Frugal paradigm shift

We are now in our new home! And our family has enjoyed getting settled in our new home and getting to know our new community. It is so nice to be together again and I couldn't be happier with the house.

The kids looking looking at our new home.

Now, that the transition is complete we have set some goals. Our first, and most challenging goal, is to become debt free and pay off the house in the next 10 years and the other more near sighted goal is to finish the second floor of our home.

For our first goal, we have decided to make some changes to our spending. I started couponing when our second child was born and I became a stay at home mom. It really does help stretch our money farther. However, I am now experimenting with recipes and trying to recreate some of the things my great grandparents and grandparents did to survive during the depression.

Some of the things my grandparents did, they did out of necessity, because they had no other choice. So I had to create a way to necessitate frugal behavior. I've done this by setting an extremely low food budget for our family, $250 a month.

I am finding that, yes, I am spending more time in the kitchen. However, the food tastes better, and is healthier than what we were eating. I make various breads, rolls and noodles every week. I am figuring out how many meals I can make with what ever is on sale that week and I am freezing left overs to be used in future weeks.

I know this is nothing new, lots of people do this every month. But, for us it has been a paradigm shift. It seems that every month we find new ways to incorporate being frugal to our lifestyle.