Kiss My Butt Beefaroni...

I am sitting here and thinking "what is up with me?".

I was really gung ho about using coupons and getting tons of stuff or cheap/free but I am just getting plain sick of having to cut things out of my grocery shopping that we need because I don;t want to spend too much.

When I first started to super coupon the deals were awesome. I was able to buy organic and all natural food when my son was a baby for a budget of $50 a week (this was when I was brainwashed into thinking organic was worth it). I bought organic milk every week along with organic veggies and barely any processed stuff. Now there is no way on God's green earth that I could do that. My budget is $65 a week and I am majorly struggling with it.

I have two kids who I want to be healthy eaters. They really like fruit, string cheese, milk, bread, yogurt and crackers. Produce is expensive and I am not one to just buy what is in season. If I find strawberries in January that look good I will buy them no matter what the price- same goes for blueberries and any other fruit that my kids love. My son loves watermelon and let me tell you, if I could find watermelon that didn't look awful I would buy it for him. I will not relegate my kids to eating bananas and apples all winter because I don't want to cough up the extra money to give them a varied diet. I only buy bread that is whole wheat and doesn't have high fructose corn syrup which means no 99 cent loaves for me- a good price for a loaf of bread is $2.50 (I don't freeze bread because it skeeves me out- I am a picky person, I know this). I try to buy my kids yogurt that doesn't have tons of weird ingredients in it, though today I bought my son regular Go Gurt because that is all the ghetto Stop and Shop I went to had and they don't sell Stoneyfield yogurt tubes. My daughter gets the Stoneyfield Yo Toddler yogurt because it doesn't have extra junk in it and it is made with whole milk.

My husband has stuff he really likes and one of them is Starbucks Frappuchino drinks. They are expensive (BJ's sells a 12 pack for $13.99) but he drinks one every day and jeez, he is the main bread winner for the family so how can I begrudge him his coffee drinks? If he makes a special request (like today when he wanted Betty Crocker Au Gratin Potatoes and Progresso Italion Wedding Soup) I buy it.

I guess what I am saying is that I need a budget that works for my family. I want to have healthy food options available and don't want to be stressed about not having a $50 budget for a family of four. Healthier food costs more and not wanting to spend tons of time chasing deals costs more. Those are costs I am willing to incur.

I know that if I spend a small amount on food each week that we could put the rest of our money towards our debt but it is much more important to me to instill good eating values in my children that will maybe follow them through life then to have kids who eat cheap processed food because it is all I can get on a small grocery budget and with not a lot of time to shop (what I mean is that I value time with my kids more than running out to Shaws multiple times in a week to snag catalina for free Hamburger Helper). Feeding my kids Chefboyardee Beefaroni may be a quick and cheap meal now but I don't want them getting a taste for that stuff (I love that stuff because I ate it growing up- I still eat it sometimes when the kids are in bed because bad habits are hard to break; I actually want some right now and wish I had some in the pantry- MMM, beefaroni).

So kiss my butt $65 budget- my new budget will be $75 a week. If I end up being constantly under then I will readjust it because I am not one to just go to the store and spend all of my budget just because I have it. I buy what we need and a few extras that we want.