<prompt> Human: Me: 31F, fully employed, 3,145 net take home each monthI have been slowly working my way out of credit card debt for the past three years. With a little over one year of payments left to go on my 20K debt consolidation loan, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. With that, I have been closely monitoring where my money has been going this year. I am very good about tracking how my money is distributed bills, rent, loan payments, etc but have never been good about tracking what I have been spending my money on. In looking at my spending habits in January, February, March, April, and now May I have confirmed what I already knew in my head... I spend a shit ton of money eating out. In January, I spent 400 eating out on just breakfast coffee and lunches alone. In February, close to 500. Same goes for March and April. I was way down in May because I made a conscious effort to not eat out so that I could save up for a trip I took. It helped a lot.I took a look at my calendar and found that I miraculously have ONE lunch appointment on the calendar and no breakfast appointments in June. This means I have an opportunity to save money by eating breakfast at home and packing my lunch every day. I know this seems so simple but I havent always been good about this. My work culture is such that people eat out a lot, I meet with people over coffee or lunches frequently, and so on. Some of that I get reimbursed but a lot of it is just eating out with coworkers. I live in a mid-sized city, so lunches cost anywhere from 10-18lunch. Not terrible, but like many of you know, that adds up!Im excited to challenge myself this month and hopefully save a butt load of money. This money could be better spent either in savings account thats dismal right now or paying off loans. Thanks for reading. I really feel like I am starting to make a turn in how I manage money and am so looking forward to financial freedom in the very near future. My June goal to not eat breakfast or lunches out will help give me the boost I need and hopefully, become a habit of mine.EDIT 61, 8:40AM EST: Wow! I wasnt quite expecting that type of response! A couple of things I learned from you. Scaling back or cutting the number of meals you eat out can make a big difference financially. It can also make a difference health-wise! Its important to be strategic about when you eat out, especially when it comes to work and colleagues. Even though you arent going out and buying lunch, dont exclude yourself from group situations if possible. When meal planning, variety is key. Some of you mentioned getting bored with the meals you were making at home and as a result, would slip up and buy food. rmealprepsunday was mentioned several times as a resource for planning. Really examine why youre in debt to begin with. And once you pay off that debt, consider investing the money you no longer are using to pay down debt. Your future self with thank you! More than anything, its about having realistic goals and making sure you arent setting yourself up for failure. I very much enjoyed reading all of your responses, tips, and well-wishes! It has given me great motivation for today - Day 1! For breakfast I had Cheerios at home. I packed myself a lunch and headed to work where I am now sipping a free hazelnut coffee. I look forward to catching up with you all at the end of the month. For my own purposes, I will be keeping a daily log of what I spend including non-food related items, what I meal prep and eat, and what noticeable changes I see. Ive never had a blog so to speak, but I might consider starting one so I can share all of this with you later this month. Any suggestions you have for sites would be most helpful!CHEERS!EDIT 62, 9:03AM EST:For those of you that are interested in following along, you can find my notes here Its a little scary to put myself out there like this, but Im committed to the challenge and the accountability. Happy day 2 to those of you that are joining me this month!Assistant: Im retired and live alone. Sometimes I just want to go to my favorite diner for the outing. And I get tired of eating the same stuff 4 days in a row. But when I ran my expense reports for Jan-May I discovered that while I had spent 1000 on groceries I also spent 1500 eating out. My goal for the next 6 months is to keep the eating out under 100 a month. Human: Sounds like a reasonable goal! I will definitely need to find ways to stay social even though I will be eating a majority of my meals at home or at work. Good luck!Assistant: a good way to do that is to pack your lunch and eat it early and then just go out with your friends and just get a side salad or something so they dont think you are staring at them while you eat. Dropping your spending from 10-18 to 4 or 5 bucks will do a lot.Human: This is a good idea. Especially if I want to continue hanging out with friends and coworkers at lunch.  <response>: I had coworkers that usually buy lunch then eat it sitting outside somewhere to enjoy the nice weather so Id just brought my lunch out to eat with them. 