trying to be conscious...

Living on a teacher's salary for the time being is causing us to rethink going out to dinner to say the least! Looking back these things are really things we should have/could have been doing all along. Right after we got back from the honeymoon we went "big" grocery shopping to Costco and Wal*Mart getting enough food and whatnot to hopefully last us close to a month. All in all we spent $200 or so...I really should go back and look it up and keep track of how long it all lasted us.

We've been planning out our meals this whole week and it has actually been fun! We were in such a routine before with what we ate and thinking about what to eat really made us realize this. Plus, we are both home for this whole month for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Jason has always been a great cook and is always trying out his ideas...with about a 95% success rate on the Annie Scale.

I read about a "trick" somewhere at some time about freezing sauces that you make in ice cube trays for later use...the thought being that you could just make them, freeze them, then drop them in the pan when you needed to use them. This got me thinking about what else I could do with this and this is what I came up with...freezing cookies!

First I made a double batch of our favorite cookie recipe...Weight Watcher's version of chocolate chip cookies but seriously, SO much better! Then I scooped them out with our awesome cookie scooper's we got from the wedding! Then I froze them in the pan in the left picture, so they weren't touching each other. Next, put them in a Ziploc container and stick 'em in the freezer! So now, for example, in preparation of our trip to Seattle tomorrow I'm going to take 6 balls of cookie dough out tonight so that we can have a sweet snack on the trip without stopping and buying candy bars! Plus, an added bonus, not a whole gaggle of cookies lying around our counter tops waiting to be eaten. It takes a conscious effort now...which saves money and calories :)

We're just really trying to be conscious of money and the waste that we produce...and hoping that some of these lessons we learn during these "tougher times" will stick with us through the years to come!