Cutting Spending

We've been looking for ways to cut our bills even though most the time we feel we live on less than most families and constantly do our best in the financial department- there's always room for improvement and to find new ways to save.

The first thing I pursued was:
No more buying Paper Towels/Napkins - we went cloth
Next to come is...
Homemade Laundry Detergent
Homemade Toothpaste

I came across a book at the library about cutting your grocery bill in half. I've also run across many idea's from other families blogs and combined with idea's from each I've decided to try and cut the groceries down.

The book, is from America's Cheapest Family- they also have a website- but I checked the book out at the local library- http://www.americascheapestfamily.com/

I took some spreadsheet idea's from blogs instead of hand writing everything as it states in the book. I also, instead of shopping monthly am going to do it weekly. We already are a part of a fruit and vegetable co-op, so each Saturday we will see what we get (as we don't know ahead of time) and plan our meals around two things, what we receive from the co-op and what specials/ads/coupons are out there. We are giving ourselves 30 days to see if we can cut our bill!

Here's  snap shot of my in-progress spread-

The book talks a lot about freezing, hubbie and I priced chest freezers and think that for around $200 would be able to have additional adequate space.

Here are a few books I'm currently reading...

We want and try to not let any of our food go to waste, especially that from the co-op which seems that some of the items we receive you either eat immediately or its going bad too quickly, so I really want to preserve it so we can enjoy all of the food we receive.

This is the first week of grocery shopping, testing out the new system...keep you updated!