Meal Planning on a Budget

Staying at our in-laws’ place during weekdays, I leave the meal planning to the lady of the house, my MIL. She decides what food to prepare for the family, with occasional requests from her husband and three children (that includes yours truly).

Meal planning during weekends at our marital home in Bacoor is a different story. There, I get to practice being the smart wife who knows her way around the kitchen. In the three years that the hubby and I are married (going four in March!), I have not really sat down and written a meal plan. Or maybe I have, but it was only written in my head, not on paper. Haha.

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Do You Have a Budget for Dining Out?

One random day, I bumped into an old friend at the mall and we got to chat for a few minutes. She mentioned how she gets updated on my married life thru Facebook. She also made a remark on how the hubby and I get to dine out twice, and sometimes even thrice a week. It sounded like she was amazed with our love for food, and at the same time, how easy we get to finance those food trips. I replied to her with a smile, “Paminsan minsan lang yun, pag may extra money.” That conversation made me think about our budget for dining out. Do I even have a separate budget for that purpose in the first place?

dining out
Image Source: http://money.cnn.com

To be honest, we love to try out new restaurants but we don’t set aside money for it. A dining out fund? No, nada, zilch. The money we spend for eating out comes from our weekly budget. (The hubby and I both receive our salary on a weekly basis so a weekly budget is a must for us.) It covers our daily needs: food, toiletries and other miscellaneous expenses. So if sometimes, we don’t have extra bath soap or toothpaste in our Bacoor home or we’re eating canned goods on a weekend, that’s because we’ve already spent our money on a nice dinner at some inexpensive restaurant. Funny, but true. Haha.

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