31 days ... {Intro, plus days one and two}

Today is my first day at work this week, hubby is on vacation so I took some personal time to tackle a couple of house projects with him, which are still in progress.


Anyhow, I sort of kept up with blogger, and all these "31 Days..." posts linking up with The Nester kept popping up. At first I brushed it off, but decided today I want to participate!

As I blogged a few weeks ago, we have gotten horribly lax at just throwing our money around, then wondering where it's all gone at the end of the month. The way I figure, I should have $300 plus mileage reimbursements after all of my bills each month, but have no idea where it goes.

While September was a great start, I've decided to continue making every effort to pinch pennies in October {especially after I fell off the wagon during a mall trip on Saturday - bad Michelle!} And what better way to keep accountable than blogging about it.

I'm hoping to blog all 31 days ... and hope you'll tune in!

My first two tips are pretty easy.

1 - MEAL PLAN! I cannot stress how much this helps with the "what the heck are we going to eat" question. It helps me most on weekends I think. Not only that, when I meal plan, I make sure we have all ingredients, which eliminates those trips to the store for one or two things that turns into spending $20! Plus, if I meal plan, I can see what's on sale that week and really maximize the savings.

We don't mind eating leftovers, so I think making larger meals helps out with this, too. In a typical week, I probably only cook 3-4 times and we do leftovers the other nights. Obviously this will likely change as our family grows, but it works great right now.

Here is this week's menu:

Sunday: Baked chicken breasts, mashed potatoes, green beans
Monday: Chili
Tuesday: Frozen pizza
Wednesday: Cube steak w/gravy, mashed potatoes, corn
Thursday: Frito pies
Friday: Salads w/chicken (leftover)
Saturday: Chili leftovers

2 - Keep convenience foods, like frozen pizzas, fish sticks, frozen burgers, etc. around. I know it's not good for you - but neither is fast food. Case in point: I had cube steak out last night, but after installing new French doors in our basement, it was 7 p.m. and we didn't feel like taking an hour plus to cook. So instead of running out and grabbing Burger King or Pizza Hut and spending at least $12 PLUS the gas, I got in the freezer and baked two frozen pizzas. We LOVE the Aldi brand pizza, so this cost me a whopping $4. That's at least $10 in savings.

What are your tips for saving money?



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