At this time of year, there are usually three things people are panicking about: how to lose weight, how to save money, and how to get organized. We have already touched on losing weight so this week I would like to touch on saving money.
Hopefully most of you realize that you can get into deep debt if you buy a house or a car you can’t afford. That seems to be pretty obvious, although a lot of people do it anyway. But that is not what I want to deal with today. The Bible talks about the little foxes that spoil the vine. What that is talking about is the little things that sneak into our lives without us realizing it. They start picking away at the vines in our lives until it destroys us. One of those "little foxes" is eating out.
Eating out is among the of the top causes of personal debt. Most of us hunt for the best interest rates on our mortgages and we complain about the terrible price of gas the whole time we are pumping it.
Interestingly enough though, I have yet to hear one person groan about the awful prices they had to pay for lunch today or tell how they were "duped" into having to pay such high prices at their favorite restaurant. I mean really, the government should step in and make all restaurants take steak off of their menus so I won’t be tempted to order it. Then there are those fast food places. They shouldn’t be allowed to build so close to the road and make it so convenient for me to drive in there each day. They have a lot of nerve expecting me to be a responsible adult who knows what I can or can’t afford and should or shouldn’t do.
Tut, tut. I had better behave or I will have to fire myself. HA! HA! But I do feel so much better for getting that off of my chest.
Anyway where was I? Oh, yes — saving money and eating out. I know most of the excuses we use to justify eating out when it doesn’t really fit in the budget: "I don’t have time", "I’m too busy", "I don’t know how to cook", and last but not least, "it’s so much easier to eat out".
I totally understand. I too don’t have time to do things. I don’t have time to take care of my yard, so I will hire a crew of gardeners to do it. I too don’t have time to clean my house so I will have a housekeeper come in every day and do it for me. I don’t know how to cook so I need a chef (the best French one, of course) and it is so much easier to hit my garage sales if I am chauffeur driven.
Obviously my examples are tongue in cheek but, as ridiculous as that all sounds, that really is what a lot of us are doing. In the same way that I can’t afford a gardener, housekeeper or chauffeur and I would be pretty foolish to go hire them, many of us can’t afford to go out to eat but do it anyway. I don’t think most people really realize how much they spend eating out each month and would be shocked to find that they could probably hire a housekeeper or a gardener for that same amount.
Take one week and write down how much you spend eating out. That includes all those coffees, soft drinks, things from the vending machines and snacks you buy throughout the day. Be sure to write down the amount of anything that goes into you and your family’s mouths for an average week. I’m afraid you may be unpleasantly surprised. Multiply it by 4 to get a monthly estimate and I think you would be just plain shocked.
I’m beginning to wonder if another reason we eat out so much is that it has just become a habit. Like many bad habits, we get so comfortable with them that we don’t want to change them. Even when we know that a habit is destructive to us (physically, financially and even emotionally), we still do it.
Some of us look down our noses at other people with "bad habits" like drug addicts and alcoholics and can’t understand why they don’t just kick their habits. "Don’t they see what they are doing to their families????"
What is the difference between other people’s destructive habits and our repeatedly going out to eat and charging it? We know the food isn’t as good for our families, we know we don’t have the money to pay for it, and we know on bill paying day we will be so stressed that we will take it out on everyone around us. We so proudly display our bumper stickers that say "Say no to drugs." but how many of us could proudly display a bumper sticker that says "Say no to debt, I’m debt free".
(Please do not e-mail me about drug addicts and alcoholics. If you do, you are missing the point of the article and are only making it more clear to me that you are not willing to own up to or face the real issue –your debt.)
I know those words may sound harsh to some, but if you have seen and dealt with as many families as I have, whose homes have been or are being destroyed because of financial irresponsibility, you would understand why I can’t always sugar coat things. We sink into a fog of apathy, hopelessness and discouragement and just give up trying. I really want you to understand you can fix your finances, but it will take a little bit of work and effort on your part. Don’t just throw up your hands and give up.
There is a story in the Bible (John 5) that tells about a man who couldn’t walk. He had laid by a healing pool for 38 years. If he could dip in the pool when the water stirred, he would be healed. Jesus asks him what he is doing there and he says "Well, I just don’t have anyone who will carry me and put me in the pool" (Poor little old me.) Jesus then asks him, "Do you really want to get healed?" This might seem to us a strange question but, as I once heard a woman speaker point out, if he really wanted to get healed wouldn’t he have tried some way to inch his way over to that pool even if he could only make it a half an inch a day no matter how hard it was?
Maybe Jesus asked this question because He too thought here is a man, like so many do these days, making excuses, being a victim and waiting for someone else to fix his problem for him. What did Jesus tell him to do? GET UP! (stand on your own two feet), TAKE UP YOUR BED (start being responsible for your own things), and WALK (become active in solving your own problems which may mean physical labor, or doing without some things).
You need to be like the lame man and GET UP, TAKE UP YOUR BED and WALK. If you know you are going out to eat too much then stop saying you’re a victim of "these hard economic times". Be responsible for the "bed" (or the debts that you have now) and actively start doing something about it today. It isn’t as hard as you think. I can take every excuse for eating out that I mentioned above and prove that they’re not really valid.
"I don’t have time." For the amount of time it takes you to drive to some place, wait for them to take your order and then wait for them to prepare your order, I can give you 10 menus or more that would take less time for you to prepare at home.
"I’m too busy." If you are too busy to take time to feed your family, something that is a necessity of life, then you are too busy. I have very rarely heard anyone say that they are too busy to get their hair done, go shopping, go to sports activities, talk on the phone or spend time on the computer. You really can find the time.
If I sound like I don’t have patience with that excuse, it’s because I don’t. I was a single mom with 2 teens, working 60 -70 hours a week, doing all my own yard work, home repairs, and on and on and guess what? Except when I was ill, I always found time to make breakfast and dinner.
"I don’t know how to cook." So learn. Start simple. Even my 9 year old grandson can boil himself a hot dog. You don’t have to produce a gourmet meal to make your family happy and in most cases they would prefer you didn’t. There are simple enough instructions on the back of a package of spaghetti noodles that, once again, even a child can read and follow. Warm up a jar of sauce and dinner is served. You now have two main dishes that take less than 10 minutes to prepare.
I understand that man can’t live on hot dogs alone (although I think kids can), but don’t worry — after a week or two of simple dishes, you can move on to more complicated things like frozen French fries and frying hamburgers 
Plus if you really get stuck, I just happen to know of this really good cookbook called Dining on A Dime that can help you.
"It’s so much easier." I guess that depends on your definition of easy. To me, going to a restaurant, sitting and listening to loud music for 30 minutes with fussy, hungry, complaining kids is not my idea of fun. Going to a drive-thru is, at times, not much better. Lately it seems as if the line of cars wraps around the whole building at every fast food joint that I drive by. I was amazed to see every restaurant’s parking lot jam packed two days after Christmas. (Must be that all those people who couldn’t afford Christmas had gotten a windfall.) Sorry, once again I digress.
You may say "The restaurant where I go isn’t that bad." but my point is that everything has it’s drawbacks, whether you stay at home to eat or go out to eat. It’s just a matter of what you make up your mind to put up with. Do you want the pain of cooking or the pain of not knowing how to pay your bills.
If you are in debt, it would be wise to start putting up with a few of the drawbacks that come with eating at home. Besides, if you are really serious about saving money, there are ways to make cooking at home much easier.
- You can use convenience foods. There is nothing wrong with buying things like French bread, canned biscuits or bagged salad. Line the pans you use with foil, or use disposable pans. It’s cheaper in the long run to use these than going out to eat.
- Clean up as you cook. This is very important because I notice a lot of people make a bigger mess than necessary when they cook.
- Instead of messing up the whole stove by repeatedly laying a sticky spoon on it, use a spoon holder or cup. It is a simple thing that makes clean up so much easier.
- Keep some hot soapy water in the sink while you are cooking and wash things as you finish with them.
- Don’t set that carton of milk down on the counter after you pour it. While it’s still in your hand, put it back in the fridge.
- Keep the number of utensils you use to a minimum. You don’t need to put a lid on a pot every time you cook something.
- Don’t always think gourmet. Most families are so excited to get a homemade meal that they don’t care what you serve them. Besides, almost any meal can be made to look "gourmet". Fruit sliced and arranged nicely on a plate, muffins keeping warm and nestled in a napkin inside a basket or mashed potatoes piled high with a chunk of golden butter melting down the sides all have eye appeal. All right — I made myself hungry! Maybe it’s time to quit for lunch.
- Clean up is one of the main reasons people hate to eat at home, but if you clean as you go like I mentioned earlier and everyone pitches in to help clean up after dinner, it should only take about 15 minutes to get it all put away.* It would take longer than that to drive to a fast food place and return home.
*See our article, "Dirty Dishes Cause Debt."
- Pull out those crockpots. It takes about 5 minutes to throw in a roast, potatoes and carrots. It takes the same amount of time to throw in the ingredients for chili, stew or vegetable soup.
- If you are dragging the kids to an after school game: Instead of going to a fast food drive in, throw some hot dogs in a thermos and cover with boiling water. They will be cooked and ready to eat by the time you get there. How long does it really take to grab a few pieces of fruit, a bag of cleaned veggies and some chips to go with them? Maybe 2 minutes? How hard is that to cook?
You could also have sloppy joes simmering in a crockpot and pour those into the thermos for an on the run meal. To make it even easier, heat it up from a jar and then pour it in the thermos.
I don’t know who set the standard that cooking a meal in 30 minutes is fast. If I took that long to cook a meal every night I would never get anything done. There are tons of meals out there that require 15 minutes or less prep time.
If you don’t know where to start, then drag out your Dining On A Dime cookbook or check out the Groceries On A Dime e-books. We share lots of ideas there to get you started. Sometimes we like to make things more complicated than they really are because that gives us a good excuse not to do them. Where there is a will there is a way.
Do you really want to get out of debt? Then GET UP, STOP CHARGING, and GET COOKING!
Jill
This article is an excerpt from Dig out Of Debt. For more easy and practical ways to save money and get out of debt, check out Dig out Of Debt and learn more about how to keep more of your money.
photo by: hellochris
As a recently divorced mother of 3, I am completely budget run. Unfortunately, I seem to view “going out” as a non-budget item. Uggh. Sometimes I will take the kids out for dinner because they’ve had a rough day with their father. Sometimes, it’s because I just do not feel like cooking (yes, I know, sheer laziness). During the work week, I can very easily bring my own lunch, but as crazy as it sounds– I feel bad when my coworker (who is a batcheor and rarely buys groceries and eats out all the time (but it financially stable)) has to go out to eat alone! Maybe I will start bringing in lunch for him, too!
Thanks for the reminder that my misplaced guilt is digging my debt-hole a bit deeper!
Amen to every word you said! You are so right! Keep up the good work. Where are you moving by the way, since you’re getting out of Kansas. I wish you and your family well. Will you continue the web site? Sure hope so. I purchased “Dining on a Dime Cookbook” and am really grateful to you for all your hard work. Thank you, Anne
Anne, Tawra and her family is moving to Colorado and for the moment I am staying here in Kansas. I hope to move there eventually too. All of our family is there except for my son (Tawra’s brother) and his family but if he can find a job there they will be headed there too.
Nothing will change at all on the web site. If we hadn’t said anything no one would ever know the difference. We can run the web site the same way from any where. Even with us living in the same town Tawra and I do most of the web site stuff on the phone with each other which we will still do.
I laugh because when they moved to kansas and I was still in Idaho by myself I averaged 300 plus calls a month between the grown kids and grandkids. It was a good thing we had free calling. The grandkids are dying for me to get a web phone this move. Hummm??? Not too sure about that one. But it might be fun. I will get to visit them often anyway. So don’t worry we will still be here and doing all of the same thing except we are trying to get a couple more books written which we hope all will like.
Interesting about the man at the pool. I wonder how many do sit at their “pool” of infirmities/can’t do it & then, when someone offers to help–in the info you gave or showing them how to do or whatever other means, “I don’t have the time” or “thanks, but not now.” God has given us time-24/7-to do what is needed. When we say there is not time to do–we are telling God He messed up–He should have created more time for us.(ha). Appreciate the info you give–God bless on your move. Stay in there w/God & continue to bring us more creative ideas. Thankyou.
Dear Dining on a Dime,
Everyone has a bad day or two, but (and please do not take offense as none is intended, just an honest inquiry) it sounds from the tone of your most recent newsletter that you may be experiencing a touch of burn-out. I see my husband going through burn-out at work and suggested that he take a few days off, and he is doing much better and regaining his perspective. It is difficult, day in and day out, to help people with the same type of troubles, but your patience and persistence in doing so for years has made a lovely website that we refer to frequently, thank you for all you do!
I seem to recall your having an ebook on dealing with chronic illness in home responsibilities? I would like to find that one and get it, as I could use some suggestions in our family’s current situation for help with physical troubles are very prevalent (which is always the same time the budget is more crunched than usual with medical bills, isn’t it? – Just when you need more energy and strength to do more at home, it’s when you have the least sometimes.)
Also, speaking for myself alone, it takes me at least 30 minutes to get a roast in the oven — I cannot peel and chop taters and carrots and celery fast enough and brown the roast enough to do a meal in 5 minutes. It’s just not that fast. I think it may perhaps be more realistic for some people to suggest that the time is necessary but worthwhile for your family, because even with cleaning up while I go and chopping vegetables the day or night beforehand, everything just takes longer right now. Thank you for all you do, and your many great articles and insights,
C.J.
CJ it is called Common Cents When You are Sick scroll down the page a bit and you will find it. It covers all kinds to things on what to do when you are sick and we try to encourage those who are.
On my last email, I sincerely hope the last paragraph did not come across wrongly — I am sure it must take you five minutes to get a roast in the slow cooker, I am only suggesting that for others (myself included) it is not that fast, and I would rather expect and plan for the time it will take me personally to do a task than to expect it to take only 5 minutes and find myself in the kitchen for 1/2 hour even though I am using the tips for a better and faster cooking experience. You are an amazing gal, and you probably do take 5 minutes only! Thanks, C.J.
I love your articles and look forward to them all the time. Sometimes I even save them in a special folder to go back and remind me. (I am not good with archives
) So I have to admit that when I read the articles it reminds me of my preacher preaching to me and stepping on my toes. Can I get an Amen!!! Yes I’ve been caught red handed here and in the cookie jar– I am totally convicted. I realize I truly need to implement the advice from you all along with my pastor. Thank you once again for a wonderful read!
~Teresa
I love these words of wisdom because they are truly nuggets of truth. As an older single man, who has always cooked for the family, and now finds himself alone and still cooking like I had teens in the house, I need help. I find I keep saying that I will eat the left overs, and then wind up throwing much of it in the trash. The practical tips of eating at home are good, but what about us that need help with eating for one or two. I have found that my budget has gone down some but still remains higher than I would like. Would you consider addressing these issues. As for eating out, I just don’t do it unless forced to by work (I travel a lot) or social engagements. Keep up the great advice. BTW, I now make my own pizza dough thanks to Living on a Dime.
Jim I get asked this question often. I have even written an big section in our e book Grocery Saving on a budget e course to cover this whole subject. I mention many tips and ideas on how singles can save.
One thing I think you have already figured out what part of what you need to do and that is to cut back on the amounts. I make up 2 potatoes to mash instead of the 6 I use to cook. One for dinner that evening and the other I use for potato pancakes the next day.
Most of the basic tips I use for families can be applied to singles – drink tap water instead of bottled water, save on buy drinks, don’t go to the grocery store hungry, make a menu or list for the store etc.
Don’t buy in bulk or large items. For example let’s say a 30 oz jar of mayo is $3.00 and a 10 oz jar of mayo is $1.10. The better buy per oz. would be the 30 oz jar. But if I can only use 1/3 of the jar before it spoils I am throwing the other $2 I spent on the jar away. I would have better off to spend the extra $.10 on a small jar then to waste the $1.90 or $2.00 by buying the big jar. Hope that makes sense.
There are many little tricks you can learn. For example I buy a loaf of bread, keep out 1/2 and the other 1/2 I put in the freezer. Then I have a 1/2 of loaf for sandwiches and the other half in the freezer I use to pull out a slice when I want toast, French toast or Texas toast.
I am as guilty as anyone with eating out and rather than quit cold turkey with eating out, we have made a set of rules to help us step-down from eating out so much. Rule #1: Absolutely no using charge cards/debit cards when we eat out; cash only. #2: We get an allowance of $20 for 2 weeks for quick mornings or quick lunches. And last but not least #3: We put a set amount of cash in a cookie jar once a month for eating out and when it is gone, it is gone. I find that my kids love to help me in the kitchen, especially since it is grilling season. We start the meat and/or veggies marinating before school & work and it helps to not have to decide what’s for supper after putting in a long day at the office. If the boys have sports practice after school, I keep a supply of turkey or ham, their favorite cheese, bread or wraps in my office fridge and make them sandwiches or wraps for snacks to eat on their way to practice. It sure helps to not have to hit the fast food restaurant or the gas station quick counter. Thanks for all of your great tips & reminders!
Good ideas Brenda. I always try to tell people to take baby steps and don’t do anything cold turkey because in a lot of cases you are setting yourself up for failure so I love the ideas on how to start slowly.
Jill, I hope the new books you are writing will be in real book form. I love real books. Ebooks are okay, but not the same. I reread and reread the books I have of yours that are real books in the evening while relaxing and I look forward to that many times. I love all your books. I have 4 of them and was reading the Penny Pinching Mama last night and I ended up making chocolate chip cookies and only used 1/4 of the amount of choc chips, like you mentioned in that book, and they came out great. Saves calories and choc chips for future baking. After all who made up the rule that a person has to use a whole bag of choc chips for one batch of cookies? The manufacturers get rich that way. HA HA
Yes, Bea we are working on getting new covers and re-typesetting right now. We hope to be releasing a new print book once a month of our e-books toward the end of the summer…I hope.
Tawra, That’s great. Looking forward to them! YEH!
I have always loved to cook and have been cooking since I was about 8 years old, but when I went back to work full time, we slipped into going out not for dinner, but lunch every day. My family does not eat fast food but perhaps 3 times a year, so these lunch dates were upwards of $25 every day! I read your advie to stop eating out and stopped, cold turkey (no pun intended!) we now have taken the money that we would have spent on food and invested it in a gym where we go 3X a week and of course even though the gym is an expense, it is so much less than the daily cost of going out to eat and we are so much better off for it. I do not enjoy going out to eat dinner as I so love to cook, so that is not a problem, but what I have done to save even more at the table and spend more time with my family of 2 teens and husband is to get a clam/oyster/crabbing/mussel license and dig our dinner just about every weekend. We all have a wonderful time, we are eating fabulous fresh seafood and it is almost free considering that a license for the season is $17 and only my husband and I need one in order to get enough food for all of us. It is our new Easter tradition, now we “hunt” in the sand for clams instead of eggs and it is just as much fun and very tasty! Fishing is also an option, but we need a boat and with all of the money that we have saved from not going out to eat, we are planning on buying one in July, cash of course! Thanks for your advice and keep up the good work.
ya know what i just noticed ? .. in the movie “beethovan” (the first one) .. they do not eat out in that movie (not sure of the others) … the wife fixes the meals and when they have guests, she makes the vegi plate ..
most of the movies that i have seen and can recall .. all of them have a restaurant scene in it ..
also.. just wanted to share .. if anyone loves the mcd’s tea (iced tea) .. i have (thru lots of trial and error) .. the tea that comes to the closest in that taste .. its louisianne tea .. it is really good .. (tetley is 2nd) …
i normally drink lipton and i love my tea … on mother’s day my daughter took me to this little fish house (very inexpensive and the food is delish!) .. and the iced tea they served tasted just like the iced tea from mcd’s (i tried to buy the tea bags but they wont sell them to anyone and its specially made for mcd’s) ..
i asked our server and she said they made the iced tea with louisianne tea …
i did manage to get some lipton cold brew for my hubby … and normally he is fine with anything i give him .. any kind of tea he will drink and not sure if had an upset tummy or if they use different types of tea blends so u can make the cold brew .. or it was bc of the leukemia he has and the meds .. or whatever ..
but he didnt like it … and then when i gave him a pot of the louisianne the first thing he said was “did mcd’s finally let u buy their tea bags?” .. hehehee .. and his tummy doesnt seem to bother him with this blend .. normally he can only handle one pot of the others but with this one he is fine ..
i take one tea bag and brew for the coffee pot (12 cup pot) and then tell him to water it down for each glass … so its like half tea and half water in the glass (he cant handle ice cubes,, why? not sure but his dr said it was a side effect of the leukemia.. not sure if this is really true but it is with hubby) ..
just wanted to share
Hi Tawra! Just a quick hello from Sydney Austalia. I love getting your newsletters into my inbox at work. They ‘keep me on track’ for the week ahead and keep me focused on my financial goals of getting out of debt! You are a blessing to us here in Oz!
Bless you so much
Izzi
Sydney Australia
Thanks Izzi. As I have said before we love hearing from our readers who are outside of the US. I have read so many “bookies” that have their setting in Australia that I feel like I live there so love hearing from you guys. Have a super day – night???? there.
hi from canada
BEST ARTICLE I”VE READ in a LONG time….
and very pertinent i think for me at this time..
likely some of the best advice i’ve heard in these economic times….we nickel and dime ourselves into debt…and usually its a mcDEBT!
Hi Celina. I love your phrase “mcDEBT”. May have to use it in the future if you don’t mind and boy if that isn’t a true statement.
Thank you for these great reminders! They help me out of the cooking slumps I get into sometimes. Your simple suggestions definately make daily cooking easier. I especially appreciate your personal experiences, and never do you sound sanctimonious! Love your spot!
I AGREE!!!! Last week I didn’t get around to fixing my own lunch for work which I usually do on the weeknights. Most times I just put leftovers in a plastic container in which I heat up in the microwave at work the next day. Well this particular night we didn’t have any leftovers and we didn’t have bread or even sandwich materials. Instead of being inventive I could have easily put together a quick soup or even pancakes or oatmeal for lunch but I didn’t. Instead I went to the grocery store next to my job for lunch and spent $9.00 on a pre-made sandwich and a soda!!! $9.00!!!! For that SAME price I could have gotten a couple of packs of luncheon meat and several bottles of soda not to mention a couple of whole loaves of bread! AH live and learn!!! Next time I will bring the oatmeal to work!!!!!
I just found your website and I dont sugar coat anything either. I just wanted to say this post really opend my eyes to ALOT of things I could and should be doing differently. Thanks!!!
My sweet man is such a great cook that we rarely go out to eat. the hard part is slowing us down so that the leftovers are eaten before the next feast… He sometimes has a vision of a new meal before we have cleared the last out of the fridge…. Tonight, we ate mostly leftovers and when we were done, he sadly said that he would do the dishes in the morning. However, I got the dishes done in about 7 minutes, and tomorrow the counters will beckon for another great meal.
I have found that we cannot purchase a meal at a restaurant that comes close to what we can do at home, and the quality at home is under my control – fresh, local, no additives, seasonal…. with the $ savings, we can easily have friends over 2-3 times a week and still be ahead. Besides, if you have your own garden, in the summer the Veggie production is so wild that if you don’t eat home daily you will be buried in veggies! When I have taken the 4 of us (two kids ages 10 and 12 and two adults) out for dinner we are lucky to pay less than $50. $50!!!! for food that has about $10 or less in grocery costs. Honestly, there is no justification, and adding 12% tax and 20% tip on top of that, it means that I worked for a whole day to pay for one meal. no thank you, ma’am!
I just found your website (and I love it)! Do you have any suggestions on saving money while doing your own cooking? We very rarely eat out, but my food expenses are almost equal to our mortgage (I have 6 children, including 4 teens). Thank you for all your do.
Jackie just keep checking out the web site. We have 100′s of articles of every kind of different tips and ideas for almost any family or situation. Things like cutting your bill in half before you even go to the store by watching your portion control and controlling the food you waste and I don’t mean just leftovers either. Things like giving a child a sandwich and then they only eat 1/2 and the rest gets thrown out. About 50% of the average family’s food it tossed out. We have articles about saving juice, pop etc. for treats instead of using in place of water to quench everyone’s thirst.
Like I said that is just one of 100′s. We also have a Grocery Shopping on a Budget e course which is packed full. I like it the best of all the books for having tons of info and different info on saving when buying groceries. It and like with most of our books we find most people get back the money they paid for it by using even one or two tips from it.
But like I said just keep looking at the different articles.
A quick tip for those days when ball practice is eating up all your time. Heat canned chili and put it into indidual packs of fritos, throw some grated cheese on top and give the kids a spoon. Quick easy and no cleanup, just throw the bag away. Also good with doritos and leftover taco meat!
Great idea Anne. Easy but most of all no clean up.
Convicted!
Ruth I had to chuckle at you post. It’s amazing how much one word can say or mean. : )
[...] Stop eating out. I know you hear it all the time but STOP!!! The “average” family spends $300-$500 a [...]
[...] Stop eating out. I know you hear it all the time but STOP!!! The “average” family spends $300-$500 a month just eating out! Eating out truly is one of the biggest causes of debt! I am always amazed how someone can be “totally broke” and can’t pay their bills but are still able to go to the drive-thru of their favorite restaurant. [...]