$263.61!!

$128.61 is what we spent on dining out last month (January). But, actually, we took my mother-in-law to Starker's on the Plaza for a surprise retirement celebration and our portion of that check was $135. So, total spent eating out in January looks more like $263.61!

That is absolutely ridiculous! But at the same time, I know we've had months that were a lot worse (summer months, especially, because we traveled a lot and tend to pick up something whenever we can). 

Just for the sake of illustrating how bad we are at spending money dining out, I also calculated for the last couple months (and one summer month):

December: $226.68
November: $171.70**
October: $107.09
September: $117.55
...
June: $552.02 (unbelievable)

**Coincidentally, we were taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University September thru the beginning of December.

Needless to say, this is a complete waste of money, and I'm up for another good challenge, so we're doing it -- NO DINING OUT in February! One of my favorite blogs Couponing to Disney has ignited this fire inside me, so I'll also be checking in with her a couple times a week, too. I'm currently working on spending less on groceries by couponing and learning how to stockpile better, but at this point, we still spend around $300 on groceries per month. Combined with dining out, that is too much on food, possibly the reason GT and I are both overweight?!

Because it's a short month, it should be easy to motivate myself, but it's also time for me to start taking off the winter weight I've put on (seriously, 15 lbs!!) and shaping up for swimsuit season. Not dining out should only help with that...and Couponing to Disney helps, too, because she's doing a "Minniemize February" challenge, as well.

So, I'll post the status of our dining in as much as possible, and starting on Monday, I'll be weighing in each week, as well!

Today is the 5th of February, and we've made it the first week in February without dining out! Definitely an accomplishment, but I'm confident that my first trip to the grocery store will benefit us well...I made sure to purchase bread, turkey, bologna and we still have a lot of Lean Cuisines left from the Price Chopper sale in January, so we'll make it!