I have been inspired by many books, blogs and friends about the idea of a budget. A friend of mine created one a couple of years ago for me but I never really looked at it after that. However, with a new outlook and the desire to move out of home and into my own house, a budget is what I needed. As mentioned before, I have started a food budget which includes planning meals for a week. I have given myself a budget of $100 dollars. So far I have spent $70 dollars and I haven't even bought much meat so I am a little worried. Despite this I am enjoying going through cook books and highlighting meals I think will be cost effective and delicious. As I also want to be as healthy as I can, I am going to try and buy less packaged food and store bought snacks and bake a lot more. I usually go to this shop and buy a muffin which cost me $3.50. This is very un-frugal so I decided to bake my own and they are delicious and it probably cost me $3.50 for all! I will freeze them so they won't go to waste.
Yum! I only really baked for the first time this past summer--zucchini bread when we had too much zucchini on hand. I hope to bake more in 2010. To cheat, I got an automatic breadmaker for KB for Christmas for free from someone who didn't use it. It's big and old but really sturdy and it works. We'll be making a loaf every 5-7 days because he eats sandwiches like crazy!!!
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