It's been almost one year since I started blogging. I've learned a lot over the past year and it's been fun- but looking through all my old posts I've realized I've also come a ways from what I started this for. It wasn't meant to be merely another recipe blog, but a way to share my thoughts and tips on cooking with a tight budget. I have to admit I haven't even been paying that much attention to my budget let alone blogging about it! Funny how necessity brings on those great habits, right? And you can so easily forget your frugal ways when it's not quite so important anymore...
But the thing is.. it's always important. Life can turn on a dime and you never know what may be in store for you and your family. Sure I feel like I'm prepared- my food storage is in order and more importantly I know how to use it. We have savings and we have survival skills if it came down to it but there's always something more that we can do. Food storage and frugal spending are not things you can ever really check off your list as being done. It's something that you need to constantly work at and improve upon and when I stop practicing for a few months I really start to feel it. It's always a little painful to get back into the routine.
Some of the things I've noticed that slip when I get away from my frugal habits are things you'd expect like less money into savings and food that's not as healthy but the other thing-more alarming- that suffers is quality family time together.
Like a lot of families, we tend to all have different things going on all day long. Meetings and sports, music lessons, school and work. When we all get together and forget about everything else on our "plate" is at mealtimes- specifically dinner. So of course, if dinner is leftovers (again) or some random pre-packaged thing from the freezer then we just don't spend as much time together. Dinner is what brings us all together!
So this last week I've been working very hard at bringing back all my old habits. My goal is to save enough from our grocery budget these next few months to help pay for Disneyland tickets at the end of the Summer. This means more home-cooked meals, healthier snacks, and better meal planning.
To kick things off this week, I've already made a menu and added 3 meals to my freezer (which had been empty of pre-made home-made meals for some time). [I've added lasagna, complete with home-made noodles, macaroni and cheese, and home-made pizza.] So far, so good... but it's only Wednesday!
One thing that I constantly struggle with is LEFTOVERS. We hate leftovers around here- it's a fact. Unless I can use them creatively and turn them into a new meal then they just take up room in my refrigerator until I finally throw them away. Which is sad... I hate to waste food! But I'm just as bad, or worse, as the rest of the family about eating them... I've found that if I plan a menu ahead of time it's a lot easier to think of ways to use our leftovers.
Last night I was finally successful with using some of the leftovers lurking in the fridge instead of throwing them out. We had loaded baked potatoes. I washed and baked several potatoes. We used leftover broccoli, leftover chili, leftover cheese sauce (from home-made macaroni and cheese), and even a few pieces of leftover bacon from breakfast. Add to that some sour cream, salt and pepper and more cheese and even my boys left the table satisfied!
But the thing is.. it's always important. Life can turn on a dime and you never know what may be in store for you and your family. Sure I feel like I'm prepared- my food storage is in order and more importantly I know how to use it. We have savings and we have survival skills if it came down to it but there's always something more that we can do. Food storage and frugal spending are not things you can ever really check off your list as being done. It's something that you need to constantly work at and improve upon and when I stop practicing for a few months I really start to feel it. It's always a little painful to get back into the routine.
Some of the things I've noticed that slip when I get away from my frugal habits are things you'd expect like less money into savings and food that's not as healthy but the other thing-more alarming- that suffers is quality family time together.
Like a lot of families, we tend to all have different things going on all day long. Meetings and sports, music lessons, school and work. When we all get together and forget about everything else on our "plate" is at mealtimes- specifically dinner. So of course, if dinner is leftovers (again) or some random pre-packaged thing from the freezer then we just don't spend as much time together. Dinner is what brings us all together!
So this last week I've been working very hard at bringing back all my old habits. My goal is to save enough from our grocery budget these next few months to help pay for Disneyland tickets at the end of the Summer. This means more home-cooked meals, healthier snacks, and better meal planning.
To kick things off this week, I've already made a menu and added 3 meals to my freezer (which had been empty of pre-made home-made meals for some time). [I've added lasagna, complete with home-made noodles, macaroni and cheese, and home-made pizza.] So far, so good... but it's only Wednesday!
One thing that I constantly struggle with is LEFTOVERS. We hate leftovers around here- it's a fact. Unless I can use them creatively and turn them into a new meal then they just take up room in my refrigerator until I finally throw them away. Which is sad... I hate to waste food! But I'm just as bad, or worse, as the rest of the family about eating them... I've found that if I plan a menu ahead of time it's a lot easier to think of ways to use our leftovers.
2 comments:
Yay! I am so glad that this blog has been here for a year. I Would love to know what your ideas are for meals on the go. We have baseball/sofball games this time of year and we are always eating on the run or late at night.
Oops, This is Traccie, Logged into my DH's account.
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