Let's talk about something else.

Instead of being flat-out depressing, I thought I'd ask for tips on saving money on our grocery bills.
The groceries are the last thing that we're trying to really cut back on. Not that we have been extravagant or anything, but there is not a specific budget for food. It's just whatever we have left over, even if that's nothing.
Other things we've done to save money:
1. Loan modification- our current payment is less than half of what it was when we bough the house, but it's not completely final yet. We don't know what they're going to decide the payment is going to be permanently.
2. Got rid of our second car- This saved us over $500 a month just on the car payment. Throw in the savings on gas and insurance as well.
3. Power- The thermostat is kept at 80 degrees all day. It's awful for me. My temp runs high all the time and 80 is just gross in the house. Normally the highest I would have kept it at was 78, tops. We also don't crank the air down at night to sleep. I'm sure it's helping the bill, but it's adding to the trouble I'm having sleeping at night. We've been using CF bulbs for a long time, so that's not a big deal, but I am baking more because it's one way that I'm hoping we can cut back on our grocery bill.
4. Spending- um, we just don't. I don't buy things for my hobbies. We haven't gone on a vacation in who knows how long. (I don't really care about that. Not big on spending a bunch of money on something I don't get to keep. Memories are nice, but why spend thousands on a vacation when we could spend it on something for the house that we'd use and enjoy every day?) We haven't gone out to eat in forever. When we do, it's for something like Mother's Day or whatever, and we go as part of a group. We don't spend more than $10 a week on fast food, if that. We eliminated all of the pay channels and everything, but we do still have cable. I'm back and forth on that one. When it's 110 outside you don't have much that you can do, so we watch T.V. That may be the next thing to go. The only outings we ever go on are either a trip to the grocery store for food, to the library for books and movies or to go pick up Brenden.
We pay for the car we still have, car and home insurance, health insurance (OUCH), life insurance, the house, power, water, sewer and trash, gas, cable & internet, and cell phones (which includes $10 a month for our home phone). I think that's it.
Is there anything I forgot?
Anyway, it's frustrating because I feel like the more we give up, the more we still struggle. Maybe it feels that way because Glen hasn't been borrowing money (not that I know of, anyway).
I have never budgeted for food. Not that I have never been careful with my money, but that I never saw feeding my family as an optional thing that could be cut back on. Lately I've wondered if we could save money by making our staple foods from scratch. If I bought flower, yeast, sugar, etc., at Costco and made things like bread myself. I know it would be healthier to stick to eating foods from "the outside" of the grocery store anyway. (The way the stores are set up, the outside is usually meats, dairy, fruits and vegetables). The less we buy that's prepackaged, the better, right?
I know a lot of people play the grocery game, but those savings aren't on staples. It's usually medications or cleaning products. Things we don't need. Most of the time I've found that I'm better off buying generic than buying the name brand and using a coupon. It's also difficult because we have one car and it's a gas guzzler. Not going to save by driving all over the place. Also, I know that some of the deals offer coupons off another purchase when you buy something specific, but, again, if it's not something we actually need and will use, it's not really helping. We don't have the money to spend on things we don't need.
A friend sent me an article a while ago about making staples yourself to save money. The things that I would actually make would save us money. Bagels and bread, for example. She also made yogurt and cream cheese, but I don't eat that stuff. Yuck-o. I also thought that I could make us some jam and one batch would probably be enough to last us a year.
Next year I hope to have a garden and that would save money too. We could make our own spaghetti sauce and salsa. Have our own fresh veggies. Good for us and would teach the kids a lot.
What other suggestions and recipes do you all have? I know that we'd save too just by eliminating meat from at least a couple of meals a week. I'm cool with that, but my husband refuses to eat anything that doesn't include dead animal.
For the locals, are there any good farmer's markets? I think that would be another way to go for fruits and veggies, but there aren't a lot of them, and the things like bountiful baskets are out of our price range (plus, we're picky and a lot of it would be wasted, which defeats the purpose).
I would love to hear what anyone else has done and how you keep things affordable for your family.

What would you do?

I'm still married. Barely. That seems to be the first thing that I get asked by anyone that reads this or knows what's going on.
What I usually mention is that the things that make me so unhappy are things that have bothered me for a long time and have only gotten worse. It's easy to look past things that bother you when, for the most part, life is good.
Life isn't good anymore, and it's not getting better.
I wonder what anyone else would do in my situation. I have agreed to go to counseling, but the only free counseling he could find is through the courts. Um, maybe you haven't known me for very long, but I have less than no faith in the AZ court system. I've been the victim of a rape, a theft, an assault and just lost my son through this system and the courts here have done nothing but make my life worse.
So, yeah. Not doing anything through the courts. That means no counseling until we can afford it. Considering that we can't afford groceries most weeks and that the kids are wearing torn clothes to school that they've had for years, it'll be a while if there's any counseling. I don't know that it'll still matter. I'm also hurt to think that I've begged for something from him for so long. He's not willing to give me the love, kindness or affection I need, so how will going to a counselor help that? I've never been to a couples counselor, so I don't know. I can't change him, I can only change myself. I'm willing to do things that will make me very unhappy if it means that it would make things better for us, but I'm not willing to be the only one that changes. If I'm telling him exactly what I need and he's not willing to do anything for me, how will someone else telling him to do it help? I really don't know. I am still willing to go, but I just don't know that we'll make it that long.
Many of the things that I need are things that I've begged for for years. I miss feeling loved. I miss being treated like someone that he cares about. I miss feeling happy that we at least have each other and understand each other. I miss having someone that would do as much for me as I would for them. I hate feeling so alone. I hate it that the only hugs and kisses I get are from my baby. I can't force anyone to like me, let alone love me (and I shouldn't have to).
For years I looked past those things. I looked past the fact that I don't get any attention (physical or otherwise). I had a house to take care of (that I couldn't keep up with after having the twins). I had twins in preschool that kept me busy and exhausted. I had hobbies. I had money to buy things to keep me busy. To keep my mind off of things.
The other thing I had? Pills.
Anti-depressants do a lot to help you to not care about things. Anything, really. I didn't get excited about anything. I didn't get sad about anything. I didn't feel much of anything besides tired. It makes it easy to not be bothered by things that would normally hurt you. I was thankful that they would also kill my sex drive because then I didn't have to be hurt as much by being ignored. I didn't have to worry about being turned down because it was very rare that I would think about it. What if I had never taken those pills? Would things have ended a long time ago? What if I still took them? Would I just go back into my own little world where I don't care that I mean nothing to the person I thought I'd spend the rest of my life with?
Again, what would you do?
I've had a physically abusive boyfriend and I don't know that what I went through then was worse than what I'm going through now.
I'm not verbally abused or anything, I'm just treated like nothing. Like if I wasn't around it wouldn't matter. Would you prefer indifference over abuse? I don't know that I do.
I hate being treated like I'm nothing by the person I should be able to trust with anything. It kills me to know that I'm not worth the slightest amount of effort from him. We were fighting last night and he just decided he was done and went to bed. It was unpleasant. It was upsetting him. He just decided that it wasn't worth talking about things with me because he didn't like it and that was that.
This is the problem.
I need something. ANYTHING.
Take some action.
Put up a fight.
Act like you wouldn't be fucking ecstatic if we split up because it would mean more time for you to drink beer and do nothing.
Act like our marriage is a priority in your life.
Act like I'm a priority in your life.
Act like you care whether or not your family is homeless.
Act like you care that your kids already look like they are because they need clothes.
Act like you're trying to support your family.
Act like you care about something besides doing nothing.
Stop saying that you'll do things that you have no intention of doing.
Stop blaming me for the way that I act in response to the way that you treat me. You started the cycle, feel free to stop it.
I need things that I've been begging for for years. I'm tired of begging. I'm tired of being nothing to you. If I mean nothing to you, why are we still together? I need to be loved and you don't love me.

You tell me girls. What would you do?