... Frugal Living?

It's been too long since I've last posted. Oh well, life tends to get in the way of our plans. 

Moving forward... 

I've recently been researching topics on frugal living and how to feed and raise a family on a cheap budget. We are undergoing an interesting transformation into a full on budget focused family. Never before have we fully attempted to focus all of our energy and resources on saving, but at this point, it's absolutely necessary. I'm pretty sure that once we are in a safer financial place, we will definitely continue to live on a budget. It just seems better. With that being said, I will begin posting items on frugal living at it's best, noting the wonderful people I've gotten my ideas from. 

I'm hoping to keep our grocery budget under $200/ month. That's really just an estimate of what I'm expecting. So, today starts my meal planning. I've tried it before in the past, but was never disciplined enough to actually follow through with it. I sat down with a pen & paper and listed the dinners that my family enjoys... I thought of 8 off the top of my head. I also made a list of the readily available items in my pantry & fridge. Based off of what I have today, we will be able to eat very well for about a week or so after pay day! When meal planning, it's important to account for leftovers. Maybe there's a specific night of the week you want to do leftovers, like "Smorgasbord Night" as my future mother-in-law calls it, which is the night she pulls every leftover out and everyone just helps themselves. Or, you could plan a meal for every other day and eat leftovers the following night. Regardless, use up your leftovers because unless you're awesome at portion control (which I am not), then you'll have leftovers. So far, I'm pretty pumped up about my meal planning... I'll let you know how it works out in about a week or so. 
Also, we have cut out luxury items such as eating out, Starbucks, Smoothie King, random junk food & beverages, high dollar/ excessive household items, etc. I have found some awesomely reviewed recipes for home-made sandwich bread, muffins, laundry detergent, fabric softener, and dog biscuits... I'll give a review of each one once I've made them, we need to use up what we've got first. I can say, I found a HM make-up brush cleaner on Pinterest which will be taking away lots of money from MAC. You can find that recipe here. 

Until next time... 
God never gives you more than you can handle! :)