Eating Out

This post appears in The Carnival of Personal Finance #170 over at The Personal Financier.

I’m going out to lunch with my girlfriends today to what, in our town, is a fairly expensive restaurant. I want to go but don’t really have the budget for it. If I say I can’t afford it, someone will pay for me and I don’t want that to happen. I’ve given it some thought and come up with a strategy. Firstly, I’m not going to have any alcoholic drinks. These are mostly lunching ladies and a cocktail at lunch is the norm. I’m going to have water, which I already drink a lot of, and cry the need to work this afternoon. That will go over without question. Secondly, I’m going to order a bowl of soup. I feel like if I already know what I’m going to order I will be less likely to veer off my path. I think I can have an enjoyable lunch with my girls for about $10 with this strategy. You may think that having to be this careful makes the whole budgeting thing too much trouble. Actually it isn’t. It took me about 5 minutes to think up a strategy where I get to go to lunch with my friends and not spend too much money. Taking just a few minutes to think things through relates to living a bit more consciously, another priority of mine. I have found that the areas in which I have been living the least consciously are how I spend money and what I eat. I didn’t really make a huge change in my lifestyle I just started trying to think about what I was doing/eating/saying, etc. for a few minutes before jumping in. Whether I have two cocktails, a regular lunch and a desert, or a bowl of soup and a glass of water, the camaraderie of the event and the pleasure I derive from it will be exactly the same. I’m off!

Update: I’m back from my lunch and my strategy worked very well with one exception. Instead of ordering the soup I had planned, I ordered the soup of the day and it wasn’t very good. I should have stuck with my complete plan! No one said a word about what I did and did not order and I had an enjoyable outing. Including tip I spent exactly $10!

What is your strategy for living a frugal life without giving up all of your enjoyable pastimes?