After I read your post, me and my beagle took a walk in Chip's honor...it was beautiful this evening, un-humid for Florida, and we all enjoyed it very, very much. Hugs from me and my beagle.

As far as food, we haven't started spending a lot more. It's getting harder to spend less, but I have a method that works pretty well.

Every week, I check our grocery store's circular online and write down the things I might buy. On Sundays, I clip coupons from the paper.

I take the list of things on sale and compare it to coupons, and always use them in conjunction when possible. Then I flip through recipes and jot down the ones that I can make with what's on the "sale" grocery list. Things like parsley never go on sale, but if there's something special I need to buy for one recipe, I see if there's something else I can make with it.

During our growing season (Oct-Apr), we buy fruits and vegetables from the local market. MUCH cheaper (when they're in season, citrus can be as low as 10 for $1.00 at the market). When they aren't in season...well, if the store brand of bagged salad is on sale, I buy that; if a head of Romaine lettuce is on sale, I buy that. I adapt our food to what's priced most reasonably.

I buy a smaller container of milk now, and the boyfriend has adjusted--I just had to point out how much a gallon of it was for him to significantly reduce his milk usage. Previously, he would ONLY eat Granny Smith apples--until I showed him the price on them as compared to the Red Delicious that were on sale. Now, he'll eat whatever apple type is on sale.

I'll be honest--if tomatoes aren't on sale, there won't be tomatoes in the house. No one's ever been accused of abuse because a salad didn't have tomatoes on it.

Per the store flyer...this week, avocados are 4/$3.00; catfish fillets are $3.99/lb; grape tomatoes are 2 pkgs/$4.00; sweet corn is 6/$2.00. That's just the first few pages, but I expect to work the menu around all or some of those things. I've found this to be a REALLY useful way to expand my cooking repetoire and save money.

We've figured out where to put a vegetable garden on our relatively small lot. It's my job to figure out the kinds of things we could grow and when we could grow them, so I've ordered some things from our county extension office. He's agreed to rework our landscaping so that we have less grass (which means less watering, which means lower water bills) and more native plant beds. We had a great time replacing one bed a few weeks ago; I think getting rid of ~40% of our grassy lawn could really help with saving money in the long run. (And landscaping timbers are still relatively cheap.)