Spending less

I have thought about how I was going to keep track of my food budget to share with you. I might have broken down how much I spent on each meal, or how much I spent each day. I figured it was be way too much work to keep up. So, I am just going to budget spending $400 a month. Some weeks I may spend more that $100, some weeks less. I have to admit we did a bit of stocking up, not really on purpose. Last week we heard a friend was selling a 1/4 grassfed organic beef. We bought it for $200, making the price about $2.50 a pound. I also made a trip to Costco and spent $100. I went BEFORE the start of the year, but we are eating food I bought from there now. So how do I count that? I think I will just keep track of all I have spent in Jan. 2010. It will make things much easier.

Yesterday I made bread with my bread machine, using ingredients I had in the pantry. I made soup with ingredients in the freezer, fridge and pantry. I actually used dried beans! (I used to use canned, much more expensive) I did use some of the tortilla chips (3 lb bag!) I bought from Costco to crumble on top.

This morning I made oatmeal for breakfast. I think we will be eating a lot of that in the coming year. I cooked it in the rice cooker; what a great way to do it! I put in 4 cups of water and 2 cups of oats. It was ready in 20 minutes and had a more creamy consistency. We are having leftover taco soup for lunch (I also froze some for later). I will be throwing some beef in the slow cooker and we'll have some beef and broccoli with rice for dinner. Yum.

I came across this site for cheap cooking ideas.

Also, I switched to cloth diapers ONLY. I refuse to buy disposable again. I should hopefully only have six months or less of diapers so this is do able. I haven't bought diapers in over a month! We also are using cloth napkins and rags instead of paper towels. I am planning on making my own laundry detergent again. I made the Duggar's recipe in the past. I didn't like the way it separated. It worked well though. If anyone knows of a better recipe please let me know!