Our Dining this Month So Far...

After the crazy eating out binges we've been going on, I decided to check our Quicken halfway through the month to see how we're doing. So far we've spent $157, which includes the $58 buffet (for two) we ate in Las Vegas (we were checking it out to see if we wanted to take wedding guests there, but decided that unless you were a big seafood eater, it wasn't worth it. Plus it encourages you to overeat - the true American way). So we're way down from our high of $600 in May, but over where we'd really like to be. Plus I'm not sure if everything has been entered into Quicken. The only good thing I can say is that we've been eating out really cheap, and believe it or not, I'm actually getting burned out on In-n-Out after eating it four times in a week.

We've Fallen Off the Wagon....

Sorry, it's been so long since our last post. The monthly challenge kind of fell apart because there're two of us spending money, so we had problems getting it together at the end of the day. Also, as we spent more money, I think we were afraid to see how much was actually slipping through our fingers. I just put a bunch of receipts into Quicken and see we've already spent our allotment for groceries for the month and the dining is over $2oo as well. Sigh. We picked up Number One Son from college and so ate out fast food Thursday night, and Friday night we spent $74 for Mother's Day dinner for four of us. Today we did a little sightseeing (and eating) and spent $50 on lunch and Pinkberry's for four. But tonight we're going to a FREE improv show (we may have to pay for parking), and since we got tired around 3, we came home inbetween, so we most likely not be eating out dinner. At least now that I've seen the Quicken, I know that we shouldn't, but on the other hand, Number One Son is only here for two weeks, so I want to do fun (and tasty) things that cost money. At least I changed my payroll tax deductions at work and now my check is $17 higher a week (but I won't have the huge tax refund in the spring either).

Overspending alert!

I want everyone to be forewarned -- I haven't even done the end of the month finances, but I already know we went WAY over on eating out. We slid back into our old ways of running errands on Monday and taking the recycling money to In-n-Out for lunch. Plus we had to drive to my Number 1 Son's college twice, which requires eating out unless you pack a lunch, which, get real, hardly anybody does. Plus we were celebrating both Basil and I getting into a gallery show together. Of course, how do we like to celebrate? Food! I predict the eating out budget to be upwards of $300. That would have been a good chunk if it had gone to the credit cards. Hopefully it doesn't cause us to actually have a negative balance for the month. I guess this is about the time the New Year's resolutions start to waver, but we're going to try to get back on track next month. We'll take it one day at a time....but with In-n-Out less than a mile away, it'll be difficult.

We are so weak!!!

So far this month we're not doing very well on the dining out aspect. Yesterday we went to Chipotle for our Valentine's dinner, though we did have a free burrito coupon, so dinner was less than $8. Still, we felt guilty. To get around the lack of eating out, I bought Basil an In-n-Out gift card for Valentine's day. How romantic, I know. But if you knew Basil, you'd know that the best gifts for him are food-related.

I'm eating out again!!!!

It's been a not so good week for refraining from eating out. Picked up son from airport at 7:30 p.m. - ate at In-n-Out Burger; took two sons shopping - ate lunch at TGI Friday's; bonded with sons by playing Guitar Hero all afternoon until dinner time - picked up chinese food; drove son back to college - lunch at Chipotle's. Now none of these were expensive meals, but I'm really afraid to see what they all add up to. Plus my parents are on a five-hour layover in our city this Tuesday, so we're going to have dinner with them, too. Without Tuesday's meal I think it came out to around $90-$95. I made much more than that in overtime this past week, but I still feel guilty spending it when I know that eating at home is cheaper. I know I can't eat all meals at home, but we'd been doing so well that this feels like a set-back. All I can do is to try harder next month.

We also had some college-related expenses like printer ink cartridge, notebooks and toilet paper. Luckily most everything else is covered, so we won't have too much more of that this semester.

Gaaaah! Nobody stopped me!

Basil's been working all weekend, so left to my own devices I apparently eat out. A lot. Today I went on a 6 mile hike with my son that ended around 3 p.m. and as we were starving, I drove to the nearest fast food joint for burgers and fries. Neither is on my budget or my diet. Another $13 not spent toward my debt. I vow to not eat out for at least one whole week.

Stop me before I eat again!

Just spent another $9.40 on Chinese food for celebrating my son getting his learner's permit after six months of driving school on Saturdays. I'm trying to justify it by knowing that we both only ate half and that $9.40 will equal four meals. That's only $2.35 a meal. Must......stop.....eating......out.

$4.27 to Celebrate a Life-long Dream!

I've been feeling guilty this week. I'm usually the frugal one, but since we started this new year, Basil has been doing much better than I have. I only have a car payment, but I do have a freshman in college and a junior in high school who will soon have college expenses. I have no problems spending on them, but feel guilty spending anything on myself. This week I splurged (only two weeks into the new year) and ate out with my co-workers (again!), but only spent $6.33. Now my car payment is under $200 (though I always pay more), I have no credit card debt, and I made $40,000 last year, you'd think I wouldn't feel guilty about spending $6.33 on lunch (a salad and water), but I do! I also had a big victory in my art, in that I'm participating in a group show at a gallery and doing a joint project with another artist. I majored in art in college, have been painting on and off ever since, and my dream is to be able to sell my art. This is a big step in fulfilling my life-long dream. I went straight from work to the gallery to talk to the curator and had a headache from not eating anything when I got done. So to celebrate I took Basil to In-n-Out and I used a $5 gift card from Christmas and spent $4.27 extra to feed us both. Did I feel terribly guilty? Of course. I know I shouldn't feel guilty about spending so little to celebrate a life-long dream, but I do. We used to celebrate every little thing by going out to eat, and I don't want to get into that mindset again. I guess it will have to be an ongoing struggle.

A December to Remember

I finally got our expenses posted for December, but not without a lot of hair pulling and cursing. I guess the html coding classes I took at the community college finally paid off. As you can see, we go a little crazy around the holidays and every celebration was an excuse to eat out. We're correcting that this month and as much as we wanted to grab a bite to eat after an early matinee (only $6 and using Christmas gift cards), we went home and had sandwiches. Also a big purchase was a new computer for me as mine was randomly shutting down and it was getting very frustrating to even sit and get anything done at it. Ask Basil about the heavy sighs. I put it on a credit card and paid the amount in full when then bill came due from money from my savings. Anyway, check out where the Bizarros spent their money in the month of December.

What the hell happened in November?

Holy moses. November. We belatedly printed out our Quicken breakdown for November, and it's simply obscene. Over $300 in dining out? Can't process this right now. I'm breaking out a bottle of red wine and turing on "Cops" and will mull this over in the morning. Big changes ahead.