Happy New Year to all my favourite readers! I hope that your Christmas was as blessed as ours was:)
Every year at this time I find myself trying to figure out a strategy on how to cut back our grocery bill. It's not that we mind spending the amount of money that we do on our food....I mean we ALWAYS eat well...we ENJOY our food....we RARELY eat out - always eat at home...we don't have a lot of WASTE...we buy the BEST quality that we can find...but it feels like every year when we total it up it seems like A LOT for just 4 people (although Levi - 15 months, practically eats for two!). I've tried the obvious things in the past like giving myself a weekly budget...but I find that two weeks in, there ends up being exceptions because something is on sale that I want to stock up on, or we're having a party, or whatever! So my brilliant strategy for this year is going to be completely opposite. Let me explain myself...
Instead of limiting myself every week, which is tricky cause every week brings different events, or I end up doing a Costco run...which leaves me discouraged because I went over 'budget', I decided to focus on the 'budget' one month at a time. I thought, what if I could save $100 a month...that's basically $20 a week...I know that could be done with pretty little effort. Then my mind went right away to what that would like over a year's time...$1,200...wow! Who wouldn't want that in their pocket at the end of the year??!!
So how am I going to do this? For me, it means planning our meals and then only buying what I need for those meals once I get to the store...and not being swayed by displays at the ends of the isles!! Our whole family is lucky enough to eat all three meals at home everyday...awesome...but that means having the food for three meals everyday...that's a lot. Planning out lunches and suppers (breakfast in the winter is always just oatmeal...that's an easy one!), for us, will help eliminate buying extras at the store. Like I said before, we never waste what we buy...but I know there are always a few things every week that I pick up and don't really need. As well, I know there are always a few things I forget because I don't plan out the meals perfectly...and then I end up running to the store just to get those one or two things...and end up spending $20 on things that look good, instead of just the $2 on a can of tomatoes...sound familiar? Another strategy...plan one or two meals a week based on something I already have in the freezer or pantry...most of us could go quite a while before we ran out of freezer food!
So what will you do with your $1,200 next Christmas? Here's a few ideas!!
- Donate to Compassion!
- Sponsor an extra 2 or 3 kids a year through Compassion!
- Add the $ to your vacation fund!
- Replace that old couch in your living room that you've been talking about for the past 5 years!
- Get a family membership to the gym!
- Hire a house-keeper to come every other week!
...your options are endless!
Join me on my adventure! Send me any tips you have...and I'll pass along any others that I come up with!
This adventure isn't about 'going without', but rather just seeing how much more you can have!
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