Resolution

I set a goal of spending only $125 each week on groceries. I was frustrated with the amount of money we were spending on food. I was frustrated that we were always broke. Hubs and I both work and earn a decent wage, but where was all the money?

I decided starting in January I would pay closer attention to our budget and one area I felt we could really improve on was our grocery bill. Each week we would go to the store, buy everything we “needed” and a bunch of what we wanted. Then we’d get a day or two out and have nothing for dinner. $150 shopping, plus who knows how much making additional trips to the store throughout the week to buy what we needed for dinner each night.

I knew we were spending too much. As I got busier with the kids and work, I knew I had to get a handle on feeding my family.

I started planning meals. Since the first of the year I have made a meal plan every week. It has made sticking to the grocery budget possible for us. We’re not perfect, every once in a while we go over a little and once or twice we went over a lot. But this is a process and we’re getting better all the time.

The first few trips to the grocery store were a little awkward. I annoyed my husband by writing down the price of every item that landed in our cart and then embarrassed him by pulling out my calculator in the produce section to add up our purchases.

But you know what? It worked. And now my man acts like my neurotic grocery store behavior could not be more ordinary.

It isn’t a task look forward to, but I feel proud when I stick to my budget and have a plan for dinner each night.

After several months I’ve added a new twist. I really want to improve the quality of food I feed my family. To start this, I am going to start making certain things from scratch -which can be a great money saver.  But I am also switching to organic for some items and that can strain a budget.

I’m going through an adjustment period. I’m trying to figure out what is worth making from scratch and which organic items are worth the added expense.

My “From Scratch” items are sourdough bread & the starter, chicken & beef broth and yogurt. I’ve tried several other things, but these are the few I have done consistently for several weeks now.

My “Buy Organic” items are apples, potatoes, blueberries, kale, onions and celery.

I have started buying milk that is not homogenized and natural, free range chickens. These two items are significantly more expensive than the norm, but are worth the price to me.

There are a lot more things I want to try, but working full time makes this a long process.

Still, I think I get a check in the doing things “Right” column…