Our Attempt To Save Money

We’ve decided to wrap up our Healthy Savings Series after nearly 2 weeks of boredom.

Just to be totally honest, I hated this blog series about trying to save money. I think the biggest reason is because of my philosophy about spending money on food: I believe food is an investment.

We were, however, able to come up with some new strategies for tightening up our budget, but I don’t see us getting below $900/Month.

We’re okay with this for 2 reasons…

1. 1. We know we’re worth the extra money
   2. Our Mastermind Members will be happy we’re not sending them rice & beans recipes every week!

Even though we decided not to get too intense with it, we still learned a lot. We tried things we wouldn’t normally and ultimately learned a little more about ourselves. We looked at tax calculators and estimators in order to get a better idea of what our tax return could be and factored that into our savings for the year.

Here are some of the changes we’ve made:

Fewer Impulse Buys

This was a big one for us, and it’s great to become more conscious about our spending habits. I’ll see the plantain chips and feel like I need them or Sarah will want a bag of kale chips or kombucha or chocolate! We’ve gotten better at ignoring the urge and toughing out a little extra hunger before dinner time (me especially!)

Less Shopping

We get two CSA boxes every week from JR Organics. Every Wednesday and Sunday we don’t go to the grocery store and live off of what’s in the box and at home in the pantry and fridge. This has been awesome for our budget, as well as using up stuff around the house making us even more resourceful! (yesterday I made spaghetti sauce from scratch for the first time :)

Superfoods In Moderation

I’ve personally changed in this area more than Sarah has. I pretty much have a smoothie everyday, and if you’ve Ever Seen My Smoothies you know I like to load them up with all kinds of goodies… perhaps I’ve gotten a little out of control. I’m down to only using berries once a week and limited my use of cacao and dates too. (PS: I suggest we all stop using the word ‘moderation’. Saying “all things in moderation” is just a way to justify something!)

Setting a Target Budget

The moment we set foot in the store we’re thinking about our total spend number. We like to shoot for $20. Sometimes we’ll be under, but often times we’re over. Not by much, but the bigger purchases throw it off. We buy most of our stuff from the health food store including dish soap, laundry detergent, vitamins, toilet paper, etc. All in all I have seen a difference since using the Target Budget strategy.

Less Organic, More GMO

Kidding, Kidding! You didn’t think we’d actually go there did you!?!

Which brings me to my final thought: We’ve all got our own standards. Sarah has hers, I have mine. We choose to buy what makes us feel good, and we only shop at places we trust & support (sorry Costco).

We’ve lived the penny pinching lifestyle as college students. Been there done that. We felt terrible eating those cheap, processed foods and we’ll never go back!

We ARE worth the extra money. And we’ll find a way to afford it because after all, we only have 1 body on this earth so we’d better take care of it.

What’s your philosophy on food?