Lightening Up

If you saw our grocery bills, you'd think we lived the life of luxury, or I was feeding about five more people. Its just my husband, the Babe, and myself. For a while my husband has commented about our high grocery bills, and I just ignored that since its a necessity. But the more I think about it, the more I want to fix it. Unfortunately, there isn't too much I can do. Well, there is, which I will explain, but I can also explain why its so high.

I've mentioned that living in our Allergy-free zone is expensive. Everything is more when its a "speciality" item. On top of that, I only buy kosher meat. For example, a pound of ground beef is about $5.99 per pound, and there are no sales. If you've noticed, we eat a lot of meat and poultry here because of the Babe's diet. That is one part of our grocery bill that won't change.

I can't entirely figure out how else our bill remains so high when I try to watch sales and buy only what we need. However, I think I have a little hoarding problem. Well, not so much a problem as I don't want to keep taking the Babe to the store. She no longer will ride in the shopping cart (unless I want her crying and wailing like I was hurting her), so I have to constantly watch where she is and what she might be getting into when I just want to grab a few bananas. That means if I need to buy juice, why buy one bottle when I can buy three? We go through so much of it, when I am at a store that has the best price, I try to stock up.

How can I cut the bill down? Well, we could cut back our portion sizes. We definitely eat more than one recommended serving at dinner. I try to incorporate fresh or frozen vegetables into our meals, and watch sales in those areas. As for coupons, there are limited ones that apply to our dietary restrictions. Have you seen any Earth Balance Buttery Spread Coupons or for Coffee Rich? I sure haven't! Its time to get even more creative in the kitchen. Maybe if I can cut back on portions, our jeans might fit a little better too. In the meantime, my goal is to use what I have. I have a pantry full of dry goods, not just our usual pasta and potatoes, but millet, buckwheat and quinoa. Soups and stir-frys are good ways to fill up too. So with a little spring in my step, and the sun shining through the windows, I'm getting ready to lighten up here, in more ways than one.