Welcome to the NEW Show & Tell.
This will work just exactly like the Show & Tell did, you will leave a comment or a link about your shopping trip this week and how you did against your budget.
As a bonus for visiting, you also get to read about the journey other frugal families are taking.
This week we are featuring Kacey’s story. Kacey is a frequent reader of our blog. You can also find her on her blog, Fruitful Works.
Kacey
Fruitful Works
When my husband and I found out we would have twin girls last year, of course we were thrilled, but the thought of doubling the size of our family was a little daunting to say the least. How would we ever afford to go from zero to two children and still live on one income. Since my staying home with our girls was a priority for us, we had to figure out ways to make this work.
Now we have baby #3 on the way and I have to tell you, we are not worried about finances in the least because we have learned so much about saving and shopping frugally, getting by on plenty while still spending very little. We still encounter struggles, but we now look at them as challenges to face with reasonable solutions that work for our family:
I found that we struggled with wasting food right out of the refrigerator. Consequently, I went from shopping once every two weeks to shopping once a week with cash only. This helped me execute a smaller plan more efficiently and we avoided wasting food. This plan worked well if I scheduled our week to include three or four good dinners, allowing us to eat left-overs the rest of the nights and for lunches if we could. Planning a different meal for every night of the week was wasting time and money, so planning fewer meals remedied this problem.
Saving our grocery money also became much easier when I started buying non-grocery items at other stores (CVS) as they went on sale. Within a few weeks, I stocked up on many household items as little to no cost to me and our grocery dollar started going much further.
In the beginning I learned to clip coupons and watch the sales to match the coupons accordingly. I stocked up on baby wipes, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, paper towels, and much more, just by reading suggestions online and paying attention to weekly ads. I struggled for a while with clipping the coupons and organizing them, but now I keep the coupon inserts intact and clip coupons out as I need them. This provides less bulk for me and I don’t get behind with coupon organization.
I still encounter hurdles along the way. For example, I have just cringed at the prices of diapers lately and avoided stocking up on them, hoping they would go on a good sale somewhere. Well since I haven’t bought diapers for weeks, we ran out this morning. I had to make an extra trip to the store just for diapers and I ended up buying the store brand, but paid full price. Also, we don’t eat out as much any more (which is a good thing) but occasionally my husband and I would like to go out on a date. I’m having trouble working this into the weekly budget allowance right now, so we end up going over some times.
Probably my biggest struggle is finding time and energy to get out the door every week and shop by myself, which is really the key to making sure I don’t overspend. With twin 15 month old toddlers, going to the store can be a big challenge! I’m working on my time management with them to help me spend a little more time planning and shopping, but it’s a work in progress.
I’m sure I will continue to experience different hurdles at different points in my life and undoubtedly a new one will pop up just as I’m jumping over the last! It’s so important to me for my family to live a happy and healthy life, though. They truly are my motivation to continue working hard at living a frugal life within my means.
Each week we feature a different shopper’s story. If you are interested in sharing your family’s story (successes and struggles alike!) contact Chrissy(centsable.chrissy[at]gmail.com). Non-bloggers welcome!!
Now – time to share your great deals for the week!
Leave a comment or link below and don’t forget to join in the $5 Charity Challenge and Giveaway!!
