Planning

This is what it looked like outside this morning! It was absolutely gorgeous! I went for my walk and breathed deeply of the fantastic fall smells. It's quite warm, about 7, and I am reminded again of why walking is important for me.

As I think about how I can help you save money, I think of groceries. It is one of our biggest monthly expenditures, besides our rent or mortgage, and one of the least thought of ways to save money. I was recently told that if you want to lose weight, one way was to just start keeping track of what you eat. Without dieting, just the keeping track helps you eat less because you have to write it down. I immediately thought what about grocery or any other spending? I know for me that when I keep track I'm conscious of it, when I don't it seems to get really out of hand. You can start by tracking your grocery spending for one full month. Once you've done that, or if you already keep track of what you spend, you can look to see ways to decrease this number.

Some ways to lower your grocery bill are: 1)try buying less convience foods: prepackaged premade things usually cost more

2)plan your menus:the way I do this is a little different than the decide what you want to eat then buy it approach, I'll explain

3)track the prices of the things your family buys:I use what's called a Pricebook and I'll tell you about that

4)try to cook some things from scratch:not only is this healthier for you, it tastes better

These are just a few things, we'll touch on many more in future posts.

My Story

Now, before I go on and you wonder where I'm coming from, let me tell you a little about me. I am a work at home mom. My kids are 21, 13 and almost 9. It's always been my dream to be totally at home with my kids and after my third child was almost 2 my dream came true. I say work at home because my job at home is work, I just don't get paid. My 21 year old is on her own now, she's a beautiful woman and I miss her. My 13 and almost 9 year old and I learn at home together(dad's in on it when he's home from work). We live on a carefully constructed and followed spending plan. It's tight, but it's a choice we made as a family. I have a small business on the side, where I go and teach people how to save money. Sometimes I get paid, sometimes I don't, but I love it. My goal is always to do better with our household spending so that we are always living beneath our means. I am not a great cook and I'm not passionate about cooking, but I'm trying to cook easy things well. I absolutely love to learn and love to share my new discoveries. Books and I are inseparable, if you've ever visited my home you've seen the books everywhere, they are like friends. I love to write and this blog is part of my disciplining myself to write regularly. I welcome your comments and I look forward to conversing with you. I always learn so much from what other people do.

So, back to the groceries. The Spending Plan I have in front of me shows groceries in a category called Household/Personal. This category is supposed to consist of 15-25% of your take home pay and includes groceries, dry cleaning/clothes, gifts, household items, personal products and other, which includes miscellaneous. The Rainy Day Budget I referenced last post, breaks down each category for you with % amounts. Our total spending is this department is 16%, our groceries(which include all personal as well as cleaners,etc)is just under 13%. We spend $450.00 per month on groceries, cleaners, personal products,etc. I am wanting to further challenge myself to lower this. I have an extreme goal of $350.00 which would be 9.99%! This reduction would help us reach our pay off the mortgage in 3 years goal! This blog will be hugely instrumental in keeping me on track!

Let me encourage you to try new things one at a time. If you are new to tracking and planning your spending, do that and allow yourself time to adjust to a new habit. If you are just learning to menu plan, find a buddy who wants to get it this habit too. I have a wonderful friend who would meet with me every Monday to menu plan the upcoming week. We moved away and I don't have that anymore, it's a great way to stay on track and to get ideas! Remember, I am going to write down things as I think of them, and so there will be a deluge of ideas coming at you each post. Use the ones that are a fit for you and toss the ones that aren't. Share any ideas you have, I'd so appreciate it! Well I think you probably would like some time to process .....Talk to you again soon.Sue