I'm in love with blogs. I follow about 20 of them right now and my list just keeps getting longer and longer. (I just added two yesterday! Thank you Google Reader!) A few of them that I read are "frugal" blogs. I like to think that the money saving tips are soaking in without me having to make too much extra effort. I am fascinated with budgeting - and by fascinated I mean I like the idea of it but I'm not sure how it's relevant to me - kind of like knowing how to hand wash dishes or fold underwear. But I recently found myself BUDGETING. It snuck up on me...here's how.
I was reading about how Rachel spends $40 a week on groceries. The idea of only spending $40 a week at the grocery store intrigued me! So I thought, "If she can do it - so can I!" Never mind the fact that she is buying just for herself, her husband, and a small dog...while I have two additional mouths, a Lab/Horse named Lucy and a cat. But still! It seems like a reasonable amount and my two additional mouths are very, very small. So I broke it down like this:
Normally we spend around $100/week on groceries. This includes diapers, toilet paper, cleaner, etc. So instead of having the blanket $100 a week - I'll spend $40 a week ($160 a month) on food and a total of $100 a month on the miscellaneous stuff, including clothes and eating out.
So how am I doing? Well...
As of this morning we have spent $93.10 on groceries and $228.41 on miscellaneous. And it's the 8th. I still have 22 days to go! What the heck! I've blown the miscellaneous budget for this month (diapers for both kids, much needed clothes for my incredible shrinking husband and three dinners out...we normally don't eat out that much!) But I wonder if I could finish out the month with spending only $160 in groceries?!??! That's about $20/week...
Looks like I need to start paying extra attention to those frugal blogs!
I am glad to hear my blog is giving you some inspiration! It is challenging to stick to such a tight budget especially at first! When I cut my budget down to $40 a week it was a challenge! The key, for me, to sticking with this budget is stocking up when things are on sale. After stocking up for a while you will begin to be able to plan meals around what you have and then go to the grocery store to pick up milk, produce, and stock up on more sale items! I doubt my grocery budget figure is the best for you starting out plus buying diapers.. I am sure I would struggle on this amount if I was buying diapers! Try to go from $100 a week down to $75 and then once you have mastered that & have wiggle room every week try to go down to $50! It definitely can be challenging but it also can be fun! :)
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