$21

One of the challenges for me, homeschool mom/homemaker/cook/maid/etc., is keeping the food budget (we really SHOULD have one) reasonable.  This 'challenge' stems partially from the fact that neither my husband or myself are super dedicated organizer/bookkeeper types and groceries/supplies are consumables that somehow seem to eat money differently than, say, a new lamp would.   What I mean by the lamp plays out something like this....when Miss Almost 10 was potty training years ago I took her to the store to buy some 'big girl underwear'.  As I stood in the undies aisle agonizing over prices, an awareness of my ridiculous thinking came to light.   I knew where to find the best value on my preferred brand of diapers, and two packages would equal the cost of a 12 pack of undies I was considering.  The ridiculous part was that I wouldn't bat an eye over spending that much on the diapers I was going to throw away--the diapers weren't a thing.  Yet here, on the cusp of buying a thing (mind you, this thing would replace the money draining diapers) I was agonizing over cost.  Somehow, in my thinking, the cost of food/household consumables gets some kind of pardon as these don't register on my thing radar.  I am not buying something I am going to own.  With an awareness of this thinking, I am trying to manage our spending on consumables.

A few weeks ago on The Today Show two household spending specialists were featured in a contest.  They were given a specific amount of money to spend on groceries and their hauls were compared side by side on tables.   The second contestant did a fabulous, although labor intensive, job as she is a coupon clipper/printer/user.  What I appreciated about her purchases were she purchased healthy items, including much fresh produce.  The first contestant on the other hand, purchased several items at the Dollar Store, hotdogs, etc. Several of his purchases registered on the front of what we, in our household, consider to be 'things that aren't really food'.  Things like instant Mac 'n Cheese (not sure if he had any of those) may fill your belly for awhile without really feeding you.  

We have a large, deep freezer in our garage which is a helpful tool in my quest to manage our consumable spending.  One of the consumables I store up is bread from our local bakery outlet.  I lose my enthusiasm for baking our bread in the mix of a busy homeschool life and I have found a few good varieties of bread at the outlet.  I spent some time there one day reading labels and I have my favorites--there is one brand that forgoes the popular use of high fructose corn syrup.  On a recent trip this was my $21 haul....(and for every $5  you get to choose a free item!)