February Financial Goals Update

I really enjoyed reading Money Saving Moms update on their financial goals. I suppose I'm a bit strange in this area. I love to read about money and how people use it. I especially like to think of ways to save it or maximize what I can get out of it. Boring, I know!

I wrote the following with a week left in January:

I am committed to sticking to our new budget for this year. I'm kind of an all or nothing kind of person and so can get discouraged when I realize I fall short, which obviously I did already this first month of the new year. But my husband tells me this is just a learning experience and we'll do fine and learn from this. :) I'll tell you what sent me over my limit. I bought a gallon of maple syrup at $45.89. Ouch! It will last me a long time which makes me feel better, you know, like buying it was a sort of investment. See, I'm thinking positively. The other set back of the month was spending a little over one hundred dollars on processing a side of beef. But, again, that was an investment. I really need to set aside between $50.00 and $100.00 a month for meat purchases that I'll make throughout this year from local farmers.

My food budget is $500.00 a month. I know there are many moms who feed their families for much less than this. And my hat's off to them! Food is very important to our family and there are some things we just aren't willing to give up. For example, we love honey, agave nectar, maple syrup and good chocolate. We use whole grains often and never use bleached flour. I try to purchase as much of my meat as possible from local farmers and we supplement our egg supply with local farm raised eggs. In the summer we support our local Farmer's Market. We love fresh vegetables and fruits and like for our diet to consist of as much of these fresh foods as possible!

I overspent for the month of January $45.73. We've sure been enjoyed that maple syrup, though! :)

We did finish out the month just fine. You can't imagine how much I've enjoyed shopping this week! Taking two weeks off was tooooo long! :) I hope to keep some money available at all times this month.

We've especially enjoyed all the fresh food. These were a couple good buys that we've gobbled up!
16 pounds of oranges! $5.98
10 red peppers @ 50 cents each
Oh, and this was a wonderfully yummy and easy recipe!

Fill a salad bowl with baby spinach greens. Fry one piece of bacon and drizzle the grease and crumble the bacon over the spinach. Mix. Add a splash of Sushi Vinegar. (I used Nishiki 100% Natural Sushi Vinegar a seasoned rice vinegar. Imported form Japan. I liked the taste very much but I'm not an expert in rice vinegars. I only paid 99 cents for this bottle.) Viola! Simple can be so good!

The bacon I purchased on sale for $1.99 a pound and the baby spinach was marked down to 99 cents a box (5 ounces, I believe).