Why Money Matters

Rubbing Pennies started as a personal challenge to save $10,000 in one calendar year. As a young couple, we (Ian and Jen) know how important it is to live within your means, avoid acquiring a lot of debt and have a healthy financial cushion to fall on in case of emergency. On April 10, 2010, we set out on the journey of marriage with two steady incomes, a newly purchased home, one vehicle payment, and a very modest savings account. In an effort to beef up our piggy bank, we launched Rubbing Pennies in January 2012. This is our story of how we love the life we live, and how we can afford it.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Dining In

   We don't go out to eat that often for two reasons: It can be expensive, and I don't personally care for chain restaurants and the taste of commercial food. I believe with a good cookbook, culinary creativity, and some effort, you can make a delicious, first-class meal at home for half the cost and much more fun. Lately, I have been trying to recreate meals from some of our favorite restaurants.
   Recently I gave my best attempt at duplicating Harry's Seafood and Grill's chicken Baton Rouge. It's a grilled chicken breast covered in roasted red pepper sauce and melted goat cheese and I also made the sweet corn grits side dish. I NAILED it! It was awesome and I was really proud of myself. It would have cost us $40 (or more) to eat at Harry's but we ate at home for about $15 instead.
   Last night was my dad's birthday. We wanted to treat him to his favorite dinner - which would be something on the Sonny's menu - but dinner for 4 even at Sonny's could be pricey. And I knew cooking at home would make it special for him. So Ian and I prepared BBQ baby back ribs, which Ian slow cooked in the oven for 3 hours the night before and then grilled before dinner time, BBQ chicken, potato salad, baked beans and corn bread. For dessert I made a chocolate cheesecake with malted milk ball crust. The crust was my idea but I got the recipe for the cheesecake from my chocolate Pampered Chef cookbook. We feasted like kings :) Everything came out really delicious and we had plenty of left overs for lunch for a few days (bonus savings if you can get multiple meals from your cooking/leftovers). A meal for 4 at Sonny's probably would have run us somewhere around $60-$70. The cheesecake that I made, honestly could be comparable with the ones from the Cheesecake Factory. The cheapest chocolate cheesecake on their menu is $47 (for the whole cake). Thats over $100 for a birthday dinner for 4. However, by recreating all these yummy dishes at home, we made our feast for about $50.
   Cooking at home is almost always cheaper than dining out. There are many ways to get creative in the kitchen - using cookbooks, watch cooking shows, attend a cooking class or invite friends over to brainstorm new menus. The internet has millions of blogs and websites with great recipes for free. Print them, clip them from magazines! Get cooking!
  **These are a few of my favorite cookbooks. Hit the discount section at Barnes and Nobles or try Amazon.com for great deals on famous cookbooks.

    
  
Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. Aubrey FisherJanuary 17, 2012 at 4:02 PM

    The dinner was great. It was a lot better than going to Sonny's. The love that went into making the ribs, chicken, cornbread, baked beans and cheesecake made the day special for me. Love Dad

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)