Here's to a new beginning!

Have you heard of those people who claim it's better if you "eat to live" rather than "live to eat"? Yea. I think they're crazy, too!  ...  Okay, not crazy!! I have a few friends who are like this and I applaud them for their dedication and ability to resist all those delicious, tempting dishes that exist.  Needless to say (if you read the title of this blog, or the web address at all) I am NOT of the "eat to live" persuasion.  No.  This chica loves to eat. Lives to eat!  I also, however, live on a budget and that makes eating (and eating healthy) a huge challenge.

So why another blog...about eating healthy on a budget?  Lots of reasons!

#1 - Hubby wants to cut down on carbs & processed food (don't we all?).
After hours (& hours & hours & hours) of online reading, it became clear that a majority of "frugal" mom bloggers use cheap carbohydrates to fill their dinner plates.  And lunch plates. And breakfast plates.  I wanted to eat frugally, but eat healthy at the same time.  It seems this is a challenge that has yet to be met!  Our lifestyle has left us relying on a lot of pre-packaged and prepared foods, which in turn left us feeling less than enthused about our meals.


#2 - We don't live near chain, discount grocery stores.
As mentioned above, I spent a LOT of time reading other blogs about saving money on groceries.  The common theme I noticed - they live in areas where they have multiple chain, discount grocery stores.  Here in the Northeast (and you don't get any more Northeast than Maine!) we don't have the luxury of having 3 or 4 stores to hop in & out.  There are 2 major grocery stores in this area, plus Wal-Mart.

We have one of the aforementioned grocery chains 15 minutes away. It is, however, the only one in a 45 minute radius and therefore, does not have much competition.  If we drive the 45 minutes, though, we find Wal-Mart, Target, and both grocery chains. I find that Target rarely has enough of a deal on food to make it worth stopping at, except during Thanksgiving & Christmas, so Wal-Mart it is!


#3  - We want to instill good eating habits in our 2yr old daughter. 
Our daughter has always been big for her age...not chubby. Not overweight.  Just big.  She will be 2 in less than two weeks from this post and currently wears a size 4T.  Needless to say, she loves to eat and while she's young we want her to enjoy her food without falling to the parenting pitfalls of 'pb&j', chicken nuggets, or hotdogs and boxed mac & cheese.  (Don't get me wrong. There are occasions where we have made these our meals, but we don't want it to become the regular & routine around here.)


#4 - Mommy is expecting Baby #2 in about 5 months.
Baby #2 will be born in February, and we live in Maine...which will not leave a lot of exercise opportunity to shed those baby pounds. In addition, most of those pounds will be put on during the Holiday season (which happens to be my FAVORITE season, anyway!)  So getting into a routine of eating healthy(ier) will hopefully help avoid gaining an excessive amount of weight.


So if you find that you have the same problems while researching blogs about "frugal eating", join me on my adventure! I have a few goals that I hope to achieve...

- To eat well while eating well.  Wait. What?!  I want my family to eat healthy, while at the same time ENJOY what they're eating.  My husband gets bored VERY easily with the same old, same old.  Meat, potatoes, veggie. Eat & repeat.  He also doesn't care too much for rice & pasta, but as I mentioned we're cutting back on those anyway, so it's time to get creative!

- To find a way cut back on how much we spend on our healthy eating. From what my blog-search (that's research from within the blogging world) says, the average U.S. family should be spending no more than $100 per person per month.  This amount should include children.  We have 3 people in our family, and let me tell you...my monthly grocery bill is NO where near $300 a month!!! FAR from it!!  Consider this, challenge accepted!

So let's raise our glass to a new beginning.  I've got my fingers crossed that this will be a success...but even if it's not, it will certainly be a learning experience!