The grocery budget and other bits

Since Andrew's hours have been cut back some, we're being a little more careful with where money is spent. Therefore, I have introduced a new Grocery Budget. I haven't grocery shopped on much of a budget in a long time. Not that I've gone crazy, but it's been pretty lax.

For those of you that have been following my blog since the olden days, you know that when it comes to a grocery budget, I've been there and done that. I've got some mad money saving skillz when it comes to the grocery store if I choose to use them.

And ya know what? Grocery shopping is fun again. And cooking is fun again. I've been in a slump, totally avoiding the grocery store, feeding my family leftovers, canned soup, and the same ol' baked chicken breast with rice for way too long now. But for me, when I have a budget to stick to, grocery shopping becomes a game.

Someone should have told me to stop spending so much at the grocery store a long time ago. It's kind of refreshing.

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Speaking of saving money, are you all members of Paper Back Swap? If you're not, you should be. It's free to join, and the savings can be pretty incredible, especially for a homeschooling family, which I know some of you are. You list the books you own that you'd like to trade for something else. When someone requests one of your books, you get a credit and get to request someone else's book. There's an incredible selection and the search function is great. I've already found and requested two books I'd been planning to buy, with four more credits on the way. You pay the shipping to send your books, others pay the shipping when they send you books. It works out to $2-3 a book, plus helps decrease the clutter in your house if you're getting rid of books you don't really want.

My parents - especially my father - are avid book collectors. My mother has been asking my father for years to go through his books and get rid of some. Last Sunday, I told my dad that I'd joined Paper Back Swap as a way to acquire inexpensive homeschooling materials. And I suggested that, if he wanted to, he could donate any old books he didn't want anymore to my cause. After all, it's all about his granddaughter's education, and doesn't he want to support her learning?

He assured me that he'd go through them soon and send me home with books.

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I'm still on knitting hiatus. I'm working ever so slowly on a pair of mittens for Amber, but I can only bring myself to knit when I'm too bored to do anything else. I'm not sure what's happened. It's scary. Knitting is what I do, it's how I stay sane. :::gasp::: what if I go crazy now?

But I'm happy to report that our Mexico trip is almost entirely scrapbooked. I'm glad I blogged it all the way I did - I can just print out blog entries and scrap them right along with the pictures. I'll be glad later, when I'm old and can't remember the details of the trip, that I wrote so much now.