I was in your boat! I'd walk home from work, about 20 blocks, and pick up something along the way.

Finally got out of the habit when a friend gave me a challenge: she told me to create a budget of how much I wanted to spend each week on food. Take that amount out of the ATM each week. Then, first thing, go to the store and buy food for meals.

Whatever was leftover, I could spend on coffees and meals out.

When the cash ran out, I couldn't eat out. It was hard. There were several months of having to drink the burned office coffee instead of a nice mocha towards the end of each week. There were even a few weeks of weird dinners like oatmeal or Kraft mac and cheese just because it's all I had. It took time to get used to the idea of how fast it seemed to be spent, but after four or so months, I noticed I had more money left over every week.

I started to put that in a jar and saved up. Last Christmas, I pulled it out, and it was about $1300. So I used to buy a plane ticket to surprise a friend overseas. All just from eating out less! I haven't looked what's in the jar this year, but I can't wait to find out.