I think I have a plan. As any mommy of more than a couple of children knows, it is ESSENTIAL to have a plan in ones life in order for things to run smoothly. Things easily get chaotic with many little ones running around and NO plan. This goes for anything--plans must include, but are not limited to: menu plan, daily schedule, shopping plan, school plan, etc. So while I've had plans in many areas for a while now, I'm always striving to fine tune things wherever I can (and when time allows).
We've been trying hard to get our budget in order. Having a budget is something that I never did as a child and hadn't done--in fact, balked about--as an adult, until recently. After all we had been through to get out of debt, we want to STAY out of debt--FOREVER--AND we also want to make the best use of the blessings the Lord has given us. In our family, the greatest amount of money each month is spent on groceries. Our monthly "budgeted" amount is $900--including diapers, formula and other household items like laundry detergent, etc. $900 is nothing to sneeze at, in my opinion, HOWEVER, it's amazing how quickly that amount of money disappears! We've done many things to reduce costs--we're using cloth diapers, we make our own laundry detergent, etc. BUT, groceries are amazingly expensive. We're buying a grain mill and buying whole grains in bulk in order to reduce expenses. I'm making as much from scratch as possible and that helps, but we still need to do more.
So yesterday we received our first "produce box". A lot of the organic farms around here deliver fresh produce to your door weekly or every other week. It's actually quite reasonable and kinda fun because you don't know exactly what you're going to get--it's generally what's in season. We got some really fun stuff: oranges, kiwi, acorn squash, rainbow chard, broccoli and more. It's around $38/box, so really not a bad price for organic produce. We figured that if we were to do that WEEKLY, it'd reduce the amount of money we spend on produce and still give our family healthy produce. Then we're going to attempt once or twice a month shopping at my favorite store, Winco! I need to look closely at my menu plan in order to minimize in between trips to the store...so stay tuned!
1 comment:
I love Winco, we have it up here in Oregon too. We used to shop at a similar store (Sherms)when we lived in Southern Oregon. IMHO it's cheaper than Costco for most things. But you have to watch soap, detergent, paper goods, etc. I'm right there with you make a menu and stock up on all the basics when you can save. Good job staying on top of it! It's a lot of work to feed a family of 6.
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