I hope you heard the enthusiasm in my voice with that subject line. And I hope you know that it's not because I don't love restaurants.

I big puffy heart love restaurants. Especially ones that sell steak. Or potatoes. Or steak and potatoes with lots of sour cream.

But, I also know that restaurants, from the fancy pants steakhouse to the cheapo fast food joint aren't really delivering.

Okay, they might be delivering if you get Uber Eats or Door Dash, but they're not delivering value. At least not in keeping with my income that not's keeping up with inflation.

How 'bout you? Not you, either? Well, then, let's do something about that.

What if it was easy to cook at home?

Years ago (along with half the planet) I read Atomic Habits. Good, good book that I required all my kids to read in our homeschool.

And one of the things that James Clear suggests for making cooking at home easier is this:

(Well, he doesn't talk specifically about cooking at home, this is my interpretation.)

Basically, decision fatigue makes it harder to cook and eat at home and so much easier for the restaurant to get us to hand over our hard-earned cash.

What if there was a better way?

There is. Here are three things you can do right now (like in the next ten minutes) that will pave the way to more home-cooked meals.

1. Block out some time each day to prep food.
2. Choose one grocery store to shop at this month, preferably ALDI, Walmart, or Winco if you're looking to save money.
3. Select five favorite meals to put on repeat a few times this month. Since you love them, you won't mind eating them twice. AND you could cook once, make a double batch, and freeze the extra for later in the month!

Want an even better, better way?

​Grab the No Restaurants November Toolkit. It's our featured resource in the Good Cheap Eats Club.

I jam-packed this with everything you need to skip the drive-thru this month and enjoy easy AND delicious meals at home.

Check it out here: https://learn.goodcheapeats.com/product/no-restaurants-tool-kit/​