I went to Walmart the other day just to get some diapers, wipes and bottles...I ended up getting a frozen dinner in there too but regardless the total came to $88. EIGHTY EIGHT flippin dollars ~ just not cool in my book. Especially when we have 3.75 people, 2 dogs and 3 cats in this house living off of one income.
Back a few years ago, maybe 7 or 8, Matt and I had a weekly grocery budget of $50 and that suited us just fine. Not even any need to clip coupons. Granted we were only two people back then and let's face it groceries cost less...AND we could get away with bread, cheese and Ramen Noodles, but still...
So that got me thinking...we REALLY need to find a way (or few) to cut costs around here.
Plans so far include
~ Find "recipes" for Laundry detergent (at the rate we have been doing laundry lately we are going through it like water)
~ Purchase some wool dryer balls
~ Put up (and use!) a clothes line outside
~ Find recipes for cleaning supplies. works on three levels...better for environment, better on the budget and they wont be toxic so if one of the girls somehow gets into the cabinet we wont have to worry about them getting into the cleaning stuff.
~ Clip AND use coupons
~ Get in the habit of checking Groupon, Living Social and Seize the Deal on a daily basis.
~ Make reusable cloth wipes. We would go with cloth diapers as well, but we just don't have the start up for it...
~ Shop at Farmers markets over the summer, we have a couple near us so we will have to see if it is actually less expensive to get our produce from them. It would be awesome to be able to get everything local, but we are going to have to do what is best for the budget! Plus our CSA starts up next month (? I think as long as the growing has been going good!) so that will help a little (can't wait to see what we start getting!)
So I think that's a good start, we will see how it goes!
2 comments:
I know quite a few people on my cloth diaper board use flannel for cloth wipes. You could probably find some flannel on clearance at a fabric store and just cut it up and sew the ends. I use cheapo Circo washcloths from Target and those work great too! Good luck! And post the cleaning solutions you come up with! I'm looking to switch to homemade stuff too.
It is so darn hard to keep costs down these days, I hear you! Just Matt and I try to spend under $100/ week on groceries, how on Earth did you do it with $50? Granted, he eats about a box of cereal every 2 days, but still. It's something we struggle with too, and we worry about the additional costs of kids. Yikes.
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