spend less money

I really feel I’ve done well the last two weeks. Unfortunately there were already some things set into motion and a few things that came in unexpectedly but it was all minimal. I think my greatest savings for Feb was packing my husbands lunch (which was so much better for him and he LOVED it). In March the kids will pack lunches (at the moment their school lunches cost $120 a month for crap they don’t even like).

I ran out of dog food a few days early and I’m proud of myself for making due with what I had. I mixed the last of the dog food with things like rice and leftover chicken, eggs and some broth from cooking. They loved it, of course. I use to have a greyhound that I had to cook for so I know what I can feed a dog. I haven’t done the work in awhile but I’ll start because dog food is so so so so expensive and alot of times we throw out things that would be healthy to feed the dogs and then we pay big bucks to feed them store bought kibbles that are made out of the same things we throw away.

It’s funny how society makes us buy things without even thinking twice about it and the funny thing is they are things we don’t need. We’re just conditioned to think we need them.

I have a huge pet peave about all the wipes that are sold. There are wipes for everything and they are so expensive and not very environmentally friendly. I use alot of rags and soap and water and it takes me only moments to get them out. I couldn’t imagine paying for wipes it would be such a waste of money. It’s even not so surprising what you can wipe down with a rag and water. It’s what our grandmother’s did.

I’m determined to spend no more money until the beginning of March. It’s fun playing the survivor game and making due with what we have in the house. I feel good each day that goes by and I don’t spend money like I would use to have.

I haven’t forgotten about this goal. I need to finish tallying what I spent in December but I must clean out my purse to do that. All those receipts you know. I won’t have an open slot of time until tomorrow. I didn’t tally up Jan but that’s okay. I’m happy that I tracked an entire month of spending and now I can reflect on it. December may or may not have been the best month to do this in but it’s okay since I separated holiday spending. I’ll use the rest of January to figure out what my spend is and what my needs actually are and how I want to reform it.

Holiday $1633
Food $47
Me and the kids $177
Gas $41
Discount at Target $56
Now to add that to what I already have this month.
Holiday: 1229 + $1633 = $2862
Groceries: $424 + $47 = $471
Gas: $40 + $41 = $81
Total: $1898 this week
Grand Total for Dec so far: $5177 + $1898 = $7075
Employee discount totatl: 42.58 + 55.66 = $98.24:)

to clean the receipts out of my purse so I can tally this up. I have them all and I won’t forget anything. I’m also glad I’ll know what I’ve spent this month so January can be much much better.

Gifts $653
Kids $42
Groceries $21
Total that is $716
Total for Dec so far $5177
Of Which Holiday = $1229
Grocery = 597
I want to know what groceries are in a month and I want to know what the holiday total is because it wouldn’t ordinarily be part of my monthly spending.

I was very good (I usually am) while doing my grocery shopping.
First and favorite part is tallying coupons: $196.49 good job
(Don’t ever underestimate using coupons. It took me an extra two hours to grocery shop but it’s still about $100 an hour. My grocery store does double coupon up to $1. I consider couponing and following the adds and buying in bulk a part-time job.
Groceries $424.00
Holiday $49

Grand totals- $4468
Holiday – $576

PO $39 (16 was for Holiday stamps)
Gifts $50
CFCA $35
Total $124
Grand total for month is $3995
$67 dog batteries $4062
$5.81 in employee discount equals total of $42.58
Total holiday spending is is 461 + 50 + 16 = $527

$40 for gas.
$1913 + $40 = $1953
Note last month I spent $130 in gas in my car so it will be a goal to use less gas this month.
Mort: $1789
Life Ins: $129
$1953 + $1789 + $129 = $3871 Total spent for December, is it really only the 4th of the month?

57 gifts
30 kid accts
1392 bills

So that adds another 1479 = 434 is $1913
with holiday total $461

Hopefully I haven’t made any errors and noted I still have a couple more bills for the month that haven’t been received but thankfully they’re small. Too bad the housepayment hasn’t gone out yet. Yikes.