Making Do...

I didn't know when this month started how I would be feeling by mid month. After two weeks of "No Money January" I can say that I'm feeling very positive!

For the first time in at least two years I'm planning my meals out in advanced, it's such a relief and I don't have to waste brain power every day thinking about it. We've been amazed with how far our food storage has gone and just how much you can make even when your limited pantry is your grocery store. I know we could get even more creative with our food storage, I have yet to break out the wheat and oats or the dehydrated vegetables. Our children haven't noticed much of a difference, Ella did comment that we haven't been to McDonald's this month, but that's it. Although I must admit to craving french fries and a maple bar, didn't give in and didn't die because my "want" went unfullfilled. (That'll come in handy when I'm trying to lose this baby weight). Here's the big kicker, I have 5 cans of Coke left...what do I do? I've pretty much decided that it looks like I'm going to break my habit this week, but if you hear extra yelling coming from my house or Jake delaying his arrival home from work you know how that's going! We've used 50% of the grocery budget but we have meals planned until next Wednesday at least.

We're under on our gas budget, partly because we aren't running unnecessary errands to spend unnecessary money and party because we're more conscious of where we're going and how much it costs. I can say that staying home is driving me a little bit batty but the house is staying clean and some of the projects I need to have done before baby arrives are getting accomplished.

At the beginning of the month we had some things "break" and need replaced but we've learned that it doesn't have to be an immediate fix, most things can wait until the budget allows it and some things can just be learned to live without. What I'm looking forward to the most is next month when we are living within our regular budget it won't seem so restrictive because we've realized that we can make do no matter the circumstances.

What a blessing this experience is turning out to be for our family!