Eat In Challenge!

This week we started a family challenge called The Eat In Challenge, where we will NOT be eating out for an entire month! This will be hard for us because living with in walking distance to several fast food and other restaurants it is very tempting to eat out but we can and will do this.  I cannot tell you the benefits for us from just doing it for a few days.

The first one is probably the most obvious, saving money. On average to feed our family of five we spend $35-40 a meal and considering we would eat out maybe twice a week, that is a lot of money!! We don't eat at fancy places but try to go to kid friendly or kids eat free with occasional "nice" meal. Most of what we eat when dining out, we could probably make at home, especially the kids meals! I am not a gourmet chef my any means but I do know how to make mac and cheese or heat up some nuggets or make a pizza! We decided that we never needed to eat out but wanted to, so since it wants are not as important as needs, it was settled and the challenge was on!

Another good thing is that is healthier for us to cook our own meals and know exactly what is going in our bodies. We try to get our kids the healthy option when eating out but not all restaurants offer one. This way the kids are helping to make and plan the meals each night and now it has become not only healthy but fun! The kids, or at least the girls love helping to make out the menu and shopping list and then go with me to the grocery store. Ally especially loves helping me cook! She has even started making up her own healthy recipes.

It has also given us more time to spend as a family! We don't have to spend the 10- 15 minutes driving, parking, and deciding what to order. It is done and we have that time to do family activities like playing outside, going to the park, playing board games, or playing the Wii or just doing art. I think this is the most important and best thing about our challenge! When we eat out, we loose time and by the time we get home, it is almost dark and the kids do not have much outside or inside play time left. Little man goes to bed by 8:30 on most nights so we try to start our family devotional/bible time by 8:15! Now after dinner and clean up we still have hours of daylight left to burn and the kids have LOVED it! It is so nice to have all the "new" time together. Paul will go back to work and school next month so we are definitely enjoying as much family time as we can before our hectic season picks up.

Please pray as we continue on our Eat In Challenge! It is really hard for us not to just run out to get sandwiches or something after a long day of dealing with the kids and cleaning and what not but we can do it! With God ALL things are possible!!