We Cut Our Grocery Bill by 56% - Part 1

I think, to really understand how incredible this is... you need to know where we came from, and how we got to the point where we are now...

When we had our first baby, we almost dies at how much diapers cost us each month. Then, surprise surprise, only 19 months later a second baby joined our little family! We had 2 babies in diapers!!! That was insane!!! On Diapers alone we were spending between $100.00-$120.00 a month! Not to mention wipes, diaper rash cream and baby powder!

Diapering is an expensive necessity!

So I toyed with the idea of cloth diapering. I hated having to budget out $150.00 a month just for diapering! I wanted to change that. And I knew that if I could use cloth diapers, my budget for that part of life would be down to very little! So we gave it a shot, I tried different diapers and different things, but try as I might I couldn't get myself to keep with it. I give MAJOR props to those of you who do the cloth diapers! KUDOS to you!!!
In the end, I decided to just swallow my pride and fork over the $150.00 a month so I didn't have to deal with the re-usable ones; which, by the way, my husband refused to change diapers with. In all fairness though, he told me before I even tried to get them, that he wouldn't be able to handle it, so I knew if I made the switch, I would be doing all the diapering.
Then Came baby number 3! For almost 6 months, I had 3 babies in diapers! About $200 a month just for that! My oldest FINALLY potty trained so we went back to 2 in diapers, but still. that is a LOT of diapers!!!

We are currently still diapering 2 children, so when I say we cut our budget in more than half... That alone is amazing!

My husband has a good job that he loves, and it is stable, and the business is growing. In the current economic times, that is really saying something. But, on the other hand, he doesn't make a fortune either.

Before we even got married, we talked about how important it was, to both of us, that I be able to stay home with the kids, once we decided to have children. So, our plan was to get married, then wait a year before trying to get pregnant. During that year, it was planned that we would both work, and we would do our best to live on his income and my income would go to paying off the credit cards we had and getting out of debt, and once that was paid off all my income would then go into savings. That way, when we did start having children we could be debt free and have a savings to start with, and we would already be living on his income alone, so there would be no surprises!

Then... as usual... life happened...

In High School, I blew my knee out and narrowly avoided having surgery on it. I was in therapy for more than a month though. Then, four months before our wedding my knee got re-injured (I will spare those details as it was very gross). I went to the Doctor to get it checked out. He said that nothing, miraculously, had torn, so I could opt out of surgery and go into intensive therapy to get it better, but also, that since this was the second time my knee had "slipped", the chances of it happening a third time were very high, and that if it happened a third time, surgery would be necessary. So it was up to me if I had surgery now, or basically waited till it happened again.
I talked to Justin, my then Fiance, and we decided to opt for surgery. At the time, I was still covered by my parents insurance, and fortunately I was double covered. So really, the surgery would cost us very little, almost nothing to get it done. Whereas, if we waited to do it down the road, we had no idea what the coverage would be like when we got married or what our financial situation would be when I needed it.
So, March 2nd, 2006, I went in for my first surgery. My fiance and my mother were there to comfort me. I was so nervous. But I knew it would somehow all work out. During surgery, the doctor scraped off a bunch of "ground bone" and had to re-rout some of the muscle in order keep my knee cap from moving again. the surgery went well, but the recovery was long and hard, and the worst part was, our previous plans of getting out of debt and saving before we had kids looked impossible. I was unable to work from the time I had my surgery, three months before the wedding. I had to quit my job, because, even though they were willing to hold my position, the job I had required a lot of climbing and heavy lifting, and with my recovery, if I kept the job, I wouldn't be very productive at it for at least 8 months. We planned on me recovering, then starting therapy and then getting back to work as soon as I could find a job that would let me take it easy, so we could get that debt paid off.

But again... Life was going to push us in a different direction...

We Cut Our Grocery Bill by 56% - Part 1
We Cut Our Grocery Bill by 56% - Part 2
We Cut Our Grocery Bill by 56% - Part 3
We Cut Our Grocery Bill by 56% - Part 4
We Cut Our Grocery Bill by 56% - Conclusion