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 meals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label meals. 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, 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 14, 2011
Two Must-Haves
Two of my must-have items for making life simple are things I've had for a few years now. A slow cooker and a bread machine. I use them, but I don't use them nearly enough and that's also going to be part of my challenge. These two items allow me to minimize how much dinner prep I have to do with two little boys running around.
My typical routine (that I've always hated) is to spend at least an hour working on dinner right before mealtime (because that's when you're supposed to work on dinner, right?). This seems to be the most hectic time of day for us. My kids are overly hyper and begin to fight constantly, which riles up the dog, and someone almost always ends up getting hurt from either falling over, getting smacked by a sibling, or nipped by the dog because they stepped on his tail during all their running around. And of course my husband isn't home yet and I can't really stop what I'm doing, so I'm standing there yelling my head off for them to stop it and calm down. Chaos. Pure chaos.
My house won't be like that today. Today I'm utilizing the slow cooker and bread machine. I'm using the small amount of quiet time the boys have after school (we only have half day kindergarten here) to do my dinner prep. While they have their snack and watch their PBS show, I am loading up the slow cooker with stuff for spaghetti meat sauce and the bread machine with ingredients for french bread. I'll have to do a little more prep on the bread in an hour or so, but then will only have to spend about 15 minutes getting the pasta cooked right before dinner. We will have a filling, delicious meal and I won't feel like a rundown crazy person afterwards. And I'll be able to spend more time playing with the boys this afternoon. A bonus!
These items are perfect for easing mealtime frustration. Even if you don't like bread machine bread (I'm not a fan of it - I just don't think it's as good as oven-fresh bread), a bread machine is still great for cutting down on time spent in the kitchen. I've never actually baked bread in my bread machine - I only use it for mixing and letting the bread rise (it's a warm place and works really well). I simply pour the ingredients in, turn it on, and it does all the mixing and kneading for me. No mess, very little time.
I'm glad that in this case of simplicity, all I had to do was use what was right in front of me. How many evenings of frustration and stress could I have avoided if I'd just figured that out in the first place?
My typical routine (that I've always hated) is to spend at least an hour working on dinner right before mealtime (because that's when you're supposed to work on dinner, right?). This seems to be the most hectic time of day for us. My kids are overly hyper and begin to fight constantly, which riles up the dog, and someone almost always ends up getting hurt from either falling over, getting smacked by a sibling, or nipped by the dog because they stepped on his tail during all their running around. And of course my husband isn't home yet and I can't really stop what I'm doing, so I'm standing there yelling my head off for them to stop it and calm down. Chaos. Pure chaos.
My house won't be like that today. Today I'm utilizing the slow cooker and bread machine. I'm using the small amount of quiet time the boys have after school (we only have half day kindergarten here) to do my dinner prep. While they have their snack and watch their PBS show, I am loading up the slow cooker with stuff for spaghetti meat sauce and the bread machine with ingredients for french bread. I'll have to do a little more prep on the bread in an hour or so, but then will only have to spend about 15 minutes getting the pasta cooked right before dinner. We will have a filling, delicious meal and I won't feel like a rundown crazy person afterwards. And I'll be able to spend more time playing with the boys this afternoon. A bonus!
These items are perfect for easing mealtime frustration. Even if you don't like bread machine bread (I'm not a fan of it - I just don't think it's as good as oven-fresh bread), a bread machine is still great for cutting down on time spent in the kitchen. I've never actually baked bread in my bread machine - I only use it for mixing and letting the bread rise (it's a warm place and works really well). I simply pour the ingredients in, turn it on, and it does all the mixing and kneading for me. No mess, very little time.
I'm glad that in this case of simplicity, all I had to do was use what was right in front of me. How many evenings of frustration and stress could I have avoided if I'd just figured that out in the first place?
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