create a financial plan so that I will have financial security

I have been tracking my spending, and trying to take a list whenever I go shopping, but have been slipping on my efforts. I’m going to have to gain control before I resort to my bad habits of shopping.

I’ve been tracking my spending, and now have almost 4 months worth of information. I’m also tracking ‘coulda, woulda, shoulda’ expeditures so that I can see where I’m actually saving.

For example, if I felt like ordering a pizza, but didn’t then I write down how much I would have spent. At the end of the month, I’ll add up all of these ‘savings’ and put them into my savings account. Whoo hoo!

I’ve got a good list coming along so far. It makes me feel confident that I can start doing little things to save, that in the long-run will end up being big savings!

1. Making a list of grocery savings tips;
2. Going to start researching ‘coupons’ and how to use them;
3. Coupon binder?
4. Grocery shopping list;
5. Meal planning ideas;
6. Pantry ‘must-have’ list;
7. Store polices (coupons, when things go on sale, etc.);
8. Keep tracking expenditures;
9. Start comparing other stores to get a complete sense of the price of things.
10. Keep things in order/ organized, and set a budget for August.

After reading about $ 100 week on groceries, I found a forum on $ 100 a month on groceries.

http://www.recipezaar.com/bb/viewtopic.zsp?t=148324&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

I just finished updating my financial spreadsheet, and thought that it would be a good idea to research some more ways to save money on various purchases. I just signed on to the internet to look up ‘saving on groceries’ and saw an MSN article on how a person tried to spend $100 week on groceries.

After doing my updates, I quickly realized that in just this week, the price of groceries have gone up! I can’t believe that (skim) milk is now $3 for a 2 litre jug!!!! (In gallons, I think that might be $3 for half a gallon).

Here is the link:
http://finance.sympatico.msn.ca/savingsdebt/insight/article.aspx?cp-documentid=8810514

Fresh fruits, and vegetables have gone up quite a bit too. The reason why I’m able to know this is that I track the prices per kg so that I can compare it from store to store, and from week to week.

I think that my grocery bill has gone up by $5 this week, just by the cost of food going up!!!! I generally buy the same products each week too.

Once I started recording my spending, I realized just how much I was spending on eating out. Not only was it costing a lot of money, the food was neither healthy nor satisfying.

Since recording this expenditure, and adding up how much a week’s worth of groceries cost I am now cooking almost all of my meals at home. So far this month we have not eaten out! I can’t believe it!

Usually every summer, it feels so hot that I don’t want to cook, and being sick for at least 2.5 weeks it’s quite an achievement to not resort to getting some fast food.

I also think that having food prepared ahead of time, and then frozen helps with the times that I don’t feel like cooking. My husband has also been helping to cook so that is great.

I’d like to buy a deep-freezer so that I can take advantage of grocery sales, and a BBQ to add variety to my meals so that I don’t have the urge to eat out.

Need to start thinking about what to do soon… maternity benefits will start to run out.

Got a LOC! Really nice surprise!

Going to help with this goal by using my new library card.

I’ve started making a grocery log to track grocery expenditures.

Groceries is probably one of my largest variable expenses. Part of tracking the grocery expenditures is to see how I’m allocating my money to groceries, and where I can buy the cheapest groceries. Another part of me wants to track it for curiousity sake.

I set it up so that I track the items against 5 different grocery stores. I used to go to different grocery stores for particular items, but I might consolidate, and just shop at one store if it turns out to be more economical.