Where'd all my money go?

I just looked at some past financial records that I've been blowing most of my income on FOOD! More specifically, by eating out.

I have an interesting relationship with food. I know half of what I eat are just plain junk. But they're so ... yummy ... convenient ... fast ... easy ... I just crave them sometimes. So, I indulge myself with whatever it is that I crave.

I make endless resolutions to myself. Eat better (healthier) foods, exercise more, drink more water, eat more vegetables, more fruits ...

I mean well. I even make it easier for myself by stocking all those items at home. Atlas, they tend to go bad before I finish even half of them.

What happens is that I usually end up getting home late, or staying out late. The easiest (and fun) thing to do would be to eat out, or grab something that I don't need to cook and start chowing down on it.

Out of convenience (and budget), I've been known to have any of the following for a meal: grapes, handfuls of cereal, plain hotdogs, poptart, crackers, cup-o-noodle ... not exactly a well balanced diet.

With the new realization of my financial situation, I am making a new promise to myself to at least NOT eat out during the week for lunch. It's been going pretty well so far. It has been a week and I've been eating salads almost every day. Sometimes a sandwich, sometimes a soup. Fruits (they have these big boxes of fresh mango slices at Costco ... ummm ... mangos ... yummmm ...), and even have these cups of jello as a special treat. I'm telling ya! I haven't eaten so well in a while ... though I still crave the occasional fried squid or egg rolls.

I went out for dinner a couple of nights ago at this family style steak place and ended up with a dinner tab that's roughly the same as I would have spent at a nicer French place. Time to re-think my whole choice of places to go to.

I'm now craving a nice juicy burger, perhaps with some blue cheese and maybe even some mushrooms inside it ... wonder who's got ground beef on sale. Ummm ... maybe I'll get a slab of beef and ground my own. Afterall, I've got a food processor to play with now. Gotta make it do something to earn its keep.