I wrote out our budget recently and have compiled a list of things that we can cut back on. There isn't much because we don't live very extravagantly to begin with. We don't go out to eat, we rarely shop for ourselves, we haven't been on a vacation in years, and we don't have the latest and greatest anything... our phones are phones. So in order to cut our budget we are really having to get serious. So where do we make cuts?
Gas -
We live in the middle of no where. We are lucky that my work is only ten minutes away and that Kevin has a company car (since he has a 75 mile round trip each day) but when it comes to going anywhere else we have to drive an hour. Every time we go shopping or to visit friends we end up spending hours on the road and use up a ton of gas. For years Kevin and I would grocery shop once a month and we needed something like milk Kevin would pick it up on his way home from work. This not only saved money on gas but on food as well because those "treats" and more expensive dinners that you have a tendency pick up every time you go to the store you don't get as often. Maybe eight or so months ago Kevin and I decided to go to grocery shopping every two weeks so we could get more fresh items and it has shown in our budget. So, we are going back to the once a month shopping. Driving to town half as much should cut our gas budget quite a bit.
Food -
We spend far to much on food each month. We like fresh veggies and fruits and we have a habit of not focusing on being economical when it comes to dinner planning. With the once a month shopping I have to really plan out our dinners, and looked specifically for dinners that are healthy and cheap. No more of this "There's nothing "good" to eat. We need to go shopping" stuff. I have a list on the fridge. Those are our choices and we don't shop until they are gone.
Our other problem, we shop mostly organic. It's important to us to feed our son healthy, fresh, preservative free foods. So we had to decide what NEEDS to be organic and what doesn't. Some things, like cereals and bread, maybe it's not as important to get them organic, especially when it costs twice as much.
Another issue... We waste... ALOT. I will buy fresh veggies or fruit for a recipe and end up not using everything and the left overs go wasted. We also end up buying a lot of veggies out of season because we need them for a recipe. We have this big beautiful freezer that my mother bought us for Christmas a few years ago. It's time to start using it. We are starting to buy fruits and veggies when they are in season or on sale and we are taking the time to cut them up and freeze them for future recipes.
I don't always have the energy to cook healthy meals, and with Kevin working a lot of late nights I end up relying on frozen meals. These aren't cheap, the portions are small and they are full of preservatives. I have been doing a great deal of research on freezing meals. So when I have time to cook, I cook enough for two meals and freeze half for later. This way we have healthy meals that are cheaper than store bought freezer meals... and the portions are better!
Diapers -
I never thought I would be saying this... but we are looking into cloth diapers. It's not that I have anything against cloth diapers but I have so many things on my to-do list each day that the thought of having to wash diapers and deal with cleaning up poop beyond the actual diaper change makes me cringe. I have a couple of friends who cloth diaper and I think they are changing my mind. Beyond the obvious savings it's not THAT much extra work... especially when you are breast feeding. The diapers can be used for future children as well. I have been doing a lot of research and think this might actually be for us. So we are going to trying and since we are making such a financial investment in the diapers we are going to MAKE it work.
Power -
There isn't a whole lot we can do here but I am having Kevin put up a laundry line for me after winter. Not having to run the dryer everyday once we include the cloth diapers into the mix should be helpful when it comes to the power bill.
So what have we done so far -
This weekend we went back to our once a month shopping. We went to Sam's and Kroger and this wasn't a cheap trip.. in fact it busted the budget but I am trying to remind myself that many of the things we got I wont have to buy again for many many months. We stocked our freezer and have enough dinners for a month and a half and that doesn't include leftovers.
While at Sam's we bought bell peppers, onions, and meat in bulk. We also bought lots of mushrooms while at Kroger. The rest of my Saturday was spent cutting up everything up and freezing it. I will say that I will NOT do this with onions again. The freezer REEKS and I can't seem to get the onions packed up enough to make it go away. We have six months worth of onions!! We were able to get six steaks for ten dollars. We cut them up for three meals of fajita burritos, two meals of stir fry and one meal of steak sandwiches! I had to cook the mushrooms before freezing them. It wasn't a ton of work and considering how much I am into mushrooms right now it will be well worth it.
For dinner I made Ricotta and Spinach Stuffed Shells and I made enough for two meals. I separated them out and froze half. After dinner I calculated the cost of the shell dinners and found that each meal with bread cost a total of six dollars and that is with about half of the ingratiates being organic! I think that is pretty good. The shells were awesome and I am excited that I have another meal of it in the freezer waiting for me.
So... I guess we will see where all this work.
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