Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Eating Out and Thank You!

Last night a friend of mine shared this article on Facebook. 
Red Lobster is having Financial problems

The main point of the article is that Red Lobster is having tough times and may have to close.   The article touches on a very important point that most of us have already realized.  Times are tough and people are not eating out as much.  It talks about how the working class is the ones taking a hit right now. 

My first though well Duh!! We have been saying this for a while now. We can't eat out like we used to. Prices are higher and for our family of five it costs us easily $45 - $65 at a restaurant. I know it will just get more expensive as my kids get older.  We still have one that eats on the kids menu but at seven years old he is starting to get to the point where it doesn't fill him up.  The article got me to thinking about some of the changes we have been making to save more money.

I started really watching what we spend about a year and a half ago as I was trying to get us out of debt. I have quickly learned that a weekly meal plan saves us a ton of money and eating at home is not that bad. I started following Melissa over at House Full of Searls  right after I started doing meal plans.  I started following Melissa and that lead me to everyone else on the wonderful blog world, Judy, sluggy, Kim, Cindi, Carla, Sharon and many more.  I have been opened up to so many more ways of saving money that I would have ever thought of on my own.


To the wonderful group of ladies who take the time to blog and share your experiences and your money saving tips I say THANK YOU!!

 I still have lots to learn but slowly and surely we have started making our way out of debt.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the blog love but really, we ALL should keep learning and striving to live a better life. While you have learned from all of us, we have learned from you as well even if we don't say so. 8-)

    Certain businesses will need to change or sink when wages don't keep pace with inflation....restaurants being one of these. Red Lobster(Darden, the parent company) has only it's self to blame.....from over expansion to not changing it's menus to include lower priced offerings. Personally, I think all chain restaurants have a set shelf life, even if they are good. People will go to a restaurant for the novelty of it and once that wears off, the business loses a certain percentage of it's clientele. Then if service or food quality goes south and prices go north, the end is in sight. Americans are always on the prowl for what's new and food trends come and go.

    IE-People eating out. I live in a blue collar area. The per capita income is $23K yr.
    which is lower than the state and national figures. We have a 15% poverty level in my county. Yet in the last 13 years we've lived here I have seen no change in the dining out spending among my fellow citizens as a whole....ok, I don't have actual numbers but judging by the number of chain restaurants and how their parking lots are full up most weeknights as well as weekends, I am guessing the restaurants around here are doing alright. At any rate, none of them are closing up shop and every year we get a couple of new ones. I am still waiting for the discretionary spending to ease up here and eateries to shutdown. But I guess the credit cards are alive and well in NE PA and not yet maxed out. ;-)

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  2. That reminds me I have $50.00 in gift certificates to Red Lobster soon I had better use them! But I totally agree!

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  3. Thanks for the shout out you are making me blush. I agree with Sluggy though I never cease to be amazed that the parking lots of all the eating establishments are full! It's not in our budget except for extra special occasions and we haven't had one of them in awhile. Even birthdays we usually cook at home and eat a cake or pie that I have made. Food is just to expensive. For what I would pay for say a hot roast beef sand which I could buy a whole roast!!!!

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