It all started with PayDay®.

There in front of us lay the Bills: Fashion Braces, Designer Eyeglasses, Clock Cleaning, 10 Stitches, and a Monster Charge of $3,000. A Loan Record chart lay on the table beside them. Our children were young, so we knew what we were in for – many years of staring at such bills.

I looked at my husband and his eyes mirrored mine. How do people realistically pay Bills such as these?
We were playing the Parker Brothers board game, PayDay, but it all seemed so real! Except for the picture on the back of the box where a perfect family looks ecstatic over picking up a card (Bill) from The Six Tubas for $300 for playing at the child’s birthday party.

We weren’t exactly living paycheck to paycheck, but our Savings dwindled every time the Credit Card statement came. We had to have a better plan!

The most important starting point was making a Monthly Budget. We made it realistic, but tight. We thought through utilities. Everyone needed to be on board with closing outside doors behind them and turning off lights when they left a room. We made sweatshirts and sweaters more accessible and control of the thermostat less accessible. Little things can become BIG things!

Developing a Grocery/Food budget was the hardest! I enjoy cooking and our growing children loved to eat. At the time our kids were young, our grocery budget was $65/week. What a challenge. We invested in a deep freezer to store extra food items purchased in bulk or on sale. We found a “no frills” grocery store where you bag your own. You could choose paper or plastic. A great experience in estimating the weight of food items packed in the same bag! I developed my own categorized shopping list with separate sections for Dairy, Produce, Meat, Canned Goods, Packaged and Frozen. I never went to the store before planning menus for a week, then filling in the necessary items on the list. One of the best (yes, best) things I added to this process was to take the family. The kids were just learning to use a hand held calculator so it was a game for them to add up the prices of the items. My husband is a math wiz and can calculate in his head which size item is the most economical. This was great unless the larger size put us way over on our weekly grocery spending allocation. Then there was a negotiating period regarding whether the rest of that item could be used up in the following week’s menus. The family chose foods that they had to be willing to eat. This was a great time to teach about balancing those old-fashioned “food groups.”

Both our son and daughter are now on their own and, not only have they developed their own budgets, but they have developed a keen eye to discern food items that are economical and, at the same time, nutritious.

***Want to try my Grocery Shopping List?