How I Cut Grocery Spending by 50%

To reduce weekly spending on food while continuing to bask in the pleasure of the culinary experience for the sake of a healthy body and satisfied soul.

If I had a mission statement for my project this would be it.

However, if I was writing a dissertation for my PhD the title would be:

On reducing weekly food spending while maintaining proper physical, emotional and mental eudaemonia.

But if I was talking to you as a friend over a cup of freshly brewed homemade chai, I'd tell you:

Shoot girl, my grocery bill is just too dang high. I don't know what has come over me lately? I need a remedy for this situation pronto.

In the beginning it was not easy. In order to keep the spending down I found that I was simply buying less. Normally we would buy five loaves of gluten-free bread per week at $5.49 each. That's over $100 a month in bread alone! To actualize my budget, I stopped buying bread since it was one of the most expensive items on my list. This was a bad idea.

It took me less than three days to realize this model wasn't going to work for my extremely hungry family of five. My oldest son eats as much as his dad, and he's barely out of kindergarten. And the baby, by golly, he's a bottomless pit. The boy knows how to throw it back, friends. He also knows how to throw it on the floor. But enough about my floors.

That was August. Since then, I've found my groove. It feels really good to be living within our means and while still enjoying all the hearty healthy food that puts smiles on the faces sitting around my table. 

My sweet husband continually comments, "Babe, we've never eaten this good in our lives. Whatever you're doing with that blog, keep it up." I'm tickled every time I hear him say that.

I say Yes! to living within our means.

I say Yes! to enjoying delicious healthy food.

I say Yes! to creative expression through the culinary experience.

I say Yes! to healthy kids who no longer have to take daily asthma medication in order to simply breath.

Like I've said before, I don't do coupons. Truly, I'm not that organized. Coupons in my house are more likely to become confetti for the living room dance party than get used in the grocery store check out line.

So here for you now are the simple strategies I've employed over the past three months to reduce my grocery spending by fifty percent.

Judith's Top 23 Shopping Secrets for Happy Pocketbooks
(in no particular order)

1. Get to know each store's unique personality.

Which stores in town have the deepest discounts on your regular list items?

Grocery store chains commonly draw customers to their store through a certain category of items at deep discounts. But if you pay close attention, you'll realize that the same store that drew you in to their inexpensive produce will have relatively high prices on all the packaged food in the store. Alternatively the store that has the cheapest prices on bulk items will have sky high prices on the produce selection. 

Therefore, I go to one store for high quality low-cost produce and large cuts of meat. Another store for bulk items, special gf bread, bulk spices and nitrate-gluten-casein-free lunch meat. And finally the large traditional grocery retailer for name brand boxed, canned, and frozen items.

2. Embrace weekly meal planning.

Meal planning is daunting, I know. Before I got serious about meal planning we were eating eggs for dinner three nights a week. And pancakes the other four. I'm just joking with you... we had waffles.

3. Make a list and stick to it.

This provides a good opportunity to practice the fine quality of "sticktoitiveness", useful in many areas of life, not just grocery shopping. Take for instance building a chicken coop out back, learning to snowboard, or disciplining young children. In the long run sticktoitiveness always pays off.

4. Limit trips to the store. 

The more times I walk into a store, the more money walks out the door. Especially if that store is a big box retailer. Why does it seem that you can't walk into one of those places without dropping one hundred cool ones every time. I don't like that. Instead we improvise with what's in the cupboards. This can be kind of fun. If invited to a poker party and we want to bring a snack to share, we'll cook up a batch of Movie Theater Popcorn for the group. Cheap, fun and tastier than any popcorn we'd otherwise buy at the store.

5. Say goodbye to packaged and prepared. 

Within reason of course. We found out that we couldn't live without bread. I can easily admit my weaknesses. I know my limitations and I know I do not want to make my own gluten-free sandwich bread from scratch. That just might throw me over the edge. So we're buying bread again. Just a less expensive version this time around.

6. Become a recipe screener.

I choose a recipe because it looks delicious and amazing. But it calls for expensive mushrooms, pricey cuts of meat and six spices I currently do not have on my rack. So I put this one in the folder for another day. Instead, I choose a recipe which calls for items that are naturally inexpensive. Take for instance this amazing chicken dinner.

7. Browse the weekly sales flyers.

This way I have plenty of ideas to base inexpensive recipes on. This is the first step in my meal planning process each week. If the chicken is on super sale, go for it. If the fish is on super sale, do it. If the liver is on super sale, think twice.

8. Identify the priciest items in the pantry and explore alternatives.

In our house, this meant that the fluffy artisan baked gluten-free bread got the boot. So did real maple syrup. Now we use agave nectar instead. Cheaper, healthier and just as delicious.

9. Eat lots of protein, healthy fats and plenty of fruits and vegetables.

We don't need to buy all those expensive filler foods (crackers, chips, etc) when we are satisfying our hunger with hearty whole foods.

10. Avoid taking young children into the store if at all possible.

We all know how quickly our sweet cherubs turn into ravenous beasts in that grocery cart. "I want thaaaaat." "Give me one. Give it. Give it." "I'm huuuuungry." Oh boy, it's like walking through the gauntlet when I've got my three young ones with me. I'm never quite sure if I'll come out alive. And if I do come out alive, it is usually at the expense of some unsuspecting elderly shoppers. The looks I get are not very nice most of the time. I'd rather be plucking my eyebrows.

11. But if you do need to bring the munchkins, shop with contentment, not chaos.

We all need to go shopping with children at times. Or in my case, every time. In order to focus on the task at hand, keep the children happy with wholesome snacks as you swoop through the aisles. Or get a balloon when you first walk in. The "Boon" keeps my little man very happy for the duration of my trip. Thank God!

12. Dance down the aisles every once in awhile. (Costume optional.)

Smiling while shopping makes it so much more fun. And funny to watch. This helps with the young ones in the cart.

13. Buy bulk herbs and spices. 

The real reason why my grocery bill has been reduced by 50% is that I stopped buying all those little jars of spices. I'm exaggerating. But really, the pricing on bulk spices will blow your mind.


14. Buy bulk grains and dried beans.

Rice, lentils and quinoa are super inexpensive in the bulk department. And dried beans aren't really that big of a headache with a little prior planning.

15. Buy bulk specialty flours.

Truly so much cheaper than all those cute little packages of specialty gluten-free flours.




16. Buy as much in bulk as possible. Are you sensing a theme here?

It's just plain cheaper that way.

17. Force everyone in the house to fast three days a week.

Doh, I'm just kidding. Wanted to see if you were still with me here.

18. Plan at least two vegetarian meals per week.

Hello, beans and rice. Howdy, lentil soup.

19. Plan at least one really cheap protein meal per week. 

Something eggy usually does the trick.

20. Stop buying boxed cereal.

Boxed cereal is ridiculously expensive for what it offers. Alternatively, oatmeal is quite tasty when doctored up with fruit and cinnamon and brown sugar.

21. And if boxed cereal is a must, stop snacking on it all day long.

I'm talking to myself here. I don't know about you, but one of my favorite quick and easy snacks is a bowl of cereal. This must be hardwired into the kids because it is their favorite snack as well. It's one of the ultimate comfort foods in my book. I'll be honest, it was hard to kick the habit. 

22. Eat smart. 

Get to know your nourishment. Investigate which veggies and grains offer the highest nutritional bang for your buck. This way we require less food to feel full and satisfied. 

23. And when we've done all that, we eat out every once in a while to maintain positive mental health.

Allowing someone else to do the shopping, preparing, cooking and cleaning can be a lifesaver on certain days, that's for sure. But I always remember to stay true to what my budget can realistically accommodate. Fancy dinners out don't taste all that good when I know I can't afford them.

So there you have it. The long and short of how we've reduced our food spending by 50% over the past three months. 

I'd love to hear some of your favorite tricks for reducing food spending around your house. Leave a comment below to share your ideas.

Happy shopping, friends!

Friday Night Round-Up: Week 25

This is what Memory Lane looks like when I am walking down it hand in hand with my Excel spreadsheet.

We are one-third of the way through our "Gluten Free on a Budget" project. It is time for a retrospective. Tonight I took a walk down Memory Lane with my weekly food budget. Hand in hand, ol' Excel and me.

As is plainly evidenced by this delayed writing of my Friday Night Round-Up from two weeks ago, it has taken me quite some work gathering all of the numbers for my comparison.

Now with the cold hard numbers in my hand I am astounded at how far we've come.

Allow me to reminisce for a moment as we stroll Memory Lane together. Feel free to draw up the image above as we walk.

This project has been in effect for three months - September, October and November of 2010. It began when I realized that we could not afford to continue spending money on food the way we had been for so many years. Read how it began here.

As with anything in this world, there are limits to what is reasonable and what is out of reach. We had reached our limit.

Back in August when I started out with a desire to reduce our food spending, I challenged myself to reduce it by half. Take what we had been spending on all food items, including every grocery store trip and all restaurants, and spend 50% less. Overnight. Cold Turkey. No grace periods. No easing in.

It was a harsh reality. See for yourself here.

As time wore on, I figured out a few tricks that made all of this quite a bit easier. Namely, prepare hearty healthy meals in large quantities every night and we will all be happy. Check out one of my favorite meals to date on this adventure here. This dish is so easy, so yummy and so cheap. Talk about a feeling of success!

Let's turn to the facts I mentioned earlier. I calculated a year over year comparison for September, October and November from 2009 to 2010 to establish the percentage by which we have actually reduced our grocery spending.

The overall average by which we've reduced our food spending is 47%. Honestly, I couldn't be more proud to have come that close to my goal in the initial phase of this project.

With the first trimester behind us, let's raise our glasses to even greater success in the second trimester. Thanks for journeying along with me, friends. Now drink up!

Friday Night Round-Up: Week 26

Note to Self

 Dear Judith,

You have clearly fallen back into your old habits when it comes to weekly spending on the food budget. You were on a roll for a while. What happened?

Was it the allure of the discounted organic chocolate bars at the checkout stand?

Was it the need to double your intake of chai to four quarts per week because of the chilly weather?

Was it the seven different grocery store trips where you didn't come out with what you went in for and you bought things that weren't even on the list?

Just curious how this project has so quickly taken a turn down the path towards pocketbook agony.

Compassionately concerned,
Judith

Note in Response to 'Note to Self'


Dear Judith,

Indeed, I have fallen off the wagon. Or am I back on the wagon? I never know.

Either way, this week's food budget total is shameful. It's utterly disgraceful.

But it is not what you think. The bills from the grocery store were right on the mark. $150 total. The organic chocolate, chai spices and all the little extras didn't pose any trouble for the budget.

I'll tell you where the problem lies. The out-to-eats. For a family on a tight budget, out-to-eats are the devil. They can pin you down in a full nelson, unrelenting in their secret stealthiness to sabotage the wellbeing of the entire pocketbook.

On the flip-side, I'll tell you how this travesty came about.

My dear husband took the children away to his mother's for the weekend. He and they. They and he. A true Daddy's weekend. It was full of tailgating at the college football game, playing ball in the gym, movie watching and all kinds of goodness that comes along with a weekend full of Daddy and no Mommy.

It was a rich weekend for all. Mommy slept-in until 10:30am on Sunday, which honestly, I cannot recall the last time I did that. Possibly a decade ago. I woke at the usual time but decided to lay in bed in the quiet house and drift off to sleep again. I repeated this cycle at least three times until I realized the day was half gone. At which point I got out of bed to make myself a cup of chai and sit in quiet solitude for hours.

And while Mommy was doing all this, Daddy was having quality time with his offspring. Which, thankfully, happens much more frequently than once a decade.

The moral of the story is that due to the fact that I was charged with having a relaxing weekend full of rest and rejuvenation, I failed to pack the family a full flight of meals for their two days away. Hence, the out-to-eats. Next time I'll plan to put some things in the freezer ahead of time. Amen.

Restfully yours,
Judith

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Beware: The following video is a little, ah, what shall we say... unusual. I've included it so you can hear one of my favorite songs of all time for sleeping-in and chilling-out. If the video is distracting, simply close your eyes and listen blissfully. The song is gorgeous!

Edie Brickell - Times Like This

Friday Night Round-Up: Week 27

Yes, yes, yes!

We have completed the first trimester of this countdown. Fourteen weeks down, twenty-six to go.

Or did we just finish the third trimester as we count down in a weird Benjamin Button aging backwards kind of way?

Not sure.

What I do know is that we are one third of the way finished with this final year of torture, ahhh excuse me, I meant to say school.

Really it's not that bad. We have a lot to be grateful for. It's just that there are some days that it all seems like it's going to fall apart. Excuse me again, I meant to say it feels like I'm going to fall apart. Just being honest.

When the kids are grouchy, Aunt Flo is on her way for her monthly visit, and stinky laundry is piled up to the ceiling I get this dreaded feeling that the world might implode. It doesn't. Thank heavens. A few days later I say goodbye to Aunt Flo and all is well with the world again.

I swear, someone needs to send me away to the red tent. Ancient cultures have the red tent for a reason. You know what I mean ladies?

Aunt Flo or not, we run a tight ship over here. Time management has become one of the top five skills of survival in my book. The others include eating, breathing, washing every now and again, and laughing. Without laughter we'd be in a world of hurt. Check out this great post by fellow blogger Sister Earth Organics. Thanks to her I've been diligently working on more smiles all day long.

(PS - You might recognize the starring character in the video.)

And now to reveal the weekly grocery spending: $190.66

No need to discuss. Instead, let's laugh together.

Flight of the Conchords - Business Time

Friday Night Round-Up: Week 28

This is Dance While You Cook's guilty pleasure. Old stale popcorn while the house is quietly asleep and my trusty old laptop. It's a match made in heaven.

This is Dance While You Cook's other guilty pleasure. Going to the grocery store every single day of the week. In the past, this behavior brought devistating results to the pocketbook.

11/1 Whole Foods $28.12
11/1 Natural Grovers $48.62
11/1 Natural Market $38.27
11/2 Whole Foods $21.87
11/3 Walmart $25.13
11/4 Grocery Store $2.71
11/5 Grocery Store $5.41

$168.33

Not perfect, but clearly I've learned to reign it in. Go in for Item A. Come out with Item A. Note the last two entries.

All of this is very similar to my other guilty pleasure. Eating one oreo out of the cupboard at a time. The way I see it, eating just one oreo at a time throughout the day does not have the same effect (or consequences) as eating the whole package in just one sitting. Nevermind the fact that the package is empty by the end of the day no matter which method of consumption was employed.

Friday Night Round-Up: Week 29

$157.45

I splurged a bit on this week's shopping list. I bought the decadent ingredients for Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes with Raspberries. They were divine! Well worth exceeding the weekly budget by $7.45.

In other news, Halloween brought a new flavor to The Little White Kitchen this week.

I think I may cook in this get-up more often. Why not dance a-go-go while popping those molten lava cakes in the oven?

Be sure to keep a close eye on the stray blond hairs from your wig. The cheap ones shed terribly.

This will help set the mood for the next episode of Dance While You Cook - Costume Edition...

Friday Night Round-Up: Week 31

$144.69

This is promising. Is this my first week of making my goal? I think so. But the parameters of my experiment have changed. I must admit, I did not include the trip to the liquor store in this figure. I'm ditching that idea. It was not wise in the first place. Nor was it realistic.

Like Kjersti commented on my post last week, the government thinks it possible to feed her family of five on $200 worth of food stamps each week. Both you and I know that they are expecting their participants to purchase the "cheap" food. To the best of my knowledge, quality brands and organic produce are not supported by food stamps. So indeed, if the government sets their standard at $200 then my goal of $150 for this special needs diet is certainly a challenge.

My curiosity got the best of me and I plotted an investigation into the cost disparity between normal American food and our special allergy friendly diet. Here are my findings:

On the top of the list are items that I used to buy at the grocery store. No, these are not the only things we ate. That would be gross. This is just a small sampling of what I would consider the norm in this country. At least it's what I see filling my friends' cupboards.

Beneath these are the items that I have (in the not so distant past) bought in place of normal food. These are the premade/prepackaged gf/df goodies that I've searched high and low for. The list here represents my favorite gluten-free dairy-free finds. We've spent years refining our selections to only the best of these specialty items. You better believe that we've spent a pretty penny on gluten-free/dairy-free foods that tasted like cardboard with sugar sprinkled on top, or worse.

(Note: For comparison sake, I've calculated the prices for equivalent packaging sizes. As you may imagine, the prepackaged size of some of these gluten-free items would be hardly enough to feed a large bird, let alone a full family. It's easier to compare apples to apples here.)

Milk
Store brand milk (1 gal) $1.98
Rice Dream (1 gal) $7.38

Bread
Store brand bread $0.99
Millet bread $3.99

Cereal
Honey Nut Cheerios (12 oz) $1.88
Glutino Honey Nut O's (12 oz) $6.83

Pasta
Pasta bulk (1 lb) $0.99
Tinkayada rice pasta (1 lb) $3.69

Soup
Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup $0.50
Health Valley GF Chicken Noodle Soup $2.99

Crackers
Ritz crackers (16 oz) $2.50
Glutino crackers (16 oz) $14.51

Cake Mix
Pillsbury cake mix $0.79
Betty Crocker GF cake mix $4.19

Waffles
Store brand frozen waffles $1.77
Nature's Path Wildberry Buckwheat frozen waffles $3.69


Quick Kid Food
Kraft Mac & Cheese (7.25 oz) $0.69
Road's End Organics GF/DF Mac & Cheese (7.25 oz) $2.89

Ice Cream
Haggen Dazs Ice Cream (14 oz) $2.79
Good Karma Organic Rice Divine Ice Cream (14 oz) 3.49

Granola
Granola bulk (16 oz) $2.49
GF Granola (16 oz) $7.99

Bagels
Store brand bagels (4) $2.00
Kinnikinnick bagels (4) $5.39

Lunch Meat
Store brand lunch meat (16 oz) $5.00
Nitrate Free lunch meat (16 oz) $10.99

Pretzels
Snyder's pretzels (16 oz) $1.99
Glutino pretzels (16 oz) $7.30

It's possible that you have not have followed me all the way down this list. That's ok. You may not care.

But I set out to investigate why it seems so difficult to meet this $150/week grocery challenge. And now I have an inkling as to why this challenge is proving to be tough.

Normal = $26.36

Special = $85.32

Three times as much mu-lah to complete the same grocery list.

Enough said.

Let's Get Our Priorities Straight - Bread Comes First

We had the talk. Oh yes, the talk. I'll be completely honest with you, we've had some low points in the $150/week grocery budget challenge. As a whole, looking back on the last three weeks, we've likely had more low points than not.

But we're reorganizing, restructuring the way we do things. This is a work in progress and it's taken us some blood, a lot of sweat and a few lonely tears to navigate our way through this challenge.

This week, #36 counting down, we set our priorities straight on a few items that have made a big difference here on the homestead.

#1 - Bread is the first priority. My sweet husband nailed this one. He told me mid-week that the answer to a happy household is bread. I completely agree. We love bread. We all love bread. When there is bread in the house people are fulfilled, they smile, we enjoy our tuna fish sandwiches, and Bubba eats pb&j to his heart's content. So the first thing in the grocery cart this week will be bread. Four loaves to be exact. Mind you they are frightfully small little loaves. We will have our bread and eat it too!

#2 - Doesn't matter because we will have bread.

Friday Night Round-Up: 37th week counting down

Time for the Friday Night Round-Up. But it's actually Sunday night, well actually very early Monday morning, just past the stroke of midnight. This is my first opportunity to take a look back at the week gone by to see how things measured up in the grocery budgeting department.

I had all good intentions of posting some of the recipes from the later half of the week. But instead of spending quality time with you, I was called out of my kitchen into prompt action. Babies don't wait.



Three days ago it was my good fortune to put on my doula hat and support a sweet little family in their VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). Being in the room with new parents as they birth their babies is nothing short of a miracle. Every time.

While I was away for this 24-hour journey through laborland, my dear family fended for themselves. This usually means nothing short of Burger King. And so it was. Certain meal items didn't get prepared. Certain moneys were spent for the sake of convenience.

Back from the birth with only two hours of precious sleep early Friday morning, I was greeted with an enthusiastic voicemail message. We're packing up to go camping for the weekend. Since this wasn't accounted for in the meal plan either, more moneys were spent on the requisite camp food.

I must say, we were easily on track to meet our $150 goal until those few unexpected occurrences came into the mix.

Here's the breakdown:
$48.72 Whole Foods
$66.96 Natural Foods Market
$14.16 Walmart
$18.03 Sit-down Restaurant
$9.00 Burger King
$18.00 Camping Food
$20 Peaches from school fundraiser
$15 Liquor Store

Total: $210

But today, I say that the spontaneity of this past week was well worth the price!

A Word about Out-to-Eats

I contribute 75% of our food spending woes to eating out. Years ago we could grab a quick bite out-to-eat at a restaurant for $15 or less. We'd walk away satisfied and more than pleased that someone else did all the prep and clean-up. Even as small children started entering the picture it was not that difficult to keep the spending to a minimum when out. Slice of pizza. Grilled cheese. Chicken strips. Sure go ahead, gorge yourself on that bread basket, it's free!

Everything changed when our son was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Sushi became the new pizza - quick, convenient and delicious. The prepared foods aisle at Whole Foods replaced sub sandwiches - small containers filled with chicken salad and quinoa. We said a swift goodbye to kids meals at the Mexican restaurant - and a hearty hello to the full entree portion of fajitas. Overnight our food spending more than doubled.

For years now we've continued to partake in the ol' American pastime of going out to eat - with friends, after a long day at work, in between games on a busy Saturday, when I feel lazy, craving something fried, or just don't want to look at another dirty dish in my kitchen sink. In my book, there is always an occasion to eat out!

Every month when I take time to reflect on where all the money has gone, I get a very clear response from my debit card report. Restaurants. Always the culprit. Every time.

Nonetheless, I am continually surprised and appalled by the numbers. Anywhere from 30% - 50% of money spent on food in the month is in the form of out-to-eats. The shocking part of all of this is that the weekly grocery bill is never affected at all by this frivolous reveling in modern convenience.

My mama once heard on a radio show, "when trying to get out of debt (or not enter into it), the only time you should step foot in a restaurant is if you're working there." The only foreseeable way to make this $150/week food budget work is to heed this advice. We're a few weeks into the challenge and so far so good. If I spend less than $150 at the grocery store this week there may be room for the $11 fajitas at our favorite Mexican restaurant!

But first, one more important item of business before I sign-off -- A definition of what's included in my $150 weekly food budget:

All food from the grocery store.
All food from restaurants.
All alcohol from the liquor store.

Now that's what I'm talking about. A true challenge.

Objectives

We've arrived on our yearly family vacation to the seashore. With my toes in the water and ass in the sand there was not a worry in the world for me and my crew today.


All of this sun and sand has, however, given me opportunity to think through precisely what it is that I'm trying to accomplish.

Over the next nine months, while my husband wraps-up the fourth year of his Grad School program and our life is totally crazy, I want to...

1) Reduce our grocery spending by half
2) Increase our standard of living so that everyone's physical and emotional needs are being met
3) Make my return to finding pleasure in the simple things of life

Going back to my first post, the second two items hinge on the first. In our intense budget review, there seemed no room for spending reduction but in this one area. And reducing spending on food means that I get to see my husband more because he works less. When I see him more, I am a happier wife. The kids are more fulfilled. I enjoy cooking dinner again. We sit together at the table. And, 'voila', our standard of living has gone up.

And from there pleasure returns to the things that best own pleasure - a simple sunset, a hug from my baby, walking in the cool evening air, eating wholesome and delicious food crafted by my own hands, dancing wildly in my living room with folks I love, floating down a free river in a borrowed intertube, being together. This is what my next nine months are about.

Plan Thwarted

My plan has been so easy thwarted. Disappointing, but we will carry on. It all feel apart around noon yesterday.

Six kids sitting around the lunch table, Pops cooking up a big batch of pasta, and then the request. "Babe, can you run to the store and pick up a loaf of bread. I cannot eat this meal without bread." To which I replied, "Well honestly babe, if I continue buying loaves of bread that last us only one meal at $5.49 a piece, there is no hope for my budget reduction plan." But when a man wants bread on the rare occasion that he sits for lunch with his family, how could I deny his sweet request?

So yes, I did run out to the store to grab that oh-so fluffy gluten-free loaf, part discouraged that I made it less than a week before I gave in, but a little light on my toes that I was going to delight in the simple pleasures of perfectly crafted gluten-free bread with my meal.

On the bright side, my 6:30am departure for the Saturday morning Garage Sales was fruitful and fulfilling. I was back home by 8:30am with a few new threads perfectly suited for my wardrobe revolution. It's the little things that mean the most...

Two Guiding Principles

In my slumber last night I pondered what it is going to take to achieve this seemingly impossible feat. It came to me about 5:30 this morning. The two guiding principles that will be my beacon: One - Listen to your mother. Two - Don't spend money you don't have.

As I continue to play house in my 10th year of marriage I can hear this little voice - not always so soft - playing in the back of my head... Turn the lights out when you leave a room, finish the food on your plate, don't touch the thermostat, Why are you standing there with the refrigerator door open, do you think we're cooling the neighborhood?

When I was young these constant reminders of conservation were nothing less than annoying. Now as the mother of three young kids myself I completely understand the need for this type of rambling. Sky high electric bills, wasted food, over heated dwelling space, and dull stares into the refrigerated abyss are things I must keep in check. When cutting dollars at every corner it's the little things that count. And so I find myself ladling a smaller portion on my plate at dinner time. Heaven knows I'll soon be eating the leftovers from the kids plates in my attempt not to waste.

As I finish off the last bit of beef stew from my one year old's tiny bowl, I channel my grandfather, mother and all the other caretakers who've gone before. Making sure that my offspring have enough to grow healthy and strong and take the scrapes left behind for myself. But truly, this way I spend less and waste less and am more able to follow Guiding Principle #2.

Spending money I don't have will only lead me to spending more money I don't have until I'm dizzy in the downward spiral of debt for the simple sake of consumerism.

It makes more sense to adjust my lifestyle now while I'm still without burden of servitude to the almighty credit card companies. Maybe this way I'll be able to fulfill my dream of taking off to Costa Rica on a whim with my family and living on the beach for months without a care in the world. It's only a dream, but one that will never come true if I'm stifled under the weight of paying three times the price for that darn granola I so love to buy pre-made.