Cheap Romance!

First, a brief reflection on my food spending. It took close to a month, but I finally brought our food expenses dow to the national norm.

The surprises...
I really had no idea how much we were spending on food. You probably don't either. When you factor in everything you buy, including picking up chips or a bog of cookies at Target or the second trip to the grocery store to buy more milk, it's probably a good $50 more than you think.

You can buy junk, but cooking from scratch is the only way to continue to eat quality food and save money.

The changes I had to make...
I swtiched from organic to hormone-free milk. This saved bout $5 per week.
I stopped buying frozen lunch entrees. This saved about $8 per week.
I bought my produce from a produce market. This saved about $8-$12 per week.
I put in some standing orders from pasta and crackers, etc., at amazon.com. This saved about $5 per week (reflected in the 15% off subscription rate)
I bought formula on sale. You have to check sale circulars. Sure, you'll feel 90 doing it and it may not control where you shop, but...I'm also waiting for a case of free formula. All I had to do was ask my son's doctor! Again, this saved about $3 per week.

But February isn't about cheap eats. It's about saving money on having fun with my husband. Clearly, a more difficult challenge.

Let's start with Philly's restaurant week. Your city probably has one too. $35 for 3 courses. With 2 glasses of wine, you'll still be looking at about a $65 bill, so chose a restaurant you KNOW is more expensive than that.
Pick a place you can't usually afford.

A quick on-line search revealed a restaurant week in Philadelphia, New York, DC, San Diego, Long Island, and Baltimore. Many cities even offer on-line reservations through www.opentable.com.