Controlling the Budget

There are many things about our financial circumstances that I cannot change. Insurance payments, fixed bills, car maintenance are all things that happen each month and I have no control over them. The only area I really have any sort of control and ability to change is in the food department. 

There are days when I'm tempted to just order in take-out, especially on those days when I'm busy with meetings or events. However, I've been trying to do a better job of controlling our food budget. And one way I do that is by cooking and eating in.

Some of the meals this week included - 

Lemon-garlic chicken with capers
Puerto Rican rice and beans
Steak sandwiches with caramelized onions and mushrooms
Pakistani Kima over rice

We eat well, but I'm able to keep my food budget at around $500 per month with 4 adults in the house (3 of them men). A lot of that is because I buy according to the pantry principle which means I always have the same type of items on hand and then plan my meals accordingly, rather than buying special items. 

I also make almost everything we eat from scratch. I know my prices and shop specific items at certain stores. I get most of my dairy items from Aldi since they have the best prices around on those. I do buy most of my meat from a local butcher shop. They are a bit pricy, though have good sales, but the meat is fresher.

Some specific ways I've saved/been frugal this week:

$ I've found a number of ways to use up my scrap fabric, including these mug rugs/coasters.

$ We received a couple of cards for Pastor Appreciation Month and were able to use the money in them to help pay for the break lines on our car.

$ Dan and the boys volunteer in citizenship classes on Thursday nights at 5. Usually they grab fast food on the way. This week I made them the steak sandwiches before they left even though it was 3:30 p.m. So we had an early dinner, but they saved money and it was certainly healthier than drive-through food.

$ I stopped at JoAnn Fabric to pick up something the other day and discovered they had a sale on their cotton quilting fabrics. The fabric was normally $5.99-$7.99 per yard and I got it for $1.99 per yard. 

$ A friend stopped by with a large bin full of craft supplies. I'm going to go through them and pull stuff for the children's programs at church as well as see what I can use here as well.

$ Someone had given me a large piece of flannel which I'll never use to make anything. However, I did use it as batting in a project. It was the same thickness as the batting I normally use and it worked great.

$ Both boys have been packing their lunches for work rather than purchasing something so it's nice to see that the frugal gene is starting to rub off on them too. lol

$ We've been spending a bit on car maintenance lately and that's because our cars are old and have many miles (both over 200,000). However, it's still cheaper to spend on car maintenance than purchase a new or used car and then be stuck with monthly car payments. Both are cars are paid off because we paid a bit extra each month and got them paid off early.

That's it for this week. It helps me to see this all typed out because I realize that we've done pretty good this week.