day 7 - no spending month

We've made it through a full six days on February's No Spending Month.  This past Tuesday, I withdrew $170 cash which was to last me through yesterday.  The cash was to be used for food, gifts, gasoline and any incidentals that should come us.  I must say that I did better than I expected!

Here is a run-down on where the $$ went:
$20 - gasoline (half tank)
$11 - tennis court fee
$41.11 - groceries
$33.78 - eating out
$12.69 - birthday gift
$8.29 - household
$16.21 - school supplies

Which leaves me with $30.42!

My grocery bill has never been as low as it was this week!  What did we do different?  For starters we ate a lot of food that we already had in the freezer, refrigerator and pantry.  When the kids ran out of cereal and frozen waffles/pancakes, for breakfast I made them French Toast, muffins and bacon.  There was only one complaint during the week on what was being served (Thursday night's dinner).  In fact, my kids were thrilled with the homemade muffins this morning!  I woke up in a panic when I realized the cupboards were bare of breakfast food, so I had to get up in a hurry and make the muffins.

Another area that helped was simply eating at home.  I mentioned last week that I considered it a small victory to say no to my husband to going out to eat at lunch.  On Friday I did cave in to going out (he'd been the one to complain about the dinner the previous night), BUT we went to a restaurant where we had a gift card and ended up getting $5 back in change!  Woo Hoo!  He was out of town this weekend, so I treated the kids to lunch out after their ball games Saturday and to pizza last night for the Super Bowl. 

So ...Week 2 in upon us.  We've got more activities and parties scheduled for this week which is going to require more cash.  Also, Valentine's Day goodies will need to be purchased this week. 

Here is my budget for the week:
$125 - groceries
$125 - Three celebratory out to eat dinners (one for my oldest who is performing in the school talent show, one for my youngest who is receiving a special Cub Scout award, and one for a basketball team party)
$20 - Birthday gift
$60 - gasoline
$50 - Valentines Day - includes VDay meal, party at school, VDay cards for classmates, and surprises for my family
$10 - Scout badge for my son
$20 - talent show tickets

After having such a "lean" week this past week and spending only $140, spending $460 in a week seems a bit much.   I haven't sat down to do a meal plan for the week, so I'm going to work to get the grocery bill less than $125...I'm sure I can do it!  So anyway, off to the bank today to get cash to last me through the week!