I went through and tracked every dollar in a budget. Been doing this for a while, but I really sat down and revised it. And I know, maybe it's a little weird that I've put all our expenses on the web, but blogging about this journey makes me feel much more accountable for succeeding at it. Each category under expenses has its own column to the right where I will keep track of everything spent. I've set it up with equations so that when I add in our income each month, (which is variable since Scott works freelance) then we can easily see our profit after subtracting the expenses.
Next, I made a list of all the gluten and dairy free items we buy. In the next few days, I'm going to take the list to each store and find out where I can buy them for the least amount of money.
Finally, I made another list (can you tell I'm a list person?) of all the meals and snacks we eat. This will make it a million times easier for me to plan dinner because I will know where to look for ideas. (Instead of searching the internet for random new recipes.) Included on the list are "cheap" meals like spaghetti, breakfast for dinner, tacos, soups, and sandwiches. This will also be helpful because I can't even count all the times that I've wandered around the house opening cupboards, the fridge, freezer, trying to find a good snack to eat. Now I have them listed!
Every morning I try to look at my local couponing blog to see if there are any freebies. This morning I found that a new coupon for $2.00 off Renu Contact Solution was available online and it didn't exclude trial size. I ran to Target, and picked up the last four for FREE. I had a really nice cashier who told me I could also get a couple candy bars since I technically had an overage of "coupon money." I just had to pay the tax, $0.48.
Next step: Plan a grocery trip that doesn't involve spending the whole month's grocery budget in one outing! :)
3 comments:
Yay!!!! You're doing so good! I'm so proud of you!! Fabulous buy!
No wonder we're friends! I make so many lists! I just stared using mint.com to track our expenses. The only thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't keep track of any cash spent (obviously). But it's pretty cool because it categorizes what we spend each month. I think I need to start making more spread sheets! I need to retire my pen and paper lists and join the 21st century!
Very impressive! You are so organized that you're bound to succeed at this and then inspire others.
Post a Comment