My kids aren't spoiled, are they?

My oldest daughter Grace is 3 1/2 years old. She is a smart, bright and a charming little girl. She keeps me on my toes to say the least. With that said, here begins my newest saga......

Early last week I made a good old fashioned family favorite for dinner: noodles, ground beef, tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. Everyone cheered as I put each person's plate in front of them. The table was full of smiles and hungry bellies being satisfied. My dinner was a success! Well, on Wednesday night it was a success. Like always, I can never properly portion pasta so we had enough dinner for leftovers. On Thursday night, I was excited to have another stress free dinner with smiles all around. As I began to pass out plates, loaded with the delicious pasta, I hear my sweet little Grace starting to yell, "OHHHHHhhh NOOOOOooo," as if something horrific had just happened, like her Buzz Light Year doll fell and broke into a million pieces or she realized she'd left her favorite Care Bear in her Sunday school class. You know those screams, right? I of course go to her rescue immediately expecting something horrible. I exclaimed, "Grace, what's wrong?". In the WHINIEST voice you can imagine, she says, with huge alligator tears streaming down her little cheeks, "I can't eat this! We had it for dinner last night! AHHHHHH!". At that moment I wanted to get out the "Do you know that there are children around the world starving, who don't have anything to eat. You are so ungrateful....if you only new how good you have it" speech. I am sure you're familiar. Instead, as calmly as I could, I said, "okay, Grace. You don't have to eat dinner, but you won't be getting anything else this evening." When the moment finally passed Grace decided to eat and we lived happily ever after for the next few hours (until bedtime)!

From that point on, I have been convicted by the amount of food that passes through my house and the amount of money we spend every week. There is a book called Hungry Planet written by Faith D'Aluisio and photographed by Peter Menzel. Each chapter of their book features a portrait of a family, photographed alongside a week's worth of groceries. There's also a detailed list of all the food and the total cost. The pictures alone are shocking.

Between seeing these photographs and the response from my daughter about eating leftovers, I have decided to challenge myself, my family and hopefully many of you to look at our current grocery habits. The United Sates Department of Agriculture puts out every month the Average cost for Food, for Individuals and Families, and breaks it into 4 categories: Thrifty, Low-cost, Moderate-cost and Liberal plan. Currently, I shop in the "they don't have a category for you" category. My challenge is for my family to stay between the Low-cost and moderate-cost budget for the month of October. This means I can spend $150 to $190 on food each week. YIKES! Log onto the USDA website and find out what you can do to lower your monthly food budget.

Grocery prices are rising, people around the world are feeling the pinch! I will keep you all updated and let you know how my budget is doing!

Also, to cut back on costs, I have found a great wellness company online that has ALL NATURAL products for 30%-40% off regular prices. Now I am saving money on household products, bath and body products and nutritional supplements and taking care of the environment too! Check out my website under Smarter Shopping for more information.