Relearning the kitchen

One of the ladies I chat with frequently won a "thrifty food budget" challenge recently, which started a frenzy in our little group of really looking at what we do in the kitchen. As she tried to save money, she made more from scratch, and as she made more from scratch she realized how much healthier everything was she was feeding her family.

That's been a longstanding goal in our household, although we definitely slip up a lot (yes Papa Murphy's a block away is a serious problem).

So over the next few weeks I'm going to be working in some new recipes and testing myself in the kitchen, something I've gotten really out of practice with doing! And seeing how we do. Hopefully we'll save some money in the long run too, because adding baby #2 into the family is going to add expenses, and the healthier and cheaper we're eating beforehand, the better off we'll be.

Downsize & Simplify

Downsize & simplify is what we've been trying to do since moving into the new house, and I have to say it hasn't been going all that well. I'm becoming painfully aware that I am a packrat. I'm also becoming aware that we don't run the house, Pi does. So in the next 6 weeks until hubby goes back to school, we'll be focusing on personal finance and organizing & downsizing one room at a time. I'm thinking a massive garage sale might be on the horizon!