We all are looking to save right?

    I'm just going to give a little back round of what we do with our money.  I feel like we all try to save where we can and some people are better skilled at it then others!  This is how we are good with our money.. We have two pay checks a month and one of those is rent and utilities and the other we pay everything else.  We pay everything the day that we get our check so we know its paid, mostly early and some right on time. I have a budget that we have created in excel and I know exactly what needs paid when...how much I pay...when I paid it and the date it comes out of our bank account.  I usually check our bank account daily for a bit just to make sure everything came out from bill pay (if you haven't heard of bill pay check into it, it's great and it saves $ on stamps and gas to get the stamps. I only have to send one bill a month in the mail and it drives me crazy because it takes so long for it to clear) :) 

    We don't have hardly any extras and now days some people might say they are necessities.  we finally have internet at the house:), netlfix (only instant stream and for my sanity) and garrett has an iphone that he needs for work, and that's it.:) 

    I make a menu for 2 weeks and usually plan for a couple of easy or quick things if something comes up in the week.  Right now we are in the process of trying to find a house to rent or another apartment that is hopefully bigger or just set up better for our family!  So sometimes we have to go as soon as garrett gets home to do this and then if I don't have something out and ready to go we end up eating out...(i hate that!  But to be honest it happens and now that our kids eat it almost $20 to eat out) yikes!  so then I have this inner agrument with myself saying I could of bought way more groceries then we just ate or I should of planned ahead better.   I hate it!  So that is somewhere we need to improve.) 

    This whole thing is a process...It won't change overnight.  Garrett and I have come along way since we've had kids.  When we first got married we ate our several times a week pretty much did what we wanted, when we wanted without much thought...Now we(and when I say we I mean Garrett because I stay home and get paid in kisses hugs, barf and tears.  I wouldn't have it any other way, so just so we're clear garrett does have a real big boy job!:)) make maybe slightly more than what we did when we were both working (before we got our degrees) and now we have THREE kids....how did this happen?  Oh wait I remember!;)  So we have made leaps and bounds since then but somewhere I know we can improve is our grocery bill.  I think sometimes in my mind I say its food we can't live without food and I justify that we need it, but i don't think that is the case. 

I have been doing some research and feel like I still have alot I want go through and look at how different families do things and obviously make it work for us.  We are blessed in the fact that no one here is on a special diet and doesn't have to have certain things(okay garrett does have to have one can of soda a day:)).  (we have a niece who has an allergy to dairy and peanuts)  Some other things i've read are to be realistic...I think when you have a case like that you can only reduce your budget so far. Another plus for us is I make Kooper's baby food.  It is significantly cheaper but does take some time once a month.

Here are a few of the websites that I have browsed, one was alot on freezer cooking which i think would be great.  and another is how a mom budgets for a family of four (which I sort of count as 3 because the baby is strictly breastfed but there is still great stuff here)....  http://www.parents.com/blogs/thrifty-frugal-mom/2012/05/03/must-read/4-things-i-do-to-keep-our-grocery-budget-at-200mo-for-a-family-of-four/?socsrc=pmmpin071012GroceryBudget


http://moneysavingmom.com/2012/07/how-i-feed-my-family-of-7-for-400-per-month.html

I loved this because I could see exactly what she bought, which i thought i could tailor to our family and obviously reduce.  You can also scroll down to freezer cooking where I got several printouts that I think will help for meal planning, grocery shopping and to know what i have on hand at the house.

http://moneysavingmom.com/print-coupons  and here is the same website but just a spot for coupons... i don't use coupons often because I feel like i buy more stuff than i usually would, but i don't use the ones for yogurt (definite staple here) and sometimes the totinos pizzas which are a quick lunch for my kids...but usually a special lunch.

Another thing that was said was grocery shopping once a month....I don't feel like i can do that because I run out of fruits and veggies and milk....Apparently you can freeze milk though so I might have to try it and see how it does.... So I think I could maybe do twice a month and maybe just the farmer's markets....We shall see.

And as a side note as I was researching last night I came across a post that this girl posted and she said that the national average for a family of 4 for food was like $770 a month!!!  I was like WOW, that is outrageous.  and she thought it was totally okay...  In my opinion i feel like where we live groceries are more pricy than they were when we lived in Idaho, but not that much...I'm not sure where she lived either but still. Crazy RIGHT!!??

Anyways Here is a start.... I would love to hear what other people find and ways people go about doing their food.  Have fun!!