The Finish Line! (Day 28)

Sound the bells! Light the Fireworks! Break out the bubbly! We made it through our Austerity Month! We are celebrating tonight with a beautiful taco salad medley, featuring locally grown Hager Bros Farm beef from Colrain, MA. I've been saving this tasty treat, and thought it would be perfect for tonight. We are topping it with refried beans, cheese, lettuce, salsa (that I made again), and some excitement on our success. I did have to ask Justin to go to the store tonight to get some cheese, tomatoes, and lettuce. So, after that trip, here are the totals: We have $.51 left over in the grocery budget! In our emergency fund, we only had to dig in once (for the dishsoap), leaving $7.50 left over there! I do have to say, we couldn't have done this so easily, and with smiles still on our faces, if not for our community. So...yaay us! And THANK YOU all for your contributions! :)

Now I do have one small confession to make: I did buy something today. In the name of greater austerity and budget-rescuing deals, I purchased some diapers. We are a cloth-diapering family who doesn't like to change diapers in the middle of the night, so we always use a disposable for nighttime. In addition, we have a lovely vacation coming up for which I will need some diapers. So, the Pampers Sensitives that I buy for Liam cost $19.99 at Target for a box of 62. My friend and neighbor Hannah told me about Amazon Mom, and by signing up you get 15% off diapers all the time. Then if you "subscribe and save" you get another 15% off. THEN she brought me a coupon for $10 off an order. The coupon expired today, thus the 'cheating.' However, I got more than double the diapers (a box of 132) for LESS than I would have spent on a small box at Target--I paid $18.69 for the whole thing(including shipping!). So, my faithful readers, I am sure you will forgive me this indulgence, and I am pretty excited about this deal (thanks again, Hannah!).

In summary, this family has learned a lot through this project. We've learned that we can live on a lot less than we usually do, and still eat and live well. We've spent less time focused on various products, and more time focused on togetherness. We've paid our bills (yaay!), and taken a break from the consumer-go-round that seems to pull at us every moment of the day.

As I step back up to my normal budget, I am grateful for how much we have. Where my grocery budget used to seem small, now it seems ample. However, I am nervous. It is sometimes easier for me to say "no, we're not spending any money, thanks," than to prioritize the myriad of spending opportunities that come our way on a daily basis. I always strive to stick to a budget, but rarely do I succeed. We do ok, but if I stuck to my budget, we could do even better. I am taking with me some new lessons, though, (and some new recipes!), and renewing my efforts to maintain the family budget. I am going to continue to blog about my family's efforts to stick to our budget throughout the year, and the recipes we find along the way. It won't be updated daily, but it will continue. I will let you all know in the next few days whether it will be here, or started at a new address. Thank you for all your support and encouragement along the way. Enjoy the beginning of March, with it's promise of spring!

Home stretch (Day 27)

Wow. I can't believe tomorrow is the last day of the Austerity Project. I'm even more amazed that we still have some cans on our shelves, and food in the freezer. I truly thought most of it would be gone, and that I would be waiting for Tuesday morning to go to the grocery store. I don't have that feeling of desperation, though. There are a few things I would like to get Tuesday or Wednesday, but I'm really not in a rush, and we've still got a few good meals to go on our list before we've exhausted the "non-menu" that I put together at the beginning of the month. Yay!

Tonight I made a pre-celebratory meal of Kabocha Squash Risotto with Sage and Pine Nuts. We substituted quite a few things in the recipe: the squash (I used butternut), the sage (I used rosemary), the sherry wine vinegar (I used balsamic), and the sherry, actually (I only had Madeira that was close). It still got a two thumbs up from us all (even Liam!). :) If you have never made risotto before, don't be intimidated. It looks like a complicated recipe, but it's not. It just takes patience (It really does take about 1.5 hours to finish), and following the recipe. Also, I have made risotto with and without wine...and I am here to tell you that even if you don't normally cook with wine, DO. Risotto is so much better with the 1/4-1/2 c. wine at the beginning. It just gives it a better, well-rounded flavor. I hope you enjoy the results of this recipe as much as we did! Just over 24 hours to go, folks...see you tomorrow on our FINAL DAY! :)