Help with a Budget-Please!!

I think $500/month for food is very realistic for this area, especially if you're a big veggie and fruit eater. We spend that now, easy. And I'm with you, we're not big on processed "ready-made" meals either.

You may find costco worth it. It's only $40/year and I probably only go and spend $60 once every couple of months, but it's still worth it. Some things are a great deal, others not so much. I'd encourage you to go check one out with a member and see if you can save a lot on a particular item you buy regularly. For us, we get these fiber granola bars for $8/box of 35. At all other grocery stores, they're $3.99/box of 6.

Compare Foods is a great chain. They've got very inexpensive meat and produce. There are 2 in Durham, not sure about Raleigh. Also I know that Lowe's used to do double coupons one day a week, but I'm not sure if they still do. Honestly Lowe's and Food Lion will be the cheapest overall, followed by Kroger, and lastly Harris Teeter. I'd say you could always buy your stuff that matters quality-wise (like produce and fish) at Harris Teeter and then save buying household stuff for Food Lion or even Wal-Mart. Hope that helps!

Wow $5 for milk. It is $2.58 here at Walmart and $2.38 right next store at Aldi. I guess it really depends on where you live.

Yeah I think its all about what you prepare for meals...$500 seems reasonable when I really think about it. We don't have an Aldi close, so that isn't an option and while Wal-Mart does help for frozen stuff and the basics, we don't buy produce or meat there. I really wish we had a larger freezer and we already have 2 normal freezers (one fridge/freezer in the garage) and they are always full so I don't always have the bulk meat option, that would probably help with things go on sale.

My biggest issue is trying to eat healthy, buying all the produce and then having it all go bad...I get so mad.

I am going to give myself about a month after the baby is born before I jump on the Diet Bandwagon, I need a month of easy and comfort foods to get me through the first few weeks

You could save a lot on baby expenses by using cloth diapers. There is an initial outlay, but if you wash them yourself, you don't have that expense every month. You can get good deals on used cloth diapers on http://www.diaperswappers.com/ . We are going with bum genius, in part because they are one size fits all so you don't need to buy new ones as the LO grows. We expect to spend about $300 on them at the beginning, but then that's it for diapers until he is potty trained. That will allow us to do laundry every 2-3 days.

I am not losing my income since I work from home, but having this baby makes it more urgent for us to buy a house, so we are tightening our belts as well. I am trying to limit new expenses by breastfeeding and cloth diapering, and not buying all those little baby things that are not needed. Our LO will sleep with us, and we're using info from http://www.wearyourbaby.com/ to make our own slings instead of buying an expensive carrier. We're also cutting our current expenses, and just reduced our car insurance by switching to AAA (they were less than Geico even, which we had before.)

I do shop at Cosco, but I agree that you have to be careful not to go crazy and buy things you won't use. Those little sample stations can add up if you buy whatever you like. But if you're thoughtful, you can really save a bunch of money. I don't know if you have a Trader Joe's near you, but we save a lot on basics like milk and eggs and butter by buying there.