thrifty shopper

for the past month, nat and i have been trying to trim down our budget b/c we've been about $500 overbudget each month. fortunately, we've had enough in savings to cover the overspending, but we don't want to get into the habit of dipping into our savings.

let me say, it can be really hard to live on $1900/month for two adults, one baby, bills, mortgage, and grocery shopping! i feel like i'm spending at least 1/4 of our income on grocery shopping and other household needs so i'm trying to be a thrifty shopper. one thing that i really appreciate is being able to find the grocery store ads online to see what's on sale that week. from that, i try to plan our meals around things that are on sale and stocking up on items that are on sale. it gives me so much satisfaction to see how much money we've saved on the store receipt (it's usually printed at the top). other things that i've been trying to do is using more coupons, doing price comparisons, and buying in bulk.

i'm really thankful that we've had to live on such a small budget for our family b/c it gives me a reference of how much our family can get by on. so, when nat makes more money after he graduates, we'll hopefully have the same budget for food and household items.