Ok – so this advice and post might be a little odd. However, we have some big news on a big way to KEEP your budget low!
It all started ……. a couple of months ago. My hubby and I like to have nice dinner dates out: we save, we conserve, we budget, PLUS we use coupons when we eat out. So one of our favorites is Red Lobster! Well, we had a gift card and coupons and decided to treat the whole family to Red Lobster for a “Family Date.” This is where “treating the family” and “saving by using gift cards and coupons” may not have saved us a whole lot in the long run, in fact, we are trying to figure out what to do!?!
What is it that you ask went so wrong? Well, that was introducing our six-year old to fried shrimp!!!!
The girl is obssessed with it now! She wants shrimp for breakfast, lunch, dinner …. oh and snacks! She woke up this morning talking about how she wanted to eat it all day … in fact, she wants shrimp to the extent that she dreamed up a scenario in which she takes a bite and the shrimp grows and there is more and more (wow the imgaination of a child).
Not sure if you have noticed, shrimp is not exactly the cheapest item in the grocery store (or a restaurant!).
In fact, when we went to Target and got awesome deals on apparel & a booster seat, we walked through the food section! She spotted the frozen popcorn shrimp! I tried to pretend I didn’t see it, or convince that it really wasn’t shrimp, but because she can read – it didn’t work! She asked and pulled out the birthday excuse. 🙂 No, we do not give her everything she wants, but because it was her birthday just a day before we made a couple of concessions! How can you resist! However, price tag $5.49 for a small box of frozen shrimp! And guess what – that was the sale price!!!! Needless to say, it was 2 snack servings for her the next 2 days – $2.75 for a snack – are you kidding me!!
Also, we discovered that our Kids’ Eat FREE Tuesday nights out as a family – you can add a plate of shrimp for $1.99. One of us ordered it and gave it to her! So that bill went up by a few bucks!
Well, the moral of the story, DO NOT INTRODUCE YOUR CHILD TO SHRIMP, if you want to keep your budget low. Thrifty Al has already asked the extended family to NOT introduce lobster or crab for a while…a looong while!
vtfiti
thats a cute story! i love shrimp, it started as a kid and i think my parents tried to do that little run around with me too. haha! it didn’t work though. i have shrimp for every birthday sometimes king grab legs too, if i can afford it:) goodluck 6yrs down, 12 more to go. have a good day.
Brooke
We have the exact same problem but we have double the problem. We have 2 of them who want shrimp CONSTANTLY!!!! But they have discovered that they don’t like ‘REAL’ shrimp they only like the deep fried yummy stuff. Yes it gets spendy but if we go out to eat, the kids menu usually has shrimp for the same price as a corn dog and we encourage them to get it there.