1. We can pay bills (of course) and put gas in the car as needed. I also decided that any preschool related expenses were fine too. For example, we didn't have to go on this month's field trip that cost $11, but we decided not to punish Hannah in our experiment.
2. We agreed that we'd buy milk, eggs and a few leafy greens every week. I didn't want my stomach to fall out or anything from not getting anything fresh for a month. I also broke down and bought 2 pounds of cheese when I ran out of cheese the first week. There is no way I can go a month without cheese.
And that was about it. No spending other than that. No eating out. No impulse buys at the supermarket. Cut off.
Now, I feel I need to tell you that I am a food hoarder. Our church encourages us to have a food storage and I love it. I love to buy things when they're on sale and know that if troubles befall us, we'll still be able to eat. We bought half of an organic cow this fall for a screaming deal --$3 a pound. You can barely get ground beef for $3 a pound around here and this meat was 1/3 ground beef, 1/3 steaks and 1/3 roast. So, we're set with meat for the year. We have so much pasta and wheat and flour and sugar. We really are set. The problem is, there have been times when we haven't had money for food, but rather than use the food I have stored, I've continued to buy more on a credit card. I just couldn't bring myself to dip into my safety net of food. Well, I decided that I need to use it for what it's for, and a month where we only make $600 is a month when we probably shouldn't be spending any money on anything. And we didn't
We did well. We made it the entire month of January only spending money on our bills, gas, and our few predetermined perishables. It was so good for us. We started making bread again. We got more serious about cloth diapering. When we ran out of something I had to either go without or learn how to make it myself. I learned how to make tortillas, granola bars, and ice cream in a freezer bag. I feel like we had more time together as a family too, not having to run to the store 2-3 evenings a week. I lost 5 pounds which was really surprising for me since I was eating far more simple carbohydrates (at meals) and far fewer fruits and vegetables than I was used to. The difference was, this month I didn't have store bought sweets or snacks to binge on at night and I wasn't eating fast food a couple of times a week. If I wanted something I had to make it. So, I did eat popcorn and cookies and I even made potato chips. But let me tell you, if you're making your own potato chips, you are not going to eat them everyday. They took me 3 hours to make 4 cups. But we sure did enjoy those chips and it made them taste even better knowing that my hard work went into them and knowing that feeding my family potatoes with a little oil and salt was so much better for them than anything out of a bag. I learned that almost anything homemade is better than store-bought and it's always cheaper. Tastes better and costs less...hmm...
We were invited to a couple of birthday parties and baby showers. Instead of running out to buy a gift, I had to find things around the house to make things. I felt like it actually took some pressure off. I had to make due with what I had, and if it wasn’t perfect, too bad. I did a ton of sewing. I learned how to make raggy quilts and made 3 in the month of January. I also made superhero capes for the two preschool boys whose birthdays we went to.
My first quilt with my third baby.
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