Week one is done! Quite honestly, it wasn't that difficult. What I realize is I don't buy a lot of stuff meant specifically for me, it's mostly items for the house and garden. The other area we go a little bonkers is food. Pondering how to shave off a little on everything without making the rest of the family feel like they are on the same restrictive journey as myself will be the challenge. I stated at the beginning that this would be all about me and not the rest of the family, however, I truly believe we can cut back and nobody will be the wiser.
First, the house and garden. We need absolutely nothing right now in this department. What I consider house and garden items will be home décor, extra cooking utensil/cookware, etc..., flowers, garden art, basically extras that are not needed only wanted.
The food, well, here's where I'll have to get a little more creative. Last week I took Mr. Housewife to my favorite little store in Fall City and introduced him to my butcher hook-up. Well it just so happens that Mr. Butcher had found some grass fed beef filet and New York steak for an amazing price and asked if we wanted any. Mr. Housewife immediately said he did. After offering to order extra for a few other people, then having a slow pick up and not wanting poor Mr. Butcher to get stuck with extra meat we ended up with not only what we had originally ordered but also extra from the other orders. All in all we ended up spending a little over $500 in this meat, now keep in mind this was over 40 pounds of meat that will last quite a while. But my point is, there are little things like this that pop up that I can't just put my foot down and tell Mr. Housewife "no, we are on a food freeze". He would give me the stink eye and call for my "spa" reservation asap. What I need to do is find the middle ground where everyone still feels satisfied and we aren't spending a mortgage payment just to feed our little family for a month. I know I can do it, I'll just have to be mindful of what it is I purchase.
This coming week will be like a transition period for all these changes since I think if I just implement all my ideas at once it's going to be very obvious to everyone and they will complain. Clearly I need to be a sneaky ninja with all this and do it without them even noticing.
I posted on my Facebook page about getting organized in the laundry room and how it's going to be an important factor to all of this. An organized home is a money saving home, yes, I have finally learned this simple lesson. I assessed all the cleaning products (multiples of everything) and put them in the "cleaning product cabinet", I also found several of those items you need randomly and know you have but can never find (those little felt things that go on the bottom of chairs so they don't scratch your floors). Amazing I tell you, it's truly amazing how crazy excited I was when this room was done. The kitchen will be next, I guarantee there will be some multiples of items found as well as things I had totally forgotten. It's going to take longer than the laundry room, but will be worth it.
Seatac Sally came over several weekends ago and helped me organize my stuff in the garage but I still need to tackle the other side with all the tools, hardware, etc.... I'm going to be so busy organizing I won't have time to even think about shopping! This is going to be a successful week. As usual, I'll post a daily blurb on my Facebook page about the day.... Until next week!
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