We've made it through 3 weeks with minimal spending and I excited at how well we're doing! My goal for this week was to spend $150 or less. Here's what we spent our money on this week!
Groceries - $94.52
Personal Blow Money - $18.34
Gas - $27.26
Dry Cleaners - $5.65
Balance due on newspaper subscription - $3.10
So, if I did my math correctly, we spent $148.87, coming in $1.13 under budget. Yippee!
A couple of things that I've been doing to SAVE at the grocery store. I have been making a lot of homemade breakfasts for our family this month. I did buy a box of cereal last week to give myself a break for a morning or two, but other than that, I've been making muffins, french toast, waffles, eggs and/or bacon in the mornings. Not buying Pop Tarts, and frozen waffles and pancakes has saved a lot of money!
Another area where I've saved money is with LUNCH stuff. We all have our favorite bread and we are never are able to go through 2 loaves between the 4 of us before it gets stale. I have found a fresh baked deli bread that we all like, and our grocery deli will sell it by the 1/2 loaf. It's the perfect size for us to eat sandwiches from for 2-3 days. I'm able to get a half loaf of fresh sandwich bread for less than $1.50! I have also been getting fresh deli lunch meat and cheese. It's cheaper by the ounce/pound for me to buy it from the deli counter AND I am able to get only what I need.
So - we enter our 4th and final week of Sharon's No Spend Month Challenge. My goal is to finish the month with $125 cash which will go towards food, gas and any incidentals.
Here is my monthly recap. My goal for February was to keep my everyday expenses under $800.
Week 1 - $139.58 spent
Week 2 - $366.72 spent
Week 3 - $148.87 spent
4 comments:
Freeze the bread! I discovered this well-known trick a few months ago and it's saved me in so many ways. If you get a B1G1 at the store, buy both and stick the other in the freezer. They hold tremenedously well..
I freeze bread too, with great success!
GREAT job for the three weeks! Have you figured out how much you have saved by only spending $800? I'm trying to compile a number. You are doing so well with this challenge, I'm very impressed!
After you freeze the bread, are you able to use it for sandwiches or do you use it for things like croutons, toast and/or french toast? Do you just thaw it on the counter? I've never tried doing it before! Thanks for the ideas...
Sharon - I'm not sure of our overall savings for the month yet. It'll be a less than what I'd hoped for b/c of some home maintenance we had to do and a few expenses related to our vacation. I'll figure it out next week! :)
You're doing great on the challenge!
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