I Think I Might Like This

Since my first post, I have been thinking a lot about this blog thing, and I think I might like it.  I have all kinds of ideas.  It also occured to me, this is kind of like journaling, only publicly.  So what's been on Rebecca's mind today, you may ask, well, I will tell you.

I started a new endeavor this month (my months go from paycheck to paycheck since I get paid once a month, in the middle of the month.)  It is insane how much this family of three spends on groceries in a month, especially since one of the eaters is a finicky 2 year old who would rather not eat. I decided I wanted to do better in this department financially.  So I made a meal plan for dinners for a month.  I mapped out what we will have each night.  I even included nights where we eat leftovers every third or fourth day because I am sick of the food we waste.  If there are no leftovers, we'll have soup and sandwiches (there is an abundance of soup due to a great sale matched with lots of great coupons.  That's another post, though!)  I went this weekend and bought all the shelf stable and freezer items needed for the month.  We are lucky enough to have a stand up freezer in the basement thanks to my wonderful mom, so this helped a lot.  I even made out grocery lists for each week of fresh items needed.  I spent way less this weekend than I thought I would.  For a month's worth of shelf stable and frozen groceries (this includes frozen waffles, which the two year will eat, as well as a few other items that are for breakfast and lunch such as cereals, cereal bars, and fish sticks) my grand total for the month was only 250 bucks.  That's HUGE!  For us at least.  I have decided to limit us to only 40 dollars each week this month for other items.  I think a normal family could spend less, but John alone drinks 3 gallons of milk a week, and Wheeler and I can only drink almond milk.  That coupled with the dairy free cheese I have to buy, puts my bill up there a little.  If I can stick to this budget, I will have spent less than 450 dollars on groceries for the month.  I hate to admit it, but that's almost half what we were spending a month at one point.  For three people! 

So, we are on day four of this grand plan of mine.  So far, so good.  We'll see how it goes.