happy at home

WEEK SIX WRAP UP, SOCIAL EXPERIMENT

Week six went well. As you can see at the left, I spent $31.06. You may remember that I only have $89 for three weeks of shopping, if I want to reach my new goal of staying under $200 a month on groceries/household items. Half of my budget this week was spent at the produce stand, the other half at the discount food store.
We ate just as well as any other week. Homemade pizza, chicken fajitas, hummus, sauteed asparagus, bacon and eggs, potato and bacon soup in breadbowls...even homemade gingerbread biscotti with white chocolate icing, to eat with my hot tea. Yum!
I am out of fruits and veggies and definitely need to go to the produce stand but am waiting until tomorrow b/c I didn't want to go over budget for this week.
I am happy that with just a little more thought and preparation, I am able to "earn" $50 a week. Like I always say (well, I didn't originally say it...but I love to copy whoever did)...there are two ways to have more money. Earn more, or spend less. I prefer the spend less method. :)
Also, because I am not making impulse purchases and am shopping for specific items on the same day each week...I am learning to ration items to make them stretch until shopping day and am getting more creative with my cooking. No more "quick trips" to the store to "pick up one or two things". You know those trips where you never spend less than $40, even though you just went in for milk? I stayed home for five straight days last week. FIVE! I didn't go anywhere. So I am saving money on gas too!
Next week, I plan to cook some really good things, using mostly ingredients I already have. Scones and hot tea for breakfast. Baked apples with cinnamon, raisins, oatmeal, and brown sugar. Pumpkin bread. Wild rice and Lentil soup. Shrimp and grits. Yum.
This week, I started using cloth diapers with Bauer full time. It worked out well, b/c I ran out of disposable diapers and if I had to buy more, definitely would have gone over my budget. I really like using them. It takes a little planning though, because I still only have four diapers, so I have to wash them a lot and be mindful of having a clean one on hand. Once I get several more though, this will be easier. The diapers have been great. He slept in one from 8 pm until 9am and when de woke up and was changed, his skin was still dry. I think they work even better than the disposables I had (Pampers Swaddlers). Amazing! Per Becky's suggestion, knowing that L always fills his diapers when he wakes up in the morning and after his nap, I am putting training pants on him for the rest of the day, which is working out well. That will help the budget too. Thanks for the suggestion, Becky!
I may only have two weeks left of my little experiment, but this is a change that I have adopted for life.