Shopping, Money, Commercialism, Thrifty and more

I very much on the cheap side of life. Money does not flow easily from my hands. I rarely have money burning a hole in my pocket because I always think that there may be something better to spend my money on. I believe that I have learned a lot in the last couple of years about being generous though. I've been more generous with my time which doesn't necessarily equate to money when you are a stay at home mom. I've even been more generous with my money on some occasions which really just being more aware that life isn't free. Even if I can get something for "free" there is a cost for someone or of some kind.

Contrast that thought that there is nothing for "free" with my love of getting good deals. For the last year or so I've been subscribing to a blog called "Money Saving Mom". Right when I started reading this blog there was a deal about cheese. I ended up getting many pounds of cheese really cheap. It was a combination of coupons and finding the right sale at the right store. Wow, it was fun!

In reading the Money Saving Mom blog I ended up getting a little competitive - maybe a lot competitive but with people that I didn't really know and with myself. Can I get my grocery budget down to rock bottom? (Not that I think 400-500 a month is extravagant.) How long can we go on the eat from the pantry challenge? There's a part of me that isn't willing to purchase something at a non-Aldi store that wasn't on a great sale with a coupon! I have also then not purchased as much at Aldi thinking that there would be a sale/coupon deal coming up. This has translated into more hunting and searching for food around the house and not being a very good meal planner. (Meal planning is one of those things that I have generally taken pride in doing well - helping us to save money and be nutritionally sound!)

I had some thoughts dancing around in my head about this and they became more concrete when I read a guest post about "what we don't spend money on". That post has really gotten me to think about our commercial world and how it works.

More on that later...