His Hers Money

I really enjoy cooking, but sometimes after a long and/or hard day at work I’m really not in the mood to cook so I suggest we eat out. It’s really the idea of sitting down, relaxing and visiting with Him and not having to do any of the prep, cooking of cleanup. We used to go out for wings on Monday night. There was a group of us that all gathered, had a couple of $2 brewery beers and ate our super cheap wings. For the two of us our bill was usually about $15 before tip. Well, the group has some what disbanded due to the disappearance of the wing deal and it seems that the wings just really weren’t worth almost 4 times as much as they were charging before. It was nice to eat out and never have to worry about the bill since it was so cheap.

After reading through our local DC paper I noticed that there were a ton of places that offered discounted food on certain nights during the week. If you live in the DC area here’s a few good options that we like. (Always check ahead of time as deals can change)

Crystal City Sport Pub: We like Friday happy hour half price appetizers and beer specials as well as Monday night half price burgers.

Eleventh St Lounge: Wed night half price prime rib (I heard this may be changing to Thursday night so verify first)

Mr. Days: $2 beers and $2 appetizers and burgers on Wednesday.

For more upscale options you can’t beat the deals at McCormick & Schmicks and The Front Page.

I’m personally not a fan of eating at 5pm so if we want to take advantage of any of these deals we try to head over there with just enough time to get our order in before the time expires (usually 7pm) that way we get our food a little after 7 which is more in line with my eating time.

Whether you take advantage of happy hour or weekly specials we have found it’s usually cheaper to eat out during the week. We tend to order less food and drinks. We went out for sushi tonight, while there wasn’t any deal going on out bill was only $20 because it was more just a quick meal out rather than an evening affair.

Everyone knows that the costs of everyday items has gone up. Filling up the car is beyond discussion, it has gone up so far that it’s not even worth talking about any more. Luckily I don’t drive too far so I just try to minimize my driving and deal with it.

Groceries have increased but it’s harder to put your finger on the exact cost increase. I don’t buy the exact same thing every week, sometimes things are on sale and other times they’re not and I don’t compare my receipts to check the exact price change. Today we were doing a little grocery shopping after work, “just a few items”. Of course there is no such thing as just a few items, especially if HE is with me. Seriously, he’s like a kid in a candy store grabbing things off the shelf and tossing them in the cart. So, the total bill was about $73 which seems to be about normal for us right now.

So that was stop number one. Our next stop was at the Class Six. If you are familiar with military bases the Class Six is basically the liquour store and has pretty good prices. This is were I definitely saw the effect of rising costs. Occasionally I will treat myself to a bottle of Grey Goose Poire (Pear). I really like it but it’s pricey so it’s not an every day occurrence. Today I wasn’t planning on purchasing any but as I walked down the isle I noticed that the price has gone form $23.99 to $30.00 and that’s just in the last six months! What’s a girl to do?????

We obviously aren’t working with a grocery budget. But right now it seems to be ok. If we spend a little too much we just have to cut out eating out that week. A small price to pay and either way we are eating well.

As I have previously posted, I am a foodie at heart. Everyone knows that dining out on a daily basis will have a shrinking effect on your wallet and an expanding effect on your waist line. Our goal is to avoid both of these side effects as much as possible while still enjoying non-ramen meals. His takes his breakfast and lunch with him to work each day and I (hers) take my coffee and lunch with me to work each day which really helps.

Weekly grocery bills: 3/15/08 $47.74 Grocery Store & 3/15/08 $13.64 Costco

Breakfast for the week is bagels and cream cheese, cereal & apples.

Lunch is left over lasagna, left over chili or tuna sandwich.

Dinner Menu:

Sun: Loaded Baked potatoes with bacon, sour cream, cheese & broccoli

Mon: BBQ Chicken

Tues: Lamb Chops

Wed: Tacos with ground beef

Thurs: Penne Pasta with pesto

Fri: sushi (eating out)

Sat: Salmon Burgers

Each night we always add vegetables or a salad and a small side starch. So, you can see how two people can eat pretty well on a reasonable amount of money. We usually get sushi on Friday nights and a couple glasses of wine out at a local restaurant. Our bill this week was about $60 so combined with out grocery bills we usually stay within our $125 budget.

Stayed tuned next week when I try out a new idea I saw over on Dimples’ Divine Domain to cook an entire chicken in the crock pot! I never would have thought of it but I’m looking forward to trying it.