To suggest that we eat out less to an already frugal family would seem laughable, but for multitudes of families in a time-starved generation, it is no laughing matter.

A 2006 study published by the United States Department of Agriculture conducted by Rutgers University found that almost three-quarters of the people surveyed ate out at least once a week and 10 percent ate out almost every day.(Economic Research/ USDA “Let's Eat Out: Americans Weigh Taste, Convenience, and Nutrition, www.ers.usda.gov)

Even more, the cost to American families was tremendous. The National Restaurant Association projected that this year, we would hit $565.9 billion in sales. ( www.restaurant.org/research ). The USDA calculates that away-from-home food now accounts for half of total food expenditures, an increase of over 16 percent since 1972, just one generation.

Educator and home-economist, Diane Olson, from the Missouri Farm Bureau, laments this sad state of affairs. “Americans are not cutting back from the amount of food they purchase,” she said. “In fact, they are purchasing a higher percentage of their food in restaurants or purchasing it prepared and bringing it home, which adds to the cost of food.” There is no question that eating-out is a big industry.

For far too many families, eating out has become a way of life. Their refrigerators and their pantries are nearly empty and so are their pocketbooks. They are at a loss on how to make ends meet. They generally know they have to make changes yet they feel powerless. Their time is short and some may even lack the skills to cook from scratch. These families have not yet realized just how costly their expensive habit has become and how simply it can be adjusted.

Though it may seem overwhelming, home-cooking saves time and health as well as money. Consumers fail to take into account that even driving to or waiting in a line at a fast-food restaurant may take just as long as preparing your own lunch or dinner. And that does not even begin to count the high caloric intake of such food!

Let's compare just the savings of bringing a lunch from home vs. buying a lunch at work. Stacie is a Registered Dietian in the Washington D.C. area. She and her husband frequently disagree on lunch purchases. Even though she works at a hospital and has ready access to a cafeteria, Stacie embarks on an experiment and chooses to pack her lunch every day for 6 months. She wants to prove a point to her husband—bringing a lunch from home is far less expensive than eating out. She begins her experiment by buying a lunch box at WalMart. The Cost? $10! Stacie's lunches went something like this:

Monday lunch: Peanut butter and Jelly Sandwich on wheat bread, raw carrots, baked chips, and an apple.

Cost: $1.38

Tuesday lunch: Turkey sandwich on wheat bread with lettuce, tomato, light mayo, carrot sticks, canned pears in light syrup and a snack pack of Oreos.

Cost: $3.16

Wednesday lunch: Tuna salad sandwich, banana, celery sticks with peanut butter, baked chips

Cost $2.00

Thursday lunch: Repeat of Monday

Cost: $1.38

Friday lunch: Repeat of Tuesday

Cost: $3.16

Then Stacie calculated the differences. Knowing that her husband would not work a full 52 weeks a year, but also knowing that his spending habits on lunches would fluctuate enough to make up for it, Stacie calculated the savings she might realize if only her husband packed his own lunch:

Cost of eating out (average $6 per day) = $30.00 per week

Cost of packing a lunch for 5 days = $11.00

Total savings = $19.00/week for 52 weeks= $988.00!!!!! ( “Frugal Lunch by Clever Dudette”)

The savings does not have to end here. Let's go back to Stacie and her husband. Suppose that she was able to persuade him to permanently bring his lunch from home and invest the difference. Obviously prices will increase each year, but just for calculations sake, if Stacie's husband were to invest $4 a day until he reached the age of 65 and earned just 6% per year, he would be able to withdraw $960 dollars from his investment each month–for the rest of his life! Is that high cost lunch really worth losing that tidy little nest egg?

Ideas for brown bag lunches are so endless that they really do not need to be boring. A quick search through internet blogs for lunch suggestions for brown-baggers yielded some pretty ingenious and delicious menus. Some said they filled their lunch pails with left-overs from their previous night's dinner, others brought meat burritos which they warmed in their workroom's microwave, others shared recipes for delicious salads. Some said they invested in a small refrigerator in their office and kept it stocked with drinks, fruits and vegetables, and other healthy snacks. It appeared that all you need for haute-cuisine from home is a great imagination!

What is more, packing a lunch is less time-consuming than you might think. We have packed children's lunches for years. One lunch takes less than five minutes a day and several lunches can be prepared on an almost assembly line system. Organized brown-baggers prepare their lunches a week at a time. Some bloggers said they liked to prepare sandwiches and/or tiny meals on the weekends and withdraw them from their freezer every morning just before leaving for work.

Remember what we said about standing in line? Packing a lunch can save the average worker approximately 15 to 20 minutes every day. Fewer trips to the lunch room equates with more work time and greater productivity. Even more, less time at lunch might mean an earlier return home each evening. That's more time with the family. Either way it's a win!

For those rare occasions you may want to dine out, here are some suggestions for trimming the costs at the restaurant:

• Avoid appetizers or make the appetizer your meal . Appetizers only add on cost and calories unless the appetizer becomes a meal with the addition of soup, salad, or sandwich.

• Eat desserts at home or go to a lower priced establishment for your dessert. When ending a night out with friends, take them to your home for dessert. The atmosphere is more quiet and you can have an enjoyable experience.
• Eat a snack before going out so you are not famished. You'll buy less and save more.

• Use restaurant coupons–even share the coupons with your friends and co-workers. There are online coupons, newspaper clippings, and entertainment booklets for many two for the price of one specials.

• For a date with your spouse, try lunch instead of dinner. Most restaurants are less expensive at lunchtime.

• Look for new restaurants. Newly opened restaurants often offer discounts for attracting new customers.

• Avoid weekends. Terrific specials and coupons are more likely to be offered during the week when less customers come into the restaurant.

• Drink water. Sodas are costly. You can sometimes buy a whole liter of soda for the price of just one fountain drink.

• Bring leftovers home routinely. Restaurant portions are generally twice the portion of a recommended serving–take advantage of that. Eat half and plan on taking the other half home to eat at another meal.

• When eating with your family, have your smaller children share a meal. Since the restaurant is likely to give your small children more than they can eat, consider ordering at least one less meal and divide the others so that everyone has equal portions.

Fewer frequent road trips, the smell of a home-cooked meal simmering in your kichen, more conversations with your family around the dinner table—these are the substitutes for the high cost of eating out. Sounds delightful! Bon appetit!

Lyle's career has run the gauntlet from teaching in CES classrooms to administering media and audiovisual production for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where he served as the Managing Director of the Audiovisual Department for fifteen years. He has served twice as a bishop, in four stake presidencies, as a high councilor, elder's quorum president, Young Men president as well as a teacher.