Last Update on the 28 day challenge

While I'm happy today is officially the last day of the no eating out challenge, I am bummed to say that I didn't make it the full 28 days not eating out.  I am quite proud of ourselves though.  The first 14 days were flawless thanks to my major planning skills.  The last 2 weeks I was trying to hard to cut the grocery budget and get by with what we had.  That my friends is apparently my downfall.  While I'm a semi lazy person when it comes to cooking not having stuff on hand for quick sandwiches and suppers was my downfall.  Trying to save on lunch meat and jelly was my killer. 

I am proud to say we only spent about $50 eating out when our normal eating out is between 150-250.  I know.  Most of you can now pick up your jaws from the ground.  :)  Eating out is a big thing for us and to be able to spend $50 was HUGE!  I am proud to say that we are beginning to enjoy eating at home MUCH more then before.  We actually prefer it now.  When we do eat out instead of always going to the sit down restaurant that costs $25 a pop we used coupons and choose the cheaper places.  Subway could feed our family for $10 thanks to the BOGO Cardinal card and McDonald's had the 20 piece nugget for 4.99 so really between those two good deals it helped save. 

So the big question.  Am I doing it again?!  I do plan on having 1 day a week as an eating out lunch or supper.  However we have a few times this month we will not be able to cook from our kitchen.  About 5 days actually.  I plan to pack lots of PB&J's, Go-gurt(it's on sales this week), and homemade trail-mixes to help us not have to eat out at every one of the meals we would normally need.  A 5 day road trip is no joke with 2 kids.  Talk about a TON of money eating out!  I'm hoping to only eat out about 4/5 times.  2 suppers and 2 lunches for sure.  I am also going to pack some breakfast options in case our hotel doesn't have a continental breakfast. 

Well, there ya go.  28 days complete with only a few mishaps.  I'm happy with our progress this month.  Once things settle back down over here we will be back to the no eating out thing.  I think having the teacher home for the summer will help take some of the stress off of me having to cook everything.  LOTS of grilling will be going on over here.