Quinn All Tied Up
Does the price of gas have you all tied up? I know it is here and we would walk to places but we live in the country. We do however have a rather good on gas mini van that I’m thankful for. Sadly with the beach a mile or so away I’ll be taking the van, because my crew goes to the beach in the morning and stays for most of the day.
I decided to write about this today for a couple of reasons. One we have a beautiful day here and we’re supposed to get 6 to 8″ of snow tonight. Even for Michigan that is a lot in April. But also because our area has already hit $4.00 a gallon.
Basic economics tells you what is going to happen next or has already happened. Groceries are going up. We have already had a family meeting and our garden is going to be bigger. I am going to attempt canning. Not sure I can do it with out wasting food but with my mom’s help maybe.
Celebrating Small Things
We had a budget with $300 a month for a family of fives groceries and we were doing ok. Not great but we brought the family together for meal ideas, snack ideas and such. We have done fabulous and I’m so proud of my kids.
The last few months I cut the light bill in half and the grocery bill in half. We had been slacking on our electric bill and it was running 175.00 a month. My cousin had a good laugh and said that was low. WTH, no way it is high. So last year I bought strip plugs but the kids had gotten lazy using them. The new deal is if you don’t use it and mom finds it you lose all the items plugged in. Our light bill for the last 2 months has been 85.00 and 88.00. Much more manageable.
The grocery list in our family includes HBA products too. The $150 is catching up with us. I shop monthly and have always used coupons with sales but again I got lazy and I finally broke down and paid a handling fee for coupons we needed. All I can say is WOW! Huge savings.
So with my dark mood looming and my head pounding I started thinking of all the things I’m very lucky to have and not one of them was a material item! OH and one more thing, my husband and I decided that it’s important to go out just him and I and another couple once a month or maybe twice. We don’t spend much and it’s like a mini vacation.
