Sometimes, I swear I’ve been super disciplined with my money in a given month. I haven’t made any unnecessary purchases, made my best effort to take advantage of free activities, and even went the DIY route on a few home projects. And yet somehow, when I balance my budget, I’ve still racked up tons of spending from restaurants and takeout alone!
Even though you’ve gotta eat to stay alive, spending money on food is still spending money. The average home cooked meal costs about $4, and the average meal bought out will set you back about $20! Needless to say, you can save some serious dough by doing a no eating out challenge.
What is a No Eating Out Challenge?
A no eating out challenge is pretty self explanatory – it’s when you challenge yourself to not eat out for a certain length of time. You commit to cooking meals at home for that period, and to not spend a dime on restaurants and takeout.
If you’re a beginner cook, relax – buying premade stuff from the grocery store is allowed, but definitely no takeout or restaurant meals! The goal is to drastically reduce your food spend and to break any convenience habits that might have become ingrained.
How much money can you save?
The exact amount of money you can save by doing a no eating out challenge is dependent on two things… First, your current spend on takeout and restaurants. And next, how long you participate in the challenge.
If you’re the kind of person who only eats out once or twice a month, your savings might be smaller, think like $50 – $150 for a family (that’s still significant!). Whereas if you eat out 4-5x per week, you’ll likely see huge savings in just the first week of the challenge.
Tips to cutting back on dining out
Just because you’re cutting restaurants out and building more frugal habits, it doesn’t mean you need to feel deprived! Here are a few tips to make your no eating out challenge even more enjoyable and successful…
1. Replicate Your Favorite Meals at Home
If you’re addicted to Chipotle burrito bowls, why not try and recreate that joyful experience at home? You’ll be able to make way more of your favorite food for the same price, and you’ll learn valuable cooking skills in the process.
Be warned- once you master these recipes, your friends will start inviting themselves over for dinner and your place will quickly become the new hangout spot!
If there’s a restaurant meal you want to replicate, try googling a “copycat recipe,” which is meant to get you as close to the real thing as possible. We’ve done that with a mac and cheese recipe from a local BBQ joint and it’s been a massive success.
2. Cook With Friends
If cooking a huge meal by yourself sounds intimidating, why not get some friends to come and help you out. Splitting up responsibilities like chopping, cooking and cleaning can speed up the meal making process quite a bit. Plus, it infuses even more joy into the whole process. There are few things better than sharing a meal with the people you love!
3. Make It A Date Night
Cooking with your partner makes for a romantic cheap date night! Cooking for and with each other is a great way to show your significant other that you care for them. Plus, like I said before- cooking goes so much faster if you have an extra set of hands in the kitchen.
Pro tip: Want to kick it up a notch? Here’s a fun date night cooking challenge you can do to make it even more exciting. Head out to your favorite bookstore and pick out a cookbook. Then, open up to a random page. That’s your dinner for tonight!
4. Try Intermittent Fasting
If cooking all three meals every single day is a little bit much for your schedule, you can always try intermittent fasting. Instead of eating all throughout the day, you “fast” for a specified period of time each day, like 8pm-12pm. Then, you eat more substantial meals during that smaller time frame.
This can be helpful if you prefer to eat bigger meals less often, but be sure to do your own research, and always do what is best for your own body.
5. Try Some “No Cook” Meals
If you’re short on time, you can also build up an arsenal of delicious “no cook” meals to keep in your back pocket. These are meals that you don’t need to heat up or cook.
Think sandwiches, salads and wraps. Keeping the basic ingredients for these on hand can ensure that you aren’t tempted to blow the no eating out challenge on those low energy days!
6. Get Into Meal Prepping
If you want to enjoy maximum time savings, try getting into meal prepping!
Meal prepping is when you batch cook a large amount of food in one go and eat it throughout the week. For example, on Sunday evening, you could prepare lunches and dinners for the entire work week, saving you loads of time and usually quite a bit of money too!
With meals already in the fridge, you’ll be less likely to splurge on takeout if you’re having a particularly busy or stressful day.
7. Take it Slow
It can be hard to quit something cold turkey, especially if you’re level 10 addicted! If your daily routine is eating out, try to challenge yourself to just reduce the amount of times you go out in every given week.
For example, if you usually eat out 5x per week, can you get it down to only 3x? You get to design your own no eating out challenge – so make the goal realistic.
Benefits of a No Eating Out Challenge:
Of course, a no eating out challenge comes with great benefits for your wallet! But it also comes with some serious lifestyle upgrades as well. Here are just a few reasons why YOU should take this challenge on.
You’ll Save Money!
Let’s say you’re a family of 4 who typically eats out 3x per week. At $15 per person, you’re spending about $720 every month at restaurants. If you replace those meals with home cooked ones costing approximately $5 per person, you’ll see savings of $480 each month! What could your family do with an extra $480 each month?
It’s not that eating out is morally wrong or anything. It’s just that this one tweak could fund a pretty sweet family vacation!
Eat Healthier Foods
It’s no secret that cooking at home can lead to an overall healthier lifestyle. In fact, even those who aren’t trying to lose weight seem to consume fewer calories overall when they cook at home.
Plus, when you cook at home, you’re in charge of all the ingredients that go into that meal. No mysteries, no surprises. It makes for easier portion control!
Set An Example for Friends (And Kids!)
If you want to help your friends or set up your kids to live a healthier and more frugal lifestyle, why not lead by example? Show the people around you that you don’t need to go to a restaurant in order to socialize and that home cooked meals can be delicious and nutritious!
What Should You Do With All Your Extra Money!?
So now that you’re saving a few hundred dollars a month, what should you do with all that extra money?
Well, my friend, that’s for you to decide. And this is the most fun part of the whole challenge. You can use these savings to start or pad your emergency fund, throw more into sinking funds, use it for that family vacation you’ve been putting off, or you can invest it for the long term.
Even if you cut back on eating out and saved just an extra $100 each month, in 30 years you could have over $140,000 in your retirement accounts! Ooh la la! It might be hard to fathom but the math sure doesn’t lie.
The Bottom Line:
Going to restaurants and getting takeout can be a super fun way to treat yourself. But it’s wise to do it less often, to make it more of a rare occasion. Doing it in excess can take a toll on your health and your savings. A no eating out challenge can help to jump start a healthier lifestyle and help you get used to cooking more at home. Heck, you might even find a joy for cooking that you never knew existed!
Remember, money challenges are supposed to be FUN. So get creative, involve some friends if you have to, and save money with style.
