Food Storage Made Easy..

I want to introduce you to a fabulous site I just found!  If you have ever wanted to get control of your food storage or to start your food storage then I highly recommend you come here.  This is Food Storage Made Easy and it really is that.  This site will tell you anything and everything about food storage, how to start, what you need, and how to use it.  There are even great recipes available that use your actual food storage items.  Take some time and check out their site, I promise you will find it incredible helpful.

Budgeting

So I have taken this month on as a time to budget!  I want to go over every aspect of my families budget just to see where we are at, what we can change and how we are doing.  I also want to be able to see if there is more room to save.  I decided to start and see what the national average is for my family, not because I care what everyone else spends, but I wanted to get an idea of where to start.  I Googled national average for food spending and it took me surprisingly enough to the IRS web site as they list the national standards of spending for food, clothing, household items, etc...  I usually would not even go to a site like this, but I was curious to see what it said, I almost died laughing, no kidding!  Now I really know why our country is in trouble, do they honestly think this is a true average?  See for yourself here and compare that to what you normally spend.
Now that I know what is not realistic I am doing some more research.  I think I am going to start with my food budget.  I have a family of 7 with 2 teenagers and I believe I average around $500.00 a month on food, but since I have not been keeping track the last little while I am going to do so starting now!  Also, I want to come up with a way to make dinner night easier and planned better.  I have been toying with the idea of creating a theme night.  Something along the lines of Monday night is pasta night, Tuesday night is Mexican night, etc..  I am hoping by doing this it will help with budgeting, with planning and with making dinner easier on everyone!  I also want to incorporate my garden when that is up and running this spring/summer.  I love being able to go out to the garden and pick my dinner for the evening or to incorporate it into my meals.  Nothing is better than fresh fruits and veggies and they are already paid for and certainly help in the self reliance category.  Any suggestions?  Please leave them as they might be a big help!  I will let you know what I come up with!