I didn’t realize that an average American restaurant portion is 2-3 times larger than it should be.  After learning how to cook for myself, I discovered I can put together a gourmet steak dinner complete with grass fed beef, mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables and a glass of wine for about $12.  Total calories is about 400-500.  An equivalent meal at my favorite steakhouse costs $38, and weighs in at over 1000 calories!

My partner and I still enjoy dining out.  We do it economically, and stay slim.  This is how I did it, while still enjoying an occasional dinner out.

1. Take advantage of happy hour prices.  Seattle is blessed with numerous late night happy hour menus at top quality restaurants.  We have two chances daily to catch happy hour.  We enjoy two appetizer sized plates. This can be any two of the following: tacos, shrimp cocktail, chicken wings, nachos, hamburger sliders, salmon/crab cakes, wontons, bbq ribs, small pizza, beef/chicken satay, sashimi/sushi rolls, salads, or soups.  While not ‘health’ food, the portions are small and we’re sharing, so it’s not nearly as bad as eating it on our own. 
Average Saved: Our bill usually tops $24, including drinks at Seattle’s top restaurants.
Calories Saved: 400-1000

2. Share a plate.  Sometimes we’ll order an appetizer and a single main course, then share our plates.  Some restaurants frown on this and charge a $1-2 plate sharing fee.  This is still much cheaper (and fewer calories) than getting two entrees. 
Average Saved: $40
Calories Saved: 400-700

3. Don’t eat bread rolls or chips and salsa.  You’ll have plenty to eat with your meals.  Skip it, and you’ll avoid mindless snacking.
Average Saved: No cost savings here.  These are usually free items.
Calories Saved: 200-1000

4. Take leftovers for lunch.  I order my own entree plate, split all the food in half, then get a take home box.  That effectively gives me two meals for the price of one, and I’m eating closer to a single serving size. 
Average Saved: A $25 entree becomes a $12.50 dinner, and a $12.50 envy-of-the-lunchroom gourmet lunch.
Calories Saved: 400-800

5. Skip the alcohol.  Here’s a secret: restaurants almost never make money on the food.  The margins are very difficult to balance.  Most restaurants make a profit and pay their bills on the alcohol you buy with your meals.
Average Saved: There’s a bottle of cheap Washington red wine that my boyfriend and I frequently buy at Trader Joes’s for $4.99.  A typical bottle of wine has 4.5 glasses in it.  When we go to restaurants, I frequently see a glass of this particular wine for $5.  That’s $17.50 profit on a bottle.  If they bought it with a bulk discount, the profit is greater.  So buy your favorite bottle from Trader Joe’s and enjoy it at home after your dinner.
Calories Saved: For the weight loss portion of this tip, drink wine or beer instead of hard liquor.   It’s typically cheaper, saves calories, and saves strain on your liver.

6. Skip the dessert. My partner and I aren’t much for desserts, so this is an easy one for us.  Desserts are cheap, but the biggest savings is to the waistline.
Average Saved: $3-10
Calories Saved: 800-1600

After you’ve lost weight and paid off your debt, the trick is you have to keep doing it.  You can’t eat salads for a year, lose 30 pounds, then go back to eating double quarter pounders every day.  You can’t eat at home every night for however long it takes you to pay off debt, then go back to eating out every meal. 

I used these tips and trick to help me lose weight and eliminate my debt.  I lost 30 pounds 5 years ago, and have kept it off.  I paid off $35,000 worth of debt 2 years ago, and haven’t had a day of negative net worth since.  Now that I’m 30 pounds lighter and debt free, I continue to eat out like this.  I cook at home, and brown bag lunches six days a week. I eat happy hour snacks or dinner employing these tactics one day a week.

Save money and lose weight.  Two of the most popular new years resolution goals ever!  You can do it!

Let’s assume you are in a nightmare scenario.  You are laid off.  You have a mortgage, credit card debt and a small amount of money in an emergency savings fund.  You were just starting to pay off your bills, and save in your fund.  You could be out of work for 6 months to a year, and you only have 1-3 months of money in your savings account.  There’s not much you can do.  You have to figure out how to stretch what you have.

It’s great that you have that emergency savings.  Try to minimize the use of your credit cards (stop altogether if possible) and stretch that money out as far as you can.

Get a list of all your recurring expenses.  If you have cable, usually people would say this is the first to go.  I say it depends.  If you live in an area where cable is your only choice for high speed internet, then you should probably keep it.  I live in Seattle where there is an abundance of free WiFi coffee shops, so I would cancel my service.  Losing internet is not an option in today’s world.  It’s a necessity to find jobs competitively.

I would not drop my cable and switch to another carrier.  There will be signup fees and a new modem purchase for DSL (or other).  These are expenses cannot be afforded at the moment.  Drop the cable to basic and keep the internet.  Cancel TiVo or On-Demand subscriptions.  I watch my favorite shows (Lost, Heroes) and movies when I want on Hulu.com or Netflix.

Don’t cancel Netflix.  Same with the World of Warcraft subscription.  This is different than what most people would say.  Why I say that is because I’d go crazy if I don’t have something fun to do.  Also, if there is entertainment at home, I am less likely to spend money at the bars and club, which are clearly a must-go expense.  If you have the discipline to dust off your old stand alone games without a subscription, canceling your WoW account would obviously be even better.

If you have an expensive cell phone plan, this can be tricky.  Normally, this is also an area that you would want to trim back on.  It gets tricky because of contract terms.  This is why I don’t have an iPhone – I don’t want to be locked into a 2 year contract for this reason.  Here is what I would do.  The contract should be for service with AT&T, not the iPhone itself.  Even the cheapest iPhone plan ($60) is more expensive than basic AT&T mobile phone service.  I would see if I could buy a cheap basic phone, and have AT&T transfer your phone number and contract to that phone, then end your iPhone service.  Sell your iPhone.  I don’t have an AT&T phone or iPhone, so I’m not sure if this will work.  Call AT&T and ask.

Eat at home.  I’ve started a series on Recession Recipes at my Calorie Crunch blog. These are designed to be easy, minimal cooking skill (can you boil water and chop an onion?), economical recipes that almost anyone can fit in their schedule.

You’re going to have to find creative ways to stretch your money to pay your mortgage.  I am assuming that if you hadn’t been laid off, you would already be fine with your mortgage payments.  If you have a spare room or basement with junk, empty it and rent it to a college student.  There’s still high demand for rentals.  Your new housemate can help subsidize a fraction of your mortgage.  It will at least stretch your savings a small bit, buying you a little more time.

Pay the minimums on your credit card and do not miss a payment! You cannot afford for them to assess penalties, late fees and increase your interest rate. As soon as you get the bill from them, send the minimum immediately. Do not try to float close to the due date and earn a little more interest on your savings – it’s not going to help you at this point.   You need to make sure that payment gets there on time.  If you miss a single payment, it’s game over.  You will go into the credit card debt spiral with no near term end. 

Do not use credit cards for emergencies.  This is why you need an emergency savings account with good hard cash.  If you do not have an account with cash, how are you going to make the minimums on your credit cards?

Do not listen to people who say if you don’t spend, then we can’t revive the economy.  If you lost your main income and are living on savings, you are in survival mode.  You are in no position to be a consumer.

For those of us who still have jobs, keep pushing down that debt and put as much as you can into the emergency savings account.

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about stupid frugality and such. Take Trent from The Simple Dollar’s response to Ramit from IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com’s The Challenge. I draw the line at rewashing ziplock bags. Rewashing and reusing ziplock bags is not efficient or frugal. Why? Because you’re using something disposable that is easily replaced by a high quality, truly efficient and reusable alternative.

Back in 2000 I went to a friend’s Tupperware party. I bought two ‘leftover lunch’ containers. One was compartmentalized into two sections. They both had tops with a small vent that opened to let steam out while microwaving. I love these things – I still have them to this day.

Here is their new version of the Tupperware lunch container. Mine doesn’t look like this but close enough. Look at the price – holy crap! $15!

Yep. $15. That’s about what I paid for mine. Let’s figure this out. I bought them in 2000, and of course, I haven’t used them every single day. Let’s assume that I only used them 40% of the time over the years.

365 days/year x 8 years = 2,920 days
2,920 days x .40 = 1168 days
$15/1168 days = $0.0128 per day

So it’s cost me a little over a penny per year to use if I only used it 40% of the time in a year. A rewashed ziplock baggie has an environmental impact – you have to throw it away at some point.

I also bought a Zojirushi Lunch Jar. I love this thing. It’s easy to put together a well balanced lunch. I put a salad in the big jar, protein in the small jar, and a starchy food in the medium jar. It’s been fabulous for my diet to manage portion control and carb/protein/fat ratios. It’s fun putting together bento lunches.

Note that I bought very high quality containers. Tupperware lasts forever. They were made to survive children torturing them for goodness sake. My mom’s Tupperware she bought in the 70s survived me, and she still uses them to this day. Don’t buy those crappy ziplock containers at the supermarket. I’ve done that and they last me a year tops before they become so mangled their lids don’t fit anymore.

Smart Frugality = efficiency.

Why do I like stupid frugality tips like use 2 tablespoons of cocoa instead of 3? Conserve toilet paper? They can’t save you more than pennies. What’s the point? Use as much as you want, they’ll make more!

Both my grandmothers grew up in the post war Depression era. One in the United States; the other in Korea. While their circumstances were different, the lesson taught to me by both of them is waste nothing. Both my grandmothers used every scrap they had, whether it was food or clothing. They were remarkably resourceful. They conserved salt or tea because they were incredibly smart women who knew how to make efficient use of anything they had.

I’m always horrified when I go to restaurants and see people leave a table of uneaten food. It could have easily been boxed up and taken home, but they don’t care. It gets thrown away because it’s so plentiful, it’s not valued. When I drink a cup of tea or cocoa using one or two spoons instead of three, I think of my grandmothers. They conserved it because they didn’t have much, and it was a precious. It’s not going to save me millions of dollars, and I’ll retire a millionaire because of it, but does that give me an excuse to throw it away callously?

I don’t do it because I think this will save me riches. I do it because I don’t want to be wasteful.