Well, it hasn't been easy, but with the month of April officially half over, we managed to spend $58.77 on dining out and $167.49 on groceries so far.  Both categories are just slightly over half of the goal, but I consider it an accomplishment since it also includes non-food items such as vitamins, deodorant, toothpaste, aluminum foil, sandwich bags, stuff like that.  Do you separate those items?  While $400 seems like a lot, especially when you see what other people can make it by on in the blogosphere, that really only comes to $2.22 a meal for each of us.  Probably less than that when you take into consideration the miscellaneous items. 

One thing that's helped is that we're cleaning out the cupboard and finding things we forgot we had.  I focus on one thing and try to think of the most cost-effective meal I can put together with that ingredient.  It's definitely been taking more time, but I know it will only get easier.  And my homemade pizza tastes way better than any pizzeria's and it was much cheaper!

There are not too many expenses that we have control over in our budget.  But the cost of food we have relative control over.  Over the last six months, we've spent roughly $700 on food per month; $290 on eating out and $410 on groceries.  By planning, clipping coupons, catching sales and being more creative, I want to see if we can cut this category by roughly 40% in April.  That's right: $100 on dining out and $300 on groceries.  It's going to be a little challenging since Tom likes snacks and several types of drinks (iced tea, OJ, grape juice, lemonade).  I'm content with just water and milk.  But I dealt with the snack issue by making oatmeal raisin cookies last weekend that made us almost through the week.  And no ingredients were needed at the grocery store for this recipe since I had everything on-hand.  Instead of buying pizza, I'm going to make my own.  We'll see how it goes - I'll report back!