July Food Spending Week 1....Keeping on Budget Finally!

I am going to update each week in July on my food spending. After the last 2 months of going over, maybe this will help me stay on track more if all of y'all are watching me.....watching me in a good way, not the bad, creepy way. ;-)

In the 1st 7 days of July I made 10 transactions at the grocery stores.
Actually, I made all 10 transactions/8 trips in TWO DAYS and I haven't been to the store since last Saturday(except for my trip to Rite-Aid on Sunday).
Ok, so 4 of those 10 were at Price Chopper(Northeast)doing the Unilever Catalina Deal(plus 1 more to PC where I didn't buy any Unilever stuff because they were out and I got other things).

I went to Dollar General last Saturday because they had that 1 day Q for $5 off $25 purchase. I bought ALOT of packs of soda and some Flavor-aid packets. I had $1/3 Coke Qs to use along with the $5/$25 Q and was all set for a total of around $18 + tax, HOWEVER, I forgot that these $5/$25 $General Qs are ALWAYS on $25 of items AFTER ALL OTHER QS ARE APPLIED!
Still got a good deal but Argh!
I hate when I forget stuff like that.....and I hate their policy too.
So my Cokes and Flavor-Aid came to $21.51 w/tax.

Add in a trip to Weis, a trip to the Bakery Outlet and 2 small trips to the local ShurSave affiliated market and I spent $66.72 in the 1st week of July.

No trips to the store yet since last Saturday and we've been eating from the stockpile.

SUNDAY--Leftovers
MONDAY--Hot Dogs, Green Beans, Watermelon
TUESDAY--Beef Enchiladas, Corn
WEDNESDAY--Chinese take-out
THURSDAY--Spaghetti w/Meat Sauce, Salad, Watermelon
FRIDAY--Leftovers again, Homemade Pickles
SATURDAY--Homemade Pizza, Salad

I will be going to Weis tomorrow to spend a $10 Catalina Q. I'll probably buy some ribs on sale to cook in the smoker on Sunday and hopefully won't spend any money. 8-)

I'm off now to go figure out a partial menu for next week that let's us eat mainly from the stockpile again.

How about you?  Are you eating from your pantry/stockpile next week?

Sluggy

$30K Savings Challenge OCTOBER 2010 Totals.....

I have posted my OCTOBER End of Month $30K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right for the specific numbers.

I have to report that we finished up October in the black....with another healthy addition!

The extra cash amount we ended the month of October with was.......$3,326.27.

Income
We had $3,253.45 left over of DH's salary after expenses were deducted. Add in $72.82 of Rebates applied to the food expenses and you have a deposit of $3,326.27 toward the Savings Challenge!

Seeing as our monthly target is $2,500.00 to reach our Year End Goal, this month will go a long way to keep us ahead of schedule.  Keep in mind that we are able to save so much of our income because of 2 things--we have low living expenses(no mortgage payment)and we are not in a personal debt hole with monthly payments sucking up any money we have leftover after paying bills.  Once you pay off your house you free up a big chunk of money each month to put other places in your life.  The average monthly mortgage payment in the US is $1,500.  Over the course of a year, that's $18,000 you are paying out and alot of that is interest on your loan.   Getting a mortgage does take monetary sacrifice and it's not fun, but when you get that house loan paid off, your financial life gets so much better! ;-)

Outgo
As for the expenses in October.....it was pretty much a 'normal bills' type month.  Since the vacation money came out of the Savings Challenge 2009 monies set aside and not from the monthly income, we had just a few unusual/non-repeating bills....a college application fee for Daughter, a charity cash donation, a couple of prescriptions refill copays and my driver's license renewal fee.  The credit card bill other than the trip costs put on it was under $800.  Generally we put gas and eating out on the credit card, along with miscellaneous costs, like house repair or kid shoe/clothing purchases. 

The Food Budget costs for October are in another post, which is located HERE.  The actual Food/Toiletries spending in October was way over budget, proving that even if you are frugal or try your hardest to be, sometimes you can/will bust things wide open anyway.lol

Looking Ahead to November....

Wow....I can't believe we are already into November!
Looking at last November as a guideline, I see no out-of-the-ordinary expenses.
It's just the usual monthlies plus some small Marching Band related expenses.  The credit card bill so far is looking lowish(it closes for this upcoming statement this week)which is always a good thing.  3 items will be costing us more this month....The gas expenses will be going up this month as Hubs is taking Daughter to visit one of the 3 schools that has accepted her for next fall, so there is a road trip in our future.    The electric bill will be increasing in Nov. due to the cold weather setting in. Finally, one of the dogs is having a flare up of her chronic back problem now so we'll have some vet bills in November.  But none of these things looks like it will wreck havoc with the budget thankfully.

YTD Standings....
We have a Year To Date Total of $26,247.63 in Savings.  To save $30K for the year, we need to put away $2,500 per month average, at this point in the year we need to have $22,500 saved.  Currently, we are only $3,752.37 from the yearly goal!  Unless something catastrophic happens, we will reach $30K.  That makes me pretty darn excited....8-))

So how was your October financially?  Leave a comment and share with us what you did with your money, both the good and not-so good.   Do you have any tricks or tips that help you to end your month before the money runs out?    Let us know!
If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check you out too!


Sluggy

$30K Savings Challenge SEPTEMBER 2010 Totals.....Not as Good but Still Saving this Month

I have posted my SEPTEMBER End of Month $30K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right for the specific numbers.

I have to report that we finished up September in the black....with an addition to the total!

The extra cash we were able to save in September was.......$1,165.79.

Income
We had $1,036.29 left over of DH's salary after expenses were deducted. Add in $129.50 of Rebates applied to the food expenses and you have a deposit of $1,165.79 toward the Savings Challenge!

Seeing as our monthly target is $2,500.00 to reach our Year End Goal, this month was less than half of what we need each month to stay on track.

Outgo
As for the expenses in September....we had a rather large Vet bill this month(due to our doggie that passed away earlier this month)and we had School Taxes due(our property taxes are divided up into school taxes and local/municipal taxes).  Add in the usual bills plus a fairly large credit card bill(which is paid off every month)and we didn't have as much leftover to put aside this month.  But having a couple of months where we had lower expenses let us save extra before now so we aren't losing any ground in Sept.

The Food Budget costs for September are in another post, which is located HERE.  The actual Food/Toiletries spending in September was over my $250 target but the rebates we received in September helped to cover that excess amount spent and lowered the OOP to $137.67.

Looking Ahead to October....

Looking at last October as a guideline, there is only the quarterly garbage bill coming due.  In fact, we have NO unusual non-monthly bills except this one for the remainder of the year!

Plus there is one of those 2 extra bi-weekly paychecks coming before the year is out.
Now if we can just keep some restraint with the money during the Holidays and not go hog wild with the eating out & the "Gift Bacchanalia" that this Season encourages, we'll be doing well.

On the other hand, October will see the beginning of Heating Season here however, so our electric bill will be going up. 8-(


YTD Standings....
We have a Year To Date Total of $24,087.15 in Savings.  To save $30K for the year, we need to put away $2,500 per month average, at this point in the year we need to have $22,500 saved.  Currently, we have $5,912.85 to go with just 3 months left in the year.  I can't wait to get to that financial finish line!

So how was your September financially?  Leave a comment and share with us what you did with your money, both the good and not-so good.   Do you have any tricks or tips that help you to end your month before the money runs out?    Let us know!
If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check you out too!


Sluggy