You guys are amazing. Seriously. I grew up in a household that did not budget, AT ALL. My parents had tons of credit card debt and we just had whatever we wanted/needed whenever. I had no idea how to budget as a young adult and therefore made a lot of mistakes...using credit cards, taking out too many student loans, bouncing checks ( I know, yikes) and really just not knowing how to live with in my means.
My husband and I were making decent salaries when we lived in NJ and were able to pay off all our debt (minus my student loans) but we were still living paycheck to paycheck. We have savings for our son, life insurance, and retirement accounts but if we became jobless we would be living off credit cards. Like I mentioned in a previous post it is now really necessary for us to start living off of a budget for the first time. Teddy is only working part time while he is in school and my salary is not enough to keep up our (old) lifestyle.
Seriously, you guys are blowing my MIND. Making your own yogurt and raising chickens? Never once entered my mind....but now that is my reality that honestly I keep trying to pretend it isn't. I keep thinking that ANY DAY NOW I will get a better paying job and we will be back to our old spending habits. The truth is ANY DAY NOW could be a year from now and I don't want to end up in debt.
I can not believe how ingenious you guys are and I'm really going to make an effort to start trying to be more thoughtful about our spending. My new BFF Biggest Diabetic Loser is helping me and she left me a comment on my previous post with some recipes for me to try out based on my area's sales. Here is the thing that is going to make her want to break up with me....We are picky meat eaters. We will eat chicken and turkey...AND that's about it. I don't really like seafood...OK that is not true I do like fish but I don't know how to cook it, and we don't really eat beef or pork.
Most recipes that call for ground beef, I will substitute in ground turkey BUT I'm guessing this really isn't economical if the turkey is not on sale. I would love to try the stuffed peppers with ground turkey, but again this is something I would have done before without any real thought to how much the turkey cost. I definitely want to try the Greek Chicken and that sounds like something we would really like. I know it probably seems ridiculous to you guys that it NEVER occurred to me to shop this way.
I'm going to do my best and I'll keep you guys updated along the way.
About Me
- Penny
- I work. I have a toddler named Eli(born August 2006). I have a dog and two cats and one husband (Teddy). I like to write about mothering, marriage, crafting, and my general opinion on things. I used to have another blog, but I was too liberal with my personal information and got creeped out. I hope to have a permanent home here! I have been on a weight loss journey since May 2008 and I tend to write a lot about my struggles with that. My family just moved from NJ to AL and I'm currently working, but I'm still looking...
8 comments:
Penny your way to hard on yourself again:) This recession has been a BIG wake up call for a lot of us nobody here is judging you we are here to teach and learn from each other and we were all your age once.
i agree with susan. the past 3 years have been a HUGE wake up call for my family. and the fact of the matter is, one of the reasons we are able to move and you know, not be homeless, is that we are cashing out the 401k to do so. it sucks and we hate it. but at the same time, what choice do we have?
anyway.....you arent alone. i was never really taught anything about money and basically used credit cards without really thinking about it. ive gotten a lot better within the last five years or so and know that we'll continue to be better, but we still have a lot to do.
so hang in there. :) look up some recipes online and im sure you'll be able to find some cheap, easy things you can cook. we arent big meat eaters here either, and when we do jay usually does the cooking, but there are easy fish recipes out there.
and i agree with the gardening thing. ive never really had a lot of luck with my gardens, but anyone can grow tomatoes. i bought 2 small tomato plants at the beginning of spring and fresh had tomatoes for months.
you can get through this. :)
i've really been trying to think about how we save money since i read the other post. i clip coupons (though i haven't for a week or two) and i was surprised at how much money it actually saved. i also started paying attention to the grocery store sales (something i never did before). we haven't done anything drastic, just watching what we spend. we don't go out to eat like we used to at all, that's a big thing. we don't wastefully buy things like we used to. i turned the thermostat down 2 degrees months ago but w/ the winter we've had i don't think that did anything.
Penny, think of the good example you are setting for your child. Just as you learned a lack of budgeting and money-handling skills from your parents, your child will learn from you, and you have the power to make that a much more positive set of skills! Keep up the effort!
Man, whoever Jill is, (I tried to follow her comment to read her blog), she is a crazy, food, rock star. I had a harder time eating my yogurt this morning after reading how you can make it.
I tried to join that farm, but I was too late...dang.
Hi! I'm Biz from Biggest Diabetic Loser's twin sister.
Do you guys like ground chicken??
I make chicken burgers, chicken meatballs, etc...
I can give you some of those recipes, just e-mail me @ slim-shoppin@comcast.net
Up until 2 years ago, I was the PICKIEST eater ever! But every week, I would buy a new veggie, or fruit or try something new and it turns out I like all sorts of stuff now!
I have not forgotten about you, but you and I cook differently so I need to wrap my brain around it.
It would be much easier if I came over and showed you how to cook! :D
This recession has been a BIG wake up call for a lot of us nobody here is judging you we are here to teach and learn from each other and we were all your age once.
home based data entry
Post a Comment