Cheaper by the Dozen

When you have a large-ish family, the subject of cost always seems to come up. It is one of those annoying things that are culture does, which is put a price tag on children. My family has struggled with keeping our budget for food decent, my husband and I went from being able to eat out all the time to slowly cringing at the bill when it hit our table. So after some trial and error and tips from friends, we've come across a happy balance. We can't give up eating out all together, we like it too much, but we have pared it down.

First thing we did to help curb the grocery bill was come up with an eating schedule. I found that when my kids didn't have a set food schedule that they'd eat everything and anything we had, which had us running to the grocery store multiple times a week. So, I print out a paper calendar every month (at first I was doing once a week and that got to be a pain) and I write out what people can eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It makes grocery shopping easy and cuts down on snacking. For example: my kids migh have a muffin, yogurt or applesauce and a protein drink for breakfast. For lunch: gluten free chicken nuggets, potato chips and blueberries and for dinner we could have enchiladas. There is no guessing on what to eat and it curbs the incessant question of, "what are we eating?", they can see it on the calendar. A great place to get recipes, by the way, is www.thecountrycook.net , she has awesome recipes that are quick and easy. Her site has been a life saver!

Secondly, we've changed where we go to buy groceries and how we buy. We have a Costco membership and we go once a month at the beginning of the month. Our list usually consists of items that we can spread out for two weeks to a month, meats are usually top on that list. Next we take Saturday afternoon and we go to Aldi for a weekly shopping. We love Aldi! My husband fought me on switching but I finally convinced him to try it and now we are hooked :). We spend literally half our old budget there and we can get everything we need for the week. This gives us money left over to.....go out! :)

To keep costs down for eating out and so we don't splurge too much, we've started using a debit card for restaurants instead of a credit card (I know...yikes...bad habit). My husband transfers money every week for me so that I can go shopping for whatever is needed. We plan our outings, like everything else, so we can a. look forward to it and b. because then we can save up for it. This gives us leeway so when there is a day we are running crazy, we can still eat together.

I hope this helps all of you!

Go get them ladies!