Grocery shopping

Not so fun when you are on a tight budget. Let me tell you, everyone in this family LOVES food. We like to eat and we like to eat well. We very much like to try and eat as healthy as possible but as we all know, the healthier the food, the more expensive. Bummer! So I have decided that Costco is my friend. They do have a lot of organic and free range food for sale at very decent prices. I went there the day that Kevin got paid and was very proud of myself as I stuck to our budget. I got only the necessities which is very hard for a pregnant lady to do. I am hungry all of the time and they had samples of things were so delicious! I resisted and ate my samples but did not purchase the items.

Obviously I tried not to spend too much money so I would have leftover cash for the rest of the month. I thought I did pretty well. I spent about $80 and I have budgeted $150. Pretty good I think. Well, that does not include me having to buy our little man diapers. It just so happens that he has extremely sensitive skin and we cannot use regular diapers on him. We have to use special organic diapers for him. I decided to go ahead and try this thing called G-diapers which is a cross between a cloth diaper and a disposable. Very neat concept and environmentally friendly. Did I mention we are a bunch of hippies at heart??? The only problem is that it is an expensive startup. It is around $30 for 2 pairs of the outer cloth diapers. YIKES! I figure that now would be as good of a time as any to try and buy them as they will hopefully save us money in the long term. Well, what I am getting at, is that with spending minimally on groceries I still have a week and a half until the month is over and I have no more money. Pair that with my son's trip to the doctor and his three prescriptions and I am technically over budget. DARN IT!!!! I am trying so hard!

Of course there are going to be things that we cannot foresee such as illness, but it is our first month to really try and stick to our budget and I failed. Big fail! Regardless, I am so proud of us. We are taking this very seriously and we even had our "budget meeting" last night to check on our progress. I am proud to say that we have literally cut our grocery bill in half. No kidding. Last month we spent over $600 on groceries. Now, just so everyone realizes, it was the holidays and we had people over so that was probably more than we normally would have spent but honestly, not by much. This is definitely a very trying experience, especially for a hungry pregnant lady, but it is very satisfying at the same time. Who knew I was capable of restraint??? Not me.