Frugal in the Fruitlands

I have a confession to make.

I am a bad frugal blogger. I’ve spent over $350 this month on dining out.

To be perfectly honest, restaurant meals regularly make me a liar when it comes to frugality. Every month I tell myself, “Okay, Lise. You can’t afford to spend more than $100 this month on dining out.” Every month I fail.

Back in October 2007, I even set a goal of not eating out for a month. I met it… then when to Outback Steakhouse the very next evening for dinner.

I hate this habit of mine, not only because it’s a budget buster, but because a lot of the restaurants near me aren’t even that good. Considering that I live in throwing distance of several farm stands, in the right season, I can easily create my own meals out of high quality ingredients.

… well, except for that whole hating to cook thing. Oh, I suppose I don’t hate it. But I don’t derive joy from it, either. When I cook, my only goal is to get out of the kitchen as fast as possible with something edible.

My husband does a lot of the cooking, and often he aims for the extravagant. He’s been perfecting a coconut-lime cheesecake recipe for a month and four iterations now. Man cannot live on cheesecake alone.

Plus, what I like about eating out is more than just the food.

Let’s take the Breakfast Issue. I’d say probably 85% of our restaurant expenses involve breakfast. Breakfast, in addition to being my favorite meal, is one of the least adultered meals. There is only so much you can fake eggs, bacon, toast, etc. On the weekends, it’s not unusual for us to eat breakfast out both Saturday and Sunday, usually at Bickford’s or the local cafe, The Ugly Omelet.

There are added benefits to these meals, however. If I get out of the house in the morning, I’m less likely to nap later in the day. I love the opportunity to sit across the table from my husband and have somebody else wait on us. I like to support local businesses. In the end, breakfast out is more of an event than it is a meal.

So where does the solution lie? One meal out per weekend isn’t going to break the budget… but more than that probably is.

Anyone have any experience with or advice about keeping dining out bills in line?

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So, all those blogs about blogging say that if you take a hiatus in posting, you shouldn’t do anything to draw attention to your absence.

Here I am, breaking that rule – and also confirming I’m still alive.

A lot has changed in my life since my last posting. The most significant is that I was laid off from my full-time job in market research. I didn’t sit idle long, though; within a couple of weeks I had a part-time freelance gig as a web programmer for a marketing firm in New Hampshire.

I’ve been supplementing this income with a couple of side projects. For one, a friend hired me to write and program the product tour and introductory email blast for a piece of software he’s trying to sell. Secondly, a former coworker, who had recently become VP of Research at a different company, hired me on as a contractor for a phone survey her firm is conducting.

To be perfectly honest, losing my job was probably the happiest thing that could have happened to me. It has taken me on the path toward self-employment, which is ultimately where I want to be. Right now finances are tighter than usual, but I am hoping to fill out my time with more freelance work. I also still look at (and have interviewed for) several full-time jobs; but it seems a lot easier right now to get part-time work.

Aside from work, I have been working intermittently on my garden, (which is doing very poorly this year, alas), planning an RPG campaign for friends, and, after six months of WoW-freedom, volunteering my time to help other gaming addicts find a way out.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting my first substantial post in a while: Reigning in the Dining Out Budget.

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