Thanks to the economic downturn deciding to get up close and personal with my family in the form of less work aka less money coming in, last month I decided to record every expense we made. I started last month rather excited by the challenge and half way through the month realized that this new adventure was going to be a lot harder than I initially thought.
I have not considered myself a shopaholic in a number of years but as I recorded every purchase I realized there are some areas that I needed to tighten up in….I spent a whopping $1300 in food and miscellaneous expenditures which is a tad over what I budgeted. We ate out 10 times which is a great reduction for us and considering a couple of those meals were legitimate business discussions, it was a little less than 10. Still we have to do better.
I must say that not trying to spend money is hard as hell, look, I don’t do mall visits but its always little shit that seems to trip me up. There is also the fact that I need to make a more realistic budget that includes clothing and grooming items especially with kids since the girl child has decided to have a mid winter growth spurt that required clothing to be purchased. (pesky child…stop growing!)
However the biggest single trap that I seem to be stuck in that undermines my grocery budget is that while I do cook most meals at home, I have a tendency to cook what I am in the mood for rather than cooking what is in my house. I am the type of person that if I in the mood for say steak sandwiches and there are no steak sandwich fixings in the house, I run out to get the items to make the meal. Yes, its cheaper than eating out but the reality is it would be better to just cook what is available.
So for the month of March, my goal is to cook from my pantry. I am off in a bit to do some grocery shopping and from this point on, we will eat what is in the house. I suppose by the middle of the month, I may be salty as hell but my savings account will love me.
Speaking of savings, we actually did manage to put a little something in savings despite having less income, so all was not lost.
While I am not completely happy with the first month of reduced living and see definite room for improvement, all was not lost. So here’s to a better March, by the way tell the weather folks we need spring up here, a sista is tired of snow…almost another foot fell here yesterday.