Ugh, I am not sailing into this school year smoothly. I feel the weight of the impending schedule that is taking effect this week and it's causing some massive anxiety. Which means I try to ignore the fact that it's happening and procrastinate. I am not feeling very prepared, even though I know I am probably more prepared than I think I am. But I wanted the house perfectly clean and organized before the school year began. That didn't happen. Oh well. Let it go.
My days are going to be a little more complicated this school term since I am taking classes on campus (far, far away) and also doing internship #1 of 2. Even though I'm not feeling super prepared, I decided to take one thing out of the equation for myself. I'm giving the meal planning duties to someone else. Meaning, there will actually BE a meal plan every week because I'm paying for it.
I signed up for eMeals today on the Gluten Free Family plan. The best deal is a 12-month subscription at $5 per month (paid all at once), but I wanted a shorter term commitment in case it just didn't work for us. So I went with the 3-month plan at $7 per month (also paid all at once). That will get us through this fall school term and we can see where we stand from there. If it makes things super easy and we're trying new meal ideas that we love, then we'll continue. If it doesn't make a huge difference in things, we'll probably give it up.
Now, I normally don't do anything like this. I'm of the opinion that there are many, MANY resources for recipes out there and you can just make your own darn meal plan each week. Except if you're like me, it will take you two hours for one stinking meal plan because you can't decide what you want to make/eat, and then you'll "forget" to meal plan one week and spend every night eating pasta and sandwiches - which doesn't really work when you have a family member allergic to gluten. Note to self: Hungry husbands are not happy husbands.
So why did I choose to sign up for eMeals? One: It's recommended by Dave Ramsey. I like him and I like his financial ideas. Two: I spoke to many people who had actually used it, and heard nothing but good things. Three: Based upon everything I've read and heard, it should simplify not only our meal planning, but also our grocery budget. From the people I've spoken to about it, everyone raved about saving at least $200 per month on groceries. That.Is.Awesome.
Here's hoping it works the way I need it to. And maybe my kids will learn to love something other than grilled cheese sandwiches.
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Friday, April 6, 2012
Grocery Update
I haven't posted about grocery costs in a while and one of the blogs I read regularly just had topic about doing a grocery audit, so it reminded me that I really needed to go over things again and see where we stood. To remind you, we have been attempting $300 per month on food and $100 on household items like tp, pet food, cleaning supplies, etc - $400 total. After a few months, we seem to be gravitating towards a natural spending amount of between $500-550 for food and household costs. This being said, some months, we are able to get around our goal amount.
I honestly don't know why we can make our goal amount some months and other months go $100+ over. Maybe it depends on how much I'm using coupons in a particular month (I'm not a big coupon user but will use one if I was going to buy that item anyway). Maybe some months we are able to cruise by on our pantry stockpile. I just have no idea.
This month, I'm attempting to do more freezer cooking, which I've been told will cut down on food costs big time once you get the hang of it. So far, I've spent half of our grocery budget for the month and have stocked up on bulk items at Costco. Once I get some more freezer cooking done and have outlined more meal plans for the month, I am hoping that it will enable me to successfully say that I was able to meet our food budget at the end of the month.
We have discussed raising our grocery budget by $50 to see if that gives us a little more wiggle room so we aren't stressing out about how much we've spent and aren't squeaking by on plain white rice and carrots for the last few meals of the month. But before we do that, I want to attempt a heavier freezer cooking rotation to see what difference, if any, it makes. I look forward to giving an update!
I honestly don't know why we can make our goal amount some months and other months go $100+ over. Maybe it depends on how much I'm using coupons in a particular month (I'm not a big coupon user but will use one if I was going to buy that item anyway). Maybe some months we are able to cruise by on our pantry stockpile. I just have no idea.
This month, I'm attempting to do more freezer cooking, which I've been told will cut down on food costs big time once you get the hang of it. So far, I've spent half of our grocery budget for the month and have stocked up on bulk items at Costco. Once I get some more freezer cooking done and have outlined more meal plans for the month, I am hoping that it will enable me to successfully say that I was able to meet our food budget at the end of the month.
We have discussed raising our grocery budget by $50 to see if that gives us a little more wiggle room so we aren't stressing out about how much we've spent and aren't squeaking by on plain white rice and carrots for the last few meals of the month. But before we do that, I want to attempt a heavier freezer cooking rotation to see what difference, if any, it makes. I look forward to giving an update!
Friday, December 16, 2011
Frugality
Part of our journey to simplicity includes our finances. We're approaching this by learning how to be frugal. Not really because we NEED to in order to feed our family, but because it's the smart thing to do (hey congress, you might want to take note here). We do have debt that includes a mortgage, student loans, and credit cards - just like most people. We want to pay those off and we want to be able to be prepared financially for any emergencies that arise, like a layoff. We went through that before and having me work full time retail was not fun (although I am grateful that my employer at that time had enough hours available to bump me from very part time to full time right away). Being frugal is a way to make our financial life simple: No stressing about emergencies, knowing exactly what we can afford, and having funds for our future (retirement, vacations, etc). We're certainly still learning the ins and outs of frugality and we are learning from our mistakes. WiseBread has a great article on frugality today and I'd like to share it with you:
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Grocery Challenge Month #2
What a strange month. With everything that was going on (mentioned in my previous post), it was quite difficult to stick to anything. Having just gone over all the receipts from October and looking at our financial records, I have to admit that I'm confused. Here's why:
We went over budget again; in fact, we went over $52 more than we did in September. We spent more on food, but less on household items. Food cost $450 in October! Apparently my desired food budget of $300 does not include candy heavy months (thanks, Halloween) or stress-induced cravings. Blah. And yes, I can almost guarantee you that that additional $150 was spent on candy and snacks that we probably didn't need. However, even though we've been over budget for the past two months, the amount of money we have left in the bank account at the end of each pay period is steadily increasing. Um, what?
I haven't looked closely enough to see what might be making the difference, but I have some theories.
1) Even though we've been over our desired grocery/household budget for the past two months, we are still spending less (anywhere from $50-$200 less) each month than when we weren't actively trying to stick to a budget. So that's awesome.
2) We're spending less in other areas. We've essentially stopped eating fast food, except for once or twice in the past couple of months, so our dining out expenses have dropped big time. It's good for the wallet AND for the waistline. Plus, we're just not buying as much stuff as we used to. Trying to limit our possessions has made us all think twice before purchasing anything: "Do we REALLY need this?". Trips to Target (oh, what a problem store for shopaholics!) have decreased immensely, with me not even setting foot in a Target for nearly two months until mid-October when my six year old needed new clothes.
3) I'm selling our crap. I haven't looked at how much I've made since I started selling the stuff we don't need anymore, but I will bet you anything that it's over $600. That money has been going right into the bank account (except for the past two weeks, when I built up some money to spend on ebay for Christmas presents).
All in all, it's been very interesting so far to see what happens when we make lifestyle changes. I don't think we're doing anything super amazing or drastic or revolutionary, but I'm hoping that by making positive changes in our life, I can encourage others to do the same.
We went over budget again; in fact, we went over $52 more than we did in September. We spent more on food, but less on household items. Food cost $450 in October! Apparently my desired food budget of $300 does not include candy heavy months (thanks, Halloween) or stress-induced cravings. Blah. And yes, I can almost guarantee you that that additional $150 was spent on candy and snacks that we probably didn't need. However, even though we've been over budget for the past two months, the amount of money we have left in the bank account at the end of each pay period is steadily increasing. Um, what?
I haven't looked closely enough to see what might be making the difference, but I have some theories.
1) Even though we've been over our desired grocery/household budget for the past two months, we are still spending less (anywhere from $50-$200 less) each month than when we weren't actively trying to stick to a budget. So that's awesome.
2) We're spending less in other areas. We've essentially stopped eating fast food, except for once or twice in the past couple of months, so our dining out expenses have dropped big time. It's good for the wallet AND for the waistline. Plus, we're just not buying as much stuff as we used to. Trying to limit our possessions has made us all think twice before purchasing anything: "Do we REALLY need this?". Trips to Target (oh, what a problem store for shopaholics!) have decreased immensely, with me not even setting foot in a Target for nearly two months until mid-October when my six year old needed new clothes.
3) I'm selling our crap. I haven't looked at how much I've made since I started selling the stuff we don't need anymore, but I will bet you anything that it's over $600. That money has been going right into the bank account (except for the past two weeks, when I built up some money to spend on ebay for Christmas presents).
All in all, it's been very interesting so far to see what happens when we make lifestyle changes. I don't think we're doing anything super amazing or drastic or revolutionary, but I'm hoping that by making positive changes in our life, I can encourage others to do the same.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Grocery Challenge Month #1
We completed our first month of our grocery challenge ($300 for food, $100 for household items). We went over budget. It's hard to say if it was due to not watching closely enough, or from needing to buy extra food due to the three parties we hosted (although we were over even without the parties). Thankfully, we do not host three parties in a normal month (we rarely host any parties at all!), so here's hoping that October shows what a normal month of shopping looks like. Here's how it all looked:
Grocery/Food: $369.07 (over budget by $69.07 - this does not include party food)
Household items (Pet, toilet paper, shampoo, etc): $142.94 (over budget by $42.94)
Total Cost: $512.01 (w/party: $612.42)
Total Over Budget: $112.01 (w/party, over budget by: $212.42)
Grumble. Looks like we have some work to do on our shopping habits still. Looking at these totals is painful and makes me ashamed. I thought for sure we were doing better, but these totals make it look like a regular month of willy-nilly purchasing. Hey, that's what this blog is for, right? Putting my challenges, successes, AND failures out there.
So how to change it? Let's look at some mistakes from last month.
1. I didn't plan meals. I think I was focusing too hard on getting crap out of my house and making sure the place was clean when I should have been also including meal planning and looking at finances. I should have scheduled a time each week to create a meal plan for the following week. I went to the grocery store every Wednesday. Tuesday evening would have been a perfect time to write down any extras that I might need for the following week. Meal plans have to be a priority.
2. I sent my husband to the store for extra shopping trips too many times. My dear husband likes to worry about finances and tell me exactly how much money we have to spend on what. But when it comes to going into a grocery store, he turns into an impulse buyer. Granted, I was very sick for a few days and needed some items that we didn't have in the house (cold meds, ginger ale, soup, crackers), so it was kind of unavoidable. I can't control him when he's at the store without me though, and sending him with a list doesn't help much. I'm not sure how I can fix this other than limiting when he gets to shop alone to when it's absolutely needed (like my sick weekend). I sent him to the store two extra times when I could have gone.
3. I didn't keep a price diary. I didn't see it as necessary because I thought I knew what I would and would not pay for things, but it can't hurt. If I'm really serious about making this budget work, I need to be willing to employ some crazy shopper techniques (especially since I'm not willing to take 1000 coupons with me each time I go to the store). Don't know what a price diary is? Check this out: The Price Diary - How to Save More From Knowing When to Buy. This also includes knowing what fruit and veggies are in season to avoid over paying for them. You can get that list here: WiseBread: Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, By the Month.
4. I just used my debit card and ignored the envelope system for the month. It's hard to really think about how much you're spending when you just swipe a card. It's hard to know/remember how much you have left in your budget when you're not physically looking at how much cash you have available. For some reason, I figured since I was keeping track by keeping receipts, I might not need the envelope system. Obviously, I was wrong. I've bought some groceries already this month by using the debit card, so whatever is left in the budget is how much cash I will take out next time I'm at the ATM. I must not ignore the envelopes!
I'll start with these changes and we'll see where that takes us. It's not easy to admit failure, but I know that looking over where we went wrong will help us in the long run. What an eye opener this first month has been! Here's hoping I have better results to show for October.
Grocery/Food: $369.07 (over budget by $69.07 - this does not include party food)
Household items (Pet, toilet paper, shampoo, etc): $142.94 (over budget by $42.94)
Total Cost: $512.01 (w/party: $612.42)
Total Over Budget: $112.01 (w/party, over budget by: $212.42)
Grumble. Looks like we have some work to do on our shopping habits still. Looking at these totals is painful and makes me ashamed. I thought for sure we were doing better, but these totals make it look like a regular month of willy-nilly purchasing. Hey, that's what this blog is for, right? Putting my challenges, successes, AND failures out there.
So how to change it? Let's look at some mistakes from last month.
1. I didn't plan meals. I think I was focusing too hard on getting crap out of my house and making sure the place was clean when I should have been also including meal planning and looking at finances. I should have scheduled a time each week to create a meal plan for the following week. I went to the grocery store every Wednesday. Tuesday evening would have been a perfect time to write down any extras that I might need for the following week. Meal plans have to be a priority.
2. I sent my husband to the store for extra shopping trips too many times. My dear husband likes to worry about finances and tell me exactly how much money we have to spend on what. But when it comes to going into a grocery store, he turns into an impulse buyer. Granted, I was very sick for a few days and needed some items that we didn't have in the house (cold meds, ginger ale, soup, crackers), so it was kind of unavoidable. I can't control him when he's at the store without me though, and sending him with a list doesn't help much. I'm not sure how I can fix this other than limiting when he gets to shop alone to when it's absolutely needed (like my sick weekend). I sent him to the store two extra times when I could have gone.
3. I didn't keep a price diary. I didn't see it as necessary because I thought I knew what I would and would not pay for things, but it can't hurt. If I'm really serious about making this budget work, I need to be willing to employ some crazy shopper techniques (especially since I'm not willing to take 1000 coupons with me each time I go to the store). Don't know what a price diary is? Check this out: The Price Diary - How to Save More From Knowing When to Buy. This also includes knowing what fruit and veggies are in season to avoid over paying for them. You can get that list here: WiseBread: Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, By the Month.
4. I just used my debit card and ignored the envelope system for the month. It's hard to really think about how much you're spending when you just swipe a card. It's hard to know/remember how much you have left in your budget when you're not physically looking at how much cash you have available. For some reason, I figured since I was keeping track by keeping receipts, I might not need the envelope system. Obviously, I was wrong. I've bought some groceries already this month by using the debit card, so whatever is left in the budget is how much cash I will take out next time I'm at the ATM. I must not ignore the envelopes!
I'll start with these changes and we'll see where that takes us. It's not easy to admit failure, but I know that looking over where we went wrong will help us in the long run. What an eye opener this first month has been! Here's hoping I have better results to show for October.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Budget Birthday
My oldest is turning six next Monday (WHAT?! How did that happen??), so it's time for a birthday party and all the expense that goes along with it! Actually, it's time for two birthday parties. No, I wasn't trying to spend as much as possible. It was actually my way to reduce birthday stress. On Saturday we're having the "friends" party at a local park (the weather guy keeps flip-flopping between sun and rain - doesn't he know I have an event to worry about?), then on Sunday we're having the extended family over for a party. I tried to have both friends and family over at the same time last year and it was just too insane. My house is in no way big enough for that. So I thought it would simplify things to have them separately. Because it's ALL about simplicity......right?
Yes, simple. Except I had to figure out how to pull off two parties with food, decor, and his presents without spending a ton. A "save money" type blog I found bragged about how she only spent $300 on her kid's party and that was the cheapest she'd ever gone. I have to be able to do better than that! Here's how I did:
As far as presents go, we're trying to limit our belongings and he's going to be getting a bunch from other people anyway so I stuck to two gifts: one was bought from eBay at a very discounted price and the other was bought from a store that's going out of business so everything was on sale. Breakdown:
And then there's food. Probably the biggest expense of all. I tried to look up different blogs on cheap foods to have at parties and honestly wasn't finding anything besides "Just give them chips and ice cream". Um, no. While that would cost very little, it also makes me look really stingy and/or unprepared. These people are nice enough to come to a party and bring my child a present, so the least I can do is give them some decent snacks. So I spent an hour on a "menu" and narrowed it down to reasonably easy, cost effective, and healthy snacks. I'm also doing the exact same thing for both parties, so I'm just doubling everything. Any leftovers from the party on Saturday can also be used on Sunday. One big cost saver: I'm not ordering a cake. I actually haven't ordered a cake since my oldest's 1st birthday. I prefer the taste of homemade cakes and there's always too much frosting on the store bought ones. Yes, he wants a Star Wars cake, but we're going to for coordinating colors and then I'm going to use a few figurines from his Lego Star Wars sets as cake toppers. It'll be funny and memorable on top of saving me money. Here's the menu and the cost breakdown:
Yes, simple. Except I had to figure out how to pull off two parties with food, decor, and his presents without spending a ton. A "save money" type blog I found bragged about how she only spent $300 on her kid's party and that was the cheapest she'd ever gone. I have to be able to do better than that! Here's how I did:
My children are very big on their birthday themes, so there was no negotiating there, but I can take the main colors from his theme and buy colored coordinated decor and only a few character items. I also keep any leftover party items in a box in the pantry and it turned out that we still had enough plates and napkins with our needed colors. Score! I am doing goody bags for the kids coming to the "friend" party, but only the goody bag itself has the character theme on it. I'm filling it with bulk candy and little dollar store random items (bubbles, dinosaurs, stretchy frogs, etc). Breakdown:
Goody bags: $18.48
(that's roughly $2.05 per kid)
Decor: $18.37
As far as presents go, we're trying to limit our belongings and he's going to be getting a bunch from other people anyway so I stuck to two gifts: one was bought from eBay at a very discounted price and the other was bought from a store that's going out of business so everything was on sale. Breakdown:
Star Wars DVD set from ebay: $23.00
Star Wars Book: $12.00
And then there's food. Probably the biggest expense of all. I tried to look up different blogs on cheap foods to have at parties and honestly wasn't finding anything besides "Just give them chips and ice cream". Um, no. While that would cost very little, it also makes me look really stingy and/or unprepared. These people are nice enough to come to a party and bring my child a present, so the least I can do is give them some decent snacks. So I spent an hour on a "menu" and narrowed it down to reasonably easy, cost effective, and healthy snacks. I'm also doing the exact same thing for both parties, so I'm just doubling everything. Any leftovers from the party on Saturday can also be used on Sunday. One big cost saver: I'm not ordering a cake. I actually haven't ordered a cake since my oldest's 1st birthday. I prefer the taste of homemade cakes and there's always too much frosting on the store bought ones. Yes, he wants a Star Wars cake, but we're going to for coordinating colors and then I'm going to use a few figurines from his Lego Star Wars sets as cake toppers. It'll be funny and memorable on top of saving me money. Here's the menu and the cost breakdown:
Menu
Homemade Cupcakes (park)/Cake (home)
Cantaloupe melon balls
Cucumbers, carrots, celery with hummus, ranch dressing, and spinach dip
Crackers
Homemade rice krispy treats
Homemade pumpkin bread
Food Cost
$63.56
Grand total for two parties: $135.41
I don't know if I could have done any better. Maybe I could have found an even cheaper way to do goody bags, although I feel like $2 per kid is pretty darn good. Even so, I still found my heart sinking a little when everything was rung up at the store. Maybe just because I know we're over our food budget for the month anyway or maybe I was unrealistically expecting to pull off a kid's double party under $100. I guess that begs the question: Is a $100 kid party (with presents) even possible?
Thursday, September 8, 2011
The Grocery Side of the Challenge
Like I mentioned previously, I'm attempting to keep our food budget for our family of four to $300 per month (essentially forcing me to stick to meal plans, shopping lists, and using everything in my fridge/pantry) and our household basics (toilet paper, detergent, shampoo, pet food, etc) to $100 per month. Luckily I decided to start this at the beginning of a month so I can easily keep track of how I'm starting out. I waited to go shopping until we were literally down to rice and carrots. This means two large shopping trips (Fred Meyer and Costco) needed to happen, but they should be the biggest of the month and hopefully a few things will carry us quite far. Here's how it's adding up as of today, 9/8:
Food: $216.43
Household: $57.33
That means I have remaining for the rest of month:
Food: $83.57
Household: $42.67
The remaining household budget shouldn't be a problem. The only other things we might need to get this month would be shampoo, nighttime pull-ups for my three year old, and cat food/litter. In fact, I anticipate that we won't reach the $100 limit most months because I try to buy all my household basics at Costco and they tend to last me 2-3 months.
The remaining grocery budget could prove to be challenging. We were seriously out of everything though, so I had to restock the entire kitchen. I don't anticipate having to restock quite so much each month because I get my baking ingredients at Costco as well, so that will last a little while as well. This is really going to depend on what I can do meal planning wise and how much batch cooking I can manage. It's going to be interesting for sure. I won't decide to make any changes to the food budget for a couple of months though. I want to get a decent picture of what we REALLY need before I decide that $300 isn't working.
I'll definitely keep you updated on how it's going.
Food: $216.43
Household: $57.33
That means I have remaining for the rest of month:
Food: $83.57
Household: $42.67
The remaining household budget shouldn't be a problem. The only other things we might need to get this month would be shampoo, nighttime pull-ups for my three year old, and cat food/litter. In fact, I anticipate that we won't reach the $100 limit most months because I try to buy all my household basics at Costco and they tend to last me 2-3 months.
The remaining grocery budget could prove to be challenging. We were seriously out of everything though, so I had to restock the entire kitchen. I don't anticipate having to restock quite so much each month because I get my baking ingredients at Costco as well, so that will last a little while as well. This is really going to depend on what I can do meal planning wise and how much batch cooking I can manage. It's going to be interesting for sure. I won't decide to make any changes to the food budget for a couple of months though. I want to get a decent picture of what we REALLY need before I decide that $300 isn't working.
I'll definitely keep you updated on how it's going.
Friday, September 2, 2011
The Beginning
Well, here I am. Jumping into a trying a new way of life and dragging my family along with me. Go ahead and call me crazy - but wouldn't you agree that if something doesn't feel like it's working, that it's time to try something else? That's all I'm doing. Trying something new. It might work and it might not, but either way, I know I'll learn something along the way. Maybe all I'll take away from this is a few new organization tips or a couple time saving dinner prep techniques. But even then, I'll consider this whole thing worth it. Nothing exciting happens from sitting on my rear and assuming that things won't get any better.
Admittedly the biggest part of this challenge is going to be sticking with it, so I'm setting up a time frame. Nothing as big as a full year and nothing so wimpy as a measly 30 days - I am committing to doing this until the clock indicates the very first second of 2012. That should give me just enough time to see if what I'm doing is making any difference. Sure, it might not be a huge difference by then, but it will be long enough to figure out if we're all just miserable.
I invite you to commit to the simplicity challenge with me - as little or as much as you feel comfortable with. Here are my three beginning goals so you can follow along:
1) Begin our new sleep schedule. Our five year old begins morning kindergarten in one week and we HAVE to be there at the same time every weekday. Kids in bed at 8pm, lights off by 9pm. Adults in bed by 10:30pm, lights off by 11pm. Adults awake at 6am, kids awake at 6:30am. We are not morning people, so this is a huge deal and probably the biggest lifestyle change I think we'll end up making. I don't expect this schedule to change at all.
2) Create and stick with daily, weekly, and monthly housework plans. This one will probably take some tweaking as I figure out what works, what doesn't, and how often things should realistically be done. As OCD as I feel sometimes, I will realize that we have small children and a perfect house is not going to happen. Our home will be lived in, but not filthy.
3) Create weekly meal plans and complete a few batch meals to keep in the freezer each month. My goal is to attempt a monthly grocery budget (not including household items like detergent, shampoo, toilet paper, etc) of $300 for our family of four. That might not be realistic, but I'm going to try my very best.
As we ease into these top three goals, more will be added, like purging closets, limiting our belongings, and figuring out new organization systems to make housework faster and easier. You get the idea.
So you are welcome along this journey with us or just feel free to sit back and laugh/cry/shake your head as we try to figure this out. I'm sure it will provide at least a little entertainment.
Admittedly the biggest part of this challenge is going to be sticking with it, so I'm setting up a time frame. Nothing as big as a full year and nothing so wimpy as a measly 30 days - I am committing to doing this until the clock indicates the very first second of 2012. That should give me just enough time to see if what I'm doing is making any difference. Sure, it might not be a huge difference by then, but it will be long enough to figure out if we're all just miserable.
I invite you to commit to the simplicity challenge with me - as little or as much as you feel comfortable with. Here are my three beginning goals so you can follow along:
1) Begin our new sleep schedule. Our five year old begins morning kindergarten in one week and we HAVE to be there at the same time every weekday. Kids in bed at 8pm, lights off by 9pm. Adults in bed by 10:30pm, lights off by 11pm. Adults awake at 6am, kids awake at 6:30am. We are not morning people, so this is a huge deal and probably the biggest lifestyle change I think we'll end up making. I don't expect this schedule to change at all.
2) Create and stick with daily, weekly, and monthly housework plans. This one will probably take some tweaking as I figure out what works, what doesn't, and how often things should realistically be done. As OCD as I feel sometimes, I will realize that we have small children and a perfect house is not going to happen. Our home will be lived in, but not filthy.
3) Create weekly meal plans and complete a few batch meals to keep in the freezer each month. My goal is to attempt a monthly grocery budget (not including household items like detergent, shampoo, toilet paper, etc) of $300 for our family of four. That might not be realistic, but I'm going to try my very best.
As we ease into these top three goals, more will be added, like purging closets, limiting our belongings, and figuring out new organization systems to make housework faster and easier. You get the idea.
So you are welcome along this journey with us or just feel free to sit back and laugh/cry/shake your head as we try to figure this out. I'm sure it will provide at least a little entertainment.
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