Okay, so lately we've been a little tight on money. I admit I have had some trouble realizing that we don't have 2 incomes anymore. This is even more evident now that we bought a house. We don't have money for me to go out to eat w/ other moms every week or for us even to go to the zoo or museum unless it is a special occasion. So, I figured I could help out in this area by doing 2 things:
1) Doing more activities that are free (library, parks, packing lunches when we go places, etc)
2) Cutting back/saving on our grocery shopping.
Number 1 hasn't been too hard to do. I like going to the library and my daughter loves going to the parks. Every once in a while I do have the urge to want to go eat at chick-fil-a or something like that, but I've been pretty good at fighting it. :)
Grocery shopping has been a real pain for me lately. I started out doing the grocery game and it did help my spending because I was being really careful to buy only what we needed and only what was on my list. But, I was getting frustrated because I was clipping all these coupons and then going to the store to find out that the store brand product was cheaper than the name brand even with the coupon. Then, there was this workshop/seminar at our church where a couple was talking about ways to save $ on your groceries. Of course, I went because I really want to help my family save money. I figure it is part of my job as mom and wife. Well, I took all the information and brought it home. I worked really hard on looking at all the deals, watching videos on the web, and getting all these coupons. When I went to the store, I ended up spending double what I normally spend and I only saved $14 w/ the coupons. Needless to say, I am a little down about the whole thing, but I am not giving up. I'm going to give it a few more tries - I'm determined to make this work and be like the one lady I watched who feeds a family of 5 for only $50 a week.
I am just praying that if I can buy things my family wants to eat for cheap then it will save money on the shopping plus we'll be less likely to go out to eat as often as we do. :) Of course, just having the food doesn't mean it will taste good when I cook it - maybe I should take cooking lessons as well - that's another blog. lol
Emily, sorry to hear about your frustrations on this matter. Believe me It took melissa and I a year and a half to figure it out. We did the seminar and started the savings ministry to help everyone save like those on tv. Before you go shopping again give me and melissa a call, we will go with you to help. Or come with us on Friday to Randall's, we will show you how we save.
ReplyDelete$50 for 5 five people is possible and we are here to help.