The $20 Challenge (March 14th)

Oh my! Did I mention how tough this is this month?

Things that are putting extra pressure on the budget:

• We went out to eat and rang up a good bit on the bill. YIKES! Totally worth the time with the wonderful group of friends! Love you guys!
• Then, we are having dinner guests twice this month. Yep, twice. So, I am feeding more people on this budget than what the $ amount allows.
• I am only shopping at one store. Although I am finding deals, I am passing others by. That is tough to watch!
• Then, we are having family visiting and staying with us for a weekend, so we will be feeding them too. Along with them even more family members will be coming over to eat during that time.

Things that normally make it hard:

• We do eat a lot of fresh produce. That's where most of our fruits and veggies come from. So, as you know that can be costly.
• My family goes through a lot of milk.

Things I have found to be true:

• We throw out less food. There is a LOT less waste. Not that we ever had a ton of waste. But, now we have even less.
• We get a variety of veggies and fruit because I am looking for what is on sale that week. (Plus, we do try to eat the rainbow.)

I am no longer hopeful for the overall budget. But, I am hopeful for my family meals to make the budget. I was looking over what I needed to buy for the week of March 14th and looking in the sale flyer and planning things. Then, my wonderful husband said he'd eat dog food the rest of the month to help us make budget. Honestly, he was only joking! We both laughed. (Note: You can see dog food never makes the menu.) He's so supportive of this adventure and I really appreciate that he cheers me on. I asked him last month when I did the $20 per person per week if he felt deprived. Nope, not at all. He's honest, which I love, so I knew when I asked he would tell me the truth. He was right, we had a well stocked house and always more than enough to eat. We were/are blessed.

However, I am going to put a plan in place for the extended family that we will be having. I want to continue to feed my family on this budget. But, don't think I can feed the extended family on it as well. Can we say GRACE? I've already fed one of the dinners through this budget. But the other whole weekend later in the month, I had not planned for. As we were not aware of it until recently. My plan is to keep the one meal for the other dinner only guests under our budget. But, when family is staying with us, I need to have some sort of a write off for that. It make me feel like I am cheating, but I never said I could feed 15 people on this, right?
I heard from a friend of mine that has gotten into couponing that she is doing great this month. She has a family of 6. I am so proud of all she is accomplishing with her efforts to save money. What I love about her is she doesn't go down without a fight. Once she sets her mind to something, she really sets her mind to it. S- you really are doing great! Keep it up! I am so proud of you. :)

So, how are you all doing?