Last week was a bit of an anomaly for me in that I ate out every day for lunch and sometimes breakfast, ALONE!  I even went to a bar that had WiFi access on one of those days.

Now regular readers know that I”m frugal if not out and out cheap, so why would I do such a foolish, totally unfrugal, spendthrift thing?

Well, last week I was able to telecommute in to work the entire week, so that gave me a cushion in my regular spending to the tune of about $7 or $8 dollars extra a day that I saved on gas from not driving.  With gas hovering around $3.75, it’s easy to say that my dining experience didn’t cost me anything extra than typical that week.

Now some will say, “What about the time you spend driving to the coffee shops and bars“?  Well, I drive each and everyday at lunch when I’m onsite at work too.  If I’m not eating out, I’m driving to the library to borrow DVDs and books for free!

Still, what about the tip?  Basically I usually spend some money when I’m on-site at work for lunch, so I’m pretty sure the cost of a regular meal covers the tip, and with money left to spare.

Panera Bread

Eating Out Alone Reasoning

Why eat out alone?  I was curious to see how my environment would help or hurt my creative process while blogging.  In the recent past, I also went to a few local coffee shops alone, so that I could see how it would affect my writing.  My success in the past was spotty at best.  Not so this time!

This time I went to “Panera Bread” to have lunch (and one day breakfast), and much to my surprises, I was able to crank out posts quickly and with what I considered some originality!  One such article was How Money Can Improve Your Life and Make You Happier.  This article lead to a composite article of all the comments compiled into a sister article the next day!  It was an incredible list that was built!

The point of the experiment was to get comfortable write while in the middle (or at least close in proximity) at a large groups of people.  Then to seek inspiration by feeding off my surrounding via the different types of people in the restaurant.  I had a lot of success when I went to “Panera Bread“!  A few days of eating alone at this restaurant made me realize that I was not so unique in eating out alone.  In fact, there were plenty (maybe 20%) of people just like me, with there laptops working on their own thing.  I also saw a lot of business being conducted at the restaurant.

It was an incredible experiment that gave me a better sense of what it would be like if I were blogging full-time at the ultimate mobile business.  I can see if I had a few posts scheduled to post in advance, how I could practically go anyway, totally unrestricted by location.

Thanks for reading about my little experiment,

MR