Tip: Slowing down on eating out

A lot of us have the problem of eating out too much. I admit that I eat out too much myself. I justify part of it by my need to get out of the office for a break during the day. Even then I usually limit myself to $5 for lunch. I work in IT support and I find the stress reduction is worth the investment to me.

The real money spent on eating out is on dinners. They always cost more and we like to do it because it is convenient and fun to go out. I have a way to combat this. I made two rules for myself that I find fairly easy to stick too:

1. Only eat out for dinner once a week (at most).
2. If at all possible have a coupon or gift certificate (that you didn't buy) to use.

A side effect of these rules is that I eat at home which is cheaper and also healthier as I can control portions and salt content among other things. I do enjoy cooking to an extent as well so I try to do it fairly often. I like to try to make things I have eaten before as a fun experiment. Sometimes I just settle for a lean cuisine or pot pie if I had a long day.

Eating out also tends to eat away at our budgets (pun intended). If we take the above easy steps to combat our temptations we will be more able to attain our goals and possibly live a healthier life at the same time. All that money spent on eating out can be put towards retirement so we can get out of the rat race sooner and enjoy life!