Thursday, January 28, 2010

Groceries=FAIL

A little warning...this could be long, and very boring if you're not into budgeting...

A few summers ago, a very good friend of mine commented on the shocking prices of grapes. I honestly had no idea what to say. I HAD NO IDEA how much grapes cost. If I wanted grapes, I bought grapes. In fact, I had no clue how much money I was spending on groceries a month. This made me think. The next time I was at the grocery store, I made it a point to look and see how much grapes were. I stared at the price per pound. I was almost embarrassed...was this number high for grapes? I continued around the rest of the store, just throwing everything in my cart that I always did. I figured that we were doing okay with the grocery shopping as it was, so I just let it go.

This is kind of how things continued for a year or two. Then I read the book Skinny Bitch. Well, all of it but the part about animal killing. It was truly more than I could take. This book promotes eating all organic, no junk food, and especially a vegan diet. Now, I could probably do vegetarian if I wanted (I don't), but vegan would be impossible. I did go on a kick, however, of only shopping at Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck), squeezing my own orange juice every morning, only eating free range meats, and only buying organic. At this point I also cut out all aspertame/splenda and as much high fructose corn syrup as possible. The positive: I was down about 13 pounds in a couple months! The negative: I was spending a couple hundred dollars a week in groceries and I didn't even feel I was getting anything for my money! I went back to my normal grocery shopping and still bought as much organic food as possible, but at my much lower priced grocery store. I think it was at this point that I was starting to recognize how much things REALLY cost.

Right after this I got pregnant with Brendan. Everything kind of went out the window. Everything I ate made me sick to my stomach, so I'd just buy whatever I felt I could eat at the time (like that one time I spent $20 on a bag of cherries.......). I was getting yelled at for not gaining enough weight (WHAT?!!!!) so I'd eat whatever I could to keep the doctors satisfied. I was aware of what I was spending, but I simply didn't care.

Which brings me to now. I'm a working mom, so we do have some extra money coming in. Unfortunately, the cost of child care is insane, so a ton of our money goes there. That said, I absolutely adore our provider and she's worth every penny! But realistically, we need to be on a budget now. About a year ago I started cutting coupons and deal hunting with the help of my awesome grape friend from the story above. I started meal plans based on sales in the local papers and sure enough, there seemed to be more money around. Sweet!

Then for Christmas I got a bread machine. I wanted one SO much! I haven't bought a single loaf of bread in a month because of this wonderful gift. It also inspired me to make a lot of foods from scratch now. I suspected this has helped me save money, but I didn't know. I checked to see how much money we spent on groceries in December. $340, which I think is freaking AWESOME for a family of 3, right? It kind of inspired me to see how low I could go. I made it my goal to spend only $300 in the month of January. I've done some blog reading on this very subject to see if I could do it.

Here are a couple of my favorites:
Emily's Blog: This one is a bit too extreme for my liking, but I actually have gotten a few ideas. Disclaimer: I do not necessarily agree with the lifestyle that she leads; I am more focused on how she saves so much money. I don't always agree with how she does it, but she does offer some ideas, so I'll give her that. Plus...it's always an INTERESTING read. She sometimes (quite often) gets my blood boiling.

Annie's Eats
- Yummy, yummy, yummy recipe blog. Her blog has me cooking a lot from scratch and I have yet to find something on there that isn't totally amazing.

So now I'm armed with knowledge and I've just about got my grocery shopping finished for the month of January. How did it go? Mmmm...not so well. $65 over budget, and $25 more than I spent in December without the extra effort. Part of the problem with my shopping is that I refuse to budge on some things. I want fresh fruits and veggies in the house, and I still buy a lot of organic stuff. I think I'm going to give it another go in February and if I fail then, I will know that $300 is just too low for us.

As a side note, I should add that Chris and I ate out one time during the month of January. It actually made us sick because we had gone so long without eating junk food. I'm willing to concede that since we didn't go out at all, that's probably where the extra grocery money came from.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Bebba

is Pepper!

Brendan is finally starting to talk a WEEEEEEE bit! He's still mostly interested in figuring out the walking thing (he can walk across the room when he WANTS to, but usually he just doesn't want to! Crawling is faster for him and this is still his choice roughly 90% of the time).

This morning Chris and I were changing his diaper and then were cuddling with Brendan and Pepper. Chris said, "is that Pepper?" And Brendan said, "Bebba." Coincidence? I then ask him, "Pepper?" and again he said, "Bebba!" Later tonight he actually did walk (almost running, actually) to Pepper and shouted, "BEBBA!" and gave him a kiss and laughed. So I'm pretty sure that's it!

Besides that, not much is going on. I had my gallbladder out last week and it was no biggie, really. I'm healing pretty quickly. I can tell when I do too much (like today...oops) and need to cool it, but for the most part, I feel pretty good. I'm having trouble eating, which is to be expected. I CAN eat the weirdest things like stuffed shells and chili, but CAN'T eat things like baked chicken and salads. There is a silver lining, though! I seem to be losing weight! My pants are all getting too big now, so that's cool!

In fact, I've lost 40 pounds!!! Okay, not so much. Our scale is broken, so it's registering 40 pounds under what I really am...so I'm pretending. I'm not sure if I'll be buying a new one or not. I've gotten used to my dramatic weight loss... :D

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Vrooom!

That's what Brendan's cars say now :)

Or, my makeup case, actually.

Or anything that he can move like a car.

The step count is up to 18- I think we're almost to the point of being a full time walker! Not quite yet, but close!

That's all I've got today.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Pretty Much Sums Up Today!

My sister, Meghann, summed up today's adventures pretty well in her own blog. I don't feel the need to add anything else =P

Friday, January 1, 2010

Busy Bakers

Brendan has been cooking up some good things. So far our favorites have been hamburger bun and wooden spoon. Delicious!



He has been going crazy playing with all of his new toys. He's KIND OF getting the idea of the Little People now! He knows that they go in cars and such, which is pretty big!

Even bigger than that...

WE HAVE A WALKER!!!!!!! Well, also kind of. Brendan has been taking between 6-12 steps for the past few days, so we're pretty sure he'll be taking off very soon! We are soooo excited for him!

Mommy has also been baking...the new bread machine is probably going to get burned out with all I have used it for! So far we've had two loaves of raisin bread, 3 loaves of white bread, a coffee cake, applesauce nut bread, and today, we made BAGELS!!! Sesame Seed and Cinnamon Sugar. They turned out GREAT! Maybe not in looks, but certainly in taste!

Before...




...And After