Thad and I had a discussion this weekend about finances. We had several things creep up on us in the last month that took our pocketbook by surprise: a unexpected large dental bill after flex ran out, an early xmas present for my mom/pictures of my kids/xmas cards already ordered, Ryan's hockey camp that we thought we had paid half for (they waited to charge us all at once), registration for hockey, school clothes, etc, etc.
Then I was bellyaching to my parents. My dad got out a calculator and showed me how many meals/snacks I am responsible for each week based on the size of my family: 126! Holy cow.
So my new plan is to try and 'need' to hit the store less often and get a weeks' worth of purchases at one time. It's not entirely possible. Sorry I won't pre buy two dozen bananas to let them rot!
What this requires of me (and I do okay with this during the school year) is menu planning. We eat the same stuff over and over and over. I bought a cookbook at a rummage sale yesterday for a dollar, and really what I found was more desserts to make than anything. Soooo....I have an assignment for you all.
1. Please provide me your money saving tips. (Sorry I am not willing to make my own detergent. I like Tide too much) Give me things that you do, little things, that maybe will go a long way.
Right now eating out less often is on my list.
2. Give me good "my family likes this a lot" recipes. My kids are picky. Never do they all like what I make. But, I have a little plan for that too. Tonight as our kids were being horrible at supper, I said "This is it for the day. You will get no bedtime snack or dessert." Of course as I said it, Brady threw a bean that hit me square in the face but whatever. I am tired of them eating crap prior to and after mealtime, but saying, "I'm full," right after taking two bites. Nope, sorry people. Mama is sick of it.
So give me your ideas, tips, advice, or anything else you have!
3 comments:
I know you are not a fan of cutting coupons, but it is something that is really simple. Only cut the coupons for products you know you use, so there isn't a big pile of them laying around. Then when you are doing your weekly list, just pull the coupons you need for that time. Although there are plenty of times I pull the coupons, and still leave them at home, or bring them to the store just to forget to hand them to the cashier.
I always forget them too! This goes along with my being disorganized. My life is what I like to call organized chaos.
Thanks for the tip....where are the rest of you?!?!
I just happened upon your blog again :)
When I was a kid my mom had us help plan the menus. We also had cooking as one of our chores. We had to help make something little on our night, even it was just cooking the veggies. That got us into eating/not being so picky. And, we always had the rule that whoever cooked didn't have to do dishes, so we always wanted to cook :)
Those little accordian coupon books look lame, but they actually are pretty dang handy. You can find some really good coupons online too. As far as saving money though, I am REALLY bad about getting what I'm going for at a store. I try to make lists as much as possible...
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