Dining - Out or IN

Image by Nemo's great uncle via Flickr

I've known this for quite some time... dining out is much more costly than eating at home.
The problem lies in the fact that sometimes we just need a change of scenery.  It's not just the food but it is the "event" as a friend once told me.  Going out for dinner is an event. One gets to "people watch" and taste some foods that are too expensive to make at home or, are just very different from the usual home fare.
    I recently went to one of my favorite local restaurants and had chicken with apples and walnuts.  It was a 22.95 special which I could make at home for less than 5.00 per person.  I had a glass of wine that night which was more costly than an entire bottle of a good but inexpensive wine.  So for sure, after the dinner and tip, my family and I were in the hole
for over 100.00... an amount that we could have dined at home on for about 10 days.  Now it is not impossible to find a place or two which may actually be less expensive than eating at home.
For example, a family run restaurant at the beach serves all-you-can-eat Prime Rib for 15.95.  It may be a wash but think of not having to clean any dishes with that heavy beef fat on them... yum AND yuk!
Oddly enough, the local Chinese buffet place has some items that would cost me more to make at home.. King Crab legs and Sushi being just a couple to mention... After all, the buffet is only 16.95 per person for dinner.  How can I possible eat all the coconut shrimp I want along with so many other delights and follow that with ice cream and fruit?  Can't.
Well, for now, I'm trying to stay out of the restaurants...that is until I open up one of my own.
People have to eat somewhere.

Live Simply

Image by itchys via Flickr

Each day as I pull out of my driveway I view my neighbor's 18 yr old daughter's car with a bumper sticker on it that says "Live Simply" and I smile. It is a nice (however trite) motto that any 18 year old can quite easily accomplish. But for those of us who are embedded in decades of accumulating "stuff", living simply is not quite that easy.
Each time I see that bumper sticker I remind myself that I will have to do that someday, and I would like that "some"day to be sooner rather than later.  Of course, in order to "live simply" I need to eliminate many different "things" such as magazine subscriptions, gym memberships, a couple of houses, a few of the cars that I own and perhaps even some investments. The paperwork and the manpower and the brainpower needed to sustain all of these things is overwhelming.  I don't even have enough time to read all of the magazine subscriptions and newspapers that come into my home.
Unfortunately, I have a spouse who likes to "hold on to things".  He's not quite a hoarder but rather a "collector". The problem is that in doing so the cause and effect syndrome is STRESS and more STRESS! Furthermore, while keeping the junk along with the valuables, it is more time consuming to weed out the trash from the important things.... let alone the issue of storage.   My latest strategy is throwing out things that are exclusively mine.. therefore I am not trespassing. Hopefully when my family sees a sense of order and calm come over me, they may want to emulate it themselves...AAHH, HA ,HA ,HA!
Although leaving little bits of my past in some garbage dump is a painful thought, I do try to donate things that others may find useful... trying to expand that directive of living simply to "Live simply so that others may simply live".   We do have so, so much to be thankful for.

 

The Road Not Taken

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Oh how I wish there were a road here in NJ that I have not taken!  It seems as if all I do is jump in the car and drive here and there and everywhere.  But I'm not alone... no Siree! I have tons and tons of company whilst driving on the busy roadways.  My question is - How can everyone afford such a luxury?  This week the price of gasoline went up 12 cents per gallon in and around my neighborhood.  What is going on?  Is this just a gearing up for another holiday week-end to gouge the metropolitan drivers?  After all, why not rape the American consumer who is out to enjoy those Columbus Day sales?  Or what about those traveling to a recreational activity?  Let's just make it even more painful for them to save a buck.
Well, my only suggestion (and something that I will attempt to do myself) is STAY HOME and wait until the "Holiday" is over.  Maybe gasoline will shed the 12 cent increase.
I think I'll just do some work around the house and go for a nice long walk... if only, if only.