With last month behind us, my family and I are still reeling from our week of unexpected expenses. In my work life I strive to be very efficient and so when a struggle came upon us, I tried to figure out a solution that would give us the most of our money.
Of course it seems like an easy solution, if you need money, make more. Well in theory that is great, and yes that is exactly what I did. I generated more income by 'pimping' my hair talents out to my friends. Its a win win. They get great hair, and I get to pay my bills.
Well Aaron and I aren't much for over spending. We cancelled our cable last year for Netflix, we cloth diaper which also saves us a huge amount of money, and we don't spend frivalously. Yes we do have a mortgage and 2 car payments but for us, they are worth it. As much as making more money is a great, we still needed to find a place to save. And the only place for us to save was pretty obvious.
Food.
We love to eat. I love to eat good food, junk food, really any food. We also like to eat out. Nothing crazy, just fast food when we are too tired to cook, or on the weekend when it seems to taste so much better.
Well if we were going to survive the shortest month of the year generating the least amount of income, something had to give. So I set out and bought 1 months worth of groceries all at once. Everything we could possibly need I was going to buy. Then we would have extra money set aside for weekly produce and milk. My thoughts were this would eliminate stopping in for one thing and spending a minimum of $50. Every. Freaking. Time.
Well so far I say it is working out fantastic. We stopped preparing a bunch of meals all at once and freezing them because it just wasn't working. We would eventually get sick of having shepperds pie and lasagna, or forget about them all together. We just started making good healthy meals, cooking enough for now, enough for tomorrow and enough for later. I highly reccomend this way.
Also we have stopped wasting. If I notice our fruit and veggies are nearing their life span, instead of tossing them once they go bad, we usse them. Today alone I saved the life of the middle of my celery, a zucchini, a quarter of a red pepper and some spinach and turned it into pasta sauce. I also saved a half a cantelope by turning it and some strawberries & blueberries into sorbet.
It is mostly about saving money, but it also feels great to know we are no longer just throwing food (and our hard earned money), into the garbage, or rather the compost.
"When life gives you a lemon, take it. Don't waste food." -Giselle Marquez
Of course it seems like an easy solution, if you need money, make more. Well in theory that is great, and yes that is exactly what I did. I generated more income by 'pimping' my hair talents out to my friends. Its a win win. They get great hair, and I get to pay my bills.
Well Aaron and I aren't much for over spending. We cancelled our cable last year for Netflix, we cloth diaper which also saves us a huge amount of money, and we don't spend frivalously. Yes we do have a mortgage and 2 car payments but for us, they are worth it. As much as making more money is a great, we still needed to find a place to save. And the only place for us to save was pretty obvious.
Food.
We love to eat. I love to eat good food, junk food, really any food. We also like to eat out. Nothing crazy, just fast food when we are too tired to cook, or on the weekend when it seems to taste so much better.
Well if we were going to survive the shortest month of the year generating the least amount of income, something had to give. So I set out and bought 1 months worth of groceries all at once. Everything we could possibly need I was going to buy. Then we would have extra money set aside for weekly produce and milk. My thoughts were this would eliminate stopping in for one thing and spending a minimum of $50. Every. Freaking. Time.
Well so far I say it is working out fantastic. We stopped preparing a bunch of meals all at once and freezing them because it just wasn't working. We would eventually get sick of having shepperds pie and lasagna, or forget about them all together. We just started making good healthy meals, cooking enough for now, enough for tomorrow and enough for later. I highly reccomend this way.
Also we have stopped wasting. If I notice our fruit and veggies are nearing their life span, instead of tossing them once they go bad, we usse them. Today alone I saved the life of the middle of my celery, a zucchini, a quarter of a red pepper and some spinach and turned it into pasta sauce. I also saved a half a cantelope by turning it and some strawberries & blueberries into sorbet.
It is mostly about saving money, but it also feels great to know we are no longer just throwing food (and our hard earned money), into the garbage, or rather the compost.
"When life gives you a lemon, take it. Don't waste food." -Giselle Marquez