- I have not had a real grasp on the cost of food and the cost of driving. I always stay within my budget, but the amount I assign those categories has been allowing me to pretty much do what I want. With prices heading up, I need to rethink these categories as we now are getting less food and gas for the same budget.
- I tend to think of ALL grocery expenses as "necessary" unless they are prepackaged junk food. However, I have been buying much more than we can eat in the given week. I need to be more conscious of how many meals we are actually going to eat at home or pack to eat away and cook accordingly. I don't mind leftovers, but have to make sure I can eat it before it goes bad, and I must remember that DH eats lunch at school now!
- I was also surprised and discouraged to actually calculate the cost of driving different places. The good thing is that it helps encourage me to carpool, make fewer trips, and shop locally or on my route home from work, but it also prevents me from doing things I really want to do. It costs me $11/day or $2,850/year in gas to commute to my job. This makes it hard to rationalize driving anywhere on the weekends. I do feel like the price of gas is preventing me from doing things I'd love to do, like meeting up with friends and family on the weekends or enjoying Sunday dinners at my parents' house. I hope prices go down soon!
- I did not feel very deprived this week at all. We tend to stay very busy with work, church, and school activities and I had plenty to do getting ready for a garage sale I'm doing with some co-workers next week. I do not enjoy shopping and don't spend cash very readily the way it is, but I need to find ways to cut down our monthly bills/expenses, especially groceries and gas.
Let me know how your family is doing by leaving a comment! Did you learn anything about your spending habits this week? What were the biggest challenges you faced? What were some of the ways you saved money? I'd love to post more tips! Best wishes for another week of saving!
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2 comments:
Hey -
I love your blog (as I said last night). I thought I would let you know that we actually have made some adjustments also.
Hubby and I have cut down on eating out. We normally each go out for lunch and usually once or twice a week for supper. Last week hubby went out 2ce for lunch and I went out once and we went for supper one night (in a neighboring town instead of Sioux Falls). Also, been cutting out convenient store trips for water or pop and breakfast. I have done some calculations and figure we have saved somewhere in the ballpark of $30! That's just one week! It makes me excited to see what's to come. :)
Also for small group last night, instead of buying the fajita chicken strips, I bought chicken breast and cut them and marinaded them myself. The fajita chicken strips were $8 for 12 oz. and the chicken breasts were $8 for 3 pounds. I bought 6 pounds (which left me plenty for supper tonight!) Fajita Chicken 10.67 per pound - Chicken breasts 2.67 per pound. Total cost for 6 pounds = $16 instead of $96. This alone saved me $48. Not too bad of a start for this week!
Added bonus - I don't have to cook supper tonight.
This has been very difficult (but good) for me because I love to shop. I have become more aware of how many things I truly don't NEED. I have been doing quite well with preparing meals at home rather than going out. We will, no doubt, go out every now and then, because I personally don't enjoy cleaning up the dishes after I've prepared lunch for just Elsa and me and supper for the whole family. I HAD to buy the kids a treat at the football on Friday night to keep them entertained, but I skipped getting myself the typical popcorn and pop that I treat myself with. It's just little things that I'm trying. I got invited to a purse party on Friday night, which I would typically attend in a heartbeat, however, I decided I don't need a new purse and I'll throw the $30 I may have spent into the jar.
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