(Click the button in the sidebar or see this link for Blogging Resolutions.)
January is almost over, and I'm starting to think about what February's Resolutions should look like.
Let's see what I did for January:
C is for Cheap! No going out to eat this month. Um. Well, we had a slight Subway incident last week. And, there was that time at Dunkin' Donuts... However, we still saved about $260 this month by not going out as much. Our grocery costs increased, but didn't eat up (haha) the savings. I'll have the numbers crunched soon... *ETA: I looked over our Jan '12 spending, and although we decreased our eating out, our over all grocery costs actually decreased! (As compared to Nov '11 and Dec '11, which are admittedly big holiday meal months.)
H is for Healthy! One walk every day for at least 20 minutes. This has been super easy! We've been going out with the stroller for a daily walk, and even tried out the city bus for the first time last week (on the way to Baby Yoga, ha!). I did a weigh in on Tuesday, but let's just say nothing much has changed in two weeks... Darn.
E is for Eats! Try to eat one portion (at least at a time). I haven't been particularly good at eating one portion, but I have been looking for portion sizes. This is especially helpful with snack food, since I will just mindlessly chomp. I pour the serving size into a bowl, and graze away...
This month has given me time to evaluate what the purpose of all this is. The point of my resolutions is to push past January and go back to the roots of my Cheap.Healthy.Eats. blog.
So, in the spirit of CHE, here's a cheap update: I saved $4.75 today! Yes, me, all by my lonesome with the help of a few phone calls. First of all, I called the City of Tucson to "Right Size" our garbage can from 95gal to 48gal. That's a monthly savings of $1.75. Then, I called our local internet provider, Cox, to ask what our options were for reducing our internet costs. I was able to get a $3 off of our basic phone plan (by dropping long-distance), since we don't even use the phone for anything other than getting online.
I also did a quick spread sheet of our last few grocery receipts, so I could categorize our food buying.
(BTW, I think I spelled "refrigerated" wrong. Sorry, grammar police!)
The take-away message from this is that it's okay to spend money on sweets, seafood, and frozen food. Awesome. These are the categories that I feel the most guilty about, but they take up tiny proportions of the overall pie.
The biggest categories by far are the refrigerated and pantry purchases. This is where my cheese addiction becomes apparent. I will be brainstorming ways to reduce my overall weekly grocery costs, while still keeping the larder full enough to keep us from eating out.
Oh, and we're doing great on vegetables and fruit! I really pumped up the freshness this month by putting greens into almost every meal. I learned that it's super easy if they are pre-chopped and washed.
Expect to see next month more cheap tips, more healthy photos and more fresh eats. We're just getting started, and some little person is about to start her first greens!
January is almost over, and I'm starting to think about what February's Resolutions should look like.
Let's see what I did for January:
C is for Cheap! No going out to eat this month. Um. Well, we had a slight Subway incident last week. And, there was that time at Dunkin' Donuts... However, we still saved about $260 this month by not going out as much. Our grocery costs increased, but didn't eat up (haha) the savings. I'll have the numbers crunched soon... *ETA: I looked over our Jan '12 spending, and although we decreased our eating out, our over all grocery costs actually decreased! (As compared to Nov '11 and Dec '11, which are admittedly big holiday meal months.)
H is for Healthy! One walk every day for at least 20 minutes. This has been super easy! We've been going out with the stroller for a daily walk, and even tried out the city bus for the first time last week (on the way to Baby Yoga, ha!). I did a weigh in on Tuesday, but let's just say nothing much has changed in two weeks... Darn.
This month has given me time to evaluate what the purpose of all this is. The point of my resolutions is to push past January and go back to the roots of my Cheap.Healthy.Eats. blog.
So, in the spirit of CHE, here's a cheap update: I saved $4.75 today! Yes, me, all by my lonesome with the help of a few phone calls. First of all, I called the City of Tucson to "Right Size" our garbage can from 95gal to 48gal. That's a monthly savings of $1.75. Then, I called our local internet provider, Cox, to ask what our options were for reducing our internet costs. I was able to get a $3 off of our basic phone plan (by dropping long-distance), since we don't even use the phone for anything other than getting online.
I also did a quick spread sheet of our last few grocery receipts, so I could categorize our food buying.
(BTW, I think I spelled "refrigerated" wrong. Sorry, grammar police!)
The take-away message from this is that it's okay to spend money on sweets, seafood, and frozen food. Awesome. These are the categories that I feel the most guilty about, but they take up tiny proportions of the overall pie.
The biggest categories by far are the refrigerated and pantry purchases. This is where my cheese addiction becomes apparent. I will be brainstorming ways to reduce my overall weekly grocery costs, while still keeping the larder full enough to keep us from eating out.
Oh, and we're doing great on vegetables and fruit! I really pumped up the freshness this month by putting greens into almost every meal. I learned that it's super easy if they are pre-chopped and washed.
Expect to see next month more cheap tips, more healthy photos and more fresh eats. We're just getting started, and some little person is about to start her first greens!
Comments