It's a question my six year old daughter asks in exasperation, and it makes my heart ache.  Normally this would be a reasonable request.  As a middle class family of four, we only went out to eat once a week anyway, trying new restaurants with kids eat free deals.  It's been months, however, since my husband has worked due to the economic downturn.  The corporate spending on many business related services has all but dried up.

We are blessed to have living expenses saved up to live on during this time and a good reasonable budget we work from (thanks to Dave Ramsey's FPU), but that belt tightening has eliminated our weekly night out for now.

I asked my daughter, "What's the difference between eating tacos in a restaurant and eating tacos at home?"  The answer from the sensibilities of a six year old is "restaurants have music playing and flowers on the tables."  Whew, I'm glad to hear that's all.  I said to her that we can do that at home!  We can play music and put fresh cut flowers from our yard on the tables for dinner and feel like we're at a restaurant!

For now, it's an easy compromise for five and six year old kids who have no idea what the words "layoff" and "recession" mean.  This is our story.  Please share with us your stories of savings or discounts in feeding your families.