Last night I spent a little more of my $75 grocery budget for the month of January. Meijer had Tyson Chicken Breasts on sale for $1.99 a pound. It is a good price for Chicken but it is about as low as it goes here in Lafayette. I spent $21 on:

• 6 Chicken Breasts
• Mango
• Pears
• Cheese Blocks (2/$3)
• Dishwashing Gloves
• Quaker Oatmeal (for the grocery drop at our church)
• - Simply Orange Juice (on sale for $3)

This brings our grand total for January to $35. Leaving us with $40 left and $125 to spend on things for the food pantry and grocery drop at our church.

Phil and I are taking another step in our "debt free by 2012" journey. We are going to a cash system. We aren't going to go all cash. We don't have and have never had a Credit Card problem so I don't feel the need to freeze my card in a block of ice. It is convenient for online purchases, bill paying and gasoline. However each month I will go to the bank and take out the money we have budgeted for Out to Eat, Groceries, Fun, Gifts and Clothing. I will then separate the grocery money out weekly and place all the money into my adorable Envelope System :) I got the idea from Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs. Click here for a template if you want to try the envelope system.



I think this will help us save even more money on these expenses and be able to continue helping out financial at our churches food pantry! I am excited to see how little I can spend using cash in February. I am going to try $40 a week on grocery and household items. We will see how that works for our little family of 2. Salt for the water softner may put us over! I think this will help Phil and I with our fun money expenses as well. Whatever I don't use each month in fun money will go into a jar and be saved for vacations!

Yesterday I also purchased a new journal and am starting a prayer journal for 2010!

Tomorrow I am going to post (hopefully) a little bit about our debt free journey and why we are so passionate about it.