Hannah's Heartstrings

My husband is always talking to people about budgeting and they are always shocked when he gets to the part about how much we spend (or rather, don’t spend) on groceries! So I decided to do a breakdown of our weekly purchases to show how its possible to shop for our family of three (two adults and one child) on $250 per month.

I shop almost exclusively at Aldi, with a couple exceptions, which I’ll explain later. I find Aldi to suit our needs perfectly right now, providing good quality food at a price that allows me to stretch my $50-60 a week to the maximum. It simplifies my shopping trip since I know where everything is, the stores are comparatively small, and you generally only have a few different choices to make for each item (as in, there aren’t ten different brands of ketchup to choose from).

I also desire to feed us good, healthy food, and while most of what I purchase isn’t organic and could be way better, it works for us for now, and we are kind of in the mode of doing the best we can with what we have. We eat well, we eat simply, we stay healthy.

Here is a list of the things I generally purchase every week (these items do vary from week to week based on need, price, and availability):

1 jar salsa

1 bag sunflower seeds

1 jar peanuts

1 bag salted rice cakes

1-2 dozen eggs

2 half gallons unsweetened almond milk

1 bag black beans and/or pinto

1 bag jasmine rice

1-2 bags gluten free spaghetti

2-3 canned crushed tomatoes

1 jar unsweetened applesauce

1 block cheddar cheese

1-2 bag romaine lettuce

1 package broccoli heads

1 head cabbage

1 seedless cucumber

1 bag large carrots

1 package roma tomatoes

1 bunch bananas

1 bag russet potatoes

1 package green or multi colored peppers

1-2 containers hummus

1-3 bags frozen veggies

1-2 packages ground turkey (the Fit&Active kind)

chicken breasts (amount varies by sales) (usually 1 package)

Irregular purchases (purchased as needed, when they’re on sale, or if I have extra money):

olive oil

coconut oil

spices

tea and coffee

peanut butter

salad dressing

chips

mozzarella cheese for pizzas

ice cream

tortillas

turkey sausage

avocados

pepperoni

yogurt

granola bars for Kyle

sweeteners (honey, maple syrup)

fruit

lemon juice

anything extra or special needed for church dinners, family events, etc.

Also, this is a list of things I NEVER (or very rarely) purchase (due to price and personal diet restrictions):

bread

lunchmeat

sliced or pre-shredded cheese

bags or salad mixes

cakes or cookies

juice

pop

dairy milk

pre-made frozen meals

most canned goods

sugar

wheat flour

Now, how do I make this happen practically in life?

-I cook as much as I can from scratch.

-I watch for meat to go deeply on sale or else we don't eat much of it.

-I keep our dairy consumption LOW.

-I don’t buy a lot of snack foods. We might do a bag of tortilla chips to go with our tacos, or something. The most I do is peanuts, granola bars, and rice cakes on a regular basis.

-I keep us almost exclusively gluten and sugar free, but don't buy a lot of the premade GF/SF alternative products on the market.

-I shop at discount grocery stores about once or twice a month where I find some fun specialty items like peanut butter, GF pasta or flours, fruit, salad dressings, and other things I don’t buy a lot of or on a regular basis.

-I shop with CASH. This really helps me stay on target, because there’s no accidentally spending more and just being ok with it. I know I only have what’s in my wallet. Plus parting with cash is always harder than just swiping plastic. It really makes you think about it more!

-I know I can’t spend like I’m in congress at the beginning of the month or I’ll have nothing left at the end of the month.

-Once the money for the month is gone…ITS GONE! So that means no surprise lunch dates, pizza orders, quick trips to the store, or ice cream runs.

-I work with what I have left when I’m at the end of my week or month. If that means I end up creating the world’s craziest smorgasbord from stuff found in the back of my freezer and cupboards, then so be it. We’ll survive.

-Make good meals with simple ingredients. You can do a lot with beans and rice.
-We don’t need meat at every meal!

-If you think you don’t have time to cook everything from scratch every day, spend one day cooking ahead for the week. Make a big pot of chili or soup or a batch of rice/beans/veggies and separate out into containers and stash in the freezer. It doesn’t take that long, helps prevent wasting fresh produce, and prevents you from impulse buying meals every day.

Meal Ideas!

Breakfast:

-Bananas are cheap, and you can peel and freeze them for a quick smoothie addition! Great with milk, peanut butter, and a bit of cocoa powder.

-Fry a couple eggs and wrap in a tortilla.

-Buy some oats, butter, and honey and find a simple recipe for homemade granola.

Lunch:

-Leftovers!!!

-salads (cook your meat and chip up all your veggies ahead of time!)

-cut veggies and hummus

-leftover taco mix in tortillas

-some of the soup or stirfry you prepared and stuck in the freezer

Supper: (this is a pretty good snapshot of what we regularly eat during the week for suppers)

-chili

-chicken salads

-tacos (I make my taco mix of 1/3 meat, 1/3 beans, 1/3 rice, and spice with cumin and chili powder and a jar of salsa. It makes the meat go MUCH further!!)

-pasta with meat sauce (I often add black beans to the sauce)

-potatoes, meat, and veggies in the crockpot

-leftovers

-spiced beans and rice

-stirfry veggies over rice (with beans if I’ve run out of chicken)

-black bean burgers with salad and rice
-cold pasta salad with chicken or beans and veggies

-homemade pizza on occasion

Other household budget items!

There are several other things I also purchase at Aldi to help with our budget! Its almost impossible to talk about having a small grocery budget without talking the bigger picture of keeping other household expenses small as well. So these are the things I have found great to buy at Aldi. I also love that it helps keep my number of stores to shop at down to a bare minimum!

Our monthly budget for baby stuff is $20-25 and for household needs (paper products, cleaning stuff, laundry, etc) is $20.

-Toilet Paper. The thinnest stuff they have because its like $5 and we are literally just throwing it away so I refuse to pay more for it!

-Paper towels. I really only purchase them to make homemade baby wipes with, because its way cheaper than buying them, and I would really like to eliminate this purchase by creating a stash of cloth baby wipes. Use of paper towels is limited, as I try to use cloth towels more often than paper. I do occasionally buy a pack to help out with our kitchen supply so my sister-in-law isn’t stuck buying all the paper towels for the house.

-Diapers. The Little Journey brand at Aldi is fantastic, cheap, and since I personally cloth diaper most of the time, I generally only need them for nights and being away from the house. And they are easily half the price of almost any other brand out there!

-Cleaning Supplies. I generally only need to buy dish soap, dishwasher detergent, and occasionally sponges and disinfecting wipes. I do the rest of my cleaning with baking soda ($.49/box) and vinegar ($.79/bottle).

-Menstrual pads. I personally despise this expense. I use a Lunette menstrual cup which I love, so I only use 1-2 pads a day as backup during my cycle. I would really like to make cloth pads since I use so few of them, and eliminate the cost and waste here.

-Toothpaste. I make my own with baking soda and coconut oil (I add other things to the mix as I have them, such as essential oils, activated charcoal, and diatomaceous earth).

There are a few things I do not purchase at Aldi, because they are cheaper elsewhere, or unavailable at Aldi.

-Laundry detergent. Unfortunately this is cheaper at Walmart. I also prefer to use scent free detergents, which are more readily available at Walmart, and less expensive.

-Salt. I perfer to use good sea salt and the kind at Aldi is too expensive for me, and I can’t purchase it in the quantity and style I want. I go to my local health food store where I can get a large bag for $.89/pound, so I end up with a big bag that lasts me 3-4 months for around $3.

-Vitamins, supplements, and body care. We like to do an order through vitacost.com every few months for any vitamins, herbal supplements, probiotics, and essential oils we want, plus our shampoo and body soaps.

And that about covers it! I will say that this budget of ours is purely by choice, since we have pared down all our expenses as much as we can so as to be able to put large amounts in our savings towards a home of our own. I know people who have lived on even less out of necessity!

We do allow ourselves the freedom to change our budget when we need to. For example, last month when my sister came to stay with us, we chose to increase our budget by $50 for the month so that we could feed us all more easily. We also had a big family meal and out of town company for a night that we wanted to prepare food for, so that little bump up helped lower my stress level and the need to stretch things even further than normal.

We also give ourselves a little bit of spending money each month that we both often use for “treats” such as ice cream or lunches with friends or just anything we want that doesn’t fit into other budget categories. I generally use mine for ice cream and clothes!

Having a budget gives us the freedom to not be broke all the time! We love having the peace of mind given to us by purposefully telling our money where it will go each month, instead of living paycheck to paycheck and wondering where it all went. Through discipline and patience, we are able to save for the bigger purchases we want, be debt free, never spend down to the last few dollars in our checking account, have a cash emergency fund of approximately 4-5 months living expenses, and still eat well and have fun!

If you ever have any questions about budgeting, need inspiration or encouragement, or need help starting a budgeted life, you can google Dave Ramsey for tons of great information! You can also contact me and Kyle, and we’d both be thrilled to talk with you!

Philipians 2:15, “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world…”

It can be very hard to find any good in the world today. The news and social media keep us in closer contact with sin and corruption now that we have ever been throughout history. It’s easy to get angry, frustrated, or simply want to bury our heads in the sand. Unfortunately, we can’t just curl up in a ball and cry like we’d truly like to at times. We can’t throw our hands up in the air, but we also can’t let the circumstances of our nation overwhelm us and cause strife in our hearts.

So what can we do?

Simply put, we can shine.

We need to shine in this dark world, not only for our own sanity and peace of mind, but also for the hope of the future. While we wait patiently for Christ to call us home, we have no idea how long we will be here yet, so we have to make the best of what we have here for now. Our children and grandchildren will be reaping what we are sowing today, so it is important to remember the consequences that our actions, thoughts, and words will have.

So in what ways can we shine and be a light in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation?

We can shine in how we treat others. Politics, moral issues, differences in opinions and values can make it hard to treat others with kindness and longsuffering. But it is one of the most shiny things we can ever do. It’s okay to have different opinions. Its even ok to not agree with or support the choices of those we love. But we can still show them love. Love does not mean always being in sync with those around us, but it does mean being kind and thoughtful toward them in spite of differences. Especially to those we love who are living in sinful choices, being loving to them in spite of disagreeing with them can be incredibly influential. In a world where emotions run hot and people are constantly criticizing one another, a little kindness goes a long way and can make one truly stand out from the crowd.

We can shine in our priorities. Let’s face it. We all have skewed priorities sometimes. We choose to watch tv or browse Facebook instead of reading Scripture. We choose to do something that makes it impossible for us to make it to church on time on Sunday mornings. We choose work over family and friends. We choose a lot of things that will never matter for eternity. Sometimes these things are unavoidable and that’s why we rejoice in grace. But how many times do we simply know better? The things we choose to prioritize in our lives speak boldly of what we value. Our priorities are important. Our lives are the biggest witness we have. So maybe we can ask ourselves, “How is what I am choosing to make important in my life showing Christ to someone else?” How different would our lives be if that question reigned in our hearts?
We can shine in our attitude. Sometimes, daily life is pretty mundane and boring. Its easy to get sucked into monotony and develop a “this is as good as it gets” attitude. Maybe life just is what it is right now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find joy in it. Yes, sometimes we all need a moment to cry and say, “Well, this is awful.” But after that moment is over, it’s our job to put on our big girl panties and do our best in whatever situation we find ourselves in. Imagine what an encouragement you can be to someone who may be going through something similar if only you can smile and say, “Yes, this is hard, but where can I find the joy in this? How can I shine through this? How can I be a light in this small darkness?”

We can shine in our conduct. We can also stand out when we choose to hold ourselves to a higher standard regardless of what everyone else is doing. Just look throughout scripture…Daniel, Noah, and Esther are just a few examples of people who did the right thing even in the worst circumstances. When we choose to conduct ourselves with integrity, purity, honesty, virtue, and goodness in every area of our lives, we set ourselves apart. Furthermore, when we combine that with choosing to treat others with kindness and love, we end up being able to shine in a beautiful way which is not seen very often.

As it says in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” While it may seem that we are experiencing the worst time in history, it is important to remember that nothing is a surprise. The world has been falling apart since the beginning of time. But we have hope. We have peace. We have truth, and we have confidence in that truth, and people are searching for what we have. We can reach people with the light even in the darkest of places. What we choose for our lives can touch people even in the smallest ways. We can make a difference by choosing to shine brightly in our world.

2 Corinthians 4:11, 16-18 “For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh…For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

{Written for the BBC Fall Ladies Fellowship}