Eating out is so expensive, especially if you like to eat at sit down restaurants versus fast food restaurants. On the other hand, it’s so convenient to just go out to eat when you don’t have something thawed or you just don’t feel like cooking and cleaning up. Eating out is probably my biggest money downfall. When I get home after 5:30 PM, the last thing I want to do is go straight to the kitchen and spend time cooking a huge meal. The other night I decided I was going to make homemade ranch dressing that called for mayonnaise, and I decided that I would make the mayonnaise since we didn’t have any. Ha. I had it going fine until I followed the recipe and added too much of the lemon juice/vinegar combo and it broke. I was mad. I hate cooking because it seems like you spend an hour cooking and then it only takes 10 minutes to eat the food. Not a very good ratio there. Unfortunately for me, I also really like saving money and that [...]

We are already over three months into 2011, and I can’t believe it.  A quarter of the year is over already!  That’s nuts.  I thought I’d do a review of how our 2011 goals are going so far. 1. Keep up with the clutter and declutter 365 items from our house this year. We’re doing well on this challenge so far.  I’d say we are more than halfway there, and I’m very excited for that! It feels good to get rid of things.  Coincidentally, the Veterans of America pickup service was scheduled to come to our house today but never showed up. Humph. I’m not too happy about it because now I have a pile of crap sitting on my front porch that now I have to deal with. 2. Pay at least $3,000 down on the principal of our mortgage. So far we’ve paid $961.94 towards the principal of the mortgage.  We’re almost 1/3 of the way there, so I’d say we’re on track to meet this goal.  If we aren’t on track by the end of the year, [...]

As I mentioned the other day, we really don’t have a rhyme or reason when it comes to grocery shopping.  I prefer to shop once a week or so and plan meals, and Mr. Money goes the fresher route and wants to shop every day.  I’m a little type A, so that doesn’t fly well with me.  I’m trying to come up with a grocery budget and meal planning solution that makes both of us happy.  Here are some of the things I am doing: -Set a certain amount of money each month aside specifically for groceries and specifically for eating out.  This is something we don’t do and probably would benefit us greatly.  We just fly by the seat of our pants when it comes to the amount of money we spend on food, and food is one of those categories that I won’t sacrifice quality on.  I want good quality food, and I know that is going to cost me more.  I do think we can figure out exactly how much we want to spend each month and [...]