Breakfast

I don't know about you all, but I think the meal I struggle with not eating out the most is breakfast.  I can make myself go home during lunch, and I have Pen to keep me "on target" at dinner, but breakfast is an issue for me! 

Before I was pregnant with Piglet 2, I would treat myself every Friday to a fountain Pepsi and a doughnut from one of the local gas stations.  I would deposit Pen's paycheck into the night drop box at the bank, then head over to the gas station for my treat.  Once I got pregnant with Piglet 2, my weekly trips increased slightly, then I was doing it five days a week (for a weekly total of $11.45!)!  I broke the habit last year when I got a promotion and moved to the "big office" because I was told we couldn't eat at our desks (that turned out to be B.S., by the way). 

For the past year I've pretty much been buying my breakfast from the cafeteria where I work.  Purchasing a bagel with cream cheese and a small carton of milk (think elementary school) cost me $1.49.  Not too bad!  Cheaper than a breakfast at McDonald's!  Except when I did the math, it was a bit scary.  That's $7.45 per week.  $44.70 per month!  $537 per year!  I could fill my freezer full of meat that would last us a very long time for that much money.  Yet another example of my selfishness making my family lose out.

This brings me to my main topic today.  The amount of money my family wastes on food is ridiculous.  Eating out, trips to the gas station, and buying junk for the cabinet at home has caused us to be one paycheck away from losing our house or car or filing for bankruptcy.  Overspending on food has prevented us from setting up a 529 plan for our children's college education, or having an emergency fund (or any savings at all for that matter).  That is our main area of overspending every single month.  Sure, we go shopping and spend too much, go to the movies too often, buy on Amazon so much the UPS driver knows me by name (and brings my packages to where I work instead of my house because we're that close), and do countless other things that we just shouldn't be doing.  But food . . . food is our weakness.  So what have we done to change that?

I am too busy in the mornings to think about breakfast.  I have no real desire to eat before 9:00am, and by the time I get myself and both Piglets up and out the door, I have realized I have forgotten my cell phone breakfast.  I have purchased some items to keep at work that I can eat for breakfast, including a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, a box of cereal, and a half gallon of milk.  I know not everyone has access to a fridge where they can store their breakfast, and I am lucky in this capacity.  This has stopped by from purchasing breakfast here all except one day this month, saving me $16.39 so far.  Small victories people.  Small victories. 

I also wanted to add that Pen smoked a pork loin on Sunday night in our electric smoker.  It was delicious.  Or should I said it is delicious, because we'll be eating off that sucker for the rest of this week.  The loin put us back $17.  It was a big boy.  We had to cut it in half to fit it in our smoker.  We shredded it and have been eating it out of the container on sandwiches with BBQ sauce since Sunday. 

Here is an example of my mind set before we started this journey.  I don't think I ever would have purchased a $17 cut of meat unless we were having company.  We have purchased pork loins in the past, but I never wanted to spend more then $10.  However, I had no issues spending $30 on pizza for TWO meals.  Or $40 on ONE meal of sub-par Mexican food!  I have seen the light, brothers and sisters! 

Pork Loin Meal Count:

Sunday: 4 meals (dinner)
Monday: 4 meals (Pen, Piglet 1, and myself all had it for lunch, Pen had it again for dinner)
Tuesday: 3 meals (and counting)