Grocery Savings

I have discussed deals and grocery savings on here a few times. Well today I want to let you know how my 2009 grocery spending compared to 2008. In 2008 I spent $9,237 ($770/month) on groceries (and personal care items). In 2009 I spent $7477 ($623/month) on groceries. That is a savings of $146 per month! I think that is fairly impressive! I really didn't start following Southern Savers diligently until May, so I think next year will be better. Also, I now have a pretty good stockpile of foods that we eat regularly and personal care items that we use, too.

I would like to be able to reduce our grocery bill to $475-500 per month for 2010. I will not sacrifice healthy food to save money. I will buy fresh produce every week and my kids will drink 2-3 cups of milk per day. These are expensive items but our health is important to me. We also will not live on hotdogs and chicken nuggets just b/c they are cheap. I will plan on posting each month how I did! Do you have budget goals for 2010? Leave a comment to share!

McWane Center - Trains and Touchtank

Zoolight Safari

Noah's cross

Noah got some new tools for Christmas and was very anxious to use them. He went out and found some scrap wood in the garage and Tony helped him build this cross!

Christmas Morning

We had a very blessed Christmas!

Oliver the Elf

Oliver came to visit us again this year. Each of the kids took him to school one day (for their party) and we had various adventures with him! We took him with us to get our Christmas tree! He enjoyed checking out the scrapbooks of himself from years past:

And had a few silly adventures this year:

Saying goodbye:

We forgot to take pictures of all the silliness he did, but he also TP'd the tree upstairs, turned our milk green, and make a repel line from the balcony down to the tree in the living room! He also brought a few gifts: some silly band bracelets, candy and coloring books. We look forward to him visiting next year!

Making Cookies for Santa

Fun traditions and memories!

Christmas at Granna's

And next year there will finally be a girl grandbaby! Scott and Monica are having a girl and we are soooooo excited!

Newest Member of our Family - Slippers

Zeke's Christmas Program

I was in the back with my class, but Tony came to see Zeke and got some pretty good pictures!

Seeing Santa

We went to the Bass Pro Shop. The picture they took of the kids was good in the respect that they were all 3 looking and smiling but the quality was poor. I was disappointed that my picture wasn't as good! But they all got to see Santa.

My Christmas Tile

I have been wanting to put ceramic tile in our bathroom for a while (like as long as we've lived here - almost 9 years!). Tony FINALLY decided this was the year. He even took a day off of work (gasp!) so he could work on it! It turned out great and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

Puppy!

We are fostering a puppy for a few days from a litter that was rescued in our neighborhood. We wanted to see how the kids would do with an animal and the responsibilities that come along with it. We will be making our decision by tomorrow evening if we are going to officially adopt her of let her go to an adoption fair which will be held on Saturday.

Gingerbread House

Our children have all attended WEE Center since Noah was in 3k, so they have all participated in the WEE Center tradition of Gingerbread House party! Today was Zeke's first experience! He has so much fun and made an awesome Gingerbread House, too!