reframing my scarcity mindset

I’ve been quiet here thanks to my new job at Kohl’s starting in November 2024. During the holiday season, I juggled 30 hours weekly with trips to Pennsylvania, holiday preparation, and normal family stuff. It was a lot, especially the physical side of the job. While being an Associate is not physically taxing, I did average about 20,000 steps daily. I also had to learn how to live with the constantly changing retail schedule.

After the holidays, I was hired on permanently, so I need to meet my personal and family priorities working around an ever-changing schedule. As I mentioned last summer, I made our family finances and goals my top priority last year after several years.

One of the areas I focused on in May 2024 was our grocery budget. At the time, we spent about $1,500 to $1,700 monthly for a family of 4 on groceries. This includes cleaning products, vitamins, and personal care items. Initially, I set a budget of $150 weekly for my Kroger and Aldi shopping with the remainder going towards Amazon Subscribe and Save items and Costco trips. I wrote about my changes in this post.

For the month of January, we spent $1007 on groceries. That’s a savings of $700! However, this week I had an epiphany about my grocery spending. Stocking up on items has been good, and I’ll continue to do that. But…we need to be more diligent about using up fresh foods like fruits and vegetables. I also need to reduce our spending on snacks by baking and making them using the ingredients I have on hand.

I hadn’t realized that I had a scarcity mindset about our food. We have enough food in our home to last several weeks. We could get away with spending as little as $50 weekly if we really focused on using what we have.

So, I’m reframing my scarcity mindset to a stewardship mindset. Not just for groceries but for all of our finances.