<prompt> Human: Been lurking for a while and I wanted to get your opinion on what Im not able to see.I took the time to readjust my budgets this weekend and came the the conclusion I could use a second opinion.Goals: 3 Month Emergency Fund - 5k Interior DesignUpgrades for Home - 10k Establish and contibute to Roth IRA - 1k to open?The emergency fund is the most important of the list. The interior design is the least - I can easily put this off, but Id like to get it done eventually.Details: Income - 3360mo after taxes and 401k Wells Fargo Checking - 5000 Capital One Savings - 150 HSBC Savings - 50 401k - 13,188. Reduced contribution from 10 to 7. Company matches 50 up to 2500, 7 will set me right at 5000 as my contributionI opened the two savings accounts a while ago and linked them to my Wells Fargo account with the intention of automatically shifting money at the beginning of the month. I didnt make it a priority to do it, so it never got done. Im on track with this now though.Credit Cards: BOA - 0 balance. 20400 credit limit. 9.99 Chase - 4000 balance. 17000 credit limit 11.99. 52k reward points can be converted to a payment of 520. Expect to be paid off next month.Budget:Things that must be paid - 1713mo MorgtageHOA Dues - 1070mo Phone - 75mo - grandfathered unlimited plan Internet - 60mo Utilities power, water, gas - 120mo Car Insurance - 110mo - 2 cars. Car Lease - 238mo - 2004 Saturn Vue fully paid off, recently completed 100k service. 2012 Leaf on 2 year lease as daily driver started in Feb. Gas car - 40mo Things that I choose to pay for - 280mo Maid service - 170mo Netflix - 10mo Fun moneyCoffee - 100moIf my math is correct, I have 3360 coming in and 1993 going out. This should leave about 1350 for everything else. This is also where I get into my problems. I dont cook at home, I eat out almost all the time, and according to Mint spend nearly 1000month on food, alcohol, going out, and what groceries I do buy. foodalcohol - 1000moIve slashed by food budget in half, so the expectation is that is where the money is going to come from. I know it can be cut more. Ive even contemplated getting a personal chef service to prepare food so I can count on food being at home. I think a personal chef service in the area is actually cheaper than what Im doing now! Even if I lower the food to 500mo, that leaves around plenty to save. It seems silly to have a fun money line item when Im already paying 1000mo in restaurants. In fairness, I often invite friends out and pick up the tab because Im that guy, and I over tip by a lot.I think the answer is simple. Stop eating out so often, set a date to have the goals completed, route the money saved to fund those goals. I can choose to spend lots of money on food and booze, but I need to fund my goals FIRST, then spend the rest on whatever. Ideally Ill find myself going out less and less and be able to push the left-over-rest-of-the-money towards my savings and goals.What am I not seeing? Is this all a mental exercise about internalizing my stated goals instead of boozing it up and eating lunch at work? I can appreciate the strategy of automating my finances. After all, Im the weakest link in my finances. Currently I dont want to work on making food when I get home from work, so I can just go somewhere and they do all the work for me. Do I have a budget problem, or a motivation problem?  <response>: One thing Id caution against is trying to go from 1000 a month at restaurants and never cooking your own meals to 500 a month and always cooking at home. Thats a huge change, and most likely youll give up halfway through, discouraged, and believing that budgeting just doesnt work.I would look at it at as a process. Start cooking meals for yourself once or twice a week, and focus on the days when you dont have work. Try to cut the restaurant budget down by, say, 50 a month until youre down to 500, or less. Once youve got some successes under your belt, it will be a lot easier to stick with it. 