Special Occasions

Okay, we had our first special occasion, Chinese New Years.  This is important holiay for us, of course. Since we wanted to hold fast to our not going out rule, I thought I could cook a chinese meal for less money than it would have cost us to go out. What was I thinking?  First cooking from scratch was not going to happen. Recipes calling for fresh ginger. I thought ginger only came in a jar in a powder form.  So quickly learned cooking was going to happen.

The next best thing was to get those prepacked meals from my neighbor Sam (aka Sam's Club). Many problems happened with this idea: first, they come in huge quantities so I needed to find freezer space I didn't have. Second, they are expensive! That works against the reason for the not going out deal in the first place. What to do? What to do?

Solution is to order in! We would have leftovers for a couple of meals, wouldn't have to tip or buy overpriced beverages. Works well for us. CNY celebrated in a thrifty manner. More importantly, we are becoming aware of pricing.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!!

It Begins

Our family thrifty living started after Christmas. I had decided that in 2011, we would not eat out anymore. I got my husband (who is all for saving money) and my girls (little persuasion was needed) on board.  We told our family and friends. I figured if they know, maybe they won't ask us out to lunch, dinner or breakfast. It actually worked. So we started  "going over" nights. More on that later. Now this may not sound like a big deal, no going out to eat. But, as I figured it, we went out to eat a lot. It was possible we as a family go out to eat 8 times on a weekend. Now that my girls are eating from the adult menu, the cost was quite a bit. So having made the decision, I started a blog about the experience. Oh, the one exception is special occasions only. We were out (of course) eating Chinese two days before the New Year. We were discussing what the going out exceptions would be.  My girls came up with many exceptions but it was decided on going out for "special occasions" read birthdays, anniversaries, and gotcha days.  So after we decided on special occasions, I opened my Chinese fortune cookie and it read "Everyday is a special occasion"! Are we destined to fail?