So my house is pretty messy, unless I know I have company coming, then I quickly see how much I can get clean before they get here. I dread spending money on food, cause I feel like I waste so much money on something I'm just going to have to spend more money on next week. I get bored cooking the same foods all the time.
Tonight while I was cooking dinner it hit me that in the last month or two somethings have started to change for the better. Why? Because I've made them into a game. I hated grocery shopping because I'd make a menu using as much of what I had on hand as possible and making a shopping list with just the "necessities". I'd go to the store that had the best prices on the most things, but I would often pass up on a "necessity" because I wasn't willing to pay the price. But now I get excited to go grocery shopping (unless I have 3 kids in tow). Using coupons and the resources that I've found through some of the couponing blogs I follow, I can not only afford what I need, I've even been able to find room for some extras. It's become a game and a challenge to see how much money I can save on the things that I buy. I will never pay full retail for groceries or household items again. I have a whole box of toothpaste (15 tubes I think) now, easily a years supply (even if my kids smear it all over the bathroom again) that I paid less that $5 for. I've started collecting a years supply of toothbrushes and floss that I've gotten free, because I wait for it to go on sale and then use a coupon. If I continue to buy things before I need them I'll never have to make that last minute trip to the store for that one thing we ran out of and have to have. Also by stocking up on things it make being charitable much more affordable. For example this last weekend I got toothpaste for 13 cents. I could have donated 13 cents to a shelter but what could they do with it? OR I could donate the toothpaste that I bought for 13 cents and save them $2-3. I LOVE being able to share what I have with others and next time the Boy Scouts come around for their annual canned food drive I can give so much more. Instead of worrying about the $10 that I'll have to come up with to replace the food we give away, I can be excited to share $10 worth of food for which I only paid $2. Now when I go shopping I can easily afford to pick up one or two extra and put it in the box that I have set aside just for things like the BSA canned food drive.
I love having the freedom to be generous without worrying that I'm going to harm my family. I know that the Lord will never let us suffer for taking care of His other children and I believe that learning this skill is one of the ways He has blessed me for my previous efforts in charity. It's kind of amazing to look at life and recognize the Lord's hand in places you wouldn't normally expect. I'm reminded of the Parable of the Talents. When you use what the Lord has given you he will increase it beyond comprehension, but when you try to hide it, He'll take it away. I have always be blessed with a generous and charitable nature. When times were hard on our family and I felt like we had nothing left to give, I gave anyway and now I have more to give that I had thought possible.
Another part of my epiphany was how much I love to cook. I've always enjoyed cooking and baking. I remember making meatloaf and mashed potatoes for my family at least every other week or so when I was still in elementary school. It wasn't until after I was married though that I learned how to cook without a set recipe. I thought there was only one was to make meatloaf, spaghetti, tacos..etc. I learned from my parents how to make something and we made it the same way every time. So food just got kinda boring, until I learned how to make things MINE. For example I wanted to make chili for a church social, but I didn't have time to soak the pinto beans, so I decided to find a recipe online for chili. Have you ever looked for chili recipes online? It took me hours of looking at one recipe after another to finally make a choice. For almost very recipe I would have most of the ingredients, but be missing one or two. I was getting pretty frustrated when it finally occurred to me that all of the recipes had several ingredients in common and the rest was up to my personal taste. Oh you mean there's flexibility in cooking?!?!?! I tried something new and it was a hit everybody, most importantly my husband loved it. This opened up a whole new world to me. Cooking became fun again. I've now added a new challenge to my cooking, to make each meal as inexpensive, yet still tasty, as possible. Expensive things like meat need to be stretched and inexpensive things like rice need to make up more of the filler. I bought a pot roast last week (2 1/2 lbs) that has already made three meals and I have enough for a fourth. I've had a lot of fun trying to see how many meals I can make out of this one piece of meat, but that's another post in itself.
So now that I've rambled on about my epiphany, and have had more while writing, I'll try to sum up the point I was trying to make. Games are not just for teaching kids how to work, but for moms too! Attitude truly is everything!
