Eating at home. Wahhh.

Greek Salads. Holy Shiitake Pie! at Mellow Mushroom, PIZOOKIE, Vegetarian sweet and sour chickennnnn. I die. So, I like to eat out. A lot. When I'm in the mood, I can cook a pretty delicious meal. I don't really follow recipes, I just kind of throw things together I think I'll enjoy and I usually get lucky and get something very tasty. I actually don't even mind eating at home - I enjoy it!

The problem is, I'm hardly ever in the mood to cook. I tend to wait until I'm starving to eat which means I'm not about to bust out pots and pans and wait an additional 20+ minutes while I cook myself something. I also don't dig that clean-up. So I usually tend to eat out and with friends so it's a social thing too. 

After my fair fiasco, I realized how much money I had spent. Y'all. I'm kind of ashamed to admit this. I spent around $70 that day. Most of it went to eating out. IN. ONE. DAY. Not to mention, because I'm apart of the service industry (salon and spa what, what!) I refuse to leave less than 20% tip (seriously, if you don't- I am judging you and you should not eat out). This means I'm pretty much throwing my money around like I'm Donald Trump. Except I'm not.

Frivolous spending is my jam! I'm so good at it. But this isn't something I'm proud of. So after a few drinks that night with friends and sitting around and talking, we decided to take a challenge. We aren't eating out for one month. ONE MONTH. If I just ditched eating out for one month, I could save hundreds (don't judge me).

When I realized this meant I can't pull into a Starbucks or coffee shop, I died a little inside. Or Disney! You can literally eat an entire meal before entering a park, and the second you walk in and smell the food, you decide as soon as there's room in your belly, you're going to get popcorn or a sweet treat. 

But I can't! Anything and everything I eat will be something I made at home. On the plus side, I tend to only cook healthy meals so this will be a good detox for me.

Say hello to Chef Alex. At least for the next thirty days.