Thursday, March 5, 2009

Get Frugal

I owe my frugality (is that even a word?), to my mom. She's an amazing woman who stretched her dollar, lived within our means and was a part-time iron chef who could whip up amazing dishes with what was readily available.

For one week I will try to live on a grocery budget by making meals at home and using ingredients already in our pantry. This eliminates the multiple trips to the market per week, cuts down on costs and helps us use ingredients that would normally have been neglected, left for spoiled and thrown away.

Today we started off having veggie fritatas for breakfast, hot tea (-$6) and honey oat granola bars as a snack and for lunch I had a 7-grain turkey and cheese sandwich. Dinner will be interested as I will attempt to make my ultimate favorite dish I remember having at Olive garden (R.I.P. chicken vino blanco).

There are great sites that offer recipes and weely budget menus to help save money. Aside from www.foodnetwork.com and www.recipezaar.com, www.frugalmom.net serves a great starting point for tips on frugal living.
One great tip for helping you keep on track with that grocery list is to come with an exact amount, in cash! In my case with just the three of us, one of which is still breastfeeding, a reasonable amount that I've budgeted for us is $40 ($20 per person) a week.

I can easily spend over $40 on a dinner out but with this challenge I hope to spend more time with my family, get creative and try out new recipes, and save money for one of our many dream trips we've been oogling.


xoxo

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