I often read fellow bloggers writing about "eating out" as a big wa$te of money. In light of this, I thought many of you would find this anecdote rather funny...
Hubby and I (bagged from the work week) decided to go out for dinner to tonight at around 8p.m. We couldn't decide on a place close to our house, so we decided to go to an Earl's a bit farther away in Vancouver (we live in Coquitlam). We drive all the way there and there is absolutely NO parking and a line-up a mile long at the neighbouring Swiss Chalet. We get back in the car and decide to try another place and are told there is a minium of a "half hour wait."
Teaches us to try to find grub at 8p.m. on a Friday - date night central. Married people need to eat too ya know! 
We ended up driving all the way back to our neighbourhood and had a mediocre steak. Oh, and a drink each.
$71.00 and a tank of gas!!!
Long story short, it wasn't worth it. Any good meal planning sites out there?
A comedy of errors...
March 15th, 2008 at 09:56 am
March 15th, 2008 at 01:54 pm 1205589283
But cooking at home is always a safe alternative as well. And if dinner goes awry, you can always order a pizza
March 15th, 2008 at 02:56 pm 1205593006
I did mention recently in my blog we had a pleasant meal out last weekend. Was pleased because during the housing boom it was impossible to go eat a nice meal out in this particular CITY without being packed in like sardines (any of the chains anyway). Which has probably greatly increased our disdain for eating out over the years (or likewise feel like we don't miss much!
Couldn't do it without the taste of home magazine subscriptions, but they have some web recipes and stuff:
http://www.tasteofhome.com/
I'd try out the website to start, but highly recommend a subscription. We've trimmed our grocery bill considerably so the $10/year hardly matters. Maybe we are creatures of habit but I much prefer this to some of the online services. They prepare grocery lists for you and have different categories of meals (cheap, fast, few ingredients, etc.). I like you can pick and choose what you want, but they make it easy for you. Seems like a lot of the online things plan your meals to a T, and we haven't like them. We like picking and choosing things for the week.
They also have various magazines. I love "Simple & Delicious" because I am NOT into health food but dh also subscribes to "Healthy Cooking." There's been a few winners in there, though not so much my speed. I just saw they also have "Dinner for 2" which I am sure is excellent. Wish they had that before we had kids!
March 15th, 2008 at 04:04 pm 1205597064
Try www.e-mealz.com. They have a really great plan for $5.00 a month.
Hey...we're not too far away from where you live...we're in Langley!