I love dining out just to try new food. I then get the recipe from YouTube and try making it at home. It's a nice experience to try different food than what you make often. What I do to cut cost is restrict the number of times we visit restaurants in a month. We decide to choose only one or two per month and choose fast food at other times. Also, I too don't order desserts. My kids get them in the kid meal but they never eat the dessert fully. So it becomes ours to share. I try not to waste food either.