Feeding your family on $100 a month

The recession has officially hit our home and that means time to make cuts. I refuse to take my child out of day care as it's a great source of socialization for him and my husband is concentrating on a few ideas until his job opportunity outlook is better. Finding a good day care is tough and I'd hate to yank Benjamin out and then have to go through the hassle of finding someone new that we all like. Plus, my day care is pretty affordable and I have $400 a month taken out pre-tax that I get reimbursed for. That being said, we have to make some cuts.

I have canceled my gym membership. I have switch car insurance companies. I have stopped buying lunch. I'm done drinking lattes that were costing me $2.50 a day. I'm getting rid of most of the cable channels and the dvr (most of the shows we watch are online). Another place that I will start to trim is our grocery bill.

I make a monthly trip to Costco and Trader Joes though sometimes I will shop at TJs and spend less than I do at Albertson's. So I'm inspired by this article about only spending $100 a month on your groceries and this article about living on $1500 a year for groceries, medical expenses and personal items.

My husband thinks I'm completely nuts but my goal for March is to only spend $100 on food (not personal items, baby formula or diapers). This means taking my lunch. Taking inventory of the refrigerator, pantry. Meal planning. I'm contemplating setting a separate budget for eating out. Maybe $100 for the whole month? Is that cheating? To make sure I'm keeping on the up and up, I will post my results for everyone to see my success.

Now, I've got some planning to do. Watch out challenge, here I come!

Bee positive

Benjamin got this singing bee from his Auntie Tasha for Christmas. It says the cutest things like "Bees go buzz. Buzz, buzz buzz." I often find out myself getting what this bee says in my head. It's annoying at times. Just ask my co-worker as I've told her about this bee over and over. He is a little interested in it but mostly he has been into investigating the house. Who knew the best toy would be the door stopper, chasing the cat or dog?

Back to the singing bee. Before I had Benjamin, I was pretty happy and positive. If I really wanted to accomplish something, I worked on visualizing and thinking that "no" was never the answer. Well, all that has changed since being a mom. I find myself doubting myself -- not just as being a mom but being a good wife, friend and being a good colleague. I don't visualize anymore. I don't think positive thoughts when I find myself thinking negatively. WTF has happened?

I recently started to eat healthier and exercise. I'm also visiting a nutritionist monthly which helps me stay on track. In Bob Greene style, I'm taking it all in slowly. I started with eating healthy and then added exercise and then each week either added another day of exercise or 10 mins. I'm feeling great though I haven't lost any weight, I've lost an inch which feels good. One thing that has helped are these mp3s from iTrain which help you stay motivated and focused and really push you hard to get sweating. They also keep you positive. Then I got thinking, maybe when I'm mad about something (baby wakes up at 4 a.m. and won't go back, I start thinking positive. The past few nights, he's gone back to sleep as I rock him thinking positively.

I also HATE watching the news as of late. The economy this. The economy that. No wonder I'm a grump. Blah! You know what -- let's all start thinking positively. Maybe the economy will turn around sooner? Just a thought.

Benjamin is weaned. I'm not looking forward to the next week at all but I'm suspecting I'm not producing enough because when I try to feed him at night he won't eat and then won't go back to sleep so I just get a bottle out and that usually does the trick. I have to admit, I cried last night at 4 a.m. while rocking him to sleep. I miss nursing, more than I thought but I'm also happy to start wearing non-nursing bras and taking tequila shots (umm, kidding).

8 months olds are fun

Once I start feeling like I have things figured out, they seem to get easier. For example, Benjamin is starting to eat table food. He loves Cheerios and toast and feeding himself. If he doesn't like something, like broccoli, I mask it with his chicken and rice.

Recently, I started putting Benjamin to sleep with his fuzzy blue blanket and Gloworm. I was using the blanket for warmth but little did I know, he has become pretty attached to them and now doesn't cry when I walk out of the room. I'll peek in and he will smile at me and then keep staring at his Gloworm. That same week, he sleep through the night twice. I like to think he's waking up seeing his Gloworm and then falling back asleep.

We've been playing peek-a-boo with his blanket for months. Tonight, he crawled over and put it over his face and then peeked over. He was playing peek-a-boo! It was so cute!!!

I'm proud of my little guy! He graduated to the tub too. He's growing up so fast!

Teeth

As I reported on Friday, Ben has one tooth that has popped up. On Saturday, Ben was smiling and I noticed that the second tooth has pooped through as well. He wasn't fussy and slept really good. I know there was only one tooth on Friday because I check every morning so between Friday morning and Saturday, bam -- a second one popped.

My baby is growing up!

Happy 8 months!

Splish splash!
Originally uploaded by Shanlee

Dear Benjamin,

What a month of accomplishments! You survived a long trip to Nebraska where you met my crazy family, played with your cousins and got lots of presents. You survived a plane ride with no problems and jumped back into your routine like it was nothing. You continue to eat solids. Suddenly, you don't like cereal unless we mask it with fruit. You are into feeding yourself Cheerios. You would rather feed yourself than eat what ever I feed you. You're digging yogurt. You like sliced avocados but not mashed ones.

On Jan 12, after a night of fussiness, you popped your first tooth on the bottom. The day your started to army crawl, we found out you had an ear infection. Your sleep was off for a week and momma was a little exhausted. You're really sitting up well too! Finally. I never thought this would happen. You're waving too but sometimes you wave for nothing.

We are teaching you baby signs too. You go crazy for the milk card with a nursing baby on it. Speaking of nursing, you refuse to nurse unless your tired. You go crazy for the bottle. Even at night when you do nurse, it's for just a minute or two until you are asleep. Most of the time, you come into bed and fall asleep without nursing. This is telling me our tender moments are ending soon. Now, if we could get your sleeping though the night! That would be a blessing.

As seen in this video, you love bath time. You splish and splash until the water is cold.

Until next month,
Momma