I’m always on the go, so eating out is a convenient, and often, the only, solution to the "what’s for dinner" dilemma. But this weekend I got a fiscal wake-up call when I took a close look at how much I’ve spent on restaurant and delivery meals in the past month. Twenty bucks here, another $30 there, and before I knew it, I’d spent over $500 on dine-out meals in a month’s time.

But you can easily cut costs and lose weight by trading a couple of those dine-out days for your own home-cooked meals. And if saving money isn’t an incentive enough, a recent Consumer Reports National Research Center survey showed that restaurant and take-out meals can really pile on the pounds. And since many restaurant meals are drenched in salt, eating at home can cut your sodium intake and your risk of high blood pressure.