Tightening the Belt

Jeff and I sometimes get tired of living in a tiny apartment. It gets old having to trip over boxes on your way from the bed to the closet because there is no place to unpack the contents of said boxes. It isn't easy to cook meals in a kitchen the size of a small closet. We would love to be able to work on our food storage, but there is no place to put the food. Long story short, we don't want to live in an apartment for the rest of our lives!

We have a few monetary goals that we're trying to work toward. First is paying off our student loans. This year's tax return will be very helpful in that! Right after student loans our major goal is saving for a down payment on a house. We also want to get a minivan - so Jeff can take the car to work and I can have a vehicle at my disposal while he's gone during the day.

I can't express how much I long to have my own house. To live in a place that is ours - a place that we can paint, put up real curtains, do stuff with! A house that has storage space and a big kitchen, a big yard with a fence so the kids can go outside and play like kids are supposed to do! And we're nearing a point in our family composition and situation where a real home with lots of rooms is more than just a nice thing to dream about; it's almost a necessity. I mean, try fitting a baby into the tiny space we occupy now - it ain't happening! (no, we're not pregnant, but not opposed to getting there sometime soon...)

We've been going over our finances the past few days, and realizing that if we want this dream to become a reality in the next year or two, we are really going to have to tighten the budgetary belt. We want to work on saving money (even more than we already do!) in as many ways as possible. I'm trying to turn off lights when the room is not in use, or when it's bright enough outside to let in the light from the window. Shorter showers and less water for dishes is also on the list.

But the biggest thing for us that we can save on right now is groceries and little miscellaneous expenses. Anyone who is familiar with my food blog knows that we already eat really cheaply. But we are working on going even further. We have started eating a nearly vegetarian diet - meat is pricey so we avoid it when we can unless we can buy it at a very low price. I'm working on using more beans and whole grains as sources of protein, as opposed to relying on meats to build a meal. I've been practically devouring my More-with-Less Cookbook, finding simple and super inexpensive recipes and ideas that will reduce our grocery bill.

We have set a limit to spend no more than $30 a week on groceries, and $20 on non-grocery items (such as diapers and wipes, toothpaste, shampoo/conditioner, etc.). We did our shopping for the week today, and spent $25 on food and $10 on wet wipes. That includes a turkey - Jeff noticed that the big 20-pound turkeys were on sale for twenty-five cents per pound, so we bought one. We'll roast the whole thing, take all the meat off the bones and freeze it in meal-sized portions, and boil the carcass to make broth. I can't even begin to count the meals that we'll get off this bird! Jeff will be glad I posted about the turkey - he hasn't been able to stop talking about it since he put it in the cart. :-)

Anyway, with the budget changes we're making, we hope to be able to buy a house next year. It will be hard to live such an extremely tightwad lifestyle, but I think it will be so worth it when we finally are able to sign the papers, walk into a house, look around, and say, "This is our very own home."