Eating Out (on a Budget??)

Today I am not going to talk about how you can find this coupon and that coupon for getting a dinner at a restaurant cheaper.  I would but frankly in our small town the only occasional coupon is for Hardees or McDonalds.  We don't eat at either of those restaurants.

We rarely eat out.  Why?  I don't mind cooking and, money aside, I can fix a healthier meal at home.  Years ago if we would get a refund check in the mail from the telephone company for something in the amount of $10.00 or whatever I would say, "Let's eat out."  We ate out at least once a week and I would have eaten out more given the chance.  Not anymore.

Today was the last day of school - finally!!  We had 9 snow days to make up this year.  For a while we all thought the kids would not have a summer break at all.  This morning as I was trying to think about what I was going to have for supper tonight, I decided that I needed a break from cooking and we would eat out. 

We headed to Subway.  Our second choice would have been a local family restaurant that serves very good food.  Subway just seemed more appealing tonight.

Subway has deals going on right now on certain subs but I don't make anyone order the "special" just to save money.  In fact whenever we go out to eat we order what we want, no matter what the price is.  That is why we don't eat out very often and that is why it is more enjoyable when we do. 

It was nice to eat out, come home, walk the dog and not come back to dishes or kitchen clean up.  The cost for the three of us to eat at Subway tonight was $20.60 for two 6" subs, one 12" sub and pop and chips for the three of us.  Our bill at the family restaurant would have been around $35 for the three of us. 

Eating out may not be entirely frugal BUT you have to find in your budget a way to reward your family and do something special. If our budget was so tight that we could not afford this once (or twice) a month treat, I honestly think I would get a paper route just for some entertainment/eating out money for our family.

In the end we would much rather eat out once a month (or maybe twice) and get whatever we want versus eating out more often and only getting what is on special.