I have to confess that I kind of love fast food. Mmm, salty French fries and a Dr. Pepper get me all the time. Those brightly-colored restaurants call my name incessantly…
Come on, you know it’s getting late and you really need to get the kids down for a nap as soon as you get home. There’s nothing to eat at home anyway. You can spend less by splitting the kids’ food [what a deal!]. You’ve been working really hard lately and you deserve a reward.
Like most of you, I know that it’s not good for me, and it’s also not cheap. A lot of it really doesn’t even taste good, either. So this past summer, I determine (a) that we were going to go a lot of different places and do a lot of different things and (b) that we were not going to eat fast food.
I have good news to report: even though we went many places and were gone for many mealtimes, we didn’t eat fast food*! I can confidently say that we’ve conquered the fast food habit. I can count on one hand the times we’ve eaten an unplanned fast food meal since the beginning of summer, and I am really excited about my progress in this area! Much like my newfound laundry habit, I really want to shout to the world about the progress we’ve made in this area, so I hope I can encourage any of you who might have the same goal.
Here’s how I quit the fast food habit:
Above image modified from tspauld.
1. Have delicious, easy food ready to eat at home.
Why did it take me years – years – to realize that if I spent a little extra on groceries and had good food to eat at home, I wouldn’t be nearly so tempted to eat out?! Perhaps I’ve been too focused on how much I spend on groceries. After all, if you spend money at a restaurant it doesn’t come out of your grocery totals, right?
But, when I spend a little extra money having something good to make for lunch – or even just keeping ample sandwich fixings on hand – it makes lunch at home so much simpler. I know that if we have gone somewhere in the morning and are late coming home, I can quickly fix lunch rather than having to scrounge around for bits and pieces of something that resembles a meal.
I had to adjust my thinking a bit to realize that my lunches out – that weren’t for any special occasion – really should be counted towards my grocery budget or else I’m just playing with the numbers to make them say what I want them to say.
2. Take food everywhere you go.
We took a lot of trips to the zoo, and the park, and bowling, and the movies, and the splash fountains this summer, which used to be prime opportunities for me to grab some fast food. But, I was determined not to do that this summer, so we packed a lot of lunches and you know what? It was really fun and easy!
We’ve been able to pull out our picnic lunch whenever we get hungry, wherever we are. I keep it very simple – we don’t even take plates so there’s not a lot of cleanup. Sometimes I make pasta salad, cheese sticks, grapes, and chips. Sometimes it’s peanut butter and jelly, strawberries, crackers, and cheese. I’m not a fan of making sandwiches at the zoo while trying to keep track of my kiddos, so I tried making pb&j ahead of time and it was great – the bread wasn’t soggy at all.
I’m working on this area even more by buying/making tummy-filling snacks (dried fruit, nuts, granola bars) and keeping them in the car so that they are ready to eat even if we didn’t plan to be out at mealtime.
3. Realize that you are the mom (or dad).
It’s up to you to say no. Unless your kids are really really really out of control, you are the one who pulls into the Wendy’s parking lot when you are only five minutes from home. You are the one who decides what to put on the grocery list and whether or not you’ll have food to eat at home.
4. Have your favorite fast food restaurant go out of business.
It was so hard for me to resist Good Times’ $2.89 Craver Combos. Those fresh-cut fries… Man. I was so bummed when the closed both of their locations in Colorado Springs. That was one of the places I could go and get “good” fast food without spending a fortune.
I’m not really advocating that you actively help your favorite fast food weakness go out of business, but man, it sure did put a dent in my fast food desires.
5. Eat out when there are great deals.
I’m not swearing off fast food forever – I do like french fries and I don’t think that’s a problem in moderation. So, when we can get a good deal on fast food, we do go out – and boy, do I savor every last bite! When Domino’s does $3.99 pizzas, or Chick-fil-A has a freebie, I’ll spend a few bucks and treat myself and my kids.
I’ve found that both I and my kids look forward to the days that we plan to eat out, and savor it much more than we would have if we’d just grabbed an unplanned bite to eat while running errands.
6. Take many hungry children with you when you eat out.
Fast food for one person may not cost too much, but if you’re like me and have five hungry kids plus yourself (ok, one of mine is nursing), eating out and actually getting full adds up really quickly. When a fast food meal for me and all my kids hit $15+, I started to realize that it was really a significant expenditure.
OK, so maybe not all of you can take many hungry children with you to remind you how much it costs to eat out. ;) But it was effective for me!
How do you keep last-minute fast food stops from getting out of control?
I would love to hear your tips – or struggles – in the area of unplanned, unneeded dinners out!
*I’m not claiming that we haven’t eat fast food at all. We’ve had a couple of birthday lunches that were planned, and a few times where we took advantage of a special deal or coupon that made it super cheap. Yet, most all of the times we’ve eaten out in the past six months have been planned.
$1.99 for Pantry Essentials (gallon) at Safeway
Posts like this make me love you and this site even more. I’m telling you, I can’t get enough of all the “real life” posts. The matchups are amazing, but the real gem is inside the personal posts. That’s what makes Springs/Denver Bargains soooooo much better than the typical blahish coupon site. Thanks for it all, Carrie & Co. :)
Now, onto fast food. First of all, you tempted me with the Sonic burger and onion rings picture. I mean, seriously – yum. The thing is, you’re totally right – it’s not even THAT good. It’s more appealing because it’s fast and easy. I don’t have to rush around the kitchen, after a long day at work, trying to make a meal that will probably get burnt or taste like crud. I’m not all that great in the kitchen. I need to get into freezer/crockpot/little ingredients cooking, and not rely on fast food or store bought frozen meals (which I don’t like anyways). Plus, I’m bound to lose a few lbs if I start making better choices, right? :P
I applaud you for making the choice to avoid the brightly colored fast food places!
Aw, thanks, Teresa! I’m glad you enjoy these types of posts! I always enjoy writing them and am trying to work them in as often as I can! (Of course, when it requires changing major life habits like eating out and laundry, it takes awhile to get those posts ready!)
If you like to read and want to consider getting better in the kitchen, you should try reading The Kitchen Counter Cooking School (here it is at Amazon
, or I got it from the library). I guess it’s classified as a memoir – it’s definitely not really a cookbook or a technique book – but the author shares her experience about teaching 9 or 10 kitchen novices/fast food grabbers/frozen dinner eaters how to cook with confidence.
Now granted, I already like to cook, but I was really inspired to get better at cooking after reading it.
I’ve been frequenting fast food restaurants since I was a teen and had too much spending money on my hands (from babysitting and working at McDonald’s). Once I got out on my own, I aimed to only eat out once/week. I brought my lunch to work and ate at home in the evenings. Once I got married, I scaled back my eating out even more because my husband is a healthy eater and therefore, not a fast food plan. Plus, he is the most frugal person I’ve ever met, so spending money on fast food was hard to get him to go along with. But, now that I’m pregnant, low on energy, always hungry and spending a lot of time outside the home running errands, having playdates etc. I have fallen back into a rut of eating out far too often. I do carry granola bars in my purse and always have water on hand. But, a lot of times I just don’t have the energy or motivation to make something to eat at home, so we swing by a fast food restaurant. I definitely think having something ready to go at home would make me less likely to eat out. Maybe I can make up sandwiches before we leave the house so I know all I have to do is pull lunch out of the fridge once we get home.
Ooh, pregnancy has always been my hardest time, too. Noticed I published this article when I am NOT pregnant, lol.
We ate a fair amount of fast food growing up, too, so it’s kind of a habit, I guess. I’ve had to re-train myself to remember that eating lunch at Sonic is not a reward. :)
Fast food is a rarity for us, simply because it does come out of my grocery budget! There is no other place in our budget that it could come from and with three kids, dropping around $20 on a “meal” at McDonalds or BK is wasting what could be spent on groceries.
There are days when it is tempting to pick something up – because it has been crazy, or I’m pooped, but I usually have a couple “quick” meals that can be done in a 1/2 hour that I use. It’s always the plan & prep that take most time for me, which is why I enjoyed your musings on prepping ahead & doing partial freezer meals!
Thank you for your authentic sharing!
I know – when I think about what I COULD HAVE fixed for lunch after dropping $15-20 on eating out, I always regret my decision to eat out. :/
Like the Liz above, I make sure fast food comes out I my grocery budget! It makes it a lot harder to spend. That being said, we will go through the drive thru of Sonic at happy hour and each kid gets a small slush (50-60 cents) or when Kum & Go had the three days of 25 drinks, we went there! It’s nice to have a “treat”
Great post! In the last year our budget has required the elimination of our dining out category so any eating out has come from the grocery budget. We are getting better about packing meals to go with us or prepping something before we leave so it is ready to serve or finish when we get home. We had a victory in October driving 2 hard days (over 1500 miles) and only spending $1 in that time on a McDs coffee. Our trip home was more costly as we were not starting at a spot with a kitchen where I could prep meals. You are so right that having more kids is a great deterrent! :) I used to be able to use my personal allowance to grab a lunch here or there for the kids and myself but now we need enough food that they could eat my whole allowance. lol I need to do better with admitting that I need to buy some ingredients for easy lunches and not feel that I need to make everything from scratch. So I actually need to buy the bread instead of thinking I will find the time to make bread for that “quick” lunch. Did you have a post sometime on easy kid-friendly lunch options? We can’t do pb or any other nuts so I feel like I could use some ideas in that department.
Wow, good for you on your road trip food skills!
I think my hangup was similar to yours – I thought I was going to get all creative with lunch and make it delicious and healthy and that NEVER happened. So like you, I need to just buy the bread instead of dreaming that I’m something I’m not.
Here are some lunch ideas:
http://denverbargains.com/2012/09/back-to-school-food-cooking-ideas-and-motivation-eat-well-spend-less-roundup/
http://denverbargains.com/2011/08/eat-well-spend-less-back-to-school-lunch-and-snack-inspiration/
I’ll admit that I’m not very creative with lunch… It’s usually PB&J or meat sandwiches with a fruit. At some point, I might try to get more variety in our lunches but for now I am just happy to get us fed.
Great post !!! Thanks for sharing : )
Kristine
Pinned this from pinterest the other day. This lady has great lunch ideas that are kid friendly.
Laura, Chief Mom of Momables, packs lunches on Sunday for the whole week! There are 173 pictures of 173 “Momable” lunch ideas. **Pinning to read later*
easylunchboxes.smugmug.com