All You Grocery Challenge

Thursday - Day 11

It's been a pretty uneventful week on the food front this week. We had cereal for breakfast on Thursday with cut up bananas. For lunch, the husband and kids polished off the last of the deli meat that was left over from Saturday. I ate while I was out shopping (see below). We had these on homemade bread with lettuce and strawberries for dessert. For dinner, we had chicken and biscuits (has veggies in it) with strawberry shortcake for dessert. I made up several pizza crust doughs tonight. I baked two of them, one will be used on Friday for dinner and the other was wrapped and put in the freezer. I also put some dough in the freezer after the first rising.

Spending: Today I spent a little bit of money. I took my friend Yan with me shopping for clothes for my new job. I actually did really good and spent only a little over $200, and I ended up getting a few things on clearance for the kids. We were going to go to Friendly's in the mall but after waiting 15 minutes for a waitress to even come ask us what we wanted to drink, we left. We were pretty thirsty by that point, so we grabbed drinks at Aunti Anne's for $3.33 for both, which I paid for. We ended up going to Salasaritas for lunch. Yan had never had Mexican food and I had never eaten there before because it's only been there a few months. We ended up getting a chicken quesadilla to share and two soft tacos. We didn't get any drinks because we still had our drinks from Auntie Anne's. They gave use a discount because we had never been there and we ended up paying $6.30 for lunch for two. Yan gave me $3 towards lunch, reducing my cost to $3.30. It was very good and Yan really liked it.

I almost forgot. I stopped at Tops on the way home to get a couple things I had forgotten the other day when we were there. I ended up buying 2 ham steaks at $2 each, severeal pounds of boneless pork chops for $1.99 a pound, and 8oz of mozarella cheese. My total spent at Tops was $11.92.

Total Spent Today: $18.25
Amount Saved at Tops: $10.39

Friday - Day 12
For breakfast we decided to have eggs and toast and then some blueberries and strawberries in yogurt. Lunch was leftover italian pasta from a couple nights ago with fruit cocktail. For dinner I made a homemade pizza with sausage (from Aldi's), pepperoni, peppers and onions. It was very yummy, as always! We had green salad with dressing with it and chocolate pudding for dessert.

Spending: no money spent today.



Saturday - Day 13
We still have a lot of cereal (bought cheap) so we had that for breakfast with strawberries and blueberries. For lunch we had grilled cheese sandwiches with green beans from our garden and a can of peaches. I was trying to get a lot done, because I start work on Monday, so I wanted something quick and easy. I decided to make pancakes with chocolate chips (these were the ones bought on clearance a week or so ago), eggs and toast. For dessert we had jello with fruit cocktail in it.

Spending: no money spent today

Spending Update

So, this week we have been trying to spend as little as possible. We have done well so far with only spending money on a gallon of milk($1.99). I went to Walgreens and Rite Aid Sunday and only spent a little over $10 out of pocket - after rebates and register rewards, they paid me to shop.

We still have to go buy a few things that are on sale at the grocery store this week. Tops has a few good deals this week that when combined with coupons is going to save me mucho money. We will also have to run to Wegmans to get corn on the cob, strawberries and potatoes. I have $30 budgeted for this trip but I'm hoping to spend a lot less.

We're trying to get things sold on Craig's List and Ebay, but no luck yet. One of my biggest pet peeves with Craig's List recently has been all the spam. I posted three sets of clothing and get emails asking me if I am still unemployed! From 3 separate people, supposedly. It really makes me doubt whether I want to sell on there anymore. This is the second time I have listed these lots of clothing and I reduced the price of each by about $10. Know anybody who is needs to buy 6-9 months or 12 months boy summer clothes, or 18 months girl summer clothes? We are also trying to get rid of some of hubby's mics, our treadmill, the bowflex (which was seldom used) and a body by jake machine that works the tummy. If we could sell these things, it would improve our finances dramatically.

Starting next month, I would like to start tracking our expenses on here, on either a weekly or monthly basis. Not sure how I want to do that exactly, but I will decide by next week. Maybe it would help us stay within our budget a little better. Of course, if I was actually offered a job that might help too. LOL. If anyone knows of any employers needing to fill a position for administrative assistant, bookkeeping, it help desk, etc, in the Twin Tiers, please let know.

Have a wonderful and safe day!

Envelope System for Budgeting

We have decided that we are spending too much money 'here and there'. Well, actually I decided. LOL. Although my husband does agree we are getting low on money. A few bucks a day really add up.

So, we have decided to start the envelope system for our expenses. These would only be for things like groceries, gas and we have a miscellaneous category. All our bills (except rent) are automatically sent out each month. If you haven't heard about the envelope system it is a way to budget your money where you have envelopes marked with each expense. You put the amount you have budgeted for the week (or month) in cash in the envelope and when the money is gone, it's gone. Dealing with cash helps people because they can actually 'see' how much money they have. With a debit card or even a check, you sometimes don't realize how much you really are spending until later.

We will be putting $50 a week in the envelope for gas (this is a little high but if the price keeps going up, we may be up to $50 to fill our tank again soon), $60 a week for food and $20 a week for miscellaneous. I am hoping that this will curb all the extra spending on coffee at the gas station and other spending.

How do you manage your money? Do you have any tips on budgeting or how you keep your spending now? Leave a comment for me and let me know.