No Eating Out Month (January)!

Thirty one days of no eating out. No McDonalds, no Burger King, no Dominos, no Chilis, no food purchased in a restaraunt shall be paid for out of my wallet!
This is going to be very difficult for me.  Even when I have a freezer full of food and a well stocked pantry; after a day of four rambunctious kids, homeschooling, helping to run our HVAC business, and the dog; I am TIRED.  Oh and then there is the clean up afterwards.  Needless to say, cooking is not very high on the list of things I want to do at the end of the day.
Couple all of that with the fact that I generally plan and buy for some of the most ridiculously elaborate things, it is no wonder I can't put a hot dog on a paper plate when 5:30 rolls around.
But there is something magical about January.  You can finally close the door on the year and make all sorts of plans for the clean slate you now have called the new year.
So, for January, I will avoid all eateries like the plague.  I will, however, accept all dinner invitations! 
In order to make this work, I will need to publicly announce this.  I need the threat of suffering the humiliation of failure to make me behave.  I will also need my husband's full cooperation.  I am sure I can accomplish this by simply telling him that we can pay his van insurance for the year with the money we will save.  But, mostly I will need to plan. I need to plan for plan A and also have lots of plan B's!
I know for the children's lunches I will need quick and easy things.  It is difficult for me to feed four kids while simultaneously trying to stay sane!  For suppers, I need crock pot foods and things that don't require a lot of prep time.  Pork roast with red pepper aioli is really good, but is probably not the most practical thing for me to make, so I need to make sure that while I have this type of thing as an option should I feel like an adventurous night in the kitchen, I have some nice easy meal ideas as well.
Wish me luck!

Jessica

PS.  In the interest of full disclosure, I do have a date night scheduled at OutBack. I got a $25 gift card in a rousing game of dirty Santa, so if I don't get to use that before the end of the year, we will be redeeming in January.  But that, short of an emergency, will be my only exception. 
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