Manic Monday

I'm extra late posting today. My baby girl woke up sick today, and nothing has gone like I thought it would. I feel so helpless when she's sick. I really hope she's feeling better soon. Because I haven't had a chance to really think about what I wanted to say today, this post is just a hodgepodge of thoughts.

• I haven't been doing any freelance work lately. The reasons are many, but the bottom line is that I just haven't made the time. However, I need to get  back to earning some extra money. Even a little bit can make a difference in the long run.
• I watched a couple of episodes of "Extreme Couponing" today, and yet again, I was astounded at the savings the people featured managed to get. One thing I like about the show is that it doesn't glamorize couponing at all. One of the episodes I saw today said one shopper spent 13 hours preparing for one trip. A shopper in an episode I saw a few weeks ago had a woman in it who spent 12 hours in the store. That's 25 hours. That's a part-time job right there.
• One of the women in one of the episodes I saw today was using her savings to make payments on her mortgage. It put me in mind of my goal -- to eliminate our debt within five years. If I could knock down my grocery bill from $200 to less than $20 every two weeks, I could put quite a chunk toward what we owe. I'm just not sure I have 25 hours I could devote to trying. Even getting my bill down to $100 could make quite a difference. I need to start shopping smarter.
• I bought freezer-wear Sunday for my frozen dinner ideas. I got some single-entree size and a few large enough to store family-size meals. My thinking is that maybe we'd be less likely to dine out if I had ready-made meals in the freezer. The drawback, though, is that the amount I would spend at one time to quadruple a recipe so that I can get two family meals and about four frozen dinners out of it would be an awful lot to spend at once. Over time, it should equal savings. Getting to that point, though, would be costly.