One of our favorite things to do as a family is our Friday Family Movie Night. We order pizza, rent a PG movie, pop some popcorn, and just hang out. All four of us look forward to this night starting on Monday mornings. I have to admit that when we first started doing this, I viewed it as just another way to pass a weekend night with the kids. But now I truly enjoy myself and am reluctant to schedule any other plans on Friday nights.
Budget-wise, one of the reason Hubby and I liked doing this is because it was a lot cheaper than taking a family of four to the movies. We thought we were entertaining ourselves smartly, until I actually looked at the receipts during our budget talk. Because Hubby and the girls are super picky, they only want a cheese pizza. Sorry, but that doesn't cut it for me. I need pepperoni! green peppers! onions! and maybe if it was a really tough week, some green olives! Hello, party in my mouth! One would think we could just order a half cheese, half everything else pizza, right? Wrong.
The onion juice gets on the cheese side. I can taste the pepperoni, I know it's there!!! Wah, wah, wah!
Thus, we always ordered TWO pizzas. A large and a small. These seemingly innocuous pizzas cost us $29 each week. A movie rental is $5.00, totaling $34. Not too bad for a night of great family entertainment, right? Unless you multiply $34 x 4 weeks, subtracting $136 from our checking account per month. All for bread, sauce, cheese and a DVD.
In the scheme of things, $136 per month isn't so bad. But here is how I made it better. I buy a whole wheat pre-made pizza crust from Trader Joe's. We only need one, because the whole wheat is much more filling than a delivery thin-crust pizza. Hubs and the girls decorate their side with just cheese, while each week I have been switching mine around. Sometimes it's onion. One time it was goat cheese and tomato. Every time it has been delicious. Not only does it taste awesome, it is cheaper (costing us about $5 total) and it is much healthier. We don't even have to tell the girls we switched things up to save money and eat healthy. They don't even notice. A winner all around.
