grocery gettin’

I used to hate grocery shopping.
I hated spending money on something that frankly wasn’t that important to me. I’ve inherited from my father a wonderful thing I like to call “forget-to-eat-itis”. I can reach 7 p.m. on a busy day and think: “Hmm. What did I eat today? A cookie at noon. Did I drink anything? Not that I can remember….”
I didn’t appreciate food until I became a mother. I used to be fine with a bowl of cereal for supper.

Creating a meal was my mother’s way of painting a masterpiece.
Beautiful table.
Excellent food.
Hours and hours of labor. Labor that she loved.
Not me.
Then I became a mom and realized that I needed to create my own masterpieces for my children: I needed to learn how to cook.
I’m not ashamed to admit that my dh makes great gravy. I have to ask him how. He can also cook eggs. All I can do is scramble them.
Baking, I can do. Basting a turkey? Ummm, no.
I’ve been gradually learning to love too cook. I subscribe to a recipe magazine. I’ve grown to love certain internet recipe sites. And last September, I decided to start making this meal planning and spending make more cents for my family.
I grocery shop for 2 weeks worth of groceries once. So far this plan has worked well for my family. I plan the meals, write them on the calendar and we follow suit. No more arguing over what’s for supper. No more hemming and hawing over the refrigerator trying to decide what’s there – what was purchased to use for what meal. Now it’s all there – in black and white.
For 2008 I have made a decision to continue the 2 weeks of shopping routine, but to limit the amount of money I spend for the meals to $75 per week – $150 total.
I live in a small town with two grocery stories. Yesterday I spend $109 at one, $16 at another. Today I will go back to the first and spend $11 for milk (Tuesday is milk day – almost $1 per gallon cheaper than other days during the week). That will leave me with around $13 for “extra” groceries during the next two weeks. This is my goal for 08: to not overspend that “extra” money left over. And if I don’t spend that extra, that money will go into a camping fund.

my first

this blog has been started to record my triumphs and tribulations:
1. raising 3 boys
2. learning in my 30’s to be fiscally responsible
3. greening my household

The boys really have nothing to do with my past financial faults. They are an ever-present source of will power to accomplish those goals and teach them to be fiscally responsible. (Do I really want any of them to reach 30 without ever making a huge financial decision on their own like their mother?) Because I have counted on others (my father, before age 21 and my dear husband after our marriage) to make those decisions for me I have never had the opportunity to fall flat on my face or succeed enormously in this regard.
This has changed. as of Jan. 15 I will be contributing money towards my retirement.
$50 in an IRA.
It’s not much, I know. Especially since I will be 33 nine days later.
All I can say is it’s about damn time.
But I have decided to become proactive in regards to MY finances. Scratch that. OUR finances. My dh is in finance. He’s always handled things smoothly. I’ve always been frustrated with my lack of financial knowledge. I plan to budget. I plan to spend wisely. I plan to save. I love the word “save” even though I’ve rarely lived by it, I appreciate the simplicitiy of it.
The boys are also the reason why I wish to “green” my household – change our lives. They will have children some day. Will those children be raising their children on top of our garbage? What will their world be like if we continue to use in excess?
I’ve already taken small steps in this area: we use cloth napkins for every meal (told you they were small steps!)
I hope to have a clothesline built this spring and I plan to spend at least one month dryer-free just to see how much energy the thing really uses. I plan to use the clothesline after that month, don’t get me wrong. I would love to say we will never use the dryer again but that is a little too optimistic for my standards. Especially since we live in a cold state filled with snow. Using a clothesline in January? I think not.
Those are my small steps. I hope to gather some goals for 2008 for my next post.