My husband and I have been looking for ways to save money, and we’ve come to the conclusion that our biggest expenditure — after the obvious bills such as the mortgage and car payments — is eating out.

So obviously, the logical thing would be to start eating in more often, but that is not as easy as it sounds.  When there isn’t much food in the house, it’s hard to get excited about staying home for dinner.  And even when we do plan dinners and have food in the house, it’s not always what we feel like eating.

Probably the best way to get excited about eating in is to cook a variety of meals, so that you don’t get tired of any one thing.  However, also try to have a few easy favorites that will keep you from going out on those nights that you don’t feel like cooking.

If you don’t like cooking very much or aren’t very good at, coming up with interesting dinners may be something of a challenge for you.  It is for me, which is why my husband does most of the cooking – but if you don’t have the luxury of turning the responsibility over to someone else, you may benefit from a few cooking classes.

You can find great cooking classes at local recreation centers, community centers, or even local culinary arts institutes.  Of course, the advantage to  taking the course from a real cooking school is that you will get better in-depth instruction from  experienced chefs.  The best way to learn to like something is to learn to be good at it, so if you feel you are very “cooking challenged,” it is especially important to get the best possible instruction.

How does your household save money?

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