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Challenges about Budgeting and Grocery Shopping

Budgeting and grocery shopping is one of the best ways to trim down your monthly expenses and daily spending- but there are dozens of challenges out there- especially the advice that is ultimately unrealistic. Here is a list of budgeting and grocery shopping challenges and how you can make them realistic strategies to save on grocery shopping! Challenges about Budgeting and Grocery Shopping Challenge #1- Unrealistic Research I've spent a lot of time scouring Pinterest and have not felt entirely satisfied with the results. Some articles seem too unreasonable to be applicable. More often than not, it comes down to unrealistic costs of groceries . For example, I cannot find 1 gallon of milk at my local Walmart for $1. And our Dollar Tree out in Montana doesn't have a grocery section- we do have a freezer section, but it is only 2-3 doors of frozen dinners. And our bread and produce is not as cheap as the other articles. What I have done to get around this challeng
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Manage Both Kinds of Homework


Lately, I have been pretty swamped. I am not sure if it’s because it’s around midterms or if it’s because my classes finally kicked it up a notch. Needless to say, my house has suffered because of it. There have been mountains of laundry pouring from our closets and clothes scattering away from those mountains all over the floor of our bedroom. Kyler’s clothes were also in a tall pile right behind our bathroom floor, it was getting hard for us to keep the door open- but that’s all on him- and of course, morning lady products took up the entire expanse of the counter from one end to the other. In the kitchen, dishes were artfully stacked in and around the sink. And most rested in a puddle at least an inch deep of slimy water….Yes, I am not proud to share this with you.
Then the fridge was becoming bare, I was in no mood to grocery shop after classes. I even shamefully walked across the street to the overpriced mini-market and bought a half-gallon of milk to get by….Then food started becoming expired, there was no lunch food for my picky husband, I needed produce and then the bread had to be tossed! All I had been wanting to do is come home, change back into sweats and relax or go back to my hw. For the last three weeks I have had no motivation to keep up with the house. I’ve had a spell of fatigue
…..Until around Tuesday….My husband had the day off, and while I was in class, he decided to do the dishes. I came home to a clean sink! And the pots and pans had been hand washed! Since my first semester in college, Thursdays have turned into my “Fridays”. I take the evening or afternoon off, and then suddenly I am recharged for Friday’s classes, Saturday’s tasks and Sunday’s preparation day for starting this whole thing over again!
Yesterday I bounced back! In the past I have observed my routine and have been attempting to further observe, perfect and record what I do to clean, and make things look clean and put together for my tiny twenty-something apartment and my tiny twenty-something life and self so that I can share with you readers.
I try not to have ADCD, but some days- well, most days- I do. ….But for the most part I think it all gets cleaned…..I think.


Start Simply


Cleaning

Bedroom & Laundry
- Try not to be bouncy when you do laundry….It’s not good, lol.
  1. Make the bed. When you feel pretty, you feel productive. This is a motto I have used since high school, and so far it hasn’t let me down. I am not talking about getting all glamorous before cleaning, I am just talking about pulling yourself together so that you feel good enough to bust through the house and get it cleaned. 

    The same goes for the bed!
















  2. Sort it Out. If your stuff was like ours, an investigation might have to be done.
  3. Find all the Runaways. We all do it.  We take our socks off at random places, late at night we leave our laundry in the bathroom or on the floor. And when we are in a morning rush, or just can’t find the perfect outfit, things don’t find their way back to the hangers….They find themselves all over the place. ….

    Try not to get distracted. Exhibit A. and B.

     
I play dress up, & now there is a poster on PhotoGrid to help me.

Killer Violet and Sweet Selfies.
  1. Hide your husband’s laundry. We have this deal, if he wants me to do his laundry, he needs to keep it off the bathroom floor (which like never happens), keep his stuff in his closet and when he wants a load done, he puts a basket together and puts it by the washing machine. If those things aren’t done, I don’t want to see it, so I give it to the black hole of a closet of his. Then my bedroom looks that much cleaner!!! :D

  2. Collect your sad, empty hangers. Drop everything into a pile onto the bed, sit and get to putting things away!

Take proof of your darling work! ;)








Here is where things might get bouncy:
**Between any of these three rooms, change it up.**
**Multi-task and have things set while you are cleaning another room**
The Kitchen
Unless this is already done, organize your dishes.
Load and unload as needed
Do your handwashing
  1. Brush off your counters with your dishtowel.
  2. Spray the heck out of the counters with all purpose cleaner. Let sit.

Bathroom
Flush the toilet and put the toilet bowl cleaner around the bowl.
Spray Kaboom everywhere in the shower.
Go Back to the Kitchen.
Sweep floors, mop later unless it’s the scheduled day to mop….Which I don’t always listen to. I mop- or try to mop- every week or every other week.

Clean the sink with the all purpose cleaner, make it all shiny.

Go Back to the Bathroom
Wipe off the shower.
Finish the toilet.
Clean off the counters, tidy it up and wipe it down with a cleaning wipe.
Sweep, and/or mop.
Windex the mirror!
Toss in a load of Laundry ON COLD.
Run a load of dishes THAT’S ALWAYS HOT.

**Be sure to take small snack breaks...Don’t wear yourself out!
Then nothing will get finished**
Tidy up the Living Room
Put it back “to ready”.
When it’s in pretty “ready mode”, and you do or don’t have guests over, no can notice whether or not you have ‘deep cleaned’ the living room! The couches are all decorated again by their pillows in the right places, the blankets are all back to their spots and are folded. The coffee table is back in place and there is no clutter all over it.










Grocery Shopping
  1. Obviously #1 is to MAKE A LIST.
    If you’re gonna save money, trips to the store and time spent in frustration, make the list. I like to organize the list I take to the store by where they will be. I have 2 regular store I go to grocery shop: Target and a local, affordable grocery store in our area. So I have their layout well known- it saves money when you know right off the bat where everything is.
    You spend less time looking up and down all the aisles and then are less reluctant to buy things that weren’t on your list to begin with or something you don’t even need/want.
  2. Pick a Day.
    With classes and cleaning, this gets really hard.  This past week, I decided not to do the observation hours for my Intro to Education class on Monday and Tuesday. Instead I cleaned my house on Monday and grocery shopped on Tuesday after school. On Tuesday I did a quick run to Target together to get things I wanted from Cartwheel and bought the other stuff at the grocery store yesterday.

The steps for grocery shopping are small and simple, but you’d be surprised (I sorta hope) how tricky it can be to manage a course load, housework and healthy eating for a tiny twenty-something in a tiny twenty-something apartment.  

~Happy Managing Your Housework & Schoolwork!

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