Five years ago I gave birth to the twins. Some time later I left the corporate word to be a stay at home mom. The reasons are varied and complex, but in short kids are expensive and take a lot of time to raise, educate, love and provide for. My husband continues to work and pay all the family expenses, but our life style has been greatly reduced on the new tightened budget. He has always watched our budget and is the kind of man who insists on tracking expenses with graphs and charts well into the past, just so he can predict the future as much as possible when it comes to getting the bills paid. Together we have searched for ways to reduce the cost of living while maintaining some level of comfort.
The first things that we did, which made the greatest impact were eliminating alcohol from our groceries and reducing eating out to one night a week, some times not at all. We also stopped drinking alcohol when we went out, and began ordering water for the children instead of lemonade or milk. I also shifted the use of electrical appliances to off peak hours, and walked the children to school as much as I could instead of driving them.
We started to notice how the food that we were making was not lasting long enough. The boys were beginning to develop appetites that a bowl of Marconi and Cheese could not satisfy. Additionally, we were noticing the increase in news coverage about what food processors are adding into our food. Some of the additions are quite gross, while others resemble chemistry experiments closer than they resemble food. We thought that the best way to eliminate our intake of chemicals that we could not pronounce was to make our own food. At first this seemed a daunting task, but we eased into it. First by making our own cookies, cakes, and pasta dough from scratch. Allrecipies.com gave us all we needed to know on ingredients and procedures. Soon we were making more complex meals and all the condiments that go along with them.
It turns out there was not much a savings on making your own food. The individual ingredients are expensive when bought in small quantities, and there is simply no place to put the food once you have made it. Homemade food spoils quickly, so it was eat it all or feed the leftovers to the dog. We devised a plan to lower the cost of food, while providing the healthiest and best tasting meals to our family. We were going to take full advantage of our local discount superstore and buy everything in the biggest bulk quantities available. We were going to make all of our food from scratch, using boxed and canned products as little as little as possible. This plan could not be started this until we got a freezer to store the food that we bought or made. My parents gave us a huge upright freezer for a combined family birthday present. This was a true God send.
Groceries cost us an average of $215 every week. We knew that the initial cost of stocking up at our local discount superstore would be expensive, but the hope was that we would save money over the long run. Our initial purchase was over the last three weeks of August, and cost roughly $1000. Excluding the initial purchase, our average grocery expense is now $120 a week. Our initial plan has now expanded to include purchasing fruit and vegetables at a local farmers market. As well as planting a variety of produce in our back yard garden. Additionally we have begun composting all scrap food, trimmings, peals, and general organic waste from the kitchen. This material eventually finds its way back into our garden.
That all being said the point of this blog is to chronicle the ability to improve our quality of life on a reduced budget. Maybe I can give inspiration to others who have found themselves in the same situation as I am in.
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