For anyone who has followed this blog for any amount of time, you will recall that I had to go back to work back in October, as this economy had taken a toll on our finances. So at that point, my challenge began, to get the finances in better order, and get us in a better position for me to be able to stay home once again.
So now I am home on maternity leave, and am once again loving being able to be home with my girls. We are doing a "dry run" with our budget cut down to one income, and are looking for more ways to cut back.
I have to confess that one of my weaknesses comes in the form of eating out. I love to eat out and have really struggled to find joy in cooking at home. But these days, I have been learning, and enjoying, cooking at home. Now granted, we have had dinner meals delivered to us since the baby was born, and for that I am eternally grateful. It has given me the opportunity to regain strength after Hannah's delivery, and start to cook lunch everyday for my family. Now I know that some might smirk at this, but for me it is a huge start! We haven't been out to eat for lunch in 10 days! Seriously, y'all, for me this is huge!
So, I would appreciate your ideas for frugal living, as I learn how to do this. Thank you, Lisa, for all the recipes and ideas that you sent to me. We made the crescent beef burritos for lunch today and they were a huge hit!!
Anyhow, that's where we are. I'm learning to coupon, though I'm not very good at it yet. But I am enjoying learning how to save money. Seriously, I would welcome your ideas and thoughts, things that have worked well for you and your family.
Grace and peace, y'all.
I'm not super good at this but here are somethings I've found that help:
ReplyDelete1) I don't do coupons b/c the store brand (@Target) is cheaper. I do a lot of store brand stuff unless my man wants it name brand. Also I never would get $1.50 out of savings with my coupons and ifI can't break even with buying the paper, it wastes my money as well as my time...but that's me.
2) I've tried, since having 3, to have a meal plan written out week by week. I try not to be dogmatic about what's eaten on what days but then I usually only have to go to the store 1x. And I make sure I always have PBJs in case I don't feel like cooking at all.
3) Frozen Veggies. I buy mine 90% of the time at Sams b/c I get a bunch for super cheap. Saves on the expense of fresh, plus I cannot count the number of times my "fresh" veggies went bad b/c we didn't use them all, etc. i've even gotten to the point of offering my kids frozen veggies b/c of time constraints. Or b/c I'm just lazy. But I'm not quite willing to admit the lazy part yet.... {wink wink}
4) The last thing I've done maybe every 8-10 weeks is have a big cooking day on a weekend where I double 2 recipes (or 3x or whatever you have space for in your freezer) The two that freeze best for me are chili and spaghetti. I may try other recipes soon. With my family, I can get about 3 meals out of each doubling (actually, my chili's recipe is HUGE so I dont' have to double it)
Groceries is my worst budget item. So please, please PLEASE take all this with a LOT of salt.
I hope you get a bunch of good ideas and can manage to work it out to stay home! I'm sure you miss it a lot. (HUGS)
For fun and cheap ideas (including restaurants) check out:
ReplyDeletehttp://tucsononthecheap.com/
You can also find your own city at:
http://www.citiesonthecheap.com/
More ideas later...
Thanks friends!! I will look into all of those ideas!!
ReplyDelete-Shauna
When things go on sale at an excellent price (for example, super-lean ground beef for $1.88/lb. at Fry's), I buy several, separate them into 1 lb. sections and freeze them. I also would buy a few of our staples (pasta, spaghetti sauce, cheese...) to get us through the non-sale times.
ReplyDeleteAbout every 6 weeks I plan meals based on what is in the refrigerator/freezer/pantry to use up what we have already bought (although I am not really good at this yet)... I am trying to not be wasteful.
I have just recently started couponing through thegrocerygame.com (Mindy Blevins does a different one also with great results). It's pretty time intensive though.
Hope you can streamline enough to stay home. I am sure you miss it (and the girls and Samson) like crazy.
Love,
Lisa
Shauna, I just dropped in for a visit. Now, I'm not the best advisor for frugal living, but I do have a couple of things I do to save on cleaning supplies.
ReplyDelete1) I use a mixture of vinegar and water to clean my furniture, but I can't recall the exact mixture. It's on my blog on the sidebar, though. Just be sure to test first. If you want it to smell better, you can add a drop of essential oil to the mix.
2) I use rubbing alcohol (if you don't mind the scent) for cleaning bathrooms. I put in undiluted in a spray bottle. You may want to dilute it with children in the home.
Blessings to you,
Andrea