Dinner time and allowances

So our new way of living is making us think when it comes to dinner. Our $100 fast food budget gets used up very quickly with a family of 5. We have only used $30 so far but it has to last us until the 15th. We grocery shopped carefully and made sure we had plenty of food for meals but when it comes to mealtime figuring it all out is tough. Tonight was a prime example. Everyone was home tonight and GG and I started to determine what we should cook for dinner. Tacos? We didn't have lettuce, we had hotdogs last night with macaroni and cheese so kielbasa didn't sound too good. So we went to the freezer to figure it out. We both laughed while walking out to the garage and said wow haven't times changed. Before we would have just said let's hop in the car and find some dinner. No more....we don't have enough money in the budget now for that and we have a family birthday party on Sunday at a pizza place that will use a chunk of it.

The girls are getting involved now too. Last night when we were on our way to soccer practice the girls asked what was for dinner. In the past we would have picked something up on the way home...but not last night. I told them I couldn't afford it because we were on a budget. This was D2 and D3. They immediately said "what? why? are we broke?" I explained that no we were not broke but that GG and I had decided that it was time to get out of debt, not use the charge cards anymore and pay off all our bills. They worried that they would lose their allowances. I told them that no it was a line in our budget and it was the money they would be in charge of budgeting.

Fast forward to TV time after dinner. We have soccer candy bars we are selling and GG wanted to buy one. So he asked Brooke if she wanted to split a candy bar. Of course she said yes. Then he said cuz I can only afford a dollar - want to buy one with me? We had a laugh about how hard it is to spend our free money and we explained how we, as parents, now had an allowance of sorts. D2 had a good chuckle about that thought and then reminded us that when it was gone it was gone and you couldn't borrow on the next weeks either (our allowance rule). Oh yeah....that rule...guess we have to follow it too.

I think this change will be good for all of us.

Blessings? I'm thankful for the communication that GG and I have developed about this plan and for the opportunity to teach our girls more about money while they are young.