A few weeks back I wrote about the star rating system for hotels. Today, I want to look at the star rating system of restaurants.

The reason why I am writing about the rating system for restaurant’s is I want to know and I want you to know what to expect when you walk into a restaurant. Are you getting your monies worth in terms of food and service?

It is Friday. The week has been long and rough. Everyone is waiting for the work week to end. Tomorrow morning is when we can all sleep in past 5:30 am. No one has any energy to spend much of any time in the kitchen, but everyone is going be hungry come dinner time.

While everyone was getting ready for the day’s activities, I ask if there were any requests for dinner. As usual each family member spoke up with own favorite comfort food. Chinese, hamburgers, pizza, and Mexican food. What was interesting enough they were all items were not fixed at home.

If you ask anyone in the United States, what their favorite food is, the majority will more than likely say that it is  pizza. Hamburger will come a close second, then comes Mexican food.

Now you ask what is there favorite kind of pizza is, well, that will give a very wide range of answers. Some will say something like pepperoni and cheese. Others will tell you a specific type of pizza from a specific place, because they prepare it a specific way.

I know it is easy to spend money. We are bombarded daily from television and radio ad. Sometimes it seems that every place we go there is someone who want us to give them our hard earn money. This makes it a real effort just to live within our means.

To many of us the temptation is to live above our means. In the past few years we, as a nation have learned we cannot live on credit. We cannot live above our means, it will eventually catch up with us.

I have notice those people who have not been greatly affected the current recession have been living below there means. They had a good cash reserver. They have been saving money.

I was headed out the door to run some errands when my wife as me to stop by the store and get  Velveeta cheese for dinner. Considering the route I was taking for my errands, I figured it would be simpler to stop by Albertsons instead of Winco.

Since I was in such a hurry, I raced in the store grabbed 2 pound box of cheese, then headed to the self check out lane. I don’t think I spent more than 3 minutes in the store from the time I walked in the door until I walked out with cheese in hand.

We live in an interesting location. We live within 5 miles of  three different Wal Mart’s in three different directions from our place. All three are Super Centers, in an area that is not really consider a dense populated area; Boise, Idaho.

You would think that each Wal Mart would carry the exact same thing as the other. Not so! It depends what we are going to Wal Mart to buy determines which Wal Mart we drive to first.

The newest Wal Mart that is north of us is the newest. They have more household goods like blenders and clothes. When it comes to electronics they have the minimum. The pharmacy seems to be larger than the others.

How much food do we really need to satisfy your bodies and stomaches requests for food. Like most of us, we head to the local fast food joint, and order according to how appealing the pictures are on that menu board.

Most every fast food joint, has their menu board broke up into three basic sections. Comb meals which consist of a main course, a side dish, and a drink. The value items usually include a small sandwich, fries, drink and desert. Each item ranges in price from 99 cents to $2. Then there is the regular price individual offerings.

If you remember way back in elementary school when you took math, there was the term Lowest Common Denominator. It referred to the lower common number you could convert two fractions.

Many times when I talk about price comparisons, I will convert products into ounces. I will say generic strawberry jam at Wal Mart is  7.75 cents per ounce. Then at WINCO their strawberry jam is 7.6 per ounce. Once jar is 32 ounce, and the other store’s jar is 46 ounce.

The leading reason for people spending more money than they should on food is lack of energy. The family cook comes home in a tired from a long day at work. It is easier to make a quick run to Burger King or KFC, just because no one wants to cook dinner.

There are a few ways to save money and still get a quick and easy meal. The first is using what has come to be know as the cock pot aka the slow cooker. Yes it does take a little fore thought, but you can definitely save $2 to $5 or maybe even more person, as opposed to having Chinese food delivered.

The available recipes a limitless. About.com has a list of Southern Cockpot recipes that will get the family excited about dinner. Then there is Family Crock Pot Recipes and Crock Pot.com for hundreds of other quick and easy idea.

Anyone can waste money by eating out. But there are time you just need to get out of  the kitchen and out of the house. A mini vacation you might say.

My wife and I try to get out at least once a week, to sit down together some place and share a meal. No agenda, just sitting there talking small stuff. As a general rule we try to find a restaurant  that we have not visited, or one that it has been a long time, since we were there.

Moon’s Kitchen is on that I saw on through a friend on Facebook. Since my wife and I were going to be in downtown Boise, it seemed like a good place to good for breakfast.