Living in the cold, but affordable, Midwest

The thing about living on one income is that..well, you see..there is just the one.  And there used to be the TWO!  And 2 was delicious; like dragging my Ritz crackers through cream cheese while sipping on a mojito beer delicious (I’m not gourmet after 7 pm).  So even though I lived within a budget before I quit working, that budget looks somewhat different.  Let’s be positive.  I won’t say “smaller”…I’ll say “slimmer”.  It sounds better.  Thought I’d share with you the ways in which we’ve learned to live on “The 1”.

1.  We eat at home.  Seriously, just do the math.  If you ate on the cheap at McDonald’s 6 nights per week for a family of 4, that would average $90 per week, just for dinner!  Eating at home, I spend approximately ONE THIRD of that.  We don’t need to compare the value of herb pork chops with apple stuffing and green beans to a Big Mac.  Fine,  I prefer the Big Mac, but apparently, they are too “pricey”.

2.  I have a menu and I price it.  We eat ham, tomato and cheese omelets with biscuits on Mondays, then my pre-made freezer meals (cooking and freezing several meals at once is worth it in time savings alone) Tues-Thurs, and Greg makes a pizza on Friday or Saturday.  We buy the boboli style crust and add our own toppings, a savings off the frozen or the deli-prepared.  I figured out I was spending 4x the average dinner amount on Sunday night nachos!  Eecks!  No more nachos!

3.  I go to the grocery with a list and I stick to the list.  I pay with cash.  If you do those two things, you’ll stay within a grocery budget and eat what’s in your fridge.  I want useless beauty products that I’ll use once, store for 2 years, and then throw away as much as the next girl.  But I want free range eggs even more.

Hoosier stands for “we pay less for eggs than the rest of the country”

4.  I don’t shop at Target.  No really, stop.  I don’t have the willpower to shop there, you don’t, no one does.  Their marketing is like a bag of cooler ranch doritos.  You MUST EAT THE WHOLE BAG EVEN IF IT MAKES YOU SICK.  I cannot afford to go in for apples and come out with shoes and some funky pj’s I didn’t need.  I walk out dizzy and confused, holding a cup of Starbucks coffee that I didn’t even want, “What just happened?  Where am I?  Why am I holding this HUGE white and red bag in my hand?  Damnit, I forgot the apples!!”

5.  I cut coupons.  I swore I’d never cut coupons.  Coupons are for suckers who end up with brand-name items they don’t need.  But I cut coupons ONLY on the brands I buy.  I always thought I only bought generic, but I now realize how many branded items I actually purchase.  I save an average of $6 per week, which is FREE MONEY.  I keep them in an accordion style folder in my purse in the order of the aisles of Wal-Mart.  I hate Wal-Mart as much as the next person, but I’m not paying more for Wonder Kids bread just so I can say I shop at the fancy grocery store that carries 7 kinds of chutney.  Greg is laughing right now because I buy all our fresh food at Meijer.  Sorry Wally World, I’m not paying for brown lettuce, no matter deep the “roll back”.  You can roll those moldy blueberries straight to the trash.

6. I buy old meat.  Yep, you read that right: wishing she went to cooking school Lori buys old meat.  Fresh meat can sit out at stores for 3 days, at which point it must be thrown away.  At some point on that 3rd day, Meijer marks it at 40% off.  40% OFF the most expensive item most of us purchase!  If it looks less than fresh, I don’t buy it.  80% of the time, it looks just fine.  It simply must be frozen or eaten that day.  So buy a deep chest freezer and have it pay for itself.  Because I freezer cook, I buy meat in bulk.  This week I got 12 boneless, skinless, hormone-free chicken breasts for $9.  That’s just crazy talk.  I’m in good with the butchers so they let me know the best days to cruise for discounts.

7.  We have a budget.  Sounds simple, but it’s the life of everything we do.  If anyone wants it, we share our example budget with instructions to anyone who asks.  Without it, I could have never stayed home with the girls.  Budgets are not constraining, they will set you free.  Free to think about something other than money, and free to sleep easy at night.

No view, no decent weather=cheaper housing prices

8.  I buy consignment, especially my clothes.  I often find nice clothes that have literally never been worn. Last fall I bought a pair of Steve Madden flats and a gray cashmere sweater, both with the original tags.  Total cost: $22.  Sara prefers skirts and dresses and those are easy to land in great shape at consignment.  Tops are generally too worn to buy, but Sara has 4 Children’s Place corduroy skirts that match everything in her closet, all 4 totaling $20.

9. About 2 weeks after a “season” begins (on a retailers calendar), clothes go on deep discount.  If you can hold out until 2 weeks after school starts, you can get fall clothes for half off.  If you can squeeze your kids into last year’s winter coat until near Thanksgiving, you can save a ton.  The only clothes I buy a year in advance for the girls are themed clothes (Halloween, Christmas).  They are usually pennies on the dollar and worth the risk of them fitting.

10.  I splurge on organic meat, milk, and eggs.  I buy all the fresh food we can eat in a week.  It takes all of Greg’s willpower to not make faces when I make my extra trip to Meijer where they sell “the good stuff”, but as long as I don’t go out of budget, he has to bite his tongue!!!  And just watching my wonderful husband trying to bite his tongue is worth the extra effort it takes to save money!