Day One of Our Budgeting and Money Saving Journey
Day One
July 15, 2022
Let me introduce myself, I’m a nutritionist @amandahiltonrhn, student, mother of four humans and mom to 5 fur-babies. We have 6 people in our family plus 2 dogs, a cat, and 2 guinea pigs. That is one full house! Currently we are living off of one income. How do we even manage?
Day 1
Today I cleaned out the fridge and pantry to take inventory of what I have and what needs to be used up.
* We have an abundance of organic zucchini from our local organic CSA so I made some gluten free vegan zucchini muffins.
* We also had a lot of bell peppers so I prepared vegan stuffed peppers for dinner. I usually use rice when making stuffed peppers but I bought a giant bag of organic quinoa when it was on sale at Costco so I used some of that instead. Bonus, I made extra stuffed pepper filling so I'll have enough for leftovers tomorrow.
Amanda Hilton R.H.N.
Let me introduce myself, I’m a nutritionist @amandahiltonrhn, student, mother of four humans and mom to 5 fur-babies. We have 6 people in our family plus 2 dogs, a cat, and 2 guinea pigs. That is one full house! Currently we are living off of one income. How do we even manage?
Even more challenging, we have several food restrictions to accommodate. We are vegetarians by choice and we also choose to eat whole clean foods which are mostly organic. 4 out of 6 of us eat gluten free and dairy free (we eat some goat or sheep cheese and a bit of goat yoghurt so, we are basically cow-dairy free) and the cost of groceries is skyrocketing right now. Even the price of pet food has increased aaannnddd... we have an extra-large breed pup that eats 8 cups of food per day!
There are a few corners that I already cut to help us save money like making my own body soap (picture in post) and rarely eating out, since it is very challenging with our food sensitivities. I’m on a mission to try to save even more money by budgeting and tweeking wherever possible.
In the fall, we have one child going to University and I'm hoping our monthly RESP deposits will help fund that. Also, we have an 8-year-old who has big sports asperations. He plays baseball in the summer and hockey in the winter. Anyone who has children in sports knows, it's NOT cheap! These are just a few of the added expenses we face when creating a budget.
I'm hoping by writing about my journey to save some money, I can keep myself accountable and possible help other people with a few tidbits that I come across. Here is how the first day went…
Day 1
Today I cleaned out the fridge and pantry to take inventory of what I have and what needs to be used up.
* We have an abundance of organic zucchini from our local organic CSA so I made some gluten free vegan zucchini muffins.
* We also had a lot of bell peppers so I prepared vegan stuffed peppers for dinner. I usually use rice when making stuffed peppers but I bought a giant bag of organic quinoa when it was on sale at Costco so I used some of that instead. Bonus, I made extra stuffed pepper filling so I'll have enough for leftovers tomorrow.
* I also made some vegetable broth with some veggie scraps that I freeze when I’m doing dinner preps (broccoli stems, carrot peels, cauliflower stems, garlic scapes, etc.). I now have two large mason jars ready for when I need them and I essentially saved myself $8-10 (cost of two organic vegetable broth cartons).
* Signed the kids up for a FREE summer reading program where they have a chance to win weekly prizes and a grand prize at the end of the summer cause who doesn't love prizes?!?!
* I think an important part of saving money is budgeting. We have set up a budget with money in envelopes in the past but we have strayed a bit from it and need to get back on course. Today I started looking over our spending so I can redo the budget and get us back on track.
* I think an important part of saving money is budgeting. We have set up a budget with money in envelopes in the past but we have strayed a bit from it and need to get back on course. Today I started looking over our spending so I can redo the budget and get us back on track.
Total Money Spent Today = $0
Total Money Saved Today = $8-10
At the end of the day, I felt like I had accomplished a little something and am heading in the right direction.
Do you have any money saving tips to share?
