Since adjusting to living on one income and still trying to save some excess I have been brainstorming ways to simplify our life and be a bit more frugal. I found a great budgeting worksheet and have been keeping every receipt (reciept?) so we can track our spending and see what we need to be more frugal with and how much we spend on different things.
We got in a bad habit of eating out too frequently this past year. When we were both working 40-50 hours a week we would get home at 6 or 7 in the evening and grabbing fast food or sandwiches on the way home was so much more convenient.
Now that baby and I have a bit more spare time at home I have been researching things to simplify our life a bit. Finding tips on organizing, getting creative with things we have already around the house, and finding DIY projects and natural cleaning products instead of pricey ones full of chemicals have really been interesting and fulfilling to me.
One thing I have enjoyed is creating a weekly menu and grocery list. Each week when I go to the grocery store I only purchase what is on my list for the week for each meal (and fresh produce to snack on). It has really helped us cut back on expensive snacks, or over buying and then wasting food.
Here are some of my meals I've been cooking. They are all from Pinterest because I'm trying new recipes instead of the usual tacos, sloppy joes, spaghetti, ect. (if you want the recipes they are on my pinterest page). I have loved trying new recipes, and these are super quick and delicious!
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| oven baked chicken |
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| super moist crock pot roast |
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| crock pot meatballs |
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| homemade tomato soup |
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| olive garden soup |
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| spaghetti pie |
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| creamy crock pot chicken |
it all looks so yummy, what time is dinner? you also can make a cobbler in the crock pot that is the healthy version (not made with a cake mix) and it is super easy and a great dessert as the days get colder and more like fall. apple crisp kind of a thing...... glad to know you are learning to be a frugal wise mommy. soon it becomes a way of life and you keep taking it to a higher level of being more healthy and faster and totally better in all ways. you are amazing!! and always being busy and learning new things!!
ReplyDeleteLove how you are always posting about exactly the things that are on my mind too! I've been constantly trying to work out our budget for the last couple months with all these crazy medical bills popping up! Been trying to work on ways to spend less, etc.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I've been thinking I'm in desperate need of some tasty new recipes for the season! I'm so tired of eating the same meals over and over! Now I just need to figure out how to tie in the two. Everything I see that looks so good has several ingredients that I don't have around...but they look so yummy! And I must also find the motivation to work on my blog and post these things like you do :)