Our commitment to cut down on the amount that we eat out this summer has not gone as well as we planned. In fact, I am starting to think that I might be able to write a book on “How to ruin your food budget, in 1 easy step… Eat Out More!”

We ate at Freebirds tonight.

I have eaten there before, and we have eaten as a family at Chipolte often, but for my husband a burrito full of veggies and beans is not exactly what he was hoping for dinner. Not wanting fast food and not wanting to spend $75 (that is what it costs for a family of 9 at a “sit down” restaurant) we were limited.

Magically we ended up in front of Freebirds. “What the heck, I can’t get any hungrier” my husband says.

We walk in and immediately have the kids stake out a table for us, while we order. They have a chalk board that lists all the specials. There were so many I could not tell which one was good for a Wednesday night.

“What is the special for Wednesday?” Paul asked guilty faced. We have broken our “no eating out” pledge and are doing it WITHOUT a coupon. Oh the horror!

“They are all the specials” Little miss cute teenager says.

“So you can stack all the specials together?” Paul asks?

I nudge him and explain they are not store & manufacturer coupons. There is no stacking with Wednesday night specials.

Little miss cute teenager is a savvy shopper herself, and corrects me by pulling out the Freebird “special policy” and showing me where indeed they DO all stack! Oh happy day!

We quickly order 6 kids meals, 3 Freebird burritos, super size one of them, 7 waters and 1 soda, before she changes her mind!

I walk up to the counter to pay, and our total was……

wait for it……..

$19!!!

Sweet! Kids eat free from 4 to 7:30, no limit ( hello, that was made for us, I am sure they will change the rules, they were not planning on anyone walking in with that many kids :)) Freebird burritos were 2 for $10 and $5 each after that, soda was $.99 on Wednesday’s and Pauls super size was on special for $2.50. They all stacked!

“We should eat here every night.” Paul says, “No dishes to do, nothing! I think it even costs less then if we made it at home.”

“No way, who are you talking to? A bunch of beans, cheese and tortillas, I have this at $8 bucks tops!” I challenge.

“Prove it! If you do it, I do the dishes” Paul says.

“Your on!!” I say.

And that, my friends, is how I got tricked into making dinner this week!

** We went to the Freebirds by The Woodlands mall. They have the BEST deals! Call ahead to your store to see if they are offering the same deals before you go!