The Fine Dining Challenge: The Follow Up

Posted on September 8, 2007 by Melissa
Filed Under Food, Frugality, Relationships

Nice… Well….we didn’t stick to the rules as much as we could have last night. But we did make some changes to consciously keep our bill lower. It could have been a lot worse.

Let’s evaluate how we did, based on the list of goals we created before we went out to dinner last night.

Avoiding Alcoholic Drinks – We had to wait for our table so we got complimentary cocktails before dinner. Maybe that loosened us up and broke down our will power. We ended up getting a glass of wine with the main course. But we did go for the cheapest by-the-glass wine. And we only got one each. I’d say that isn’t a total loss. draw

Sharing Starters – We did share a starter instead of getting multiple ones so that was good. But we both wanted salads so we bent the rules on that one. Let’s say they cancel each other out. draw

Get Reasonable Entrées – We paid attention to the prices of the entrées but we didn’t end up getting the cheapest items. We got mid-range courses that were appealing to us. I don’t count that as a total loss because we did look at the prices and decide against the most expensive dishes. We just didn’t go the full way and focus on the least expensive. draw

Skipping Dessert – Eric couldn’t resist dessert. He is a sucker for sorbets and they had an exotic trio that he had to try; chipotle peach, rosemary strawberry, and blueberry lavender. I passed on dessert but had a few bites of his. Even though I avoided temptation it isn’t a full victory because if I’m honest I probably would have ordered one if I wasn’t already so full. fail

Avoiding After Dinner Drinks and Coffee – We skipped coffee and after dinner drinks. At least we succeeded there! pass

It looks like this dinner adds up to be a “draw” by my estimations. Although we made some significant changes to our dining habits we could have made even more effort. It is good that we restrained our spending but there is definitely room for improvement.

Luckily we are expecting a bonus this month so we will earmark some of the funds to help negate the damage to the budget. It was a great experience. We really enjoyed spending time with my brother and his girlfriend and the food was exceptional.

This meal has helped quell the desire to dine out for while. I’m glad we were able to indulge ourselves (but not to the point of excess) and come away from it feeling completely satisfied and satiated. That, in my opinion, was money well spent.