Eating Out (or Lack Thereof)

So things are still tight with the economy. The two things we've invested most of our money in have gone down in value: our home and the stock market. It's okay... we're in it for the long run. But we're really trying to stretch every dollar right now.

Eating Out. It's been almost 2 months now since our family has dined out. Yup, that means I'm doing a lot of cooking. Jeff has helped too, when I'm completely burnt out (which does happen). I hope hope hope this is only temporary, and I look forward to the day when we can eat a healthy meal out, and not have to worry about the check as much. But for now, we're trying to save our $$$ and if you eat out, you get junk food for cheap money and that is no way to do it. Let's face it, healthy food in the grocery store isn't necessarily cheap these days either?!?! But we'd rather eat healthy food at home. Yes, we may have to run our dishwasher or clean our kitchen floor a little more often, but it's worth it to have a good meal together as a family at home. Plus, every night we have Bible time before dinner, and after dinner the kids are excused from the table, they are not allowed back in the kitchen. They are usually off playing in the family room together. Jeff and I sit and linger for our "table talk," then we clean up together. I love that time alone with him. It's a great thing. And you can't do any of that in a Chick-Fil-A.

Cash Only. We usually use credit cards for everyday purchases, but we switched this month to using our ATM cards. We have some friends who are strictly cash (green paper $$) only but this is a little too hard core for us. It works for some folks, but it's just a little too much work for me. I've wanted to switch for a while, but we were just lazy and credit cards are just too dang convenient. We pay off our credit cards in full every month, but it was too easy to let the charges add up and then be hit with a whopper of a bill at the end of the month. Using our ATM, we see the charge hit our bank account immediately and have a more accurate balance this way.

These are just a couple things I've been working on recently... I'm not perfect, just trying to stretch our hard earned dollars.