Month of Thanksgiving Day 1...

My mom does this every year on her blog.

I have half heartedly done it in the past but this year I am going to do it for real.

Some will be serious others light hearted, but (fingers crossed) I will post everyday this month.

Today (actually this is for yesterday)
I am thankful for

the ability to buy food.

When Jeremiah and I first got married we had very little money. Like most starving college students we had a strict budget. It averaged $30 a week for food. We made that work. We had one fancy meal a week in between all the bologna, mac-n-cheese and ramen meals. We ended up getting on a few of Arizona's food assistance programs when I got pregnant with Bode. That brought our average cost of food up to $50. We thought we were eating like kings then. But we never went hungry. We always had enough. 

Then we had moved, made a little more money and had Bode. Things then again were very tight. Some weeks after paying bills, buying diapers and formula there was barely enough money to buy groceries. But again we were never hungry, we always had enough.

Now we don't have to worry if there will be grocery money. I am thankful for that. It feels good to have full cupboards to feed my family. Of course there are tight weeks, but again we are blessed to have what we need.

I was thinking of this because yesterday we went grocery shopping. It is nice to fill up a grocery cart, take it home and fill up the cupboards :) Also if you aren't already doing this, you need to sign up today! Coupon Sense is awesome. We did it a few years ago and then decided to stop because I just didn't give it enough time and effort to really make it work. This time I decided to take the time and do it for real. We have been doing it for about 2 months and it has made a difference for us. I will just give you one small example of one coupon run I did I think 2 weeks ago. At Albertsons I bought 2 boxes of cereal, 2 boxes of toaster pastries, 1 package of breakfast sausage 3 packages of tic tacs and 3 bottles of vanilla extract. It would have been a total of $28 but I paid 15 cents using my coupons. Sorry for the big plug for coupons but I think it is always good to make your money stretch a far as possible.

Again, I am thankful for our ability to buy food and feed my little family.