Can I tell you something shocking? In June, this household spent over $1,000 on eating out. WHAT?!

Anytime I try to talk about a budget, my husband will say something like, “We’ll be able to do all these cool things when we aren’t paying $X per month for private school.”

Um. I think we could do some awesome things if we weren’t hemorrhaging money paying for crappy carry out food. Seriously. June’s carryout expenditures were enough for an extra mortgage payment or another kid’d tuition for private school. That’s sickening.

In July, we spent over $800 eating out and in June, over $600. I’m challenging myself to see if we can spend less than $400 in September. If I can put us below $200, I will give myself a gold star.

I’m looking at our expenditures, I think that eating out is a GREAT place to start. If we could reclaim that exorbitant amount of money for our household, we would be money ahead. Plus, eating out is bad for us–so meal planning and cooking at home is so much better.

So, I’m starting here and claiming eating out as the first expenditure category to be slashed.

Stay tuned…this could get good.