I made my goal by the skin of my teeth this month! Yowser. My goal was to spend under $100/month this year...so does $100.55 count? Lol.
I tried to look over my spreadsheet and see where the big purchases were. At the very beginning of January, I bought a few pre-made meals to have in the freezer for emergency dinners (like Bertolli and Contessa). Thankfully, they're still there as emergency meals because I've been doing well with the meal planning. But they were expensive because I bought them at regular price, so that took a big chunk of my total.
I've been drinking lactaid milk (because the little chica gets VERY spitty when I eat a lot of dairy), and it's about $4 for a half-gallon. Yikes! Hopefully she outgrows this soon.
I also bought a few big things that I only buy once or twice a year (like a big tub of blue cheese at Sam's Club), as well as some meat that I stocked the freezer with. I also made a few make-n-freeze meals, so hopefully eating those in the next few weeks and months will keep my totals lower for those months.
Spent in January: $100.55
Saved in January: $294.71 (74%)
How did everyone else do?
4 comments:
Annalisa, on a side note, if you think dairy might be an issue for your little one, it is not the lactose but actually the milk protein that is the issue, which lactaid won't help the problem. My little guy is dairy/soy/nut sensitive to items in my diet (took awhile to figure it out, take 2-4 wks for milk protein to leave system completely!), and I've managed to make it work pretty well. Otherwise, great job with the savings for a new baby and the busyness it creates
Huh, no one's ever told me that before! They just said to hold back on the milk drinking! So what do you eat day-to-day when you can't do dairy or soy, and how do you get your daily calcium?
Thanks for the info!
It is a bit of a challenge, but as I've been trying to have more whole grains and veggies, it isn't too bad now. I mostly drink either rice milk or coconut milk, have a coconut milk creamer for my morning tea, and love the dairy/soy-free Earth balance spread. Tastes decently like butter too. As for the calcium, dairy actually isn't a great source compared to some other foods, and both pregnancy and breastfeeding really drain it, so I had been in the habit of taking Ca and iron supplements anyway. Between fish, greens and my morning oatmeal, I think it goes pretty well. Here are some good sites, if you are interested, or if you ever wanted to email more about it, if it turns out you need to really avoid it, I'd love to chat with another mom in a similar situation.
http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/food-sensitivity.html
http://www.godairyfree.org/
If it turns out lactose-free milk helps, then try buying it at Fresh Market or Walmart. I'm lactose intolerant, and I've found that it's way way way cheaper to buy the store brand at those places than shell out the $4 for Lactaid brand.
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