goal of cutting our restaurant bill by 66% from $3100 in 2009 to $1040 in 2010. I'm sorry to say we failed. However, we did cut the eating out down by 44% to a grand total of $1737. While we missed our mark by nearly $700, we learned quite a bit about our spending habits.

First, budgets are helpful only if you stick to them. Looking over the past year, during 31 of the 52 weeks we went over our $20 limit. There are several reasons for this including that fact that we did not budget any extra for vacations or travel, both of which occurred pretty regularly this year. We spent a week at the beach, a couple of weeks visiting my folks, and another week at an out-of-state funeral. Not to mention a couple of weekend trips Jeff and I took to get a little down time and reconnect. All of these events did a number on the budget. Thus we learned that we need to plan for trips just as we plan for everyday life. Another - probably much more important - reason we overshot our budget is because we didn't use cash. Jeff and I think that if we had put the $20 bill in an envelope every week and only paid for food out of said envelope we would have been more mindful of our spending. Instead, we used the debit card (as we usually do) which made it far easier to spend more than we intended. After all, if you only have a five dollar bill, it just makes sense that you can't stop at Mickey D's for dinner.

We also learned that the amount of money we spend on eating out is directly related to the variety of frozen foods we have at home. Last semester, my son had a guitar class two nights a week which meant that we had about a 30-minute window to eat dinner between the time Jeff and I came home from work and the time we had to leave. Thus, our choices were to hit the drive-through or put something in the oven/microwave. I learned this lesson within the first week and began purchasing a couple of family-sized frozen products for these nights. Since many of these (like chicken fingers or fish sticks) are better in the oven, I called my son as I walked to the car and asked him to start dinner. That way we circumvented fast food and still had time to eat together. In addition, there were many nights that Jeff and I were just tired and neither of us wished to cook. Again, frozen foods rescued us. Of course, when nothing looked particularly appealing in the freezer section, we ended up ordering pizza or Chinese take out.

Another important lesson I discovered is that I am overly ambitious in my dinner plans. When I make the menu each Saturday morning before going to the grocery store, I have the best intentions of cooking something wonderful every single night. Unfortunately, I just don't follow through. Generally I am more motivated early in the semester, but as the work days wane on, I become more and more frustrated with my job and come home feeling defeated. On those evenings I am interested in comfort - a cold martini, soft pajamas, a card game and television with the guys. I am not interested in chopping, stirring, and baking anything. Thus, we became much more lax in sticking to our budget the closer it came to the end of school, the end of summer, the end of the term, etc. In my defense, I have learned the wisdom of planning something simple like grilled steak and a baked potato in the microwave. Jeff is always willing to help, but doesn't know the recipe or process when I write "veggie risotto" on the menu. So, if I choose something that falls under the manly art of open flame cooking, he will happily take charge of the meal.

Finally, I have learned that while breakfast is important for all of us, it need not be a big production. When we started the project last January, I thought if I cooked a big breakfast each morning, that would satisfy everyone for the whole day. It didn't. Whether or not we have bacon, eggs, and toast for breakfast or oatmeal, or grilled cheese, or pbj, we all want something good for dinner. (Jeff and I usually take leftovers for lunch while the boy prefers an Arnold Palmer with a chicken sandwich from the cafeteria, so lunch is pretty much a non-event that is swallowed in a rush.) So, rather than putting a lot of effort into breakfast, I've learned that it is better to reserve that energy for dinner time. This doesn't mean anyone goes hungry, but it does mean we eat more ready-made, non-traditional, or pre-cooked breakfast foods.

Ultimately the year has been a success even though we didn't reach our goal because we did cut our spending by nearly half, we had many great eat-at-home meals, and I devoted some time to writing this blog on a regular basis. Hopefully, some good recipes and tips found their way from my kitchen to yours along with some discussions of the importance of food and family in all our lives.

This brings me to the $64,000 question. Should this blog continue another year? If so, should it remain as is - focused on food and budget - or should it morph into something completely different. I have received several intriguing suggestions along those lines including the day-to-day life of a teacher, living with (aka surviving as the parent of) a teenager, or answering the question "Where is the joy in America?" as recently posed by composer Dan Gawthrop. What do you think? Please leave me a response with your thoughts on the matter. Enquiring minds want to know!