I wanted to add on to the previous post. For meals, we are very basic. Breakfast is either eggs, multi-grain pancakes, or oatmeal. I found a great recipe for baked oatmeal that I make about once a week. We also go through 2 dozen hard-boiled eggs each week. We have them with breakfast or turn them into egg salad. As well, we eat a ton of beans. Matt likes to prepare them, so he combines black, kidney and pinto beans and lets them soak overnight in the crockpot but doesn't turn it on. The next morning he drains off some off the water, adds seasonings and sets the crockpot to low (10-12 hours). Those beans provide us lunch and dinner for several days. We can add them to rice, pasta, mac and cheese, or just eat them by themselves. Low fat + low-carb + very economical = perfect!
We let the kids have one serving of lemonade per day; other than that they drink water. No milk except for Katie (only before bed) and Luke (our recovering milk- addict). Occasionally we buy a 2-liter of diet root beer, but with 7 kids of drinking age, it goes fast.
Many of my friends use cloth diapers, but I have not jumped on that bandwagon. I added it up and figured out that the initial purchase plus the continuous laundry cost was just not worthwhile. Besides, with needing to keep the house ready to show on a moment's notice, messy cloth diapers is not something I want to deal with. Luke's potty-training is not progressing as quickly as I'd hoped, but he'll get there soon enough. That will eliminate his diaper expense.
I don't put gas in the vehicles until I am satisfied that I have found the lowest price. Around here, there is a 7-11 store on every corner (seriously!) and they compete with eachother. Yes, I do drive 2 miles out of my way if I can save 3 or 5 cents per gallon. It really does make a difference!
Finally, I've started frequenting Goodwill for clothing for the kids and myself. It's true that I always feel the need to scrub down the kids as soon as we leave the store, but we have found some great deals there despite. Brand names, sometimes new or like-new clothes are often right there on the rack, and I can accomodate everyone's size in one place.
Guess that's all for now. We've been saving all of our loose change for the past 2-1/2 years, hoping to use it for a family vacation. It will be heart-breaking if we have to use it to pay bills at some point, so I figure if we can pinch pennies at every opportunity we'll have more pennies (and nickels, dimes and quarters) in our jar.
Great ideas!!
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