In my younger years, I thought to have a good time on a Friday or Saturday night, I had to spend $100 to $200. I soon learned that other people were having fun at my expense.

Then I went through a period of my life where I tried not to spend any money when I went out. It did not matter if it was with my family or friends. I abruptly saw a large number of my supposed friends spending time with other people who were willing to spend money on them.

Today, I can have a good time for a whole lot less, and not be considered cheep.

Like so many other families across the United States and around the world, it is a constant struggle to find ways for the whole family to have fun. It is easy to break the budget and spend over $100 have dinner and a movie. Taking the approach of going out like grocery shopping can save a lot of money.

One of the hardest meals to shop for and fix is dinner. Everyone comes home after a long day at work. They are all tired and no one really wants to fix dinner. The quick and easy solution is to stop by McDonald’s, Wendy’s or Taco Bell on the way home. If someone in the family is more ambitious then there is pizza out of the freezer.

Just like in our house everyone has a struggle with fixing dinner. There are time where we have to force ourselves not to opt to the quick and easy solution. We make a conscious decision to plan ahead so when we get home and are to tired to  fix dinner, it is there waiting for us.

Thanks to people like Rachael Ray and others we recipes that we can cook in 30 minutes. Then there is for the more fore thinking type of individuals will prepare a meal in a crock pot.

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.

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.

Last month we went out to have the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. The cost for the meal person was within a few cents. Besides we did not have all that prep time, and clean up afterwards. We just walked into the restaurant, order, ate and left.  This Christmas we are going to do something different.

Each family member is picking a course in the dinner to fix. This way no one individual will get stuck with fixing the whole meal. Each family member is responsible for staying withing budget, and cleaning up their mess, afterwards.

The main dish has a budget of $7 per person, while the side dishes and desert is $3 per person. This makes the meal costing $10 each. Leftovers will be count for future meals. Not Christmas dinner.

We in modern society have gotten in the bad habit of having a too little to eat or no breakfast. Lunch is something quick and easy. The dinner (or supper as some people like to call it) is this large sit down meal before we go off to bed.

I want you to note this is totally opposite to way our body expends energy over the course of the day.

Morning is usually both feet hitting the floor. Getting ready for work. The average commute time, in the United States, is 25 minutes. Add on to that, studies have shown that the bulk of  the work, by employees is done during first 4 hours, of the work day.

After lunch the energy levels drops off. The commute home is nothing more than a rush to get home and rest from the day’s stresses. Then comes the big meal.

Activities after dinner usually consists of watching television, reading, or some other local energy unwinding activity. We don’t need a 1,200 calorie meal a couple of hours before we go to bed.

Can I suggest an alternative. Healthy and saving you money.

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Pre-made frozen meals have gotten better over the years. The quality has improved from paper tasting preservatives to the really tasty meals. Just the other day we had on that was stir fry with shrimp. At a restaurant it would of have cost about $15 each everything including drinks and desert.

The prepackage stir fry was $3.78. Add rice for 50 cents.  A 2 liter bottle of lemon lime soda was 78 cents. Ice cream  was $3.98. That makes the total meal to $9.04. Divide that by the 3 people who set at the dinner table, making the total meal per person costing just under $3.02.

Granted the prepackage stir fry was on sale, it normally cost a dollar more. Ice cream is not the best thing to have right before bed, but it is a great comfort food. Then watching the Syfy channel together for an hour before off to bed is a great way to finish off the day.

For this and other great meal planning and money saving ideas go to Dinnersaving.com.