Cutting the Food Budget – Possible Strategies

A couple days ago, I asked all my FB friends for strategies to cut our food budget. Here's the list I got. My friends are geniuses. And also, THANK YOU... 



PLAN AHEAD:

• shop sales/ plan meals around sale items
• shop at Aldi
• Plan your meals, including snacks and lunches
• Buy at on sale en masse and stockpile things like:

• Facial tissue
• Toilet tissue
• Hair care products
• Body wash
• Feminine products – tampons, pads
• Contact solution (use FSA card)
• Canned food
• Dishwasher detergent

Make it or grow it

• Plant a garden
• Make your own bread
• can or freeze sale produce to use bounty later
• make your own yogurt
• dried apples

Buy in bulk when possible

• meat – Mosley’s or Carfagna’s boxes
• grains (rice, quinoa, flour)
• cereal (oatmeal, “Cheerios”, etc.)
• raisins
• milk
• cheese

Limit shopping

• “Allowance” - $20/week you can use on anything you want, including lunches out. Once
• it’s gone, it’s gone.
• Eat out only2x/month.
• Don’t shop – use your pantry!
• Buy the cheapest store brand/generic you can find for most things.
• For items you won’t buy store brand, use coupons and buy on sale.

Reduce your consumption:

• Don't buy cleaning supplies (rely on vinegar, lemon, baking soda, etc. instead of manufactured stuff)
• Pre-portion snacks, especially bulk items, to reduce waste
• Avoid items like:
• frozen foods (frozen veggies allowed, but only plain)
• soft drinks
• paper products
• processed food

You can also download it here:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwSGlRSfWRiSQThScjVsanlzeGM

Project Me

I am now inspired by this - the Happiness Project.

The idea of committing to something like that for a year is DAUNTING to say the least.  But it is one day at a time that you accomplish it.

So here is my goal - everyday, do something to cultivate MYSELF.  Since I had a child and since I got married, I've been buried in the everyday, the survival.  Now I am realizing how much I miss myself, I miss not being consumed by the mundane.  I miss being able to lift my head up from Life just long enough to see small pieces of beauty in the stuff I pass everyday.

Join me won't you?  What will you do to cultivate yourself this year?

When we last left our heroine, she was perfectly healthy...

And then I fell and sprained both ankles.

And a week after starting PT for ankle sprain, I fell and injured my knee at work.  I have an MRI scheduled for next week.  The suspected injury is a meniscus tear and an MCL tear, both of which would require surgery.

Yippee.

what the wha!?

Holy cannoli - apparently I'm popular.  My blog was spam attacked!  LAME.

If you have the same issue, by the way, you can find a fix here:

http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?&answer=187141

I feel like someone is following me...

This week has been like a giant IV of acid - slowly killing me, and yet I can't pull it out because it is incapacitating me too.  So a bit of silliness to relieve the giant {BLEAGH} my life is currently...

New favorite procrastination source...
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/

Also, did you know you can nominate yourself for the Best Blog award?  I did not know that.
http://bloggerschoiceawards.com

Also, going CAMPING!!!!! this weekend. (I'm excited, can you tell?)

I'm not dead yet...

Just a note to let you know I am not dead yet...

I'll be picking the pen back up here - probably once a week at the most.  Life is going on, and my writing somehow got left behind.  But now that the wheels are turning even faster, I feel the need to document it all so that I don't forget it!

Swenatic

I'm going to the Akron v. Kent game today. Go Zips!!!!!!!!

Any excuse to go to Swenson's is a good one.

Big time Big Shot!

So I am getting interviewed! Ah the life of a super star... My friend and DG sister from University of Akron has decided to interview me for her blog.

So here are her questions and my answers!

What is your greatest accomplishment since graduating from college? (since we knew each other then!)
Hmmm. This one is tough. I think surviving graduate school (not mention the Masters degree) should be the answer. But I don't think that it is it - that really was more a daily thing than one LARGE thing. I could be romantic and say "getting married" but that is too old fashioned, and not totally my accomplishment (I mean, he did ask...). Finishing my first afghan? Teaching myself to knit?

This is going to seem like a small thing, but I really think my greatest accomplishment is my rose garden. I actually managed to keep one of them alive for more than a year!


What is your best memory from DG days?
Probably the Initiation where I got welcomed my first grand-little into my family. Partly because that was the week I had pink hair and no one could keep a straight face during the ritual. :-)

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?
In 5 years - still married, possibly with kids, and a better paycheck. In 10 years - still married, hopefully with kids who are not a pain in the butt/have manners/can do laundry and dishes, and a whole lot of memories from fantastic trips. I like to set the bar low.

Is there a question in the universe that you would like to answer or solve? If so, which one?
Why are people mean/stupid? I mean really, we are all human - I don't get the whole "you are different/I want to feel powerful, so I have to persecute you." thing... on both a small throwing-crayons way and a large dropping-bombs way.

And stealing from Ms. Mac, if you had to choose a flavor of ice cream that most fits your personality, what kind do you think you would you be? Feel free to make one up if necessary.
Ooh... another toughie. Probably homemade chocolate chip cookie dough (from my Ben and Jerry's recipe book). Some "raw" stuff, doesn't come together until the end - but always comes through, and decadent.

And that concludes the interview!

Part of the deal was that I continue this by interviewing more people. So here are the rules.

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions. Be sure you link back to this original post.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Let’s go!