We cut eating out to twice a month. Here's what we save

How it started: a move and a restaurant tax

For a long time, eating out once a week was just part of our routine. It didn't feel like a big expense, because it was one meal at a time.

Then we moved to South Carolina. In our city, the tax on restaurant food is noticeably higher than what we were used to. Many South Carolina cities and counties add a local hospitality tax on prepared food on top of regular sales tax, so the total on the receipt kept surprising us. Every meal out cost more than the menu prices suggested.

That was the push we needed to take a hard look at the habit.

The secret weapon: my husband's cooking

Here's the part that made this easy for us: my husband is an amazing cook. His food is better than most of what we were paying for anyway. Once we started really comparing, a lot of our restaurant meals just weren't worth it. We were paying more, plus the tax and the tip, for food we could make better at home.

The two times a month we still go out

We didn't give up restaurants completely, and I don't think you have to either. We just got picky about them.

When we eat out now, it's for something we can't easily make at home: authentic Mexican food or seafood. Those meals feel like a real treat again. Before, going out was so routine that it didn't feel special. Now it does.

My rule of thumb is simple: if we can make it just as well at home, we make it at home. We save restaurant money for the meals we can't recreate.

What it actually saves us

Every time we cook at home instead of eating out, we save at least $60 to $80. Here's how that adds up over a year:

That's roughly $140 to $190 a month, and it's a low estimate, because we used to eat out at least once a week. It's money we didn't have to earn extra or cut from anything we really miss.

To work out the "saved per meal" number, take what a typical meal out costs your household with tax and tip, then subtract what the same meal costs to cook at home.

The hardest part: actually cooking

I'll be honest: the hardest part of this change wasn't giving up restaurants. It was having to do the cooking. Eating out is easy because someone else does the work.

What made it stick for us is that we both enjoy it. My husband loves to cook, and so do I. Once cooking stopped feeling like a chore and became something we liked doing, we didn't miss eating out the way I thought we would.

What I'd tell you if you want to try this

Don't ban restaurants. Make them count. Keep eating out for the meals you can't make at home, and skip the ones you can. It feels like a treat again instead of a habit.

Look at the whole receipt. Add up tax and tip, not just the menu prices. Depending on where you live, local taxes on restaurant food can add more than you'd expect.

Lean on the cook in your house. If someone at home likes to cook, let them shine. If nobody does yet, start with one or two favorite meals you'd usually order out.

Pick a number. "Eat out less" is hard to stick to. "Twice a month" is easy to keep track of.

Write the savings down. Seeing the number grow on paper makes it much easier to keep going.

More from our family's budget

Cooking at home is one of the ways we keep spending under control. Here's how we did Christmas for 4 kids on $300, with a homemade Christmas dinner, and how I paid off $3,500 of Christmas credit card debt. If you want somewhere to put the money you save, the 52-week savings challenge is an easy place to start, and the 50/30/20 budget rule shows where eating out fits in a budget.