Tomorrow is April 1st and I am taking on a budget challenge. In our budget we lump together our grocery, eating out, household items (such as toilet paper), baby items (diapers, etc) and personal care items (toothpaste, lotion, etc). We have pretty consistently been over budget in this category the past several months so for the month of April I am changing my methods.
Although I will still be allocating a monthly amount to this category, I will be dividing it down to a weekly amount that I can spend. This will ensure there is enough left for the last week of the month. The idea will be to buy just what we need for the week, and if there is any money leftover I will use that to stock up on good deals. This is a little difficult for me because I tend to look to the future and want to stock up on things, but it will be a lesson in trusting the Lord to provide, so that's never a bad thing.
We will have $45 per week to spend on most of the items in this category. The only things not included in the $45 will be formula and eating out.
Even though it's not April quite yet I did go ahead and do this week's shopping already...and I found that $45 goes quickly. However, we definitely have plenty to eat this week and I was able to buy two packs of diapers thanks to those very generous Huggies coupons that were available online recently.
So for week one of the challenge I did great, actually coming in under budget by $.10! Plus I know there's no money left this week so there's no point in even looking for deals or going to the store.
How about you? Need to take on a budget challenge of your own for the month of April?
1 comment:
Hmmmmm... maybe it's you & me that are blood-related and not you & Josh... I'm a die hard budget girl too! I'm sure you've discovered www.moneysavingmom.com by now. It'll be fun to share our deals!
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