Grocery Shopping Goals and Doggy Bowls

As a family, we have decided to attempt to spend only $50.00 a week on groceries. I'm finding this challenge quite exciting for a number of reasons.

1) It forces me to be creative in what and how I cook. I am thankful I have a momma who taught me my way around a kitchen, even if I am a lousy cook.
2) We have less junk food in the house. Eating healthy on 50.00 a week doesn't leave a lot of room for making excuses as why it really is okay to toss the potato chips into the cart.
3) It forces me to be more organized, which has led to the creation of a weekly menu.
4) Because i have a weekly menu I can prep a lot of thing on the weekend. This is a HUGE time saver now that I'm running a home daycare.
5) Finally, I can't be wasteful with what I spend or with what I buy. Leftovers tend to not hide in the refrigerator until they resemble more of a Scary Mold Monster than food. It also helps me to do a better job of having conversations about being wasteful with Micah.

And now to the real point of this Grocery Blog....a Micah story.....

This morning Micah asked for a sippy of Milk, which I gladly gave him. He took two sips and threw his sippy onto the floor. I reminded him that it is HIS job to make sure his sippy gets back into the refrigerator so he doesn't waste what he has been given. He then told me he was choosing to not do his job. Two hours later his sippy was still sitting where he dropped it, when he asked for another drink of milk. I told him to go get his sippy. He ran to the refrigerator, and then remembered he did not put his sippy away. When he found his full sippy he brought it to me and said "Mommy get me more milk. This milk is yucky." I told him no because he choose to waste his milk instead of putting it away. I offered him water, but that was not really an acceptable solution. Instead of drinking the water, he threw himself on the floor and pouted. Eventually he got over the No More Milk Drama and went back to playing. Ten minutes later I found Micah sitting in the middle of the living room drinking the water out of Maggie's (our pug) water bowl. The conversation we had went something like this:
Mommy: "Micah do not drink water of out Maggie's dish. That's gross. Go put it back in the kitchen please...NOW..."
(Micah puts the dish down and I walk into the kitchen and continue talking on the phone with Jerome's Mom. After I got off the phone I was cleaning up in the kitchen and Micah came in with Maggie's bowl.)
Micah walks in and says, "But I was helping Maggie not waste her water so you would let her have more before lunch....Mommy I think she needs more so I won't be thirsty still."
Mommy, "Micah I will get you a sippy of water like I offered earlier, we DO NOT drink out of Maggie's Dish."
Micah, "Can you put milk in the bowl for Maggie?"
Mommy, "NO"
Micah, "Gotcha! Better luck next time Super Mommy."