Frustrated with trying to save money and eat healthy? These hacks will make crushing your goals 50% easier.
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One of the worst bummers of the new year is knowing February is coming.
You’ve probably read the statistic that most new year’s goals are dropped by the second week of February.
- That budget meeting was brutal in January, so when February rolls around, we really don’t want to do another.*
- Giving up sugar was easy in January, but now it’s Valentine’s Day, and I love chocolate.
- I worked out every week in January, but I don’t feel that much stronger and healthier.
*Fun fact: did you know it takes about 3 months to figure out a budget that works for you?
February is a hard month.
Where I live, the weather is cold, outside is mostly gray and gross, and all I want to do is curl up in a blanket and read a book (hey! that’s a plus for my 2021 reading goal).
Here are 3 rules I learned about goals that make them all 100% easier:
1. Adjust Your Goals Over Time
In January, you started something new. By February, maybe something has changed – your schedule, your kids’ nap time, or you simply learned more about your goal.
So change it. Tweak it.
Maybe your goal was to quit all sugar forever. But in January, you started following someone on Instagram who talks about the psychology of healthy eating, and you realized that your approach to sugar was really unhealthy.
Tweak your goal.
2. Cut Your Goals in Half
I learn this from Jon Acuff’s book, Finish (highly recommend). He says that more often than not we set unrealistic goals – because why set a goal unless it’s epic, right?
Do you know what’s better than a big goal that I quit?
A medium-size goal that I crushed.
Instead of making dinner from scratch every night, how about this?
I commit to making homemade dinner 3 nights a week.
The other nights will be:
– Leftovers
– On Your Own
– Rotisserie chicken & salad
That’s still a lot of homemade, budget-friendly meals.
Instead of cutting our grocery budget in half, how about this?
This month, I’ll shave off $50 of my grocery budget and see how that works.
Next month, I’ll try $50 more.
That’s still $100 in our savings!
3. Progress Beats Perfect
Do you know what I have done perfectly?
Nothing.
But I have made a ton of progress.
When (not if) I mess up my goals – bust my budget, default into buying convenience food, forget about vegetables, stop exercising – I have a choice.
Will I:
- Wallow in the fact I’m not perfect (is this even a shocker at this point?)
- Put on my gym shoes
- Make a pot of soup
- Buy some salad stuff
It’s progress. Not perfection.
These 3 tips make my goals so much easier – not because they are cheating, but because they are real.
These kinds of goals fit in my real life, in the my day-to-day, and they give me the power to learn and make mistakes along the way.
They help me save money because I don’t give up.
The help me eat healthier because they give me room to be human.
Crush Your Goals By Making Them 50% Easier!
Because February is the month most people quit their new year’s goals, we’re going to do something fun!
One of the most popular products in my shop is Cheapskate Cook’s Budget-Friendly Menu Plan.
It takes simple, budget-friendly real food, food that most people already have in their kitchen, and gives you 4 weeks of real-life menu plans made with those ingredients.
Some of the families that tested it realized they didn’t even have to go grocery shopping before starting it!
They already had a week’s worth of food in their kitchen and they had no idea – until they saw it on the menu plan.
The menu plan has weekly grocery lists, meal ideas, recipes, allergy-friendly meals and tips, and more!
It’s everything I wish I had when we were in survival mode, trying to eat as frugally and as clean as possible.
If you already have the menu plan, or you just want the recipes, good news!
We created a THE RECIPES eBook featuring every single recipe in the menu plans. It’s easy to use and you get all the budget-friendly recipes from the menu plan in a format that’s easy to find and use.
We had multiple families test this menu, and they spent an average of $100/week for a family of 4 without trying to be super frugal. That is an average of about $0.89 per meal, per person (including a daily snack). That is less than a dollar per serving, and you are eating real food!
Check out the Budget-Friendly Menu Plan and THE RECIPES here!
Last year was brutal. I want to help you save money and eat healthy this year.
The Budget-Friendly Menu Plan is one of the cheapest, simplest ways I know how to do that.
What You Can Do Now:
Go check out Cheapskate Cook’s Budget-Friendly Menu Plan and see if it’s a good fit for you!
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Slash your grocery budget and feed your family real food! Get simple, frugal, real food menu plans every month for FREE in the Cheapskate Cooks’ 1-Min Email. Get the next one here.