New goal

I'm taking the whole weaning myself off of my dining out habits thing in short steps. First I stayed away from fast food, then I stayed away from my favorite restaurant for a week (still no fast food). I took a week off and allowed myself a fast food meal and a couple meals at my favorite restaurant (but that is still a lot less than my prior pattern). I still eat at other restaurants but not as often. Now I am going to spend the next two weeks without fast food or my favorite restaurant. I bought mini cans of my favorite soda so I can have a soda when the urge to go out is really bad. Part of my dining out problem is my addiction to soda; I go to the restaurant because I want soda and end up (of course) eating a whole meal. Eventually my plan is to stop drinking soda as well, but if I did it all at once I'd end up on the floor, twitching. So one small step at a time, building on each prior success.

Small steps and building on past success are what helped me succeed with getting my finances under control and getting out of debt so I am going to try to apply those same principles to my dining out habit.

The reductions in dining out so far have saved me about $60 in the last two weeks. That's enough money to buy lavender plants to plant my parking strip without having to take from another budget. Yipee!