Just thought I would put this out there for those of you who are trying to live on a tight budget. Now that Ryan and I are living off of one income we have to be intentional about our spending and saving habits. Here are a couple things we do:
#1. Cheap Diapers- The cheapest diapers I have found are about $.14 each (Sam's Club Member's Mark Brand). The key with buying diapers is to ALWAYS price them out PER diaper. It doesn't matter if they are on sale or if you have coupons. Simply divide the amount per box by the number of diapers to find out how much your paying for each individual diaper. If you can find them for less than $.20 your doing good. Honestly, I'm on my second box of Sam's Club diapers and I haven't had a single leak!!
#2. Cloth Diapers-Even better than $.14 =) I use
Bum Genius diapers for Preston~ Every time I use them I am saving $.14-So, if I use them 10 times a day for 1 week I save $9.80. That would be a savings over $500 for the year!! Not too shabby huh?
#3. Buying Food- well, I'm not into couponing and here's why: *I'm not a hoarder *Most things we buy and eat don't have coupons *I simply don't have time. I do participate in our grocery store's buy one, get one free sales. I keep our shopping and eating pretty simple. I purchase Salmon, Tilapia, Chicken Breast, and Meatballs or Ground Beef at Sam's club each month. I use these staple meats for all kinds of dishes, including Raspberry Balsamic Salmon, Chicken Cordon Bleu and Lemon Coconut Tilapia filets.
To save money I am VERY selective with my fruit and vegetable purchases. Literally, we were throwing away money when a fruit or veggie would spoil. It was happening ALL the time!! I would throw away a rotten peach or clean out the crisper drawer and toss unused lettuce and carrots. I'm curious, does this happen to other families?
So now I only buy the following produce items because they are guaranteed to be consumed:
*Bananas-I buy 2 green ones and 3 yellow ones, just to give us a little time.
*Avocado-Easton LOVES avocado and they are super healthy and yummy!
*Blueberries-The magical fruit!!! We never waste a blueberrie! Easton adores them and if there are any getting too soggy they are perfect for blueberry pancakes on Sunday morning!
Ofcourse I'll buy salad, potatoes or squash when I am planning a meal. For the most part I stick with my grocery list, knowing that we won't waste money!
#4. Consume Less- Before spending 2 months in Ethiopia I didn't give much thought to my personal consumption. One time in Ethiopia I remember throwing away a small bottle of orange Metamucil (it wasn't helping me and I was mad at it). Later that week, I saw the bottle in the kitchen of our guest house by the sink. I'm not exactly sure what happened but I believe the housekeeper found it in my trash and basically recycled it. Maybe they thought it was to flavor water, I'll never know! Again this happened when I threw away a plastic diaper wipe container. I saw one of the workers with it and inside was her lunch! She was using my trash as a lunch box! This has had a lasting impression on my lifestyle. I want to consume less, so I can give more! Before Ethiopia, I would use several pumps of shampoo for my hair, now only 2 pumps will do. Before Ethiopia I would spray windex abundantly, now I try to use 1 or 2 sprays. Before Ethiopia, I would use bottle waters for my convenience, now I'm happy to fill my Tervis Tumbler up with ice water from our Brita. One pump of hand soap, one drop of dial dish soap, one square of paper towel. All of these simple lifestyle changes help save us money!!
#5. CANCELLED CABLE! Just do it!!! Honestly, we have a digital antenna that gets all of the broadcast shows and we use
Hulu to see any shows we missed. We have the basic
Netflix package, for our movie night and we utilize the "instant watch" movies and shows through our Blueray. We can totally live without cable and we save every month!
Ways to save money that I'm ready to try:
1. Homemade Laundry Detergent! Please don't judge me =) You have to check out this site! It's AWESOME!! It makes me want to head to Walmart right now to buy the ingredients! Definitely look at her experiment with the mustard stain! She used her homemade laundry detergent and Tide with Bleach-The results are almost identical:
The Simple Dollar
Please let me know your best money saving ideas!
I got a recipe card and sample at our local Publix for Chicken Florentine! I made some changes but you can find the original recipe here. This is a labor intensive meal but completely worth it. It was deliciously yummy! We had this as a special dinner to celebrate Easton's Forever Day, July 21, 2010. This is the day that we passed Ethiopian Courts and Easton was placed in our arms forever. Such sweet memories I have. It's probably not a weekday dinner but more of a special occasion for our family!
*I doubled the recipe-I froze half of it to have a quick meal in 2 weeks.
5. In another pan cook the chicken. I used olive oil and seasoned with Italian Seasoning, Salt and Pepper. Cook until brown edges. 
6. While the chicken and vegetables are cooking boil water for the gnocchi. Cook the gnocchi as package describes. 
7. Add chicken to the vegetables. Cook for about 5 minutes.
9. At this point I put half into another bowl to cool before I put it in a ziplock bag for the freezer. Pour into casserole dish to bake. Cover with aluminum foil.
10. Bake for 25 minutes covered 
