Dining Out

Last year I worked on a project on which we dined out frequently on the corporation's dime, since we traveled on business. This year, if I dine out, it's on my dime. Because I'm trying to cut inessential spending, I don't dine out a lot; when I do, it's usually because I'm going somewhere after work and it seems foolish to first go home.

I seem to be a bit ahead of the curve on some of my changes, because I've been working on this for a couple of years. Dining out adds up and is less necessary than some people believe.

With the current economic uncertainty, I foresee more restaurants having trouble. I assume every area is like mine, with nests of chain restaurants near malls and freeways, and a few local places thrown in besides. For a long time I have thought there were too many restaurants and the restaurants are likely to learn the same.

Building has slowed down lately, but some of the people who built or signed leases are going to be stuck with opening their places, whether it makes sense or not.