Taking Baby Steps

Take baby steps

When you walk into your pantry, do you hear an echo? You’ve barely got enough food to make it through the week, let alone several days should you not be able to make it to the grocery store during a winter snow storm. Take baby steps to fill your cupboard shelves. Consider this:

·         1 matinee movie ticket is $7.50. For that price you could purchase 10 boxes of Kraft Mac & Cheese—easy peasy to make and kids of all ages love to eat the stuff.

·         1 vanilla frappuccino is around $5. For that price you could purchase a couple of canisters of oatmeal (and maybe even a box of granola bars if everything’s on sale!)

·         1 lipstick in the latest, greatest color is around $8 (for the cheap stuff!) For that price you could purchase a 25 lb. sack of flour to make all sorts of treats for your family.

·         One meal at your favorite restaurant probably runs around $15 plus a tip. For that price you could pick up 8 pounds of boneless chicken breasts (at $1.99 a pound) to store in your freezer.

·         A round of golf is $37. Tack on another $13 for the golf cart. That’s $50 you could have spent on a 25 lb. bag of sugar (around $18), 2 cake mixes ($1.50 ea.), 2 tubs of frosting ($2 ea.), 7 cans of fruit ($2 ea.), 5 pounds of pasta ($1 lb.), 3 cans of spaghetti sauce ($1 ea. on sale), and 6 cans of vegetables (50 cents ea.)

·         A manicure is $10-$15. For that price, you could purchase several cans of soup.

Most of us have little luxuries that eat up our paychecks—why not hold off on a luxury or two each week and use the money saved to purchase a few staples for the pantry or freezer? A day of fun in the sun on the golf course or a girls’ day out for pedicures is great, but hungry kids during a crisis—trust me, you don’t want to experience it.