Monday, May 11

Mother's Day & another chunk paid.

Mother's Day was perfect. We grabbed breakfast at Grandy's & took it over to the park for a little picnic. (I am calling that MY meal out for the week, instead of one of our family meals for the month 'cause Luke didn't eat anything.) Luke did get me some chocolate, a balloon, & a card that Kasen picked out (complete with Snoopy). I seriously didn't want anything, but I appreciate that he cared enough to do something for me. :) I'm guessing he spent $10-$15, I really haven't priced balloons or chocolate lately though, so I'm not sure. Definitely had to be under $20. I think. ;)
Last night Luke FINALLY got his computer up & running (it has been weeks since it crashed), so he was able to put a nice chunk towards one of the college loans. Yay! I feel like we'll never really get there, but I know eventually it WILL be paid off. I can't wait!
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On the how-to-lower-the-grocery-bill front, I'm trying out a new system. First of all, we have a family marker board calendar in the kitchen that I am starting to use to write down the $ spent. That way I can easily look & see what I've already spent in the month. I think seeing the number there will help curb some of the crazy spending. At least I hope. As far as the actual purchasing of groceries, I'm cutting out some of the organic stuff. Not all by any means, but some of the stuff I buy I think it's fine for us to go back to the "normal" stuff. We still won't do a lot of processed foods & that's more important [to me] than the organic/not organic debate. I'm also going to start writing down (on said marker board in the kitchen) our meals in 2 week increments. That'll help with the planning each night (no thinking necessary!), and it'll help with groceries 'cause I won't just go buy whatever sounds good, I'll buy stuff I need for the meals I've already decided on. Hopefully it will also stop the last minute trips to the store for 1 or 2 things for a particular meal. Those kill me 'cause I never buy JUST the 1 or 2 things. I'll still need to make milk runs I'm sure, but hopefully nothing else. We'll see.
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So, there you have it, a new week with new attempts at cutting money. So far this month I've spent about $175 on groceries. Hopefully (other than milk) I won't need to buy anything else until around the 24th (which is my birthday, by the way).

2 comments:

Dina said...

sounds like a good plan Helen - good luck!

Anonymous said...

I also plan meals for the week and it has saved me a TON of money. We get hurt when it comes to lunch time though because it's boring eating the same thing for lunch every day.