Daily Dose of Thrifty: Dinner By 10

Today’s Daily Dose of Thrifty is called “Dinner By 10.”  You may be wondering… “Wow, what does that mean??” and thinking we’re over here eating and feeding the kids into the late evening!

But we wanted to share what this means to us: it is a rule in our house.  As we have recently shared, in our “unthrifty” past, we had an issue with going into debt by eating out constantly! Not only was this a major problem due to health reasons, but especially because our budget could not handle it – thus the significant amount of acquired debt.

We had to create an easy rule for us to follow and even now we still do this in our thriftier days as this is still a temptation for us.  It is just so easy to justify blowing this part of our budget when it gets late into the afternoon or early evening and we don’t even know what we are eating or we haven’t made the necessary preparations for the dinner that night!

So the rule is “Dinner By 10″ – this means that we need to know by 10 am what will be for dinner that night! This allows for adequate time to defrost, set-out and make any necessary plans for dinner.  This little rule has saved us so many times.  Even when we have a menu planned out, simply writing it out is just not enough! If you have pot roast on your menu and you did not look at it until 3pm…. it is a little late and makes for a wide open door excuse to grabbing a bite out.

Also, if you work or are gone during the day, the “Dinner by 10″ rule can still apply to rule for your family.  Simply switch the time to 10pm the night before!

Our challenge to help you save your food dollars:  When that short hand hits the 10 in the morning or evening…. know and have a plan for the next dinner! Set that mental – or even literal – alarm!

See more Daily Doses of Thrifty