Here is the first of three ways to trim back your entertainment budget without trimming back your entertainment to the point of not having any fun at all. For this part, I will target the item that is looked at the most often in budget analysis: eating out; namely, fast food.

The biggest secret to saving money when ordering fast food is to stay away from the combo meals. Yes, they are easy to order: “I’ll have a number 7 with a Dr. Pepper” and include all the items you would want to get, but they are also relatively expensive.

When avoiding the combo meals, the individual elements appear to be more expensive than just purchasing it as a meal, here is where you can beat the system. Do you really go to McDonald’s, Burger King, and the rest of them for the atmosphere? In most cases, I think it is much more enjoyable to get the food and eat elsewhere. Take it to the park and make a picnic out of it, or bring it home and eat on your porch or in front of the TV.

By doing this, you are not only eating in a more enjoyable environment, you are giving yourself the opportunity to not drink fountain pop. If you really enjoy fountain pop that much more than drinking the soda from a can or whatever other beverage you would like to drink while eating your burger and fries, you may choose to skip this part of the advice and would also not have any financial reason to not eat at the establishment.

By supplying your own beverage (you have a 12-pack of soda in the refrigerator don’t you) instead of purchasing one from the fast food establishment, you are able to save a bit of money and drink a (in some opinions) better tasting equivalent or the beverage of your choice that may not be offered by the place where you purchased your food.

By supplying your own drink, you may be increasing your enjoyment of the meal (especially if you’re drinking something that they didn’t have available) but your really probably only saving a few cents, if anything. The real benefit comes by changing your order a bit.

Do you really need the large order of fries for $1.90 or would you be just as satisfied with the small fries for $1.00? In most cases, you’re probably not going to leave hungry simply because you ordered a smaller portion of fries and a lot of people don’t eat all of their fries anyway. By getting a small order of fries instead of a large, you could possibly trim an entire dollar (depending on the prices at the particular establishment) off the cost of your order.

Next, I am going to attack the burger. Yes, you may enjoy having the signature burger from time to time (Big Mac, Whopper, etc) but will you leave hungry because you didn’t get that burger? Instead of getting the $3.00 Big Mac, order the double cheeseburger from the dollar menu and save yourself $2.00.

There, we just figured out how to go to McDonald’s and spend $2.00 instead of $5.00. This doesn’t mean you have to give up on those signature burgers completely, but think of the impact that this can have on your entertainment budget if you regularly eat there say 8 times a month ($40) and cut back to the signature burgers only 2 ($10) of those times and follow this method the other 6 ($12) you would cut your cost of eating out almost in half and still get to eat out the same number of times, or you can eat what you normally do and only eat 4 times to get the same savings.

Another handy tip is to know what and when the specials are. An example of this is if you like to eat at Taco John’s and they have Taco Tuesday. Even if you normally get the bean burrito, take advantage of the special from time to time and save a little money.

The best suggestion is to pay attention to the signs as you drive past these places and the commercials you hear on the radio to find out what the specials are at the different places and on what days. This will allow you to take advantage of the specials. The other thing you need to do is next time you go to any fast food place, even if you know what you want, take the time to read the menu and pay special attention to the different sizes and different prices as well as to the dollar menu or value menu sections that they may have and make note of what is on these lists.

You don’t have to eat out less (although it may be a good idea) you just need to eat differently when you do eat out and you can trim back your entertainment budget and save money without cutting back on your entertainment.